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October 25, 2006

Inside Facebook - Read it for Free

Nick Gonzalez

60 comments »

Karel Baloun, one of the first engineers to join Facebook, recently wrote and self published a tell-all ebook on his experiences there called “Inside Facebook.”

Early reviews are mixed, although I found the book to be an insightful look at a successful startup from a key insider. The language is rough and unpolished, but the content is going to be interesting to people fascinated by Silicon Valley culture.

The book, in downloadable pdf format, is available for $12 ($9 for students). Baloun is also selling a printed autographed version of the pdf for $39.

TechCrunch readers can read the book for free online for the next 36 hours at a special link they’ve created. Read it here.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. DavidEzra

    October 25th, 2006 at 4:35 pm

    Wicked Awesome … THANX!!!

  2. Jay

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:01 pm

    Interesting, haven’t read the whole thing yet, but so far I like the aspect of it that covers its culture and growth, but the continuous brown-nosing is unbearable.

    “In the bright summer sunshine both men [ Mark and Sean ] had golden locks of curls, and the thought quickly swam through my head that, in appearance and confidence only, they did look like Greek god prototypes, like the statues I saw when I toured the Parthenon. ”

    Let me guess, you have a big scantily-clad painting of Zuckerburg in your room that you pray in front of daily?

  3. Jay

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    BTW - That comment is directed to the author of the book.

  4. Wolf

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    I stopped reading after I realized the book was trying to teach the ways of a successful startup. Give me a break.

    luck *cough*

  5. Karel

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:10 pm

    Well Jay, actually I have pictures of my wife and kids and plans for my startups, which i pray over hourly. I’m out of there, why would I brown-nose? I admire Zuck for what he’s done. Shoot, it’s more than you or I have. And the attitude you mock - I’m glad I got it so clear, because it is part of the culture.

  6. Steven

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

    It’s interesting, but at 48 light pages it’s not a book by my standards. This whole thing could be a blog post.

  7. T M

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    Hi Steven,

    It should be over 80 pages, did anything stop you at page 48??

    Ted

  8. Karel

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:28 pm

    It’s exactly 111pgs today, but I formatted it down to 48 for your online convenience.

  9. Mike

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:44 pm

    I read one of the early versions, and found it pretty fascinating. Great insight into the company culture in the early stages. Maybe a tad preachy, but his philosophizing seems to help communicate his unique vantage point into the company.

  10. Startups.in/India

    October 25th, 2006 at 5:49 pm

    Amazingly Awesome.Inspiring.
    C’mon Nick. The language is perfect. That is how a book is supposed to be without fancy vocabulary that makes no sense.

  11. Jordan

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:04 pm

    The book is a great read if you want to learn something about the culture of small SV startups. Karel does a great job capturing the sense of being surrounded by incredibly smart and talented people, all of whom are pushing themselves towards the same goal.

  12. Helen

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:08 pm

    I have not finished it yet, but it appears the author worked very closely with Mark Zuckerburg who has been in the press lately with all of these acquisition talks with Yahoo. How long will this book be readable? Can I download for my friends and co-workers?

  13. Bill

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

    This book is Amazing! I just read yesterday that Baloun was offered $75M to either not put it out, or to give up the rights. It shows true integrity of an author to publish what he wants to get out in the public, and is overall a positive book for Facebook. I can’t wait to buy it on Amazon.

  14. foobar

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:21 pm

    someone script up a crawler to save all the pages, then throw it on bittorrent so it lives forever

  15. ChistopherChase

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    Karel - your book was very inspiring for a young entrepreneur. Thanks for sharing and good luck on your new ventures.

  16. Sam Jackson

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

    Just read the thing–very fun read, certainly got me more excited about the possibilities for the future… Very accessible, to be sure. I wouldn’t have minded if it was a little bit denser, but the prose might convey the ‘energy’ of facebook’s development better this way, I couldn’t say without seeing an alternative. I don’t think I would have paid for it (especially since I just read it in… 20 minutes) were it not offered up via TechCrunch but it was neat to see. Window into a very interesting world.

  17. Sam Jackson

    October 25th, 2006 at 6:59 pm

    Oh and let the record show that here at Mark’s old high school (P.E.A.) we like Facebook but people never really recovered from the newsfeed business; Zuckerberg himself is regarded as a mysteriously creepy figure here. It’s a guilty pleasure that people indulge, really, to facilitate their stalking and social gossiping. Not surprising given human evolution, I suppose.

