So I thought it was interesting and humorous when we discovered that Facebook, which will more than double the number of employees to 700 next year, was grabbing Google employees at an alarming rate - at least ten high profile hires so far, and 2-4 more each month.
But what isn’t so funny is that they are poaching from other startups and companies much closer to my heart. Namely, us. Today I found out that they’ve hired our product manager for Crunchbase, Ben Meyer. Ben was one of our star interns over the summer, and we kept him on in a full time role when the internship ended. We don’t have many people here at TechCrunch, and everyone is key. Losing Ben is very, very hard.
But apparently the gravitational pull of Facebook and their stock options was enough to lure him away from TechCrunch. Congratulations to Ben, who will be missed but will do well in his new job (and, I hope, give us internal access to Facebook’s admin system 
).
But I am not happy at all with Facebook about this. Stay the hell away from our employees, Facebook, and fill your employment quotas elsewhere. Anyone else, and I declare war.
On a completely unrelated note, if anyone has a lead on a highly negative Facebook story, send it our way. Unfounded rumors and pure speculation are encouraged. Jerks. (Update: this is exactly the kind of stuff I’m looking for)
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I am sorry to hear you’ve lost an employee to FB Michael!
Although from another perspective, this should be a lesson to all employers. You are competing for talent, just as much as the talent are competing for jobs. At the end of the day it’s all about earning potential.
Suffice to say that I’d personally be very excited to work for the TechCrunch!
Nobody “owns” an employee, as such, they have the free will to work where ever they so choose, regardless of how you may feel about it. Hopefully you are able to find somebody who can replace them with equal talent.
Jon
Send negative shit about FaceBook to Michael on the double, people. Opportunity of a lifetime to get it posted.
Percentage of commentators that will not get this is sarcasm; over/under
Opening line: 80%
Malcom - that seems about right to me. Let the righteous indignation begin.
For anyone who’s trying to understand what I really mean, just read the bold part of the post.
Your site is far more likely to bring a liquidity event than FB in the short term. As if FB will be acquired anytime soon! Plus waiting the 4 years for all the stock to vest and hoping for a IPO is not nearly as fun.
Ben may have a mistake but he will probably like working with the hot girls that at FB more than seeing your mug every day.
Mike
Are there any companies in the Valley other than Facebook to write about?
Michael bump up your stock options
Sorry to tell you this Mike, but I bought Heather Harde today:
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....ther-harde
So now you are down 2!
Ben Meyer will be missed here at TC.
Yeah Mike, facebook are jerks. I think we’ve had enough of facebook already. Lets talk about new startup which you love doing so much.
Whatever you say Mike. I am sure that you truly are not happy with Facebook.
In the end, Ben has a brain and Facebook understands you have absolutely zero impact on them.
Hire me!!!Facebook, i mean it and I am serious about getting employed!
That is one hell of a way to convey the message loud and clear…. It will be much more fun.. if Facebook also replied to this post in the same sarcastic way..
Ummmmm, Facebook or Techcrunch?
A blog vs the new revolutionary force of the Internet bearing stock options?
Ben is one smart man IMO.
Should I take this as a hint that TechCrunch is not to be considered an unbiased news source, but a personal weblog?
Adam -
“Should I take this as a hint that TechCrunch is not to be considered an unbiased news source, but a personal weblog?”
You’re a new reader, aren’t you?
We don’t strive for balance. We strive to be correct.
“Balance” is just a way for journalists who are too lazy to really understand a story to cover their asses when they write.
Thanks Michael for bring the magic back
This is a fresh breeze of joy.
Congrats to Ben as well.
Cheers.
you have noone to blame but yourself. How could the guy not go for that, when you promote Facebook as the new coming of Jesus, posting about it everyday about how great it is and how its the new Google.
They probably hired him to run Facecrunch
bhuu facebook.
Bhuuu disloyal employees. Here in India we now diferent.
Contract me Michael.
here it comes.
please see comments 4&5 before you make yourselves look really dumb.
I knew it this going to happen.
I grew up gifted visionary. I can see someone give nasty spit Michael Arrington’s face and sucker punch. Its’ either Facebook or Google employees. All I can see Mike face cover redness, bloody scratch, and nosebleed.
