The Exchanges

Q of our mutual friends before, which, by the way, the fan club for Fiji is, like, enormous. It's so wonderful to hear, by the way, but I'm talking to Ravi in particular, and Ravi said that you are incredible at breaking down complex issues to their core and deciding the right course of action. How do you think about your problem solving and decision making today with that in mind?

A You know, it's one of the things that when you do it naturally, it's really hard to explain it, but I think I try to really simplify the problem down to a bunch of Isolated components that we can go solve. So, you know, if you're talking about, okay, Facebook watch, for example, is not working. It's like, okay, is the user need wrong? Is like the user need right, but our assumption on like the particular assumption we had for the product wrong, or is our execution actually flawed? And I think once you start breaking things that way, you start understanding how Where the breakdown is. Is it execution? Is it strategy? Is it your understanding of the consumer? And so you will find me in most of the discussions with my team, not really like saying a very, very strong opinion, but instead asking a lot of these leading questions that helps them refine their own understanding of really where things are breaking. And so that's kind of the method Tease apart what's going on.

AI assessment note: “I try to really simplify the problem down to a bunch of Isolated components”

Q In terms of like inflection moments, what do you think it was? Do you think it was moving to product? Was it taking over the monetization? Was it, what were like core moments for you that stand out as like, That was a moment that changed my strategy within Facebook.

A I think, you know, figuring out how to monetize mobile and really having that takeoff was a very big moment because it was, you know, it was critical for the company to figure that out. So again, like, I was by no means the only one doing that, but I think the fact that I played a key role really did help my career. The other moment I'll tell you is, you know, I set up a lot of video and entertainment initiatives And in particular, I was very involved in launching Facebook Live and then launching Facebook Watch, and I think a lot of, of my career took off around moments where I made bets that other people didn't think were obvious bets, and, you know, entering video many, many years after YouTube was kind of one of these bets where people were like, eh, I don't think that makes sense, and proved that we could do it and do something interesting, and I'll always be grateful to To Mark for letting me make these bets and supporting me in these bets, like, very heavily, and I think that also accelerated a lot of my, my career.

AI assessment note: “figuring out how to monetize mobile and really having that takeoff was a very big moment”

Q In terms of like inflection moments, what do you think it was? Do you think it was moving to product? Was it taking over the monetization? Was it, what were like core moments for you that stand out as like, That was a moment that changed my strategy within Facebook.

A I think, you know, figuring out how to monetize mobile and really having that takeoff was a very big moment because it was, you know, it was critical for the company to figure that out. So again, like, I was by no means the only one doing that, but I think the fact that I played a key role really did help my career. The other moment I'll tell you is, you know, I set up a lot of video and entertainment initiatives And in particular, I was very involved in launching Facebook Live and then launching Facebook Watch, and I think a lot of, of my career took off around moments where I made bets that other people didn't think were obvious bets, and, you know, entering video many, many years after YouTube was kind of one of these bets where people were like, eh, I don't think that makes sense, and proved that we could do it and do something interesting, and I'll always be grateful to To Mark for letting me make these bets and supporting me in these bets, like, very heavily, and I think that also accelerated a lot of my, my career.

AI assessment note: “figuring out how to monetize mobile and really having that takeoff was a very big moment”

Q I totally get you. I'm terrible at it, by the way. But what do you know now that you wish you'd known at the start of your time with that first role with Facebook?

A Hmm, that's a good one. I think the big thing is really realize that your difference and your unicity is something to be celebrated and might be an advantage instead of trying to conform to the norm. You know, when I move to product, you I had plenty of people telling me, oh, engineers are never going to respect you if you have that much makeup, and if you have your high heels, and your horrible French accent, so you kind of need to, you know, look like a Silicon Valley PM, and I tried it for a day, and no one recognized me, and I felt horrible, and I realized, you know, fundamentally, a lot of what makes me mean, including the horrible French accent, including too much makeup, including all of these Thanks. You know, that's how I'm going to have the confidence to show up and be fully myself and embrace where I am, and therefore, like, do my best work, and so I wish I had agonized a lot less over what, what made me different.