  18. Daniel

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:04 pm

    Helen - it’s only 3 lines of code to download the whole book for those who want to ;)

    Page 12 had me laughing out loud… logging in as root to make changes, then pushing to other sites if it worked. I’d have a heart attack in no time. :)

    Very enjoyable so far, no doubt I’ll finish it tonight. Thanks Karel for writing this! :)

  19. Jay

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:18 pm

    Karel - I meant the painting remark with some light humor. I understand you have admiration for Mark Zuckerberg, and your book certainly exudes that. I guess I was looking for a more objective reading. And as to why you’d want to shine Zuckerberg in the best light - not a bad idea to be on a soon-to-be billionaire’s good side :). Good luck with your startup.

  20. dave

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:21 pm

    from the first page, “…It’s the kind of dream open to anyone. The secret can be crystallized.” - the secret is a link, when clicked it displays, “The secret is in the purchased copy.” and proves that this is in fact not a full exclusive copy, but rather techcrunch operating as an affiliate marketing tool…lame.

  21. IT Mgr.

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:28 pm

    Very interesting reading. I would have thought they had about 4 times as many programmers. Looks like I’ll have to spring for a 2nd set of business cards tomorrow, title will be - IT Manager, Bitch

  22. Marc

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:36 pm

    I bought it and read it two weeks ago, fun stuff…

  23. Karel

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:38 pm

    Dave, Thanks! I’ve fixed it. This should be an exact copy, but couldn’t fully replicate the nice PDF formatting. Hope you read the rest just as carefully! -K

  24. Paul Stamatiou

    October 25th, 2006 at 8:26 pm

    I’ve had the PDF for a while now and I liked the part where it mentions how Zuckerberg was held up at gun point the day they got funding.

  25. sengan

    October 25th, 2006 at 8:36 pm

    - I like Karel’s encouragement
    - I like the description of what it takes, such as Zuck’s character
    - I found myself skimming some parts (author’s opinions about other companies, etc). Cutting that out would have improved it.

    Thanks for the opportunity to read it.

  26. elvirs

    October 25th, 2006 at 8:40 pm

    i”ve got the word copy:)
    (a student who did not have the 9 bucks)

  27. Drama 2.0

    October 25th, 2006 at 8:59 pm

    There’s no doubt that Facebook is a huge success story, but there are parts of this that are simply over the top. Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook crew are certainly intelligent, but this “book” borders on idol worship. As much as intelligence contributed to Facebook’s success, being at the right place at the right time was clearly just as important. That’s true for most successful businesses, of course, but it should not be ignored. Let’s look at it this way: if Mark launched Facebook today and didn’t have first mover advantage, would it be a success? Does anybody expect that it will ever catch up to MySpace in popularity now that it’s opened its doors to everyone? Of course not. Because there’s actually competition.

    I found the sections on privacy to be quite funny given the recent Mini Feeds flap and the newly embedded advertising in feeds, as well as the opening of the network to the world, which is clearly driven by financial motivations. I also nearly vomited as the author took subtle potshots at other sites, such as MySpace, Bebo and YouTube but went on to discuss Facebook’s grand vision of how “Facebook intends to improve the flow and quality of information between people, to actually improve communication and relationships.” From my personal experience, social networks impede this as much as they help it, and this vision resonates as much with me as marketing fluff from a weapons manufacturer company telling me that its products keep me safe at night. Unfortunately for Facebook, social networks are a commodity now and Facebook is only deeply entrenched in the US college market. International competition is rife and high schoolers are more likely to be found on MySpace and Bebo. Other verticals are taken by startups like LinkedIn. Facebook’s vision also fails to accept that a considerable amount of Facebookers are not using the site to improve their relationships. The site is used to hook up, post party pictures, stalk, etc. People add friends that they don’t talk to in real life and that they don’t really care about. Perhaps the disconnect between Facebook’s vision and the reality of its usage was displayed most visibly with the Mini Feeds disaster.

    At the end of the day, Facebook is a hugely successful social network in its niche and probably won’t gain similar significant traction in any new market now that social networks are popping up left and right. Facebook’s market is finite and you’d hope that Facebook founders cash out before the Next Big Thing comes along. A widget company should always remember that it sells widgets. Fall too much in love with your company and “vision” and you just might miss your opportunity. Facebook is only a billion dollar company when that money is in the bank. At least Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were smart enough to recognize that.

