Doing some sorting in my mailbox, I stumbled upon an article by John Heilemann I read more than three years ago: Journey to the Center of Google.
An epic article on the formation of the company, its DNA, its path to success, its decision making process,. A must read.
Here are some excerpts:
In August 1998, on a porch in Palo Alto, they delivered a demo to Sun cofounder Andy Bechtolsheim [...]. He took one look at the demo and ambled off toward his car, then came back with a $100,000 check made out to Google, Inc.
The absence of a business plan didn’t faze them; nor did the price. Indeed, Doerr was known to advise novice VCs, “If you like the founders and you like the technology, price doesn’t matter.
About Larry and Sergey reluctance to hire and A-list CEO:
“If Larry and Sergey were given clear instructions by a divine presence, they would still have questions,” Moritz says.
About Bill Campbell, chairman and former CEO of Intuit, who spent some time in late 2001 with Eric Schmidt, Larry and Sergey to stabilize the relationship:
He coached Eric on what it means to be a CEO [...]. He taught Eric it’s a lot like being a janitor: There’s a lot of shit you have to do.
John Battelle, regarding the competitors of Google:
I’m not saying that Microsoft—or AOL, or Yahoo—can’t prosper, or even ‘win’ in the long term. But crush Google à la Netscape? No friggin’ way. The only thing that can kill Google is Google itself.
Schmidt about decision making, citing the The Wisdom of Crowds (Wikipedia article) by James Surowiecki:
“He’s got [...] 500 examples of how, if you look at the decisions of big groups and individuals, the groups do far better on average. So the way we actually run the company is, we get everyone in the room, we encourage discussion and dissent, and then someone, usually me, pushes for an outcome, even if I disagree with it. That’s how we get velocity, and velocity is what matters in companies of size. You want to always be pedaling faster.”
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