This wasn't exactly the point I was making. The "tricked" comment was not that Google tricked him (and really this isn't particularly about Mike), but that it

This wasn't exactly the point I was making. The "tricked" comment was not that Google tricked him (and really this isn't particularly about Mike), but that it is easy to trick yourself into seeing it as a better outcome for your users than it likely will be, because it is such a good outcome for yourself. The path of prioritizing growth is great for the founders: you get to see how big you can get your business (how many more users you can serve), and you get a big payout up front. The path of prioritizing care of your current customers looks very different: growth will be slower, stakeholders don't get their payout, but you will not be gambling for a huge business with the contributions of your current users as stakes (he said the business was sustainable, so the startup risks are likely disappearing and life-span of the company is growing quickly). Personally, I'm going to go with the prioritizing growth option, as the founder did, but I'm not going be dishonest (I don't see it as intentional or bad character, I think it's part of the reality distortion field of the startup scene) and say I did it thinking of my current users. I don't think it's a founders vs. users struggle, the founders certainly do think about their current users, they just aren't prioritized. The founders certainly aren't trying to dump their current users, so they aren't against their users.