3 ms·

Do they? What successful companies have been founded by ex-googlers? I don't think a ton, in income terms. I see this as far more marketing fluff and/or job

Do they? What successful companies have been founded by ex-googlers? I don't think a ton, in income terms. I see this as far more marketing fluff and/or job ads than preemptive recuperation of insignificant future losses. (Though I do hope cockroachdb makes it big).

laser 9y ago
Pinterest [1] and Instagram [2] may be the two largest. And I guess technically Twitter [3]. But Google is so massive that I'm not sure it really would impact their overall market cap at this point. For example, Twitter is about 2% of Google's $640 billion market cap. Although, Instagram is worth around $50 billion now, which might be primarily because of Facebook, but in the most generous case could've added around 8% to Google's overall value, which is moderately significant. Anyway, I applaud their effort, as I think it has a significant chance of empowering some people to build some awesome stuff that they were otherwise too hesitant to go at alone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Silbermann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Silbermann [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Systrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Systrom [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrepreneur) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrep...
cwp 9y ago
It doesn't matter if they're successful or not. The point is that bright, hard-working people left Google, and chances are, they won't be back even if the startup doesn't pan out. If they try out their idea in Area 120 instead, then a) Google can own the product if it ends up being good b) It has a better chance at success with Google behind it c) If it fails, the "founders" are more likely to rejoin the mothership
nandemo 9y ago
https://www.quora.com/What-successful-startups-have-been-founded-by-ex-Googlers https://www.quora.com/What-successful-startups-have-been-fou... There are many more, though.

laser 9y ago

Pinterest [1] and Instagram [2] may be the two largest. And I guess technically Twitter [3]. But Google is so massive that I'm not sure it really would impact their overall market cap at this point. For example, Twitter is about 2% of Google's $640 billion market cap. Although, Instagram is worth around $50 billion now, which might be primarily because of Facebook, but in the most generous case could've added around 8% to Google's overall value, which is moderately significant. Anyway, I applaud their effort, as I think it has a significant chance of empowering some people to build some awesome stuff that they were otherwise too hesitant to go at alone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Silbermann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Silbermann [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Systrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Systrom [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrepreneur) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrep...

cwp 9y ago

It doesn't matter if they're successful or not. The point is that bright, hard-working people left Google, and chances are, they won't be back even if the startup doesn't pan out. If they try out their idea in Area 120 instead, then a) Google can own the product if it ends up being good b) It has a better chance at success with Google behind it c) If it fails, the "founders" are more likely to rejoin the mothership

nandemo 9y ago

https://www.quora.com/What-successful-startups-have-been-founded-by-ex-Googlers https://www.quora.com/What-successful-startups-have-been-fou... There are many more, though.