5 ms·

After 6 years and after the stressful situation he describes with Google Wave, it is reasonable for anyone to make a clean break and try out something new Amon

by credo 16y ago

After 6 years and after the stressful situation he describes with Google Wave, it is reasonable for anyone to make a clean break and try out something new Among the things I find interesting - the guy was the co-founder of what is now Google Maps (after Google's acquisition). However, now, he has chosen to join Facebook instead of setting out on his own new venture. Perhaps he could have a bigger impact if he founded a new company.

staktrace 16y ago
Perhaps he could have a bigger impact if he founded a new company. If you have a brand new or revolutionary idea, that may be true. But if you have an idea that fits into what somebody else has done, then joining that company and using it as a lever to magnify the reach of your work might be more effective. Another way to look at it is that in a startup you usually have to worry about a lot of things that are not core to the idea, such as marketing and productization. If you have other people to do that for you (as I'm sure Facebook does) then you are more free to focus on implementing your ideas to the best of your ability.
jacquesm 16y ago
You mean bigger impact than working together with the #1 website in the past and the #2 of the moment ? I fail to see how he could possibly hope to achieve that.
- greglockwood 16y ago
  Isn't that line of thinking antithetical to the startup business as a whole?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Not at his level. He'll have all the tools and the manpower at his disposal to realize his dreams. It's not as though having worked at google or sold 'maps' is any guarantee for future projects to be either successful or funded. See 'Cuil'.
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      Well, Cuil is actually a counterexample to the "funded" part of your statement. They raised a crazy amount of money considering their lack of accomplishment. I think Lars could get funding from just about any investor in the valley, if he wanted to start a new venture. But Norvig said it best (paraphrasing): "If you want to accomplish interesting things, go where the data is." Right now, FaceBook has one of the most interesting data sets on the planet, possibly rivaling Google's. If Lars wanted to replicate that, he needs to build a product that's useful enough to convince everybody to give him their data. That's non-trivial. It's easier just to join a company that already owns the data and then figure out interesting things to do with it.
      - gizmomagico 16y ago
        Wouldn't it be possible to make a startup that wasn't based on covertly collecting little worker ants' personal information? I'd like to see something else for a change.
        nostrademons 16y ago
        In software? What data would it run on? Software doesn't do anything without data. I suppose you could have something like the PC revolution, where the industry was still based around manipulating data, but the data lives on your personal property. But that ship has sailed: personal computers have been available for 35 years, so pretty much all applications that rely on one person's data being manipulated in isolation by themselves have already been discovered. The interesting work now is when you collect patterns of data among many users, and that requires that many users be willing to give you their data.
        gizmomagico 16y ago
        In software? What data would it run on? Software doesn't do anything without data. You say it like our personal information is the only data in town. Of course, any app needs data, but it can be anything.
- rythie 16y ago
  There is the potential for him to make a lot more money and to be much better known as lead of his own venture than as an employee at Facebook.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    He's been there and done that. Presumably, between the acquisition of Google Earth and the fact that that acquisition was for pre-IPO Google stock, he's probably set for life financially. And he's already pretty well-known as the lead for Maps and Wave. Personally, the major reason I'm still interested in startups is because I haven't yet succeeded at one. It's the challenge that's the thrill. There's a whole lot of bullshit that goes along with that, though, and if I already had a major success under my belt, I'd be more than happy to go work for the hot flavor-of-the-decade company where I can spend my time innovating and let someone else deal with the bullshit.
    - nl 16y ago
      Someone who would know has been saying that Facebook is offering very substantial stock grants to get senior people. I'm sure Lars is well-off as he is, but my understanding is that an order-of-magnitude more money is a real possibility.
kenjackson 16y ago
In many ways, with his level of recognition and technical success working at a company is far preferred. He likely gets to work what he wants to work on, gets paid well, and gets to focus 100% on technical issues. If you do a startup, you spend a LOT of time thinking about managing and hiring people -- at least after the jump. Startup are great places to potentially make a lot of money. After doing a few myself, including some pretty decent deals -- I don't think I'll do another unless I simply have some Google-like breakthough.
gamble 16y ago
There's no better recruiting tool than options in a company that's about to launch a major IPO.

