Facebook上市背后的推手

    虽然在基因泰克非常成功，但在Facebook，他面临的是截然不同的一个世界：这是一家自由自在的初创企业，一大群20出头的工程师们天生就不相信“西装革履的家伙”拥有绝对的话语权。

    埃伯斯曼非常努力地去了解Facebook的业务，试图融入其中。埃伯斯曼是一个关注细节的人，喜欢眼见为实，因此，他花了很多时间研究Facebook的广告业务，熟悉公司那些昂贵、极其耗电的基础设备。当初，Facebook决定实施公司历史上最大的资本项目——在俄勒冈中部建设一个庞大的一流数据中心时，他在建设期间多次亲临现场，监控进度。

    融入Facebook的文化还需要打破常规，干出一些大多财务人士都不会做的事情。当初，埃伯斯曼就曾经领导财务部发起了一场“编程马拉松”（hack-a-thon），效仿Facebook工程师们常见的通宵编程合作。

    结果：当时规模尚小的财务高手团队一夜间就“攻克”了一个跨越多个年份的预算案。它的意义已不在于财务计划本身，更多的在于团队建设。“这个预算案还需要几个月的时间才能最后敲定，”埃伯斯曼2010年在为数不多的一次采访中这样告诉我。“我们这样做是为了与公司文化衔接。”

    埃伯斯曼的另一项业余活动则为他在Facebook员工中赢得了更多口碑：他作为贝斯手加入了Feedbomb，即Facebook内部的金曲翻唱乐队。这支乐队已在Facebook的七周年庆典上、在帕洛阿尔托和旧金山的很多场合进行过演出。（在Facebook上的一张乐队照片中，埃伯斯曼换下了自己常穿的正装衬衫，穿着一件枪炮玫瑰的T恤。）“工程师们非常钦佩乐手，”Facebook一位老员工称。“这为他赢得了很多好感。”

    埃伯斯曼很强的运营背景也让Facebook及未来的公众投资者多了一层放心。

    Facebook高调的首席运营官谢莉尔•桑德伯格未来离开Facebook后的去向长期以来一直是硅谷的谈资。当然，没人觉得她短期内就会离开。但如果未来桑德伯格选择政治或公共服务领域，埃伯斯曼将是一个理想的继任者。莱文森说：“很少有他干不好的工作。”

    For all his success at Genentech, at Facebook he was confronted with a radically different world: a freewheeling startup, where 20-something engineers with an inherent mistrust of "suits" ruled the roost.

    Ebersman worked hard to learn the business and to fit in. A detail-oriented person who likes to see things for himself, Ebersman spent hours drilling down on Facebook's advertising business, and becoming familiar with the costly, electricity-guzzling infrastructure. After the company decided to go forward with its biggest capital project ever, a giant state-of-the-art data center in central Oregon, he visited multiple times during construction to keep tabs on its progress.

    Fitting into Facebook's culture also took some stepping out of what you'd think of as the comfort zone of most finance professionals. Early on, Ebersman led a finance department "hack-a-thon," modeled after the all-night programming sessions that are common among Facebook's engineers.

    The result: a multi-year budget that was "hacked" overnight by a still-small team of finance whizzes. It was more exercise in team-building than actual financial plan. "It still took months to finalize it," Ebersman told me in a rare 2010 interview. "It was meant to be a nice tie in with the culture."

    Ebersman earned additional credibility with the Facebook troops through an extracurricular activity: He joined Feedbomb, Facebook's in-house top-40 cover band, as its bass player. The band has played at Facebook's 7th birthday party and a number of venues in Palo Alto and San Francisco. (In a band photo on Facebook, Ebersman traded his usual buttoned-down shirt for a Guns and Roses t-shirt.) "Musicians have a lot of respect among engineers," says a veteran of Facebook. "It gave him a fair amount of cred."

    Ebersman's strong operational background provides an extra layer of comfort for Facebook and its would-be public investors.

    The post-Facebook aspirations of Sheryl Sandberg, the company's high-profile COO, have long been the talk of Silicon Valley. No one expects her to leave any time soon. But if Sandberg opts for a future in politics or public service down the line, Facebook would have in Ebersman a well-prepared executive to step into her shoes. Says Levinson: "There are very few jobs he wouldn't excel at."