Ex-Googlers Launching Startups To Attack Mother Ship
Henry Blodget | March 29, 2008 9:07 AM
Wired is compiling a list of ex-Googler exploits, many of which appear to be targeting the former-upstart-turned-industry-incumbent. No one else in the industry has been able to compete with Google (GOOG), so it may be that Google's fiercest disruptors will come from within.
As we've noted, now that the bloom has fallen off the Google stock rose, Google will likely have to increase cash salaries and outright stock grants to retain its best people. This will likely further pressure the company's profit margin which has declined over the past year. (Add on by Mike: GOOG is down to $434/share, loosing $4.08 since market opening today)
In any event, here's a glimpse at Wired's partial ex-Googler list.
* Gokul Rajaram, the "Godfather of AdSense," is working on a stealth startup. Can't talk about it now, but he says he can in the third quarter.
* Louis Monier, Anna Patterson, Russell Power are working on a search service called Cuill (pronounced "cool") -- it's said to index the web more economically than Google. Uses a web crawler called "twiceler."
* Jason Liebman, Sanjay Raman and Daniel Blackman co-founded HowCast, a network of "how to" videos. The pair company has apparently raised $8 million in funding.
* Steffen Mueller started a "search engine community" called Topicle.
* Vanessa Fox left Google for real estate search site Zillow.
* Dan Daugherty is heading RentBits, a real estate rental site. He's got support from fellow ex-Googler Tim Moynihan, who is COO of the site.
* Veteran user experience designer Kevin "Fury" Fox joined FriendFeed, a company entirely composed of ex-Googlers.
* Also at FriendFeed: Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul "Don't be evil" Buchheit, Sanjeev Singh and Ana Yang.
* Brian Dick, a biz dev exec in New York who helped found Google TV Ads, is now at LimeWire.
* Jess Lee, a Google Maps product manager, quit Google this month to join Polyvore.
* Nathan Stoll "broke up" with Google in December. Still not clear what he's up to.
* Sean Knapp, Belsasar Lepe and Bismarck Lepe founded Ooyala, a video delivery platform, in early 2007. So far, they've raised about $10 million.
* Jason Shellen left Google in August 2007. Started incubator The Secret Agency.
* Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman are twittering.
* Rob Radez, Gabor Cselle are working at email startup Xobni. Radez just left Google a couple weeks ago; Cselle fled about a year ago.
* Chris Sacca, former head of special initiatives at Google, is now an angel investor and private equity principal.
If you'd like to add names to Wired's list, it's here. Here are a couple more:
* Jason Liebman founds Howcast
* David Hirsch to "startups"
* Dominic Preusse to Meetup
Meanwhile, Justin at Inside Facebook has calculated that there are 40 ex-Googlers at Facebook, or 10% of the company.
Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/ex_googlers_launching_startups_to_attack_mother_ship
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There's only one thing i can personally add to that: The more, the merrier. :tu:
I hope that they all turn incredibly successful and are resisting the temptation to sell out when the overly inflated cash cow "Google" throws their weight around.
More power to you folks! :tu: :kickass:
M.
Henry Blodget | March 29, 2008 9:07 AM
Wired is compiling a list of ex-Googler exploits, many of which appear to be targeting the former-upstart-turned-industry-incumbent. No one else in the industry has been able to compete with Google (GOOG), so it may be that Google's fiercest disruptors will come from within.
As we've noted, now that the bloom has fallen off the Google stock rose, Google will likely have to increase cash salaries and outright stock grants to retain its best people. This will likely further pressure the company's profit margin which has declined over the past year. (Add on by Mike: GOOG is down to $434/share, loosing $4.08 since market opening today)
In any event, here's a glimpse at Wired's partial ex-Googler list.
* Gokul Rajaram, the "Godfather of AdSense," is working on a stealth startup. Can't talk about it now, but he says he can in the third quarter.
* Louis Monier, Anna Patterson, Russell Power are working on a search service called Cuill (pronounced "cool") -- it's said to index the web more economically than Google. Uses a web crawler called "twiceler."
* Jason Liebman, Sanjay Raman and Daniel Blackman co-founded HowCast, a network of "how to" videos. The pair company has apparently raised $8 million in funding.
* Steffen Mueller started a "search engine community" called Topicle.
* Vanessa Fox left Google for real estate search site Zillow.
* Dan Daugherty is heading RentBits, a real estate rental site. He's got support from fellow ex-Googler Tim Moynihan, who is COO of the site.
* Veteran user experience designer Kevin "Fury" Fox joined FriendFeed, a company entirely composed of ex-Googlers.
* Also at FriendFeed: Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul "Don't be evil" Buchheit, Sanjeev Singh and Ana Yang.
* Brian Dick, a biz dev exec in New York who helped found Google TV Ads, is now at LimeWire.
* Jess Lee, a Google Maps product manager, quit Google this month to join Polyvore.
* Nathan Stoll "broke up" with Google in December. Still not clear what he's up to.
* Sean Knapp, Belsasar Lepe and Bismarck Lepe founded Ooyala, a video delivery platform, in early 2007. So far, they've raised about $10 million.
* Jason Shellen left Google in August 2007. Started incubator The Secret Agency.
* Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman are twittering.
* Rob Radez, Gabor Cselle are working at email startup Xobni. Radez just left Google a couple weeks ago; Cselle fled about a year ago.
* Chris Sacca, former head of special initiatives at Google, is now an angel investor and private equity principal.
If you'd like to add names to Wired's list, it's here. Here are a couple more:
* Jason Liebman founds Howcast
* David Hirsch to "startups"
* Dominic Preusse to Meetup
Meanwhile, Justin at Inside Facebook has calculated that there are 40 ex-Googlers at Facebook, or 10% of the company.
Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/ex_googlers_launching_startups_to_attack_mother_ship
********************************
There's only one thing i can personally add to that: The more, the merrier. :tu:
I hope that they all turn incredibly successful and are resisting the temptation to sell out when the overly inflated cash cow "Google" throws their weight around.
More power to you folks! :tu: :kickass:
M.