AI assessment note: “realize that your difference and your unicity is something to be celebrated”

Q When you thought about like what the first 30 days would be like, what did you think it would be like? And then like, what's the same as what you thought and what's different?

A I think, you know, I thought about the fact that my number one priority, again, was building relationships and that meant building relationships with the teams and making them feel good about me coming in because it is a big change for a company, especially a founder led company to have a CEO come in. So I wanted them to really get to know me and understand, you know, the type of leader that I was and also get to know them. Similarly, I really wanted to get to all of our retail partners, Because they are critical to our business, and you know, a lot of this business is based on trust and relationships, and I wanted to get to have this conversation and build these relationships, and so I would say it has looked actually fairly similar to what I expected, with a positive surprise of seeing the level of dedication that Instacart employees have to the mission is just absolutely beyond, and the relationship that we have with our retail partners are just also very, very deep, and That's actually a kind of a big difference from my prior role, which was a lot more internally focused. This role is a lot more externally focused, and it's been very rewarding to build relationship, not just within the company, but also with our partners and realize that our success is not just our company's success, but all of our partners' success as well.

AI assessment note: “it has looked actually fairly similar to what I expected, with a positive surprise”

Q Well, I think that's like the most meaningful billboard I've ever had on the Most of them are terrible. That's a great word. Buddy, help it. She's just like, phew, great. Okay, final one. What will the next five years hold for you and for Instacart? Paint that picture.

A So, I think I want to invent the future of food alongside our retail partners, and I think the future of food looks like people being inspired by what they eat, people having personalized diets that are really improving their health, and And really discovering amazing products that are adapted to their, their personalized diets, because we will have created a platform by which new food products can emerge and reach their audience. I think it means that you can have all of these food products delivered, you know, very fast to your front door, wherever you are. And I think it means that we will have helped our retail partners really compete against Amazon and we'll have Given them all of the technology tools so that they remain at the center of local communities and allow local communities to thrive.

AI assessment note: “I think I want to invent the future of food alongside our retail partners”

Q I absolutely love that, and I agree with you in terms of growing up with huge plates of food around me. That's why I look more like Augustus When I was younger, but I do have to ask, I think my parents shape you in phenomenal ways. When you look back to the upbringing, how do you think that shaped the type of operator you are today?

A Oh, I, I so agree with you that it shapes everything. So, you know, I grew up my entire childhood seeing my dad wake up at two AM and come back at eight PM and do the most, one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. My grandfather was a fisherman at age five and never went And so, this sense of deep, deep work ethic was ingraining me at a very young age. I mean, my grandfather would always say, you can have pretty much any flaws, and I will still love you, but you cannot be lazy. And, you know, that's the thing that, you know, my whole education revolved around. But at the same time, the thing that was also very inspiring was the fact that my family believed that if you work hard, all of the doors are open to you. They never made me It made me feel like I had limitations because we didn't grow up with a lot of memes. It made me feel like, you know, everything was possible and that it was in my hands. And that mentality, I think, was the greatest riches that they could have offered me.

AI assessment note: “this sense of deep, deep work ethic was ingraining me at a very young age”

Q Can I ask, is it challenging for you now, you know, having been very involved in, in every aspect of product, to now, like, bluntly leading an organization where your hands aren't that involved in everything because you can't be as the leader? Is it difficult being, like, overview not really in the weeds?

A I think it's just a different set of challenges, and I learned that it's, Certainly the case as a CEO, obviously, but even at Facebook, when I was leading the Facebook app, you know, it's fundamentally 25 companies like wrapped into one. And so you have to really create a framework by which you're going to operate something so complex. And in my mind, two things that I have to do is hire people that are incredible and that I would work for and I trust and therefore can delegate to without worrying about it. And second is Create a strategy and a framework and a set of like, you know, context that I can distribute and communicate to my organization so that they have clarity on what they have to do. And they can make a lot of decisions autonomously. And I think that's fundamentally like when you boil it down, that is fundamentally what a leader has to do. And a lot of times I find that when I end up having to dig into the details and It really means that this, one of these two things has broken down. Either I haven't really communicated the strategy in a way that empowers the team to make good decisions, or I just don't have the right people on it. And it just, it always boils down to these two things.

