Meta's strategy of paying massive guaranteed compensation to AI talent is smart execution but hires mercenaries who lack mission commitment
Adcock acknowledges Meta's aggressive AI recruiting as smart strategy he would have done the same, but notes it attracts mercenaries purely money-driven rather than mission-committed people. He contrasts this with building a smaller, dedicated team that genuinely cares. ✦ AI generated
Brett Adcock · My First Million · 2026-08-14 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 31:39
“When I asked you what do you think of that you said 'I like it.' Were you being sarcastic?”
I think it was really smart and I would have done the same thing if I was I was I was Mark. I would have bought my way into the race and I think he's like he's doing that now. I I don't think I would have done that. I want to understand it and I want to like first order like find the right folks that really care deeply about this and not hire like like mercenaries and so he hired a bunch of mercenaries. They're just purely money driven. He they came over there. No other nobody wants to go to Meta. They just they're going there because they're getting paid a guaranteed RSU package by sitting around. And what's happening is like you don't need like a thousand people or 500 or 300 to design AI models. You need like a really good team of 20 or 30 or 40 people.
verbatim transcript · starts at 31:39
31:22Meta and but then all the other labs have have like have like followed comp. >> When I asked you what do you think of that you said I like it. Were you being sarcastic or you're you're saying no actually that is smart given how hard it is to get this talent. I think it was really smart and I would have done the same thing if I was I was I was Mark. I
31:39would have bought my way into the race and I think he's like he's doing that now. I I don't think I would have done that. I want to understand it and I want to like first order like find the right folks that really care deeply about this and not hire like like mercenaries >> and so he [clears throat] hired a bunch of mercenaries. They're just purely money driven. He they came over there.
31:57No other nobody wants to go to Meta. They just they're going there because they're getting paid a guaranteed RSU package by sitting around. And what's happening is like you don't need like a thousand people or 500 or 300 to design AI models. You need like a really good team of 20 or 30 or 40 people. And that you can get there without doing this. And those people probably would care
32:18more deeply about the mission and where you're at and be more committed than just if you purely throw money at the problem. But I think if I was like I think it was a really good strategy and it's working. I think hats off. like really good execution, their recruiting efforts and how they're structuring this stuff and uh it's like I think it's I think it's like paying off for them.
32:36Juryy's still out if they can like actually ship real products. I think like the problem I have with those groups is they've just traditionally have not been able to do things new. Well, I mean I think Facebook is probably Meta is going to go down like one of the greatest acquirers in all time with like you know Instagram and WhatsApp and different way they've like bought their way into those spaces. Uh