“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat!” – Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is known as the commercial brilliance behind Mark Zuckerberg’s genius. She’s largely credited for turning Facebook into a revenue-generating machine.

The move out of Google, where she was in charge of global online sales, occurred after a period of intense meetings between Zuck and Sheryl. It’s narrated in detail in Reid Hoffman’s Master of Scale podcast.

Did Sandberg think of this quote when she was offered the job at Facebook in 2008?

(Start at 21’30 for the story of how Zuck hired her.)

Interesting fact: while Sandberg is generally credited with the rocket ship quote, which she shared at the 2012 Harvard Business School graduation ceremony, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is the one who gave her the advice first.

“So I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO, and I showed him the spreadsheet and I said, this job meets none of my criteria. He put his hand on my spreadsheet and he looked at me and said, Don’t be an idiot. Get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and they are having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”

Sheryl Sandberg – 2012 HBS Graduation Ceremony

Sandberg is not a professional investor, so this quote is not technically a VC quote. I thought it’d be useful to share it here because it’s a good quote to use when you try to convince top talent to join the startups you invested in.

Aram Founder

Aram is a veteran investment professional with 20 years of experience. He’s realized over 45 transactions across Project Finance, LBO Financings, Growth Equity, Venture Capital, and M&A in half a dozen countries on three continents.

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