AI assessment note: “I think it's just a different set of challenges”

Q I'm having the chief of staff, so if you were to, like, determine whether they're a deep thinker and insanely curious, how would you test that if you're me?

A Well, I mean, it's, you know, it's funny you mentioned chief of staff, like, because my chief of staff is Incredible. And she exactly fits the thing that I just told you. Like, she had not been a chief of staff before. She, like, she didn't come from a project management background, didn't come from consulting, but she was insanely curious, and she was a deep problem solver. And so the way I looked for that is just by asking her a lot of questions on how she would solve a problem. And you can get A lot of signals on that, because you have a lot of people who, like, focus very much on the issues in getting to the solutions, the things they don't know, and some people were like, okay, well, these are all the things that I don't understand, this is how I'm going to figure them out, and this is how I'm going to get to the other side, and you want the latter people, and so a lot of it is that. It's also during an interview process, And again, I'm biased because I do that a lot, but I find that people who have done a lot of prep when they come to see you, it's usually a very good sign. My chief of staff had come to the interview, having read everything about me, having already having a point of view on the things that I needed to change, the types of like challenges I would have. And you know, that totally convinced me way more than years of experience at McKinsey. I thought that was…

AI assessment note: “by asking her a lot of questions on how she would solve a problem”

Q Speaking of that external focus, before we move into the quickfire, you know, obviously, Instagram is a private company now. There's always the potential for it to be a public company in the future. How does the role change when one becomes a public market CEO, do you think?

A Well, I hope it doesn't change much, because fundamentally, I think the decisions that I'm making now are decisions that I'm making so that we set the company up well for the next decade, and that's what I want to continue doing once we're public. You know, I think that's actually very important to not let the market's Dictate, you know, what your decisions are and have a short-term focus. I really want to continue anchoring into long-term focus and build this business to be a long-term epic company. And I think, you know, I went through this transition at Facebook when we went IPO and I had a great role model in Mark where, you know, his decision-making wasn't affected by being public. It was really all about how do we sell people best and how do we sell our mission best. And so, In my mind, I really, I think we are going to have, obviously, a level of rigor that's increased as we go public, but fundamentally on the core of the job, I hope that we actually make decisions in a very similar way.

AI assessment note: “Well, I hope it doesn't change much, because fundamentally, I think the decisions”

Q Can I ask, you were at Facebook for, you know, many, many years. Were you nervous about making the move? I mean, you get quite comfortable in a role and in a company. It's a massive step. Were you nervous?

A I was super nervous. I mean, of course, I agonized over the decision. I mean, it was both a big Career decision, but it was also a very emotional one, because like, as an immigrant, you know, I moved to the US, and when you spend 10 years at Facebook, especially a company where, you know, the lines between personal and professional are very blurry, because we all follow each other on Facebook, like, these people became family, you know, and so a lot of what I was debating was not just living a mission that I care deeply about, living a career I care deeply But it was also leaving a set of people that I had invested so much in and had so much loyalty to. And that's a very, very hard thing to do. And the reason I did it is really because I thought the, you know, the people on the Instacart site were also amazing. And I thought the mission was fantastic, but it was, it was not an easy decision, Harry.

AI assessment note: “I was super nervous. I mean, of course, I agonized over the decision.”

Q I totally get you. I'm terrible at it, by the way. But what do you know now that you wish you'd known at the start of your time with that first role with Facebook?