  28. javaongsan

    October 25th, 2006 at 10:32 pm

    a good read.

  29. Tommy

    October 25th, 2006 at 11:50 pm

    Interesting read, not sure how to react. I think it’s great that Karel took the time to make it, but I’m not sure I like how it portrays Mr. Zuckerburg.

    Like Drama 2.0 stated, I think most of the success of Facebook can be attributed to being launched at the right time, which had nothing whatsoever to do with anything Mark planned. Also, I think he’s continually showed his immaturity as a CEO, and honestly don’t see how that has helped the company. In fact, I think their latest moves have been pretty silly, and poorly implemented. There are a lot of ways they could monetize the college market, and opening the site up appears to me to be a short term effort to improve the valuation so they can cash out.

    Will Facebook be around in 5 years? Except for latent traffic, probably not. College students will have a new, hip place to go, and it won’t be Facebook.

  30. Brian

    October 26th, 2006 at 12:38 am

    ‘Will Facebook be around in 5 years? Except for latent traffic, probably not. College students will have a new, hip place to go, and it won’t be Facebook.’

    Those of you past your college prime can try and track college habits as much as want…but guess what…you’re past it, and you may read about the college use of facebook but you have no idea.

    If someone wants to get in touch with me immediately, the odds are slightly in favor of messaging me via facebook rather than e-mail. Yes we hate the news feed and yes going live outside of college annoys us too, but not enough to stop using the site.

    The news feed is actually growing on us if any of you care.

    I have another 2 years and my sister has another 4. She and her friends became facebook obsessed upon entering college and it really being big and avaliable. Zuckerberg should absolutley sell while he has billion dollar valuations, but facevook isn’t going anywhere. In 5 years you’re going to be amazed at how incoming freshman’s first move is still to sign up for facebook

  31. Grant

    October 26th, 2006 at 2:03 am

    I’m actually touched by the deep level portrait about the value of social network. (not valuation, but the sentimental value for everyday people). Well done.

  32. Josh

    October 26th, 2006 at 2:35 am

    It’s really hard to read something this poorly written. I’m hoping there’s some good info in the book (and the comments here would seem to indicate that there is), but… couldn’t you have hired an editor?

  33. Janson

    October 26th, 2006 at 4:04 am

    Damn it. Get an editor. My eyes hurt after the second word.

  34. Shion Deysarkar

    October 26th, 2006 at 7:05 am

    I think it shows some nice peekhole glimpses inot the life of a young startup, but it doesn’t really offer any insight into how to grow a business. While it may be inspirational to those that have not yet dipped their feet in the water, it doesn’t help those of us currently grappling with the real challenges that an entrepreneur. But then again, that’s not really the scope of the book.

    I do find it frustrating that a lot of the real issues an entrepreneur faces seemed to have been solved by luck in this story.

    I agree that the parts on how Facebook is going to change the very nature of how people interact with each other is a bit far-fetched. While there have been some interesting uses of it (fund raisers, getting sex, etc.), I can’t say I’ve seen a fundamental shift in how people socialize. MySpace definitely has the upper hand in this regard. People use MySpace to promote their bands, their music, and so on. Entire careers (Tila Tequila) have been created thanks to MySpace. Does Facebook have any similar accolades?

    Lastly, I personally think the author sounds a little too defensive in his comments on this post. Not everyone is going to like this book, so just let people discuss it and jump in later.

  35. Sebastian

    October 26th, 2006 at 7:49 am

    Love this sentence:

    “Steve [Facebook ex-engineer], an early engineer on Paypal, was often hard to locate, and left within a couple of months. Yet even Steve made it big; he immediately co-founded YouTube”

  36. Murtaza

    October 26th, 2006 at 7:55 am

    Hey Karel, even Musharraf wrote a better book and I am sure a 15 year old is better at writing vs. you.

    Thanks for sharing.

  37. Olympius

    October 26th, 2006 at 8:48 am

    Fun read though not ready for prime time.

  38. Karel

    October 26th, 2006 at 9:57 am

    All of your wishes for a copyeditor have granted! I now have professional help with shortening my sentences.

