Michael Sayman said he has no intention of leaving Meta.
He began working for the tech giant as a teenager, moving from an early stint in consumer products to leadership roles that influenced the way hundreds of millions of people communicate online.
Michael said he took it day by day, not giving much thought to how his career would develop, much less thinking about what would be the greatest use of his time.
However, over the last year everything changed.
Sayman, who most recently worked for Meta’s Superintelligence Labs division, claims that the election came with an awakening sparked by long conversations with Whop founder Steven Schwartz.
With Steven, titles and pay were not the topics of discussion.
Instead, they discussed the leverage, timing and product capabilities that exist outside the confines of large platforms, enough to mobilize Sayman’s creative energies in a way that made it clear where his future lay.
“I’ve enjoyed working with Zuckerberg and everyone and everything I’ve learned over the years. I’m just really excited about the opportunity to bring all of that, all of that insight and experience to help Whop become an incredible product,” said Sayman.
Sayman’s departure comes at a time when more long-time Big Tech employees are rethinking where they can make an impact, and now that smaller teams are gaining access to tools that once required enormous resources, there is no longer a need to be tied to a large organization. Furthermore, the impact may be greater for smaller organizations, where creative flexibility and transcending traditional models are always the rewards.
According to Sayman: “I was trying to think about when the opportunity would come to do something big, and this came. I just thought, I don’t know, I don’t know, I went back and forth. And at the end of the day the opportunity just presented itself so I couldn’t say no.”
At Whop, a platform that helps people run online businesses, Sayman will join the company as president of product ecosystems, overseeing product, engineering and design across the platform.
The role marks a transition from specialized but somewhat limited leadership within large organizations to broad operational responsibility and broad macro potential within a fast-growing startup.
Additionally, Sayman continues, “I think now is a unique time where startups and new companies are able to capture larger audiences in ways that maybe haven’t been possible for a few years. It’s just a unique time for it,” and under his leadership, Whop seems poised to lead this new order.