A Hmm, that's a good one. I think the big thing is really realize that your difference and your unicity is something to be celebrated and might be an advantage instead of trying to conform to the norm. You know, when I move to product, you I had plenty of people telling me, oh, engineers are never going to respect you if you have that much makeup, and if you have your high heels, and your horrible French accent, so you kind of need to, you know, look like a Silicon Valley PM, and I tried it for a day, and no one recognized me, and I felt horrible, and I realized, you know, fundamentally, a lot of what makes me mean, including the horrible French accent, including too much makeup, including all of these Thanks. You know, that's how I'm going to have the confidence to show up and be fully myself and embrace where I am, and therefore, like, do my best work, and so I wish I had agonized a lot less over what, what made me different.

AI assessment note: “I wish I had agonized a lot less over what, what made me different.”

Q I absolutely love that, and I agree with you in terms of growing up with huge plates of food around me. That's why I look more like Augustus When I was younger, but I do have to ask, I think my parents shape you in phenomenal ways. When you look back to the upbringing, how do you think that shaped the type of operator you are today?

A Oh, I, I so agree with you that it shapes everything. So, you know, I grew up my entire childhood seeing my dad wake up at two AM and come back at eight PM and do the most, one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. My grandfather was a fisherman at age five and never went And so, this sense of deep, deep work ethic was ingraining me at a very young age. I mean, my grandfather would always say, you can have pretty much any flaws, and I will still love you, but you cannot be lazy. And, you know, that's the thing that, you know, my whole education revolved around. But at the same time, the thing that was also very inspiring was the fact that my family believed that if you work hard, all of the doors are open to you. They never made me It made me feel like I had limitations because we didn't grow up with a lot of memes. It made me feel like, you know, everything was possible and that it was in my hands. And that mentality, I think, was the greatest riches that they could have offered me.

AI assessment note: “this sense of deep, deep work ethic was ingraining me at a very young age.”

Q of our mutual friends before, which, by the way, the fan club for Fiji is, like, enormous. It's so wonderful to hear, by the way, but I'm talking to Ravi in particular, and Ravi said that you are incredible at breaking down complex issues to their core and deciding the right course of action. How do you think about your problem solving and decision making today with that in mind?

A You know, it's one of the things that when you do it naturally, it's really hard to explain it, but I think I try to really simplify the problem down to a bunch of Isolated components that we can go solve. So, you know, if you're talking about, okay, Facebook watch, for example, is not working. It's like, okay, is the user need wrong? Is like the user need right, but our assumption on like the particular assumption we had for the product wrong, or is our execution actually flawed? And I think once you start breaking things that way, you start understanding how Where the breakdown is. Is it execution? Is it strategy? Is it your understanding of the consumer? And so you will find me in most of the discussions with my team, not really like saying a very, very strong opinion, but instead asking a lot of these leading questions that helps them refine their own understanding of really where things are breaking. And so that's kind of the method Tease apart what's going on.

AI assessment note: “I try to really simplify the problem down to a bunch of Isolated components”

Q with your first role and getting into Facebook, it's like, you're probably the biggest rock star in that role that they've ever had, and you had no experience. And you've mentioned before having not had experience in the other roles. Should I look for the experience, being a rep or whatever that is, or should I actually be flexible and willing to take a flyer on someone talented and ambitious?

A So my strong bias is the latter, but you understand why, right? I mean, my career was made out of people making bets on me despite me having, like, very limited experience. Experience on these things. But I think, you know, I find that people who are curious and who are hungry can figure pretty much anything out. It's hard to make a bet on someone who doesn't have the experience if they're not a deep, deep learner. So you want to check that they have this propensity to constantly learn. But if they have that and they have the grit, it can overcome a lot of experience. I mean, that doesn't apply to everything. I don't know who you're hiring. You're hiring a deep, Physicist or AI expert, like, you know, you might want to check a little bit about their background, but I think for the types of road you're probably talking about, I would recommend to go for the hungry people.

AI assessment note: “So my strong bias is the latter, but you understand why, right?”

Q Why do you think he believed in you so much when you didn't believe in yourself?

