How two Europeans pushed early Facebook's explosive growth

Transmission #37 from Jupiter Dispatch

Apr 03, 2025

`Time: 4.50 Minutes`

Most people think Facebook's success story was purely American-made.

But behind the scenes, some European talent provided the secret sauce that transformed a college directory into a global phenomenon with Millions of users.

Meet Alex Schultz from the UK and Javier Olivan from Spain. They weren't just participants – they were architects of Facebook's unstoppable global expansion.

While Chamath Palihapitiya (from infamous All-In Podacst) often gets the credit as the team's vocal leader, it was them with their methodical approach that created the playbook everyone now follows.

Take Alex, his physics background wasn't just obsessed with the numbers – it was about understanding human psychology across different cultures.

Same as Javier, whose Spanish roots gave him insight into how social platforms needed to adapt beyond American norms.

Let me share the four growth methods these two pioneered that changed everything for Facebook:

The "7 friends in 10 days" framework: They discovered users who connected with 7 friends within their first 10 days had dramatically higher retention. Example: Facebook redesigned their onboarding to prioritize friend connections above all else.
Cross-border optimization: They created market-specific growth tactics instead of one-size-fits-all. Example: In Spain, they emphasized family connections. In Germany, privacy controls.
The "Moved Cheese" technique: Strategically changing features to drive specific behaviors. For example, they made notifications red and moved them top-right, engagement spiked 6%. (which is a lot!)
International-first development: New features were tested in international markets before the US rollout. Example: Facebook Lite was developed for emerging markets but its performance insights improved the main app worldwide.

Look at your own growth strategies. Are you limiting yourself to just one cultural perspective?

The real magic happens when you separate different user groups and tackle them with a “test first” mentality.

If you want to dive deeper, here is a special lecture of Alex given at Stanford…