11 ms·
You don't have to get a job at another company. You could also start your own.
by pg 15y ago
You don't have to get a job at another company. You could also start your own.
- benjlang 15y agoLet's hope that this leads to an exodus of Googler's who leave to create their own startups.
- lsb 15y agoThis seems like the perfect time to relaunch "Larry and Sergey won't respect you in the morning." http://ycombinator.com/ad.html http://ycombinator.com/ad.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/96160482 http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/96160482
- pg 15y agoHmph, I'd forgotten that. Interesting that we wouldn't do that sort of thing now. It would seem too rude to mention Google explicitly. Whereas when we first started YC we were so obscure we couldn't successfully be rude to anyone.
- lsb 15y agoIt also dates it, in the same way that "Bill and Steve won't respect you in the morning" would make it uniquely a thing of ten years prior. Whereas making it generic makes it more timeless, and timelessness is good design in general.
- huhtenberg 15y agoI assume it's Steve Jobs, not Balmer. (edit) Why am I at -1? Balmer is a more reasonable match for Bill, but he is not a founder. Jobs is a better fit, but it is odd to see him paired with Gates.
- shutej 15y agoIn fairness, that was probably just about the time Google Calendar clipped Kiko's wings, which may have smarted. Also, back then, you probably may not have realized that the new method of funding you were pioneering would create an incubator for Google acquisitions. (i.e. you may not have realized you were poking your own customers in the eye.)
- p0ss 15y agoI love the idea, but there is no way I am moving to the US, especially not to start a tech company, even if you pay me. Silicon valley may have a lot of talent and money, and Y combinator is awesome, but I'd rather not deal with the TSA, the DEA and the DHS. Fascist oligarchies are not conducive to startups.
- robotresearcher 15y ago| Fascist oligarchies are not conducive to startups.* *except almost all the ones that get talked about here every day.
- SomeOtherGuy 15y agoThis is an echo chamber. What you hear here is not indicative of real world relevance.
- Aloisius 15y agoSerious question: have there been any success stories of ex-Googlers starting their own companies? I've been under the impression that the few that have had successful exits were bought by Google itself, mostly as talent acquisitions.
- kls 15y agoI don't know about profitability but some of them have exited to companies other than Google, in this list: http://mashable.com/2010/08/26/ex-googler-startups/ http://mashable.com/2010/08/26/ex-googler-startups/
- pg 15y agoTwitter and Foursquare are fairly prominent examples, though in both cases the founders were people who became Google employees when their previous startups were acquired. Among startups we've funded, I know at least Greplin, Optimizely, Appjet, and ReMail have/had founders who previously worked at Google. I'm sure there are at least that many more, but I don't remember where most of the people we funded worked before.
- Aloisius 15y agoHrm. AppJet and ReMail were both acquired by Google though. Greplin and Optimizely Googlers both had years at other companies between Google and the founding their companies. I guess Biz Stone came directly from Google to found Twitter. Given Google's size and the quality of the people who go in there, I'd have expected dozens if not hundreds of companies to be spawned by ex-Googlers. I often wonder if certain companies simply produce more founders because of culture, money or simply bias in who they hire. PayPal is the classic example of a company that pumped out a good number of successful founders, but I can't identify any particular characteristic of that particular company that might have caused it. I'd love to see some analytics about where the most successful or prolific founders come from.
- smanek 15y agoFWIW, Greplin's cofounder (Robby Walker) went straight from Google to Greplin. Although, to be fair, his last startup was acqui-hired by Google too.
- ChuckMcM 15y agoI certainly agree with this. Back at the beginning of this century there was speculation that Google was so lavish with their perks because they didn't want those smart people going off and competing with them. Not as worried about that I guess. Larry certainly does seem to have take Steve Jobs admonishment to heart. Which can give a company tremendous focus. Its an interesting time. I used to remind people at the Googleplex that they were walking around in SGI's tomb. I found that was rarely appreciated :-) So here is that challenge for this decade: Leave Google and kill Hollywood. Seems like a reasonable goal to me.
- mnoire 15y agoLeave Google, kill Hollywood, AND Start something new.