A Ah, that's a good question. I haven't asked him that. I think he probably, he saw that I was always, always learning and always growing, and I think in his mind that was also a trait that Like predicts, you know, that you're going to be able to tackle a lot of challenges, and the other thing is, you know, I fundamentally believe that you need to build really win-win relationship with your manager, and so the relationship we had was that one where he was making me successful for sure, but I was also really invested in making him successful, and I felt deeply invested in his career, and I was the one giving him The most feedback just to make sure that he would get to his next step. And I think this is kind of our approachable relationship. I don't, I fundamentally don't believe in hierarchy. I think it's a, it's a nice thing to add in order to be able to make decisions, but I really feel like, you know, I serve my team. And similarly, when I have a manager, I just feel like I'm also responsible for their career and helping them get to the next level. And so I've been creating this deep partnership with people. I think helps and really helps Creates goodwill.

AI assessment note: “he saw that I was always, always learning and always growing”

Q Speaking of that external focus, before we move into the quickfire, you know, obviously, Instagram is a private company now. There's always the potential for it to be a public company in the future. How does the role change when one becomes a public market CEO, do you think?

A Well, I hope it doesn't change much, because fundamentally, I think the decisions that I'm making now are decisions that I'm making so that we set the company up well for the next decade, and that's what I want to continue doing once we're public. You know, I think that's actually very important to not let the market's Dictate, you know, what your decisions are and have a short-term focus. I really want to continue anchoring into long-term focus and build this business to be a long-term epic company. And I think, you know, I went through this transition at Facebook when we went IPO and I had a great role model in Mark where, you know, his decision-making wasn't affected by being public. It was really all about how do we sell people best and how do we sell our mission best. And so, In my mind, I really, I think we are going to have, obviously, a level of rigor that's increased as we go public, but fundamentally on the core of the job, I hope that we actually make decisions in a very similar way.

AI assessment note: “Well, I hope it doesn't change much, because fundamentally, I think the decisions”

Q Can I ask, did having children change your management style? It makes a lot of people more patient, more understanding. How did it change your management style, do you think?

A You know, I think it's funny because I think I built a lot of my management tools before I got pregnant. And so, in fact, I feel like I have applied a lot of my management tools on my daughter rather than the other way around. But I think there are a lot of things that apply, you know, it's really trying to find the magic in people and shining a light on it. You know, that when people ask me what's the most important thing in your life, that's always my answer. And I see that with my daughter. I just look at her and The way I see education is fundamentally helping her find what's magical about her and making sure it shines as bright as possible. And the way I manage teams is the same. I really focus on what makes each individual in my team just magical and unique. And I just want to make sure I shine the brightest light on that.

AI assessment note: “applied a lot of my management tools on my daughter rather than the other way around”

Q I'm having the chief of staff, so if you were to, like, determine whether they're a deep thinker and insanely curious, how would you test that if you're me?

A Well, I mean, it's, you know, it's funny you mentioned chief of staff, like, because my chief of staff is Incredible. And she exactly fits the thing that I just told you. Like, she had not been a chief of staff before. She, like, she didn't come from a project management background, didn't come from consulting, but she was insanely curious, and she was a deep problem solver. And so the way I looked for that is just by asking her a lot of questions on how she would solve a problem. And you can get A lot of signals on that, because you have a lot of people who, like, focus very much on the issues in getting to the solutions, the things they don't know, and some people were like, okay, well, these are all the things that I don't understand, this is how I'm going to figure them out, and this is how I'm going to get to the other side, and you want the latter people, and so a lot of it is that. It's also during an interview process, And again, I'm biased because I do that a lot, but I find that people who have done a lot of prep when they come to see you, it's usually a very good sign. My chief of staff had come to the interview, having read everything about me, having already having a point of view on the things that I needed to change, the types of like challenges I would have. And you know, that totally convinced me way more than years of experience at McKinsey. I thought that was…

AI assessment note: “the way I looked for that is just by asking her a lot of questions”

Q Can I ask, you were at Facebook for, you know, many, many years. Were you nervous about making the move? I mean, you get quite comfortable in a role and in a company. It's a massive step. Were you nervous?

