4 ms·

pg's response to "what if google does it?" - That's one of the canonical dumb investor questions. We try not to ask those. Google could blow most startups out

pg's response to "what if google does it?" - That's one of the canonical dumb investor questions. We try not to ask those. Google could blow most startups out of the water if they chose to focus on building exactly the same thing. What protects startups is that in practice big competitors can only focus on a limited number of things at once. User indifference is a much, much greater danger for startups than competitors, big or small. So we advise startups to focus on that. What's going to kill you is the Back button, not Google.

points 16y ago
> "Google could blow most startups out of the water if they chose to focus on building exactly the same thing." I'm not sure that's even true - look at buzz and wave. For all the time money and effort they've spent on that area they seem to have little return. That sort of app isn't something you can win by technology alone, you need to capture users in a way that the users feel comfortable with. But there is some history here, if I remember right, kiko (YC funded calendar) decided to close and sell on ebay when Google released their own calendar.
- docgnome 16y ago
  Key word being "startups" I'd hardly call Twitter a startup when Buzz came out. And hardly call... the email industry? a startup when wave was launched.
  - points 16y ago
    I don't think that's the factor at all in that case. If buzz and twitter were launched at the same time, twitter would win. Buzz did too many things wrong - privacy, being integrated into gmail, not as open API etc, no arbitrary restriction on length to get hype, etc Plus, being launched by Google, may actually be a curse. I doubt the xbox would be as successful if more people actually knew microsoft was behind it. Startups have a great advantage in that they're assumed by users to be new/fresh/good guys/underdogs/etc etc
    - aidenn0 16y ago
      A somewhat tangential point, but does anyone else feel that if wave had been integrated into gmail and buzz hadn't, the two products would have had a much better chance at success?

points 16y ago

> "Google could blow most startups out of the water if they chose to focus on building exactly the same thing." I'm not sure that's even true - look at buzz and wave. For all the time money and effort they've spent on that area they seem to have little return. That sort of app isn't something you can win by technology alone, you need to capture users in a way that the users feel comfortable with. But there is some history here, if I remember right, kiko (YC funded calendar) decided to close and sell on ebay when Google released their own calendar.

docgnome 16y ago
Key word being "startups" I'd hardly call Twitter a startup when Buzz came out. And hardly call... the email industry? a startup when wave was launched.
- points 16y ago
  I don't think that's the factor at all in that case. If buzz and twitter were launched at the same time, twitter would win. Buzz did too many things wrong - privacy, being integrated into gmail, not as open API etc, no arbitrary restriction on length to get hype, etc Plus, being launched by Google, may actually be a curse. I doubt the xbox would be as successful if more people actually knew microsoft was behind it. Startups have a great advantage in that they're assumed by users to be new/fresh/good guys/underdogs/etc etc
  - aidenn0 16y ago
    A somewhat tangential point, but does anyone else feel that if wave had been integrated into gmail and buzz hadn't, the two products would have had a much better chance at success?