Re:Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
by dredmorbius on Wednesday June 21, 2017 @03:54AM
(#14601776)
Facebook had a major ace in the hole by starting at Harvard. That's the network pretty much everyone wants to be a part of.
The irony is that in growing, FB traded down that cachet -- but managed to transition from cohort value to network value fairly successfully.
This is an argument I've made for years, I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one -- danah boyd has mentioned it several times as well.
I'm not saying Zuck didn't execute well -- the advantage still could have been blown (and I've only just learnt of a similar network started IIRC at Columbia University which didn't go as well). But for all the things Zuck can claim, building Harvard's social appeal is not one of them.
The irony is that in growing, FB traded down that cachet -- but managed to transition from cohort value to network value fairly successfully.
This is an argument I've made for years, I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one -- danah boyd has mentioned it several times as well.
I'm not saying Zuck didn't execute well -- the advantage still could have been blown (and I've only just learnt of a similar network started IIRC at Columbia University which didn't go as well). But for all the things Zuck can claim, building Harvard's social appeal is not one of them.