A I was super nervous. I mean, of course, I agonized over the decision. I mean, it was both a big Career decision, but it was also a very emotional one, because like, as an immigrant, you know, I moved to the US, and when you spend 10 years at Facebook, especially a company where, you know, the lines between personal and professional are very blurry, because we all follow each other on Facebook, like, these people became family, you know, and so a lot of what I was debating was not just living a mission that I care deeply about, living a career I care deeply But it was also leaving a set of people that I had invested so much in and had so much loyalty to. And that's a very, very hard thing to do. And the reason I did it is really because I thought the, you know, the people on the Instacart site were also amazing. And I thought the mission was fantastic, but it was, it was not an easy decision, Harry.

AI assessment note: “I was super nervous. I mean, of course, I agonized over the decision.”

Q Trust me, I think she's onto it. I think that's an amazing role. We mentioned problem solving. We mentioned support there in Chiefs of Staff. Mentors is a big part of a lot of leaders' lives, and it was JC and Dan Rose, actually, who said, who are your closest mentors, and what have been some of the biggest takeaways from those relationships?

A So, you know, I'll challenge you on this a bit. I don't think mentors are That's critical. I think sponsors are, and there's a very big difference there. I mean, mentors are the kind of people who sit down with you, have coffee, give you some really, really great advice, and kind of walk away. Sponsors are people who may not even have advice for you, but put their butt on the line for you, and open doors for you, and are there at the moments of your career when you need them the most, and that's a very, very different thing, and I call it out especially because I think Many women in particular have been told that they need a mentor, like that's the thing they need, and they go around looking for a mentor, and I always say, no, you really need to build advocates around you and people who are going to be opening doors, not just giving you advice and patting themselves on the back while doing that. And so, in my case, you know, I would tell you, Will Cascart, who's currently leading WhatsApp, he used to be my manager for many years, And if I ever called him my mentor, he would totally cringe and kill me, but he certainly was my sponsor, and what that meant, and what that looked like, is that it just created an environment by which I could just make bets after bets, and he gave me the confidence that I didn't have at the time, and just by seeing myself through his eyes, I built up …

AI assessment note: “I don't think mentors are That's critical. I think sponsors are”

Q Can I ask, did having children change your management style? It makes a lot of people more patient, more understanding. How did it change your management style, do you think?

A You know, I think it's funny because I think I built a lot of my management tools before I got pregnant. And so, in fact, I feel like I have applied a lot of my management tools on my daughter rather than the other way around. But I think there are a lot of things that apply, you know, it's really trying to find the magic in people and shining a light on it. You know, that when people ask me what's the most important thing in your life, that's always my answer. And I see that with my daughter. I just look at her and The way I see education is fundamentally helping her find what's magical about her and making sure it shines as bright as possible. And the way I manage teams is the same. I really focus on what makes each individual in my team just magical and unique. And I just want to make sure I shine the brightest light on that.

AI assessment note: “I applied a lot of my management tools on my daughter rather than the other way around.”

Q Trust me, I think she's onto it. I think that's an amazing role. We mentioned problem solving. We mentioned support there in Chiefs of Staff. Mentors is a big part of a lot of leaders' lives, and it was JC and Dan Rose, actually, who said, who are your closest mentors, and what have been some of the biggest takeaways from those relationships?

A So, you know, I'll challenge you on this a bit. I don't think mentors are That's critical. I think sponsors are, and there's a very big difference there. I mean, mentors are the kind of people who sit down with you, have coffee, give you some really, really great advice, and kind of walk away. Sponsors are people who may not even have advice for you, but put their butt on the line for you, and open doors for you, and are there at the moments of your career when you need them the most, and that's a very, very different thing, and I call it out especially because I think Many women in particular have been told that they need a mentor, like that's the thing they need, and they go around looking for a mentor, and I always say, no, you really need to build advocates around you and people who are going to be opening doors, not just giving you advice and patting themselves on the back while doing that. And so, in my case, you know, I would tell you, Will Cascart, who's currently leading WhatsApp, he used to be my manager for many years, And if I ever called him my mentor, he would totally cringe and kill me, but he certainly was my sponsor, and what that meant, and what that looked like, is that it just created an environment by which I could just make bets after bets, and he gave me the confidence that I didn't have at the time, and just by seeing myself through his eyes, I built up …

AI assessment note: “Will Cascart, who's currently leading WhatsApp... he certainly was my sponsor”

Q Why do you think he believed in you so much when you didn't believe in yourself?

