Mark Zuckerberg's first big investor meeting included 'a lot of staring at the desk'

Mark Zuckerberg has grown into a damn fine public speaker, even giving a few talks in Mandarin.

But the Facebook CEO wasn't always like that. In fact, Zuckerberg was almost famously awkward in person.

Reid Hoffman, co-Founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock Partners, and a Silicon Valley veteran, recently recounted just how painfully quiet Zuck could be—even during important moments.

During a recent podcast, Hoffman touched on Zuckerberg's first big meeting with him and Peter Thiel, who would go on to make one of the first major investments in Facebook.

"We weren't blown away by Mark Zuckerberg's pitch, as we recalled," Hoffman said."He's grown into his articulateness. He's very articulate now, but back then there was a lot of staring at the desk, not saying anything."

"Like, what are the right words to say? Well, Zuck didn't say very much," Hoffman added.

These quotes come from the eleventh episode of Hoffman's podcast Masters of Scale. Fast forward to about the 30-minute mark to listen.

There's not so much of that anymore. Zuckerberg has become a highly visible public figure in the past couple years, particularly in the last few months as he travels the country to meet with people outside of Silicon Valley.

He's also been forced to issue some public mea culpas, including a direct-to-camera video in which he acknowledged that Russia-associated groups had used Facebook to spread divisive propaganda.

Zuckerberg's evolution isn't news, but Hoffman's anecdote is an interesting part of tech lore, particularly since Thiel's $500,000 investment in Facebook has become one of the most famous venture capital moves of all time. The event was even chronicled in The Social Network (though there was no desk staring).

So why did Thiel and Hoffman invest if Zuckerberg wasn't terribly appealing? Facebook at the time was growing with incredible speed and drawing users back to its then-basic social platform with regularity.

"Facebook expanded from one college campus to the next at a speed that was unprecedented among his competitors like Friendster or Myspace," Hoffman said.

"There was no denying that Facebook's user engagement was unreal. If memory serves me right, when Facebook launched to a new college campus, within six weeks 80 percent of the students were essentially using the service, and by using the service, I mean they checked it more than four times a day," Hoffman continued.

And there it is. Stare at the desk all you want, but if you've made a game changing product, investors will be just fine with some awkward silences.