Chapter 150: Platform Strategy
Zack appeared in Sequoia Capital's conference room in Shanghai and presented ten almost unreasonable excuses in front of everyone. That unorthodox approach did nothing to prevent the incident from later being unearthed and turned into an entertaining legend people would still be talking about years afterward.
Yet beneath all those anecdotes and rumors amplified through newspapers, magazines, television, and online information, there was always a true origin stripped of exaggeration and embellishment. What outsiders saw as Facebook landing a heavy punch on Sequoia happened as naturally and truly as the bleak wind that winter, the camphor trees swaying outside the building, the empty black benches near the parks, and the pedestrians hurrying through the streets.
Years later, amid the sweeping social network craze, Zack sat down for an interview on a nationally renowned American television program. The strikingly beautiful host asked Mark about his reaction after the incident, an episode that had remained a persistent source of fascination to outsiders.
"Sequoia Capital was at the very forefront of the industry then, a leader among venture capital firms worldwide. If that company was an eagle, Facebook at the time was a fledgling. Yet that fledgling dared to challenge the eagle. You struck back hard at those Silicon Valley venture capitalists through your actions and were hailed as heroes for a time. Was this a demonstration of Facebook's distinctive personality and boldness? Even now, I feel sorry for those capitalists who weren't welcome at Facebook."
In the live television studio, before the many cameras and the screens behind them showing slightly distorted images of him, Zack looked somewhat shy, but he still spoke at a machine-gun pace. Recalling the scene, he said, "While I was presenting those ten reasons in a slideshow, they listened politely throughout. So now