Former CEO of eBay "When I joined eBay in January 1998, the company was growing rapidly -- revenue was jumping 70 percent every month. We continued to upgrade the site, but we didn't invest enough to keep up. If you think your site's traffic is going to grow 150 percent a year, be prepared for 250 percent growth. At 5pm on June 10, 1999, the site went down; we had corrupted the entire back-end database of the trading platform. I called my assistant and said, 'I think we are going to be here for a little while. We need cots, sleeping bags, toiletries and towels.' She organised sleeping quarters in the conference rooms. I ended up staying there for most of the summer.
By the end of it, I realised we needed a new CTO.
A masterpiece of understatement.