7 ms·
What were the key decisions that Page and Brin made in the early days of Google
- hga 16y agoWow. LOTS of useful stuff here. In addition to a lot of the usual stuff, most especially keeping control, there are these not unrelated gems: "Retaining control over the company proved to be crucial to Google's success. Most of the early company revenues came from enterprise search, and the investors and Eric Schmidt pressured the company to drop consumer facing search and to focus on the enterprise market. However Page and Brin disregarded this advice as they anticipated the growth of a market for online advertisement. At the time this decision was being made, the New York Times was quoting experts as saying "No one will ever make $250 million dollars a year from online advertising." It has also been said that Page and Brin disregarded pressure from investors to copy Yahoo! and diversify Google into a portal site, deciding instead to focus on the core search and advertising market." We also now understand their particular style of secrecy: avoiding getting crushed by Microsoft back when that was the fear of every high tech company it could possibly compete with. The comments as of now are also of high quality and some are not to be missed.
- Jun8 16y agoExcellent set of answers, this was my first foray into Quora, btw; if other answers are half as good, it's a great resource. Among other key decisions they got right (and some lucking out), the one thing they got absolutely right is the culture. Not just perks, food, etc. because during the boom almost all cool startups had these (or better), it's much more than that. The culture components ones that I think were most influential were the 20% time and committee decision making (with actual engineers, not suits). Having the right culture is not sufficient for success, but without it, I think, all most certainly will be lost.
- pg 16y agoThe highest ranked answer on that thread, though it contains some interesting details, is way off. Managing VCs well was not what made Google successful-- or what makes any startup successful. The real key decisions were things like realizing search itself was important, at a time when all the other search engines thought it was unsexy, and were trying to get people to start calling them "portals" instead; designing the architecture to work on large numbers of unreliable, cheap computers; understanding how important speed was; making the site uncluttered; deciding to hire only very smart people; etc. That's what made the company valuable, and if it hadn't been valuable it wouldn't have mattered how well they'd avoided dilution.
- barrkel 16y agoThat, however, conflicts with the alleged desire of VCs and CEO to focus on enterprise search and abandon consumer search. I don't know how true that allegation is, but if it is true, and VCs had a larger slice of the pie, it's possible that that desire would have been followed, hugely reducing Google's value.
- mmaunder 16y agoI think the key point re managing VC's is that they avoided being forced into an early exit and retained control over the product by keeping control of the company. Most mature investors want two things: The value of their stock to increase and liquidity opportunities (opportunities to realize that value). They want both to happen rather sooner than later due to the time value of money. They also believe that if they have more control they can achieve these first two objectives more effectively. These investor goals are not always aligned with what's in the best interests of the product or company which is why it is sometimes a good thing for founders to retain control.
- pg 16y agoVCs don't want early exits. They want companies to go public, which Google did pretty much as soon as the IPO market returned. So whatever friction there may have been between Google and their investors, it would not have been about that.
- pkaler 16y agoMy takeaway was that they managed dilution so that they could guide the product and the company the way they felt was important. Managing VCs well allowed Google to manage the product well. Interesting thought experiment: Would Zappos have sold to Amazon if they had managed dilution better?
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoAccording to Tony Hsieh's book, no.
- 16y ago
- wslh 16y agoAs a customer I know these key decisions: i) Self managed ads system. Before AdWords it was impossible to buy $ 5 of ads. Even years after AdWords Overture (Yahoo) and AdCenter (Microsoft) couldn't even copy the smooth process (I remember Overture charging me a minimum of $ 15 and their staff changing my keywords) ii) Text Ads instead of banners as a more respected way of advertising.
- dennisgorelik 16y agoIt was surprising to learn that Larry Page's brother already had successful startup experience.
- didtrade 16y ago<a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>www.didtrade.com http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>www.didtrade.co... Online sell fashion goods,Accept PayPal.cheap replica fashion goods for sale from china free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Children-suit free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica t-shirts free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Children-coat free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Children-pants free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Children-tops free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Children shoes free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica children-boot free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica UGG boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Edhardy boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica LV boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica DG boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Gucci boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica chanel boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica fendi boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Tou`s boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Versace boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica coach boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica juicy boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Burberry boots</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Justin boots</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Dior boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Puma boots free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica DB bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Burberry bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Suitcase free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica gucci bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Fendi bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Versace bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Prada bag free shipping</strong></a><br /> <a href="http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica http://www.didtrade.com/><strong>Replica Hermes_7*star free shipping</strong></a><br />
- ruang 16y agoProvides a good reason to downplay having a fancy interface - avoid tipping off the competition.
- smakz 16y agoLots of entrepreneurial navel gazing going on both in the linked site and in these comments. Everybody has their own theory about the reasons x y z why company a b c is successful, be it Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. The problem is every opinion is partially correct, no one can disprove anything, and there is no right answer. The stories of successful companies are inspirational to some degree, but as a way to vicariously learn how to be successful they fall woefully short of the mark. The best thing for entrepreneurs to do, is simply to make something happen. Build something people want, and if you fail, learn what you can and try again. You never know and can't know which decisions are the ones that matter, so forge ahead.
- HaltingState 16y agoGod bless you. This is the most reasonable thing I have seen said here.
- caffeine 16y agoI think none of the answers in that summary really say it. Google won (in the beginning) because: 1. It *just* searches. Really well. 2. Ad auctions. That's basically it. It's the same way Starbucks won in the beginning: 1. *Just* coffee. Tasty coffee. 2. Charge for it. Or Apple: 1. *Just* the user experience. A great one. 2. Charge for it. (Google, Apple, and Starbucks have now all diversified widely, with mixed results).
- samd 16y agoThere are many factors that lead to Google's success, but I know what made me switch to Google back in its early days. It was faster (probably because it was sparse), it got good results, and I felt cool for using it (maybe because it was the underdog, or maybe because it had a "for geeks, by geeks" feel to it).
- known 16y agoNobody was really serious about web search prior to Page & Brin.