> their foundation of software and systems is so refined that they can write and launch a product in no time flat They definitely have way more bureaucratic th

> their foundation of software and systems is so refined that they can write and launch a product in no time flat They definitely have way more bureaucratic than even a few years ago. Part of it is regulations and the cost of complying with increasingly complex legal matters. Also, compared to 5 years ago they have almost twice the employee count. That means they’re even more herding to do. Yes, the underlying tech may be good, but if they spend extra time in meetings and complying with “extra” requirements that smaller companies can avoid, then they’re at a disadvantage. Especially since they’ve shared and open sourced or sold a lot of tech that makes them special (k8, grpc, protos, spanner, etc).