The Evolution of Facebook and Asana's Innovation | 32min snip from The Eric Ries Show

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Lessons From Co-Founding Facebook, And Now Asana | Dustin Moskovitz

The Eric Ries Show

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CHAPTER

The Evolution of Facebook and Asana's Innovation

This chapter explores the growth and transformation of Facebook, highlighting its shift towards group-focused interactions and developments such as the Quest AR. It also delves into the founding story of Asana, emphasizing its innovative approach to team collaboration and productivity. The discussion touches on challenges faced by both companies, the importance of integrity in business dealings, and the significance of long-term vision and mental well-being in entrepreneurship.

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Welcome to The Eric Ries Show. I sat down with Dustin Moskovitz, founder of not one but two iconic companies: Facebook and the collaborative work platform Asana. Needless to say, he’s engaged in the most intense form of entrepreneurship there is. A huge part of what he’s chosen to do with the hard-earned knowledge it gave him is dedicate himself and Asana to investing in employees’ mental health, communication skills, and more. All of this matters to Dustin on a human level, but he also explains why putting people first is the only way to get the kind of results most founders can only dream of. We talked about how to get into that flow state, why preserving culture is crucial, his leadership style and how he decides when to be hands-on versus when to delegate, and how Asana reflects what he’s learned about supporting people at all levels.

Dustin sums up the work Asana does this way: “Our individual practices are meant to restore coherence for the individual, our team practices are meant to restore coherence for the team, and Asana, the system, is meant to try and do it for the entire organization.” I’m delighted to share our conversation, which also covers:

• How he uses AI and views its future

• Why he founded a collaboration platform

• How he applied the lessons of Facebook to building Asana

• Why taking care of your mental health as a founder is crucial for the company as a whole

• His thoughts on the evolution of Facebook

• The importance of alignment with investors

• His philanthropic work

• And so much more

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