Facebook’s Director of Product, Blake Ross, has decided to leave the world’s largest social network. The 27-year-old software developer, who is also the co-founder of Mozilla web browser, made the announcement through a Facebook post on the afternoon of Thursday, February 21st. Ross became a part of the social media giant back in 2007, when Facebook acquired Parakey, a web operating system. Ross was not the only person who came to Facebook as a result of that acquisition. His partner and other co-founder of Firefox, Joe Hewitt, also joined the company at the same time. Hewitt led many mobile projects from Facebook including iOS but he left Mark Zuckerburg and company in 2011.
During his six years tenure with Facebook, Ross worked on different projects for the company, starting from engineering then going on to form the growth team along with Chamath Palihapitiya. From engineer he became the Product Manager and then finally took charge as Director of Product. Overall his journey with Facebook has been pretty pleasing. Here is the ‘Goodbye’ note that Ross posted on his Facebook account:
“Hey everyone, I’ve decided to leave Facebook. I’m so grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and grow with you.
I’m leaving because a Forbes writer asked his son’s best friend Todd if Facebook was still cool and the friend said no, and plus none of HIS friends think so either, even Leila who used to love it, and this journalism made me reconsider the long-term viability of the company.
Also because, after scaling a website in a dorm room to a platform connecting a billion people in 196 countries through revolutionary high-efficiency auto-cooling datacenters, you guys will probably never figure out how to sell a Quiznos turkey club on a phone.
In all seriousness, even after switching to part-time at Facebook, it’s just time for me to try new things. I was 14 when I came to the Bay Area to work at Netscape (socially stunted badge pic below). That’s half my life building software in a 10-mile area of Northern California—a rather long stretch considering I spent the first half of my life learning disciplines as varied as standing up, eating, and getting Bar Mitzvahed.
My parting advice: Cherish the launch days. To be surrounded by such bright people, brimming with optimism, forgetting to eat, is a blessing. It’s the kind of manic hopefulness that adulthood is supposed to drain out of you, and I will miss it most.
Launch day is also a great day for Legal to find out what you’re launching.
Guys, thanks for everything. You’ve all brought a lot of joy to this stone cold heart.”
Source: TechCrunch
Photo: AllFacebook
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