A Ah, that's a good question. I haven't asked him that. I think he probably, he saw that I was always, always learning and always growing, and I think in his mind that was also a trait that Like predicts, you know, that you're going to be able to tackle a lot of challenges, and the other thing is, you know, I fundamentally believe that you need to build really win-win relationship with your manager, and so the relationship we had was that one where he was making me successful for sure, but I was also really invested in making him successful, and I felt deeply invested in his career, and I was the one giving him The most feedback just to make sure that he would get to his next step. And I think this is kind of our approachable relationship. I don't, I fundamentally don't believe in hierarchy. I think it's a, it's a nice thing to add in order to be able to make decisions, but I really feel like, you know, I serve my team. And similarly, when I have a manager, I just feel like I'm also responsible for their career and helping them get to the next level. And so I've been creating this deep partnership with people. I think helps and really helps Creates goodwill.

AI assessment note: “he saw that I was always, always learning and always growing”

Q This is a question that you make such bold bets, and they turned out to work, but if they didn't, it would have been challenging, and so I guess my question to you is, like, as a manager and a leader today, how do you create an environment of safety where people can try ambitious bets and not be fearful of failure and repercussions?

A Yeah, I mean, this is such a critical question, and I'll be honest, Harry, I didn't always get it right, you know, I mean, when we were building Facebook Watch, that was kind of the first time where I had worked on a product, and I really, like, it wasn't working initially, and I did not see a path, and I was like, oh my god, like, my formula is just not working, and the road is gonna stop here, and I was incredibly stressed, I was passing on the stress to my team, And thank God I had built incredible relationship with my team to the point that one of the people on my team, like, set me aside after a meeting, and she was like, Fiji, I've seen you at your best. This is not your best, and figuring out Facebook Watch is going to require your best. And I was like, just three sentences, and I was like, ok, got it, and you know, immediately clicked that fundamentally you are not going to crack a hard Problem on a series of bad days. You're going to crack a whole problem when you're absolutely at your best as a leader. And therefore you are inspiring people to be at their best. And I completely recalibrated at that point. I was like, oh wow. It's really important that I don't focus just on is the work getting done? Is like, are we making progress fast enough? But I really focus on, am I creating the conditions by which like the team is going to thrive? And a lot of how I did that was …

AI assessment note: “I would back them up no matter what. And like a lot of the pressure”

Q The pleasure is all mine, but a little birdie tells me that we should start a lot further back, actually, because you're from Set in France, daughter of a fisherman, and I heard this actually on your episode with Boz. So, what did those early years look like, and how did you make your way to the valley?

A Yeah, I mean, you know, when you're also Daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter of fishermen. You're not necessarily predestined to end up in Silicon Valley, but my father took me out at sea when I was pretty young, and I was so horribly seasick that I realized that I would need to find another line of business and a family business pretty quickly, and so, you know, I love my hometown. It's a lovely place, and, you know, I grew up in this very Rambunctious French Sicilian family, where everything we do revolves around food and a large table filled with wonderful things to eat. So, you know, we're up with deep family values, and it kind of feels a little bit like going full circle to work at Instacart and work on something food related.

AI assessment note: “grew up in this very Rambunctious French Sicilian family, where everything we do revolves”

Q many mutual friends. I want to go back before we start on Instagram to the incredible journey with Facebook, you know, heard from JC, heard from Dan Rose. Sala is a junior market employee, and they said it was the most meteoric rise of anyone in the whole of Facebook. Walk me through the role progression there. How did it happen? And his question, how did you rise so fast?

