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Dustin Moskovitz Episode

Dustin Moskovitz Episode

Lessons From Co-Founding Facebook, And Now Asana

June 20, 2024

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

You can watch and listen on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple. Meanwhile, here are a few takeaways from our conversation:1. People will always tell you you’re about to fail. Ignore them. The world is hostile to new things, and there will always be someone who says your idea is terrible. Let your own judgment be your guide. If you see something working, that’s all the validation you need. After experiencing naysayers at Facebook, Dustin went into building Asana with “entrepreneurial armor” that allowed him to place his observations about the product over the opinions of others about its potential. 2. Managing your own psychology is a huge part of leadership. If the founder or founders aren’t grounded and balanced, the company will suffer. Do whatever it takes to keep both feet on the ground and process difficult feelings and challenges instead of compartmentalizing or repressing them. 3. Stave off energy vampires. Invest in clear communication and a coherent culture in order to prevent the drain that comes with conflict and misunderstanding. Clear assignments and clear due dates create clear expectations. So does a shared understanding of work and culture priorities. Asana is not only run this way, but provides users with tools for making it happen and for communicating well if issues do arise. 4. Be trustworthy. Life and business involve many repeated interactions. Your reputation will catch up with you eventually so if you make bad compromises in the short-term, whatever success you find in that moment will be replaced by far bigger problems down the road. Be a good partner to everyone you come into contact with.

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Where to find Dustin Moskovitz:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmoskov/

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@moskov

• Asana: https://asana.com/leadership

Where to find Eric:

• Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/