Is Facebook listening to your conversations?

No, they are not.

They are doing something MUCH more effective!

Here’s how it works👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
The two most valuable pieces of software on earth are: 1) the $FB pixel and 2) the $FB newsfeed.

When you wonder, how come FB is worth $1T and Twitter is only $55BN, those two pieces of software are your answer.
The FB pixel is a tiny piece of code that nearly every website on the planet has embedded.

It feeds data back to FB (in aggregate, anonymized) for the list of websites visited, how much time was spent, did you buy or not, etc.
The newsfeed algo looks at that as a signal as well as hundreds of other things (your age, who your friends are, what ads you screenshot) to determine which ad to place in front of you.

Again, all of this is done in groupings. Not personal.
When they get it right: right message in front of right person at right time….everyone wins.

A brand finds a new customer.

You find a product you want.

FB makes $.
And this is a good thing.

You get value from this all the time.

You’re shopping for a mattress. You go to Casper’s website. Then back to FB/IG.

You start getting ads for other mattress companies and even a mattress comparison site.

You find the right choice, you buy!
So, back to FB listening to us. They have a way more effective and smarter system.

If me and @niksharma get lunch, FB knows it. How?
Our devices were in close proximity to each other for about an hour at neither of our houses in the middle of the day.

FB also knows the last 10 websites each of us visited b4 lunch.

It bets (usually correctly) that we will talk about a few of these websites.
So after lunch, it shows us each ads based on the other persons browsing history.

We didn’t discuss 9/10 of the websites the other person visited so we don’t even notice that.

But the 1 we happened to discuss JUMPS out at us. And we conclude: FB has been listening!!
In reality, they use tech, data and tools available to most mobile apps and some smart probabilistic modeling.

The result is: more relevant ads (even though it may feel creepy at times) which improves the experience for everyone!
Before you judge, remember this smart algo millions entrepreneurs grow their businesses every day.

And helps consumers discover new products every day.
Follow me @jspujji For more knowledge and stories about $FB, entrepreneurship, growth marketing, DTC and bootstrapping.
To learn more about how $FB became the fastest company to a $1T, listen to me and @zbfuss on @bizbreakdowns here:

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More from @jspujji

29 Jun
A 50 year old immigrant monk bootstrapped a biz from nothing to over $1 BILLION in sales with 30%+ profit margins.

It took only 8 years.

The crazy part?

It doesn't even have 200 employees.

Buckle up for this one 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1) Manoj Bhargava was born in Lucknow, India in 1953.

In 1967, his family moved to the US so his dad could get his PhD at Wharton.

His family went from Indian affluence to living in an $80 per month West Philly apt.

At age 17, he started his first business.
2) He bought a $400 truck and cleaned out debris in rough Philly neighborhoods.

Despite the danger and rough work, he made $600 that summer. After turning his first profit, he was hooked.

In 1972, he got into a little college called Princeton.

A year later, he dropped out.
Read 19 tweets
19 Jun
Over the years, I get 1 consistent Q when it comes to Zuckerberg.

Is he a “visionary” or did he just get lucky?

The answer is visionary.

How do I know?

Bc in 2005, we spoke for an hour and he shared the 10 year $FB plan w/me.

The kicker? It all came true.

Thread time👇
In the 2004, @aniketkshah, @chrisamos and I were amongst the first Facebook users (we were in one of the first 8 schools where it started).

Being ambitious young entrepreneurs ourselves, we thought: let’s start HIGH SCHOOL version of Facebook!
At that time, like many, we believed FB would never go beyond colleges because it would alienate its core user base.

In the summer of 2005, we would work 9am to 11pm at our finance internships.

And then nights and weekends, we worked on building this website.
Read 24 tweets
18 Jun
This is the most successful thing I've ever done.

And it is not directly tied to Business/Entrepreneurship.

If you are a new/expecting parent, it will change your life.

🧵 about how to get your newborn 👶🏾 to sleep through the night by 4 mo old without cry it out or coddling
Some background: when @tweepika and I were fam planning, we met a lot of young parents. We asked questions, listened, observed and learned.

It seemed parental happiness was directly correlated with:
+ how well their baby slept
+ Childcare
+ Alignment with spouse.
Regarding baby sleep (topic of this thread), we were told there are only two approaches, either:

A) At 6 mos old, "cry it out" - put baby in crib at 7pm and don't return until 7am regardless of their cries (there are modified versions)

or
Read 25 tweets
16 Jun
Not every business can be bootstrapped.

For 10 years, this business raised and burned >$2BN with ZERO dollars in revenue.

Then, it became the most important business in the world.

👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
Today, we released a business breakdown on Moderna

Here are 3 amazing facts about about it:

1) The actual vaccine was developed in less than a WEEK.

Normal vaccines take ~3 years to develop.

The rest of the time pre-release was spent on clinical tests.
2) Moderna purposefully built itself as an mRNA platform vs the “norm” of a single drug therapy.

This platform allows them to quickly code new dna/mRNA sequences via software that within days shows up as a testable physical protein.

This platform approach was key for the vax
Read 5 tweets
13 Jun
Everyone has only ONE problem.

And it's the same problem.

It's called: The Upper Limit Problem.

Trouble celebrating a big win? When everything is going well, do you wait for "bad stuff"? Then know it

Read this 🧵to to learn abt it, id it and fix it...
Each person has an "inner thermostat" of success/happiness that was set for us as children.

When we exceed our "setting," we unconsciously do things to sabotage ourselves to come back into the familiar/comfortable "temperature."
The classic example: a lotto winner.

It's a proven fact that most lotto winners, regardless of the size of the prize, report similar or LOWER happiness 5-10 years post win.

So much "success" in one area overwhelms their neurosis and they "bring themselves down" in other areas
Read 26 tweets
9 Jun
Sooo… I’m stealth-ishly launching a dtc brand.

Here is how I’m testing on FB ads from zero (with a bootstrapped approach)

Of note… it’s not working, yet!

🧵🧵🧵
First, conceptually there are 5 categories any idea can live in:
1) backlog
2) test
3) validate
4) scale
5) cash cow.

An idea has a full funnel orientation meaning targeting/ad type/creative/price/offer and landing experience.

There are an infinite amt of combos.
There are a ton of levers btw: targeting, creative, messaging, price, offers, landing experience (content, quiz, etc).

That’s why some testing system is important vs throw sh!t against the wall or doing too much too fast.

I prefer to test in series vs parallel.
Read 23 tweets

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