A You know, I was working at eBay for three years, and then I applied to Facebook. And, you know, the thing that's, that's actually a good illustration of what I was telling you earlier is I didn't have the skill set on paper to even apply for the job I applied to. I was like, the job was available at the time with marketing companies. Communications. I had never done that in my life, and I realized I would probably not get the job as a result, which would have been, you know, such a rational thing for a hiring manager to do, and so I spent my entire Thanksgiving weekend inventing a new product called Facebook Stores, which is very close to a product that we've launched recently called Facebook Shops, and I built all of the marketing materials around it. I recorded a webinar with my horrible French accent. I am Prepped all of the brochures, all of that, and I just sent that to the hiring manager saying, like, hey, you may not be convinced that I can do the job on paper, but, you know, I put in all this work, so please consider me, and, you know, she did, and to this day, she kind of laughed that, you know, I definitely would not have gotten the job without this, and so it's kind of the philosophy of always going the extra mile, and always putting all the chances On your side for something that you really, really want and, and, you know, deeply believe in. So that was kind of the …

AI assessment note: “So that was kind of the beginning of my journey at Facebook.”

Q The pleasure is all mine, but a little birdie tells me that we should start a lot further back, actually, because you're from Set in France, daughter of a fisherman, and I heard this actually on your episode with Boz. So, what did those early years look like, and how did you make your way to the valley?

A Yeah, I mean, you know, when you're also Daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter of fishermen. You're not necessarily predestined to end up in Silicon Valley, but my father took me out at sea when I was pretty young, and I was so horribly seasick that I realized that I would need to find another line of business and a family business pretty quickly, and so, you know, I love my hometown. It's a lovely place, and, you know, I grew up in this very Rambunctious French Sicilian family, where everything we do revolves around food and a large table filled with wonderful things to eat. So, you know, we're up with deep family values, and it kind of feels a little bit like going full circle to work at Instacart and work on something food related.

AI assessment note: “realized that I would need to find another line of business”

Q Can I ask, when you think about trying these new projects, it could be, you know, video, it could be, you know, whatever new project we want to try. How do you think about how long to give something? It's always the hardest thing, which is like, you have enough data when you always probably leave it too long. How do you think about that?

A I think you need to be inflexible on the destination and the goal and the user need you're trying to achieve and very flexible on how to get there. And I think the combination of these two things means that you need to have a very clear north star of, and be very sure that the user needs that you're solving is worth solving, but then be completely comfortable iterating on the right way to solve that user need. And so, you know, and a lot of the products that I launched, we went through, you know, four, five iterations of the product before we got the user need right. And therefore I'm like, Very comfortable pivoting and iterating, but definitely attached to solving the user need, unless we have data from the market that reveals that this user need is not worth solving, but that's rare. Usually, like, at the start of the project, you need the real conviction that there is something to solve there.

AI assessment note: “Very comfortable pivoting and iterating, but definitely attached to solving the user need”

Q Can I ask, when you think about trying these new projects, it could be, you know, video, it could be, you know, whatever new project we want to try. How do you think about how long to give something? It's always the hardest thing, which is like, you have enough data when you always probably leave it too long. How do you think about that?

A I think you need to be inflexible on the destination and the goal and the user need you're trying to achieve and very flexible on how to get there. And I think the combination of these two things means that you need to have a very clear north star of, and be very sure that the user needs that you're solving is worth solving, but then be completely comfortable iterating on the right way to solve that user need. And so, you know, and a lot of the products that I launched, we went through, you know, four, five iterations of the product before we got the user need right. And therefore I'm like, Very comfortable pivoting and iterating, but definitely attached to solving the user need, unless we have data from the market that reveals that this user need is not worth solving, but that's rare. Usually, like, at the start of the project, you need the real conviction that there is something to solve there.

AI assessment note: “I think you need to be inflexible on the destination and the goal”