This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.

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Mike Vernal is a General Partner at Conviction and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected operator-turned-investors. He joined Facebook very early, spent eight years there working closely with Mark Zuckerberg and ultimately became VP of Product and Engineering, before becoming a partner at storied venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, where he backed companies including Notion, Rippling, Clay and Statsig.

In this conversation, Mike joins Vidit to unpack the journey from Microsoft to joining Facebook when it was still only a few hundred people, helping scale it through one of the most important periods in technology, and later becoming a partner at Sequoia before joining Conviction. He shares what he learned working closely with Mark Zuckerberg, why Facebook’s obsession with speed became such an advantage, how he learned to spot exceptional founders, and why ambition remains one of the traits he values most.

They also explore why Mike believes people risk “overfitting” to a job after seven years, what Sequoia taught him about great businesses, why he came back to venture after some of the most enjoyable years of his life with his family, and what changes when the cost of creating software starts approaching zero. Along the way, Mike shares the habits, quirks and principles behind his reputation as a “nerd’s nerd”, from obsessive curiosity and inbox zero to the belief that the best leaders make the people around them better.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.

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This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — The Nerd’s Nerd
04:00 — Growing Up in New York
08:00 — Power, Internet and Caffeine
13:00 — Working at a Startup in High School
14:00 — Why Harvard Became the Goal
18:00 — Meeting His Wife
24:00 — What Microsoft Taught Him
31:00 — Why Strategy Can Go Wrong
33:00 — How Facebook Built High-Impact Teams
37:00 — The Moment Facebook Felt Different
43:00 — Facebook’s Speed Advantage
49:00 — Why Mike Left Facebook
54:00 — Why Sequoia
56:00 — Learning What Makes a Great Business
59:00 — Why He Doesn’t Take Notes
01:01:00 — What Mike Looks for in Founders
01:07:00 — Leaving Sequoia
01:09:00 — Why He Joined Conviction
01:14:00 — How Mike Spots What’s Next
01:16:00 — When Software Costs Approach Zero
01:18:00 — What Makes Products Go Viral
01:20:00 — Coaching His Kids
01:22:00 — Inbox Zero and Productivity
01:25:00 — What Mike Is Experimenting With
01:27:00 — The Advice That Changed His Career

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The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.

Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Keith Rabois (Managing Director, Khosla Ventures), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Kevin Hartz (Partner, A*; Founder, Eventbrite), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).

#281 Mike Vernal: Early Facebook Engineer with Zuck to VC at Sequoia to Conviction, What’s Real in AI | The Nerd’s Nerd

The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

#281 Mike Vernal: Early Facebook Engineer with Zuck to VC at Sequoia to Conviction, What’s Real in AI | The Nerd’s Nerd