This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew McCollum, the 42-year-old CEO of Philo, based in San Francisco. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
My first job was at Subway, but my first meaningful career job was helping to start Facebook during my time at Harvard.
I spent a lot of time with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and the other founders of the company. We worked together on various things and discussed ideas for projects we thought were cool. One thing we discussed was the concept of creating a universal Facebook.
During one winter break, Mark wrote the first version of Facebook and asked if I wanted to handle the graphics and design.
I was there for the first year and a half of the company. I returned in the summer between my last few years of college. I didn’t go back to Facebook after I graduated. Instead, I traveled for a year through 40 countries.
After my trip, I sold some of my Facebook stock and became an entrepreneur-in-residence at a couple of VC firms. I was introduced to what was then called Tivli, and is now Philo, where I became an angel investor and advisor.
I met the other cofounders of Philo, a streaming and live television service, when they had just built the prototype in late 2010. I immediately fell in love with what they were doing and became an advisor when they began raising money.
It all happened naturally. I became the CEO of Philo in September 2014. Here’s what a typical day in my life looks like now.
My wife and children wake me up around 6 to 7 a.m.
My wife doesn’t sleep as well or as consistently as I do, so she’s often up before I am. Our kids usually wake up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.
In the morning, I’ll check Slack to see if anything big has happened within the company, and then I’ll check the headlines to see if anything big has happened in the world.
I don’t do a ton of work in the morning, but I’ll check in to see if there’s anything that demands an immediate response. I don’t have a policy against checking my devices at any particular time of day, but I don’t constantly respond to emails or Slack messages.
I help get our kids ready and usually make breakfast for the family
I’ve mastered a lot of the breakfast staples at this point — I make pancakes, crepes, French toast, eggs, and bacon for my kids. I don’t eat breakfast myself.
I used to not drink coffee at all, but now I drink one cup of espresso-based coffee every day. However, I don’t do that until I arrive at the office because we have nice espresso machines there.
I try to get everyone out the door. My wife and I split up the school drop-off.
If I’m in San Francisco, I typically go into the office five days a week
I work from home very rarely, as I prefer to be in the office every day. If I have several tasks spread throughout the day that are easier to complete from home, I’ll occasionally work from home.
I take Waymo to the office 90% of the time. I appreciate autonomous cars, which have significantly improved the commute to and from the office.
It’s about 20 to 30 minutes from my house to the office by car
The things I thought I was going to hate about Waymo turned out to be the best things about it — a driver that’s going to drive the speed limit, make a complete stop at every stop sign, and drive super conservatively.
The robotic drive allows me to focus on work. I use that time to start my day before I arrive at the office — sometimes I’m on a Zoom call, and sometimes I’m just on Slack. Sometimes I’m writing code.
Most of my day is spent in back-to-back meetings
Meetings make up my entire schedule. We have a main meeting to plan our work in six- or seven-week cycles. One of those weeks is designated as a no-meeting week, meaning all regularly scheduled weekly meetings are paused.
Those weeks, I typically have a lot more free time. I tend to use it to think through company strategy or write code on projects — I’m an engineer by training, and I still enjoy it when I get the chance to do technical work.
I make myself very available and tell people every chance I get that they’re welcome to message me or set up a time with me at their convenience. I actually wish people did it more.
I’ve stopped setting aside time for lunch, and basically stopped eating lunch
I rarely have a real lunch. I only do it if I have a lunch meeting scheduled with someone outside the office. If I do have lunch, I change it up a lot. My favorite lunch restaurants around the office are Xica, North Beach Cantina, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, and Pier 23.
I may grab a snack between meetings during the day, but I don’t have my first full, real meal until dinner time.
My afternoon is stacked with more meetings. I want to empower people so they feel they can take ownership.
As a CEO, it’s my job to look at things differently from everyone else in the company. I view my role as synthesizing everything that’s happening with the business across all the different areas we work in.
I try to make it to the gym at least a couple of times a week, at around 4 p.m.
I do some nonprofit work, and I’m on the board of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. When I’m out, I try to get to the gym.
I always try to be home for dinner with my family. The gym I go to is very close to our office — a couple of blocks’ walk. I need to leave the office around 4 p.m. if I’m going to make it there and still have enough time to get home in time for dinner with our kids.
On days I don’t go to the gym, I’ll leave around 5:30 pm.
I aim to be home around 6 p.m. most days for dinner
Waymo is sometimes very expensive and slow to get home in the evening. I often take an Uber or Lyft home.
My wife is also very busy, so we try to cook when we can, but sometimes we either order in or eat out.
We use a service like HelloFresh that prepares a home-cooked meal and delivers it to you; the portions are generous. We can have leftovers that need reheating.
Our kids typically go to sleep between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
After dinner, cleaning the whole house, and getting everything organized, there’s time for reading or watching a show in bed.
My wife reads a lot. I read, but not as much as she does. I enjoy doing crossword puzzles, and sometimes we’ll work on them together, then we’ll watch shows.
We enjoy shows like Taskmaster, a British comedy panel show featuring five comedians who are tasked with performing absurd, arbitrary tasks. I also watch various shows on Philo, and one of my favorites is the survival genre. Sometimes I’ll watch The Daily Show.
I usually go to bed between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
I sleep seven to eight hours a night.
If my wife goes to bed before me, I’m more likely to stay up a little later, perhaps even a bit past 11 p.m.
I’m never really unplugged, even on the weekends
I’m typically available on Slack. Often, I’m working on some project, but I don’t work for many hours on weekends.
Typically, I spend time with my family, and we go on some adventure or travel. In the evenings, I’ll be checking Slack and email.
Very rarely will a day go by without me doing something with Philo, but I try not to let work get in the way of spending time with my family.
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