3 ms·

Except nobody in their right mind wanted to work for Apple in 1995 - it was a broken, dysfunctional company hemorrhaging a couple billion dollars a year because

Except nobody in their right mind wanted to work for Apple in 1995 - it was a broken, dysfunctional company hemorrhaging a couple billion dollars a year because nobody was excited about their products. And if you had gone to work for them, you would've watched your stock grant go from $0.37 in 1995 to $0.13 in 1997. I was a die-hard Mac fan - first computer was a Mac LC - through the early 90s, and even I gave up on them when they took the MSFT investment in 1997 because I felt like they'd sold out to the evil empire. Working for Apple in 1995 was sorta like working for Twitter in 2022. (Hmmm...)

fragmede 3y ago
I mean, I certainly didn't want to work for Apple in 1995. And Google didn't exist until 1999, so there's that. Back in 1995 there was Sun, Oracle, HP, and IBM, among others. Working at OpenAI would be cool now, but three years ago? It's hard not knowing the future. AMD would be a cool place to work if they turned things around, but you don't get the same upside if you join after they've managed to turn things around.
- nostrademons 3y ago
  There's usually an information gradient between when employees & early adopters realize a company is turning around and when Wall Street realizes they're turning around. It'll be subtle signs like: the company's hiring again, and hiring back people who aren't idiots. Prominent ex-employees who left go back to work there. The products don't suck anymore, and you actually get excited when they announce something. The product strategy starts to make sense again, and isn't an unfocused mess. Microsoft under Nadella is a good example. Nvidia or OpenAI I'd argue might be an anti-example: most of the excitement for their stock seems to be because of the hype around AI, and they're already incredibly richly valued, while a true sleeper hit usually has much more subtle signs. (When I went to work for Google in 2009, my previous boss told me "Didn't you miss the boat already on that one?")

fragmede 3y ago

I mean, I certainly didn't want to work for Apple in 1995. And Google didn't exist until 1999, so there's that. Back in 1995 there was Sun, Oracle, HP, and IBM, among others. Working at OpenAI would be cool now, but three years ago? It's hard not knowing the future. AMD would be a cool place to work if they turned things around, but you don't get the same upside if you join after they've managed to turn things around.

nostrademons 3y ago
There's usually an information gradient between when employees & early adopters realize a company is turning around and when Wall Street realizes they're turning around. It'll be subtle signs like: the company's hiring again, and hiring back people who aren't idiots. Prominent ex-employees who left go back to work there. The products don't suck anymore, and you actually get excited when they announce something. The product strategy starts to make sense again, and isn't an unfocused mess. Microsoft under Nadella is a good example. Nvidia or OpenAI I'd argue might be an anti-example: most of the excitement for their stock seems to be because of the hype around AI, and they're already incredibly richly valued, while a true sleeper hit usually has much more subtle signs. (When I went to work for Google in 2009, my previous boss told me "Didn't you miss the boat already on that one?")