Ex-Washington Post Owner Don Graham On Doing Business With Zuckerberg And Bezos

Plus: Big Technology Podcast is joining LinkedIn Podcast Network.

Hi everyone, and welcome to a special Wednesday edition of Big Technology. Today I’m thrilled to announce that Big Technology Podcast is joining LinkedIn’s new podcast network, which debuted this morning. The LinkedIn Podcast Network will help Big Technology Podcast reach a much larger audience — LinkedIn has 810+ million members — and will bring more of the Big Technology experience into LinkedIn. I’m super excited about it.

Starting today, I plan to host more discussions about this newsletter on my LinkedIn page. I’ll also make podcast guests available to you for live Q&As via LinkedIn’s new Clubhouse-style audio product. There’s more on the way. And I’d love to hear your ideas too. If you haven’t subscribed to Big Technology Podcast, I’d be honored if you gave it a try. You can find it via these links:

Spotify: spoti.fi/32aZGZx

Apple: apple.co/3AebxCK

You can also follow me on LinkedIn to stay in the loop: www.linkedin.com/in/alexkantrowitz

Ex-Washington Post Owner Don Graham On Doing Business With Zuckerberg And Bezos

This week’s podcast guest is Don Graham, the former owner of the Washington Post. Graham is a fascinating businessman who’s spent countless hours working with the world’s top tech CEOs. He sold the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos in 2013. And he met Mark Zuckerberg when the Facebook founder was 20 years old, proposed an investment — which Zuckerberg turned down — and eventually joined the board. I had Graham on the show this week to get a sense of how these founders operate and to hear about his interactions with them. Here are some highlights:

Facebook almost didn’t take VC money

Facebook was opposed to taking venture capital, at least initially. Sean Parker, who was influential at Facebook early on, was still steaming about his treatment by VCs when he ran Napster. So Parker convinced Zuckerberg that VC money was bad and the two told Graham they’d actually prefer his investment. The parties hammered out a potential deal. But Zuckerberg then saw the dollar figures coming in from Silicon Valley VCs, landed a major proposal from ​​Accel Partners, and called Graham with a moral dilemma “I will release you from your moral dilemma,” Graham said, “go get every cent you can out of those guys.” Imagine how different Facebook would be if Zuckerberg took Graham’s investment instead.

Growth as a primary value

When Graham realized that Facebook had signed up 95% of Harvard undergrads, he figured the college newspaper was in trouble. “Well, there goes the Crimson,” he said. Zuckerberg laughed, and said Facebook had to get its product rooted in campuses first and couldn’t distract itself trying to win over college advertisers. Growth has long been Facebook’s priority, ahead of short-term revenue gains, and sometimes other priorities that should’ve taken precedence.

The value of shadowing

Zuckerberg never worked for anyone. He went from college dropout to running Facebook, so he had to learn how to operate a company from others. Early on, he asked Graham if he could shadow him at the Washington Post and he spent three days doing so, watching the printing press run and sitting in on Graham’s meetings. This was an important, informal education. Zuckerberg then asked Graham if he could make the same request of Bezos at Amazon. When Graham inquired, Bezos replied that the only thing more disruptive would be having Angelina Jolie follow him around. Zuckerberg never got that Seattle invite.

Bill Gates on founders’ decisions: observe the two-thirds rule

There was a momentwhen Zuckerberg was deadset on a choice that his top team disagreed with. Graham asked Bill Gates what he thought. “This is what founders do. There are times when you really have to stand up to all the people you respect,” Gates said. “You're not going to get all those right. There will be times when you want to do that, and you turn out to be wrong. If it gets below two-thirds of the time, you're right, you probably shouldn't be in the job anymore.”

Why Bezos was the choice for the Washington Post

Graham felt Jeff Bezos was the right choice to buy the Washington Post because of the money, yes, but also because he could bring a technology acumen that wasn’t there yet. Graham also liked that he was able to Google Bezos and couldn’t figure out where he stood politically. Asked if he worried that Bezos use the Post to influence policy on Amazon, Graham said he told Bezos that if he tried it would blow up in his face. “This is a very unusual business,” Graham said. “You own it, but you really keep your hands off.”

The definition of success

Working alongside people like Zuckerberg, Gates, and Bezos can change the way you think about success. Graham offered some perspective. “I think Mark’s and Jeff's successes are extraordinary — certainly they are measured in dollars — I don't know that they have any greater satisfaction than a great teacher or a great doctor or a great nurse. But I'll leave that to your listeners.”

Share

New Book Alert! (Sponsored)

Every day, hundreds of millions of people use collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace. Despite the vast potential of these applications, few organizations have unleashed their true power. We have lacked a holistic framework to understand them—at least, until now.

Reimagining Collaboration provides this essential gestalt. Phil Simon’s award-winning book provides concrete tips for executives and managers. Specifically, they’ll learn how to simplify business processes, increase transparency, and reduce rework and employee stress. Sound like this could help? Pick up a copy today.

Learn More

What Else I’m Reading

Conservative influencers like DuckDuckGo. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong negged ad agencies while using an ad agency. The agency CEO who called him out explained why. Long before Wordle, newspapers hated word games. The Canadian trucker protest is changing minds about crypto.

Number Of The Week

-11.91%

S&P 500’s decline year to date, a full-blown correction.

Quote Of The Week

“Twitter Crypto is a new team exploring decentralized technologies, including blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and web3.”

— Job description for a Crypto Senior Product Manager at Twitter

Your Bank Is Failing You On Crypto. Here’s a Solution. (Sponsored)

If you’re frustrated that your bank account isn’t crypto-friendly, it’s time to make a change. Meet OnJuno, a Sequoia and Greycroft-backed startup that helps you earn, save, and invest in crypto directly from your checking account.

With OnJuno, you can:

Set up your direct deposits and get a portion of your paycheck in crypto

Buy crypto instantly with zero fees

Yield 4% on your USDC without any lockups

There’s no catch. OnJuno integrates directly with your direct deposit system, has no transaction fees, and is already being used by employees at Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Uber. It’s free to open an account and today you can get $50 added to your first direct deposit using code BIGTECH.

Learn More

Advertise with Big Technology?

To reach this group of 12,000+ plugged-in tech insiders, please email me at [email protected]or reply to this email.

Thanks again for reading. Please share Big Technology if you like it! Also, click the heart on this thing if you like feeling smiley and delighted :)

Questions? Email me by responding to this email, or by writing [email protected]

News tips? Find me on Signal at 516-695-8680

See you next Thursday!

If you liked this post from Big Technology, why not share it?

Share

© 2022 Alex Kantrowitz Unsubscribe
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104