3 ms·

They can't innovate, despite all of their "talent"

dmix 7y ago
Innovation usually takes a much longer timeline than just launching something and killing it with a year or two when it’s not sufficiently Google scale. The world would have a lot less great products if this is how it was always done. This is why startups continue to be the primary innovation source. They are willing to go through the hard grind to find product/market fit over multiple years. Most of the products purchased by the big guys are at least 5-7yrs old (WhatsApp, YouTube, Waze, Looker, etc). There are some rare exceptions like Instagram and Android which were both 2yrs old at acquisition.
- v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
  Isn‘t that exactly what X is doing though? Waymo started as a project in 2009 I believe. It wasn‘t anything commercial until recently.
username90 7y ago
Google is good at innovating in computer science and computer engineering. Google is not particularly good at innovating product ideas. This makes sense given how they find and hire talent.
- icandoit 7y ago
  But they are innovating. New products all the time. They just aren't staying around to collect the (relative to Google) meager profits. I wish more companies knew when to call it quits.
  - username90 7y ago
    They create products but lack the leadership needed to follow through when the initial exciting moments are over. I'd say that if you can't follow through on your innovations then you aren't good at innovating. They can do it on the tech side, lots of successful projects there.
sch6y 7y ago
That's because that talent isn't allowed to own anything. Imagine you know what to do and how to do it. You go to YC, present your idea and ask for some funding. And imagine they'd tell you that "Yea, we can pay you this fixed salary and see if your idea works. No, we get 100% rights. No, we won't share profits, but we'll up your salary if things go well. No, we can't tell you by how much." Who in their right mind agree on these terms? That's why employees don't share any really interesting ideas: they go to YC, get money and retain 93%. Google has the right people, but it's not really interested in any changes because ads work really well. Afaik, they even cancelled the 20% time.

dmix 7y ago

Innovation usually takes a much longer timeline than just launching something and killing it with a year or two when it’s not sufficiently Google scale. The world would have a lot less great products if this is how it was always done. This is why startups continue to be the primary innovation source. They are willing to go through the hard grind to find product/market fit over multiple years. Most of the products purchased by the big guys are at least 5-7yrs old (WhatsApp, YouTube, Waze, Looker, etc). There are some rare exceptions like Instagram and Android which were both 2yrs old at acquisition.

v7p1Qbt1im 7y ago
Isn‘t that exactly what X is doing though? Waymo started as a project in 2009 I believe. It wasn‘t anything commercial until recently.

username90 7y ago

Google is good at innovating in computer science and computer engineering. Google is not particularly good at innovating product ideas. This makes sense given how they find and hire talent.

icandoit 7y ago
But they are innovating. New products all the time. They just aren't staying around to collect the (relative to Google) meager profits. I wish more companies knew when to call it quits.
- username90 7y ago
  They create products but lack the leadership needed to follow through when the initial exciting moments are over. I'd say that if you can't follow through on your innovations then you aren't good at innovating. They can do it on the tech side, lots of successful projects there.

sch6y 7y ago

That's because that talent isn't allowed to own anything. Imagine you know what to do and how to do it. You go to YC, present your idea and ask for some funding. And imagine they'd tell you that "Yea, we can pay you this fixed salary and see if your idea works. No, we get 100% rights. No, we won't share profits, but we'll up your salary if things go well. No, we can't tell you by how much." Who in their right mind agree on these terms? That's why employees don't share any really interesting ideas: they go to YC, get money and retain 93%. Google has the right people, but it's not really interested in any changes because ads work really well. Afaik, they even cancelled the 20% time.