Andrew Bosworth—or Boz, as most people know him—is the chief technology officer at Meta and head of Reality Labs, the company’s augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) organization, which he created in 2017. Boz joined Facebook in 2006 as their approximately 10th engineer, and in his 18-year tenure he built the original News Feed, Messenger, and Groups, as well as many early anti-abuse and infrastructure systems. At various times he has been the engineering director overseeing Events, Places, Photos, Videos, Timeline, Privacy, and more. Before Reality Labs, he ran the Ads and Business Platform product group, where he led engineering, product, research, analytics, and design, taking annual revenue from $4 billion to $40 billion in five years. Andrew currently leads Meta’s efforts in AR, VR, AI, and consumer hardware across Quest, Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and more. In our conversation, we discuss: • Stories from the early days of Facebook • Lessons from Meta’s downturn and recent turnaround • Meta’s culture of transparency • Boz’s thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro • Why communication is the job • Why you should regularly seek help from your manager • Lessons in setting incentives and avoiding their misuse • Why you should optimize for a variety in experience in your career • The importance of trusting your own expertise and not being swayed by external opinions • Stories of failures and personal growth — Brought to you by: • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny • Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/ • Explo—Embed customer-facing analytics in your product: https://explo.co/lenny Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto Where to find Andrew Bosworth: • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boz/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boztank/ • X: https://twitter.com/boztank • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-bosworth-8247a01/ • Website: https://boz.com/ • Photography website: https://wardenshortbow.com/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Boz’s background (04:48) Fun facts about him (07:20) Early days at Facebook (11:11) Advice for founders (13:22) Leveraging leaders (19:27) Tips for communicating with managers (22:10) Transparency at Meta (27:01) The importance of clear guidelines (29:11) Involvement in the details (33:15) Building the News Feed (37:28) Passion and career growth (40:25) Exploring new opportunities (42:02) The value of variety in experience (45:01) Giving and receiving feedback (47:38) Boz’s tattoos (51:30) Communication is the job (01:00:47) Comparing VR headsets: Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro (01:10:41) Meta’s downturn and turnaround (01:16:10) Navigating org changes (01:20:43) Lessons from failure (01:26:33) Closing thoughts (01:29:57) Lightning round Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
For the past 20 years, consumer technology has been shaped by the same form factors: apps and touchscreens on smartphones. But advances in AI, wearables, and hardware could introduce an entirely new stack—creating a more agentic, adaptive, and immersive computing experience for users everywhere. Drawing on his early days building Facebook’s News Feed to his work today on smart glasses and AR headsets, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth joins a16z Growth General Partner David George to share how he's translated emerging technologies into products people use and love. He also explores how breakthroughs in AI and hardware could turn the existing app model on its head, introduce entirely new competitive dynamics and business models for startups, and usher in a post-mobile phone era. If we get it right, Bosworth says, the next wave of consumer tech won’t run on taps and swipes—it’ll run on intent. Read more, including a full transcript, here: a16z.com/after-mobile-consumer-tech-andrew-bosworth [00:00:00] The future of content consumption [00:02:18] Building great products on the backs of tech trends [00:08:24] The evolution of Reality Labs and imagining a post-mobile world [00:11:36] Building a bridge to the post-mobile era [00:15:00] Does AI turn the app model on its head? [00:21:28] Competing on performance and price in the AI era [00:24:27] Open source, Llama, and commoditizing your complements [00:27:49] Risks to the post-mobile vision [00:32:41] Committing to the vision In our conversation series AI Revolution, we ask industry leaders how they’re harnessing the power of generative AI and steering their companies through the next platform shift. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment, digital asset, or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.