David Goldberg, SurveyMonkey CEO and husband of Sheryl Sandberg 
 
 The two met in 1996 when they both were working in Los Angeles, said Goldberg, who recently sat down with The Times before he spoke to an audience at "Start-ups: Uncensored" seminar at the Shutters on the Beach hotel in Santa Monica. 
 
 He also happens to be married to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, whom Forbes declared to be one of the most powerful women in the world. 
 
 At 26 he sold his first start-up, Launch Media, for $12 million to Yahoo. Goldberg then served as general manager of Yahoo Music, and later left to work at Benchmark Capital as entrepreneur in residence. In 1999 he acquired a fledgling online survey company called SurveyMonkey and grew it into a billion-dollar business. 
 
 "We went out to dinner and a movie and hit it off. She fell asleep on my shoulder, which I thought was great," Goldberg said. "Turns out, I learned much later, she sleeps through every movie, on any shoulder that is available, but it worked on me at that moment of time." 
 
 Although Sandberg was dating someone else at the time and later moved to Washington, D.C., they remained good friends and started dating six years later. 
 
 “On the day–to-day stuff we both ask each other for advice. But it is great having one of the smartest people in business as your partner. I don’t have to make an appointment to ask what you think about this or whatever, it’s good with my team. I always say, 'Well Sheryl said.' " 
 
 In a competitive work environment in which many judge work ethic by the number of hours spent in the office, Goldberg encourages a work-life balance. He says he tries to remain rooted to his family and strives to lead by example. Despite the demands of their jobs, both Goldberg and Sandberg leave work at 5:30 p.m. 
 
 "We made the decision on this particular thing, that we are going to be home with our kids. I am at home with my kids from 6 to 8. If I have a work dinner, I’ll schedule to have dinner after 8. But we’re working at night. You’ll get plenty of emails from me post-8 p.m. when my kids go to bed." 
 
 While most CEOs stress success, Goldberg said he is big on failure. 
 
 "You want to hire great people and give them the opportunity to fail. You need to let them figure things out as they go along," he said. "If they fail repeatedly, then you probably have to find a different person, but if you don’t let people have that opportunity to fail, they don’t get to learn and grow and try things." 
 
 Although meetings are necessary and an important way to communicate and share information, Goldberg keeps them to a maximum of three regularly scheduled meetings a week. 
 
 "I just find that people can waste a lot of time in meetings, so I try to restrict meetings to the minimum that they need to be," he said. "But I have lots of time in my day where I am available to have informal conversations, where I grab someone to talk, and people can just walk up to my desk and talk to me." 
 
 He added: "We have a lot to do. But it is not whether or not we get it done tomorrow or the next day that is going to matter. So we get it done over a long period of time. For me going home at 5:30 is as much about my own choices, but also giving my team those choices too." ||||| SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg remembered at Stanford memorial 
 
 It seems like everyone in Silicon Valley knew Dave Goldberg. And those who didn’t know him personally knew his work and his impact. 
 
 Goldberg, who died last week after an accident while exercising on vacation in Mexico, had a distinguished career in the musical industry and the startup world, where he most recently led the online polling tool SurveyMonkey. But the 47-year-old was perhaps best known as husband of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg — and a central figure in her best-selling book, “Lean In.” 
 
 At a crowded memorial service Tuesday at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium, tech luminaries, including Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, celebrated his kindness to others and contributions to an industry he loved. 
 
 Industry insiders, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, said there hasn’t been such an outpouring of grief in Silicon Valley since the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. 
 
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 The Walt Disney Co. moved its earnings call to an earlier time so people could attend the service. And President Obama issued a statement calling Goldberg “the definition of a real leader.” 
 
 “He was generous and kind with everybody, and cared less about the limelight than making sure that the people he worked with and loved succeeded in whatever they did,” Obama wrote on Facebook. “His skills as an entrepreneur created opportunity for many; his love for his family was a joy to behold, and his example as a husband and father was something we could all learn from.” 
 
 In “Lean In,” Sandberg credited Goldberg for providing the support she needed to pursue a career at Facebook by volunteering to “take on more at home to make this work for our family.” 
 
 Sometimes people would even ask Sandberg if Goldberg was OK with her success. 
 
 “Dave is far more self-confident than I am, and given his own professional success, these comments are easy for him to brush off,” Sandberg wrote. 
 
 In a note posted to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon, Sandberg credited Goldberg with introducing her to the Internet and providing her constant support. 
 
 “Dave was my rock,” she wrote. “When I got upset, he stayed calm. When I was worried, he said it would be ok. When I wasn’t sure what to do, he figured it out. He was completely dedicated to his children in every way — and their strength these past few days is the best sign I could have that Dave is still here with us in spirit.” 
 
 Goldberg was a Silicon Valley power player in his own right. He expanded online polling company SurveyMonkey into a leader in its field valued at close to $2 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company perfected its simple surveys under Goldberg’s leadership, catering to users of all ages and abilities, analysts said. 
 
 “He was the one who was able to build the tool and the reputation in a way that it caught the attention of Americans and became an important tool in everybody’s hands,” said Karen North, professor of digital social media at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. 
 
 Before his stint at SurveyMonkey, he served in executive roles at Capitol Records and Yahoo. He joined Yahoo after he sold his business, Launch Media Inc., to the tech giant for $12 million in 2001. 
 
 To close friends, like professional poker player Phil Hellmuth, Goldberg was simply known as “Goldie.” Hellmuth remembered telling Goldberg about his son’s great football catch and seeing the pride in his eyes. 
 
 “He just clearly loved his family, and was so balanced for someone who is married to someone who is so powerful,” Hellmuth said. Goldberg was also very loyal to his friends. Last year, a friend’s father passed away and Goldberg came to the funeral in Canada. 
 
 “I was impressed,” Hellmuth said. 
 
 After the memorial, Sandberg posted her note on Facebook. Within 30 minutes, it had already received more than 23,000 Facebook likes. 
 
 “Things will never be the same,” she wrote, “but the world is better for the years my beloved husband lived.” 
 
 Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee
– Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, is known as a champion for women. What's less well-known is that her husband, Dave Goldberg, who died unexpectedly Friday at the age of 47, spent his life working to strengthen women's voices, reports the New York Times, which calls Goldberg "perhaps the signature male feminist of his era." Even as a teenager, his prom date says he pushed her to speak up in class, telling her, "They need to hear your voice." Years later, when an employee had a child, he didn't stop challenging her—but he did start letting her spend a day each week working from home. In his own life, he made sure he could be at home with the kids while his wife, whom he had encouraged to fight for a high salary, was traveling. Both often left work at 5:30 to have dinner with their two kids, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2013—though he noted that doesn't mean they don't work after dinner. Goldberg was "the first major chief executive in memory to spur his wife to become as successful in business as he was," adds the New York Times, and was a central figure in Sandberg's bestseller, Lean In. "The most important career choice you’ll make is who you marry. I have an awesome husband, and we’re 50/50," she said in 2011, per the Wall Street Journal. From his perspective: "It is great having one of the smartest people in business as your partner," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I always say, 'Well, Sheryl said.'"