Two Years at Meta: From Zero to Platform
VPS evolved from concept to platform in two years - reflecting on the journey, the team, and what's next.
Two years since joining Meta. VPS shipped on Quest Pro. The team grew to 80. Looking back and forward.
The Arc
July 2020: Joined as IC, one of 5 on nascent VPS team December 2020: Leading VPS engineering, team of 15 June 2021: MVP launched to developers December 2021: Team of 50, expanded coverage October 2022: Quest Pro integration shipped December 2022: Team of 80, VPS as platform
From zero to platform in 29 months.
Key Accomplishments
Technical:
- Working visual localization at scale
- Neural map compression
- Privacy-preserving architecture
- Crowdsourced mapping pipeline
Product:
- Shipped in Quest Pro
- 1000+ mapped locations
- 100+ developer partners
- Growing daily active users
Team:
- 5 → 80 people
- Three strong engineering managers
- Culture of shipping and quality
What I Learned
About Meta: Resources are real, but so is complexity. Getting alignment across orgs is the hardest part.
About scale: Problems at scale are qualitatively different. Solutions that work at 10 fail at 10,000.
About leadership: My job shifted from solving problems to ensuring problems get solved. Letting go is essential.
About platforms: Platforms are different from products. Developer experience matters as much as end-user experience.
Challenges Remaining
Indoor: Still not production-ready. Harder than expected.
Economics: Mapping still too expensive. Need 10x improvement.
Adoption: Developers want more coverage before committing.
Competition: Google, Apple building similar capabilities.
Looking to 2023
Technical bets:
- Indoor localization launch
- Next-gen learned features
- Real-time map updates
Product focus:
- Quest 3 integration
- Ray-Ban AI glasses exploration
- Developer self-service tools
Team evolution:
- Consolidation (not growth)
- Senior technical depth
- Cross-functional capabilities
Personal State
Energy: Still high. The problems are interesting.
Growth: Learning rate has slowed. Seeking new challenges.
Balance: Better than Year 1. Sustainable pace.
VPS is on solid footing. The question is whether there's more I can contribute here, or whether it's time to apply these skills elsewhere.
Not leaving yet. But thinking about what's next.