Bing Gordon

Never miss the first and last 15 minutes of your kids' day

Pincus built Zynga while raising young kids by treating family as non-movable rocks. His coach Bing Gordon told him what matters most is being there for the first and last 15 minutes of their day, and he made it a rule.

“We worked really hard and we played hard and we familied hard. And we integrated our kids and our pets. You know, we brought them to work or we brought work to home. So the way I did is my friend and coach Bing Gordon, he said, the most important thing is that you're there for the first and last 15 minutes of their day, and they're always gonna remember that. And I made that like my religion.”

Steal thisBlock the first and last 15 minutes of your kids' day as untouchable, whatever else is happening at work.

Nobody wanted to build FarmVille, so Pincus did it in 6 weeks with 4 engineers

No one at Zynga wanted to build an uncool farm sim, and Bing Gordon warned that farm games never do well. Pincus bought a failed Flash studio for its four engineers, sat them outside his office, and shipped FarmVille in six weeks.

“Bing won't admit it, but he tried to convince me not to build it, even from a business standpoint. He was like, farm simulations never do well, Mark. And, and I, I finally bought this little failed Flash gaming company because they had 4 Flash engineers. And then I put them and like 4 or 5 other people in an alcove outside my office and checked in with them every day. And we built FarmVille together in 6 weeks.”