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Alphabet companies are more like business units, with all the associated bureaucracy and overhead, than startups. Think more GE than YC.
by mayank 11y ago
Alphabet companies are more like business units, with all the associated bureaucracy and overhead, than startups. Think more GE than YC.
- staunch 11y agoIt's convenient if Wall Street views it that way because then it's not scary ("It's just like GE!"). But Calico was never related to Google, and it's the startup they mention as the model example. Larry Page's full-time job is investing in companies and managing his portfolio. He's a VC. The only real question is how far he goes, and he tends to go pretty far.
- tptacek 11y agoThis describes many more companies than Google. If Google really is alphabetizing because they want to be more like a VC, they have a long way to go before they get anywhere close to the level Cisco has been operating at for decades.
- staunch 11y agoIt's a safe bet that Larry Page can move a lot faster than anyone at Cisco.
- philwelch 11y agoI think a better analogy might be Berkshire Hathaway.