Grocery delivery app Instacart has announced that it has hired Facebook app boss Fiji Simo as the new CEO, making him the first outside person to lead the new $39 billion startups.
This is an example of Facebook losing a key executive and a black person as the company tries to improve diversity in its workplace.
Simo, 35, from France, is one of the most senior female executives on Facebook after COO Sheryl Sandberg and Sales Director Marne Levine.
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Simo’s departure will create a vacant position at the top of Facebook’s premier social network, reporting to product manager Chris Cox and coordinating with heads of Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Simo will succeed Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta on August 2. Mehta becomes executive chairman of the board.
Simo explained to CNBC in an interview this week how his decision to leave was handled by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“Well, you know, it wasn’t what you can imagine, it wasn’t a one-off conversation,” he said.
“It went on for several weeks. And what I deeply appreciate about Mark is that he was a supporter from day one, and I really wanted to make sure he understood my motivation and what I wanted. to do with my life and what I was looking for.”
“She was very supportive of us throughout the process. It’s, of course, sad that we couldn’t find anything suitable on Facebook, but it also supported me incredibly to take on this role, for which I am always grateful,” She further said.
Simo became the first female member to join Instacart’s board earlier this year after Mehta contacted her with a cold email.
“To be honest, the thought of someone else running the business never crossed my mind,” Mehta told CNBC. “But I was impressed with his managerial skills.”
Simo has been on Facebook since taking a role in product marketing in 2011. He has successfully improved Facebook’s main ‘blue’ app, which he has been responsible for since March 2019, as per his LinkedIn profile.
Simo has been instrumental in the company’s initiatives, for example through automatic video playback, live streaming, and the Facebook Watch video streaming product to bring more video content to the Facebook app.
“After spending hundreds of hours with Simo”, Mehta said, “I realized that we both share a really ambitious vision for Instacart.”
Simo said he wanted to make Instacart an “amazing consumer app”. “An app that people want to open several times a week to get inspired by the content of the meal and then buy our food online,” he said.
Beyond grocery delivery, Simo said he will support Instacart’s growing advertising and entrepreneurial activities. She also said he saw parallels with what he had done on Facebook.
“We’ve seen how many startups are built on Facebook ads,” he said. “And I see the same in the Instacart industry, where not only existing food businesses are reaching new customers, but new food businesses have the potential to be launched.”
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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Instacart has become one of the most valuable private companies in the United States. Since the start of 2020, its valuation has nearly quadrupled to $39 billion, making it the third-largest U.S.-based privately held company after fintech giants Stripe and Elon Musk SpaceX, according to the Pitchbook.