    But Janson, you may want to go get your eyes checked. :-) Of the 1600 readers who looked at the second page of the book yesterday, a full third continue of to read every.. single.. page. And dozens went on to buy the PDF.

    Thank you kind readers, for the many wonderful emails. I’m making my way, and I expect to answer all of them.

  39. Andy

    October 26th, 2006 at 10:04 am

    Kick Ass Book…. keep it up…. Looking for the next expanded version….

  40. Keith

    October 26th, 2006 at 10:14 am

    Aside from the occasional grammatical errors, it is a good read. I felt inspired.

  41. Vik

    October 26th, 2006 at 10:17 am

    Karel, for me, it was the message that you were trying to get across to your readers and not your writing style that mattered. After reading tons of law review articles that are written impeccably but lack any substance, I enjoyed going over your book. I wish you the best of luck and thank you for the encouragement.

    Also, in order to be successful, you’ll have to learn to ignore people like Janson.

  42. Keith

    October 26th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    One more thing, I did enjoy your writing style. It, in some ways, seemed like you are actually talking to the reader. That is something I don’t see very often.

    I wish you the best of luck!

  43. Dan

    October 26th, 2006 at 10:38 am

    That is a very interesting article behind the Facebook story. I like how it gives you the engineers perspective. Gives hope for those with a million “web 2.0″ ideas.

  44. Nik Cubrilovic

    October 26th, 2006 at 2:01 pm

    “All of your wishes for a copyeditor have granted!”

    Ironic, but you might not want to shorten your sentences *that* much.

  45. Karel

    October 26th, 2006 at 2:20 pm

    Nik, Ha. Actually there were two errors in my post. *I* should get my eyes and that lumpy thing behind ‘em checked :-) … checking this post carefully … no long sentences… no typos… quick! submit!

    -K

  46. Rich Banner

    October 26th, 2006 at 7:40 pm

    Karel,

    The comments above are very Digg like. So in that vein, could I ask you to re-write this and please tell me, step by step, exactly how I too can be a billionaire and not pay taxes.

  47. Please make it stop

    October 27th, 2006 at 1:30 am

    This ‘book’ just makes me want to barf.

    The facts are interesting, especially about the early days and culture, but give me a break on all the Facebook aggrandizing, self-help motivational blather, and recycled visions of the future.

    This author clearly has no idea of what it takes to build a company from scratch, and those who do know recognize all this as mindless masturbatory banter that does more harm than help to would-be founders who are looking for the proper tools and inspiration.

    Warning: I’ve been doing startups since college and I know what it takes. If you thought this ‘book’ was ‘good’ then stop reading immediately and clear your mind. You are probably pretty green and you need to read some real books by people who’ve done it before. Let me recommend Rob Ryan’s “Entrepreneur America” / “Smartups” and Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle”

  48. Mickey

    October 27th, 2006 at 3:26 am

    Karel,

    interesting book. But I see a big contradiction there.

    On one hand you describe how Facebook is full of geniuses and people with superhuman abilities and you go on describing how these people tackled difficult problems etc…

    However, then you conclude in several places, that it’s not that hard to build a social networking site, given how many people have already done so.

    These facts really contradict one another and thus as a reader, I am inclined to think that the notion of superhumans/geniuses was just your subjective perceptions of others.

  49. Karel

    October 27th, 2006 at 5:25 pm

    Mickey,

    Thank you for that observation. You’ve picked out perhaps the most important theme in the book: what the facebook team achieved was amazing, and everyone showed their true genius as they did their part - AND, we can all do that.

    I’m really not saying that lightly. I firmly believe that we all have unique gifts, and if we actively nurture them and ride them as far as they will take us, we can act like geniuses in what we are doing. Sometimes to billion dollar heights. Zuck is amazing, yet he is no different from many other people i’ve met. Anyone really doing their best, living at their peak, is Amazing.

    No contradiction. We are all geniuses, once we find our unique talents and mission. Then the universe conspires towards our success.

    Some amazing results are not financial, so I wrote the section on what is success. Mother Teresa or Gandhi didn’t have any unique ability that we don’t all share - yet they polished simple human qualities until they .. became amazing.

    I don’t have all the answers on how to build a business, and they wouldn’t fit into one book. I’ve presented my unique contribution - the story of how one successful company did it. And I’m delighted my small piece has inspired and educated some readers, coming up on a thousand, who were already at a place in their journey where it was right for them.

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