I can see photographer from New York Times, Business Week, valleywag, and some auto magazine photographer took snapshot.
I have no idea why the earth am I here. Maybe, I should send future message for mike. “Duck” “Duck” “Duck” “Duck”
So … you hiring?
#21 - whatever you’re taking, please pass me some.
haha, not as many people not getting it as I’d have guessed either…amazing
The photo is suck. Remove red eye please.
“the photo is suck”
sigh.
Ben Meyer probably wanted to make himself look like a Greek god prototype himself and Facebook is the place to be for that:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....ent-300609
Hey, Arrington, stfu and stop whining about everything.
Hey Planet, your photo is suck!!
Wow, we need a waaay better CAPTCHA for commentors
Oh, I’m sorry Mike! Those bastards at Facebook are recruiting like no other… And I’m so ready to hear more crap news about them right about now.
Michael: May I suggest you think like a WS Brokerage house and impose non-compete contract with future hires….think twice about jumping books!
hey Mike
this is what happens when you post about facebook every freaken hour. Now your employees or hmmm your ex- or soon to be ex- employees bought the kool-aid.
Jurado - it’s a good idea. Of course we won’t be paying Ben’s last paycheck or reimbursing any of his expenses, but a noncompete is an even better way of keeping people here. Don’t pay ‘em, then sue the hell out of them after they leave. I like the way you think.
700 employes by next year. Holy crap!
This is by far one of the most enjoyable posts in a long time.
Does anyone know what job Ben took at FB? I wonder if it was a PR role
“the photo is suck”
That has the potential to become a web phenom. Move over goatsee.
#25: in Intarweb Engrish, the correct is “The photo is teh suck.”
Anyway, people need to relax a bit and have a bit more of fun.
man….tough times.
But…I mean…come on…it’s Facebook vs. TechCrunch…..you know you’d jump on the banwagon if you had the choice too.
Michael - you must be one of the best employer out there. You have made it a big day for Ben. Lucky him. When are you going to write about someting real important to this world - like my company!!! BTW - read 4&5 above as well.
20DC.com has your back Michael! We are against so many things Facebook stands for these days and poaching employees is always a really lame thing to do when there is such a large pool of viable talent out there.
Great, now lets move on. Enough of the same old tired stories of the huge companies.
It will be interesting to see if someone steps up to fill the gap — it will help you as the leader too — to see how deep your team really is.
Mikey, you are just upset that you aren’t good enough to make the cut!
Unfounded rumor: Zuckerberg was seen spitting on Mother Teresa’s grave. And then he dug it up and looked in her pockets, sending a list of the contents to partner feeds.
Speculation: Sergey & Larry will soon outfit the 767 with howitzers and begin strafing runs, but not before selling ads on each of the munitions.
this is inevitable brother. opportunity like this is very hard to resist. just like what you’ve mentioned in your post (the one in bold) congratulations to ben!
cheers
Don’t you just love it when people believe that they’re funny and don’t have a clue that they’re actually not … and then try to explain the joke to everyone.
I do.
Thanks for the post Mike :~)
Sorry to get to this post so late in the comments everyone.
Mike, Thanks for the great words. I will certainly miss the whole team as I’m sure everyone knows. I’ll only be working 10 minutes away, so I’ll stop by to visit of course. I’m sure I’ll miss Laguna especially.
I just want to let everyone know how enjoyable and important my time was with TechCrunch. I had been a loyal reader for a year and half before I stumbled upon the position at TC. I jumped at it and found myself to be a part of a fantastic company with amazing people.
It’s not often you get to sit next to guys as smart as Nick and Mark, and I never imagined I would be working for someone as accomplished and kind as Heather. Mike, your humor is something I’ll miss very much. I’m still thrilled that I got a chance to work with you after reading every one of your posts for so long. You truly are the Michael Jordan of Blogging.
So, good luck to TechCrunch. I am absolutely certain you will all do incredibly well.
Facebook, here I come.
(Mike, I dunno about the internal access…that wasn’t part of my deal :))
I’m kind of a new reader (8 mos. or so) and this has got to be one of the best posts yet. Great fun reading the comments! Especially #20
Mike’s posts are crowd pullers :)… Like this one. Mike, you should be proud. You are competing with best talent pullers. Your chance to grab a google employee