by credo 16y ago

staktrace 16y ago

Perhaps he could have a bigger impact if he founded a new company. If you have a brand new or revolutionary idea, that may be true. But if you have an idea that fits into what somebody else has done, then joining that company and using it as a lever to magnify the reach of your work might be more effective. Another way to look at it is that in a startup you usually have to worry about a lot of things that are not core to the idea, such as marketing and productization. If you have other people to do that for you (as I'm sure Facebook does) then you are more free to focus on implementing your ideas to the best of your ability.

jacquesm 16y ago

You mean bigger impact than working together with the #1 website in the past and the #2 of the moment ? I fail to see how he could possibly hope to achieve that.

greglockwood 16y ago
Isn't that line of thinking antithetical to the startup business as a whole?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Not at his level. He'll have all the tools and the manpower at his disposal to realize his dreams. It's not as though having worked at google or sold 'maps' is any guarantee for future projects to be either successful or funded. See 'Cuil'.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Well, Cuil is actually a counterexample to the "funded" part of your statement. They raised a crazy amount of money considering their lack of accomplishment. I think Lars could get funding from just about any investor in the valley, if he wanted to start a new venture. But Norvig said it best (paraphrasing): "If you want to accomplish interesting things, go where the data is." Right now, FaceBook has one of the most interesting data sets on the planet, possibly rivaling Google's. If Lars wanted to replicate that, he needs to build a product that's useful enough to convince everybody to give him their data. That's non-trivial. It's easier just to join a company that already owns the data and then figure out interesting things to do with it.
    - gizmomagico 16y ago
      Wouldn't it be possible to make a startup that wasn't based on covertly collecting little worker ants' personal information? I'd like to see something else for a change.
      - nostrademons 16y ago
        In software? What data would it run on? Software doesn't do anything without data. I suppose you could have something like the PC revolution, where the industry was still based around manipulating data, but the data lives on your personal property. But that ship has sailed: personal computers have been available for 35 years, so pretty much all applications that rely on one person's data being manipulated in isolation by themselves have already been discovered. The interesting work now is when you collect patterns of data among many users, and that requires that many users be willing to give you their data.
        gizmomagico 16y ago
        In software? What data would it run on? Software doesn't do anything without data. You say it like our personal information is the only data in town. Of course, any app needs data, but it can be anything.
rythie 16y ago
There is the potential for him to make a lot more money and to be much better known as lead of his own venture than as an employee at Facebook.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  He's been there and done that. Presumably, between the acquisition of Google Earth and the fact that that acquisition was for pre-IPO Google stock, he's probably set for life financially. And he's already pretty well-known as the lead for Maps and Wave. Personally, the major reason I'm still interested in startups is because I haven't yet succeeded at one. It's the challenge that's the thrill. There's a whole lot of bullshit that goes along with that, though, and if I already had a major success under my belt, I'd be more than happy to go work for the hot flavor-of-the-decade company where I can spend my time innovating and let someone else deal with the bullshit.
  - nl 16y ago
    Someone who would know has been saying that Facebook is offering very substantial stock grants to get senior people. I'm sure Lars is well-off as he is, but my understanding is that an order-of-magnitude more money is a real possibility.

kenjackson 16y ago

In many ways, with his level of recognition and technical success working at a company is far preferred. He likely gets to work what he wants to work on, gets paid well, and gets to focus 100% on technical issues. If you do a startup, you spend a LOT of time thinking about managing and hiring people -- at least after the jump. Startup are great places to potentially make a lot of money. After doing a few myself, including some pretty decent deals -- I don't think I'll do another unless I simply have some Google-like breakthough.

gamble 16y ago

There's no better recruiting tool than options in a company that's about to launch a major IPO.