The Twenty Minute VC

Hadi Partovi: How I Became an Advisor to Mark Zuckerberg; Lessons from Steve Ballmer | 20VC #961

Hadi Partovi is a tech entrepreneur and investor, and CEO of the education nonprofit Code.org. Before founding Code.org, Hadi founded two prior startups: Tellme Networks (acquired by Microsoft, discussed on 20VC with Emil Michael), and iLike (acquired by Newscorp). Hadi has also been an active advisor and angel investor to some of the best including Facebook, Dropbox, airbnb, and Uber. If that was not enough, Hadi currently serves on the Board of Directors of Axon and MNTN. ---------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Founding Story of Code.org 1:43 Hadi’s Early Life & What He’s Running Towards 4:49 Selling TellMe to Microsoft 7:43 Leadership Lessons from Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer 12:06 Bill Gates vs Steve Ballmer 14:08 Working with Mark Zuckerberg 17:50 Advice on the Hiring Process 20:50 Do companies have too many people? 25:12 What does high performance mean to you? 28:06 Speed of Execution 30:38 Hadi’s Decision Making Framework 33:22 Biggest Decisions in Hadi’s Life 39:42 The Future of Education 45:36 The Role of AI in Coding 47:43 Retraining the Workforce for the Future 50:07 Quick Fire Round 51:10 Almost Becoming Facebook’s COO 52:10 Jeff Wilke - Best Board Member 53:29 Axon 54:29 Why will the next 5-10 years be the best ever? 57:22 The Next Five Years for Hadi and Code.org ---------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Hadi Partovi: 1.) From the Iran-Iraq War to Founding Startups: How Hadi and his family made their way from war-torn Tehran to the US and Silicon Valley? How did seeing his family have nothing and struggle financially impact Hadi’s mindset as an entrepreneur? What does Hadi believe he is running from? What is he running toward? 2.) Lessons from Ballmer and Zuckerberg: How did Hadi first come to meet a young Mark Zuckerberg when TheFacebook had less than 10 employees? Why did Hadi believe he was so special from that first meeting? What are Hadi’s biggest takeaways from working with Steve Ballmer? How did the reign and leadership of Ballmer compare to the reign of Bill Gates? Hadi has helped both Facebook and Dropbox with their engineering hires, what is the secret to hiring amazing engineers? How does he structure the process? Where do so many go wrong? 3.) Hadi Partovi: The Leader: How does Hadi define “high performance” in leadership? How has it changed with time? What is Hadi’s framework for making tough decisions? How does Hadi teach that framework to his team? What are the biggest mistakes leaders make in decision-making? How important does Hadi believe speed of execution is? How does Hadi determine when is the right time to go slow to go fast? 4.) Hadi Partovi: The Person: How does Hadi analyze his relationship with money today? How does it change over time? Hadi stepped off the for-profit treadmill with Code.org, why did he make that decision? How does he avoid the trappings of chasing wealth? How does Hadi think about ego and ego management today? How does Hadi separate self-worth from financial gain and accomplishment? ---------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/hadi-partovi/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Hadi Partovi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hadip Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok ---------------------------------------- #HadiPartovi #CodeOrg #HarryStebbings #Futureofeducation #Microsoftemployee #edtech

Harry StebbingshostHadi Partoviguest

Dec 15, 202258mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

From War-Torn Tehran To Tech Titan: Hadi Partovi’s Playbook

Hadi Partovi recounts his journey from a poor immigrant childhood in Iran and the U.S. to founding Tellme Networks, advising Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, and ultimately creating Code.org to fix systemic gaps in education. He describes the influence of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates on his leadership style, emphasizing deep technical and numerical rigor paired with high expectations. The conversation dives into hiring A+ talent, navigating overstaffed tech organizations, decision-making speed, and his conscious mid-career pivot from maximizing wealth to maximizing societal impact. Finally, Partovi outlines his vision for reimagining education for an AI-driven future, arguing that computer science and digital skills must sit at the core of modern curricula.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Early adversity can fuel long-term grit and ambition.

Growing up amid war in Iran and then poverty in the U.S. shaped Partovi’s intense drive for financial security and success, which he later redirected toward broader societal impact.

Elite leaders pair deep detail-orientation with very high bars.

Reviews with Ballmer and Gates forced extreme preparation; they often knew a product or metric better than its owner, creating fear but also pushing teams to operate like founders and master their numbers.

The first 5–10 hires determine the next 100–1,000.

Partovi stresses that early team members define talent standards, culture, and expectations; founders must sell their mission as hard to candidates as they do to VCs and refuse to settle for mediocrity.

In downturns, cut once and cut deep rather than in dribs and drabs.

Multiple small layoffs destroy morale and credibility; a single decisive reset, even if slightly overdone, is healthier than constant uncertainty that drives your best people to leave.

Fast, reversible decisions beat slow perfectionism in startups.

He optimizes for rapid decision-making when 60% of information is available, especially for non–one-way-door choices, and rejects time-wasting rituals like “meetings to prepare for meetings.”

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

I stand now as an embodiment of the American dream, but I feel like the American dream is broken.

— Hadi Partovi

You knew going into a review with Steve or Bill that there’s a huge risk they know your stuff better than you know it yourself.

— Hadi Partovi

The first five or ten people you bring on board… that’s going to basically determine what the next 100 or the next 1,000 will look like.

— Hadi Partovi

I made this very deliberate decision to say, ‘I’m going to first and foremost measure my self-worth in my own eyes based on my societal impact.’

— Hadi Partovi

Almost everybody else who thinks about education thinks about how to teach better rather than questioning what to teach.

— Hadi Partovi

Hadi Partovi’s early life, immigrant experience, and entrepreneurial driveWorking with and learning from Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates at MicrosoftEarly involvement with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg; angel advisingHiring, talent density, and organizational design in startups and big techDecision-making speed, leadership evolution, and codifying frameworksDeliberate shift from wealth-maximization to impact-maximization via Code.orgFuture of education, AI, computer science literacy, and workforce reskilling

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