The Importance of Experience

How important is experience in the Web 2.0 world?

There are those who argue that Web 2.0 is a young person's game. We see countless articles on "Entrepreneurs under 30" and "teen founders." People like Yuvi Panda and his Statbot get a ton of attention by making a splash at an age when most of us were out partying and studying for the next history quiz.

When browsing through a couple of LinkedIn profiles the other day, however, I came to a starling realization; a lot of these Web 2.0 CEOs have never worked for anyone, or at least they don't admit to it. I've seen profiles where every position listed is founder, co-founder, CEO. And I'm sure that some will make the argument that founders are creative types that wouldn't do well working for "The Man." However, in light of many issues we are seeing as Web 2.0 matures, you have to wonder if that mentality isn't more stifling.

One company to look at is Facebook, which is undergoing a lot of growing pains right now. Mark Zuckerberg is consistently referred to as "wunderkind" yet the company brought in Sheryl Sandberg from Google as COO. In the time that Sandberg has been there, the employee-friendly housing stipend has been scuttled, and CTO (and Zuckerberg friend) left the company "to take some time off." Rumors persisted during his recent trip around the world that he was traveling to avoid dealing with some of the changes being wrought by Sandberg, who seems to be the grown-up being brought in to take charge.

You can add in this week's mini-flap over Alex Payne's drug-themed Tweet this week. There are various interpretations of what the Tweet meant, but the long story short is that the voice of experience is usually whispering in your ear telling you how people might react to what you casually toss out on Twitter or in real-world conversation. Then again, that same experience might have told you to use a PR person in the first place rather than letting one of your developers talk to the media, in which case the Tweet would have probably been completely overlooked, since Alex Payne wouldn't be a tech household name.

There's a lot to be said for life experience when it comes to running a company. How can you be a manager when you've never been managed? How much more difficult is it to manage a company on a global stage when you are making all your newbie mistakes in front of people who are waiting for your clay feet to show instead of making them as a less-visible employee?