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How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

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Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#51

Post by willmacdonald »

burgerbrain wrote: post #45
epo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the American "could care less" is the same as the British "couldn't care less". Two nations divided by a common language as someone is supposed to have said.

A better example of phrases that mean different things on either side of the Atlantic is what it means to "table" a proposal. In the US it means "kill it", but in the UK it means "bring it up". If an American says "could care less", they're just being incorrect. ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_%28verb%29

My favourite phrase which has radically different meanings for Brits and Americans is "I'm going outside to smoke a fag."

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#52

Post by zach »

icey wrote: post #48
epo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the American "could care less" is the same as the British "couldn't care less". Two nations divided by a common language as someone is supposed to have said.

I'm not sure what you're referring to; I don't know anybody that uses "could care less".

I would love that to be the case, but that idiom pops up all the time in my parts (LA area).

Most recently it showed up in the dialogue for Disney's Tangled and not even in a self-aware way. Ugh.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#53

Post by icey »

epo wrote: post #49
icey wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're referring to; I don't know anybody that uses "could care less".

Really? I seem to see it a lot, a regional idiom perhaps? However, the "table" example is much better.

It could be a regional idiom, like "ain't" or "y'all". I'm in the southwest, it seems like people mostly use "news english".

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#54

Post by jayro »

grellas wrote: post #32

Prospective acquirers will often pursue potential targets simultaneously and, if they go silent on you, this may have little or nothing to do with whether you followed up diligently or not. In my experience, when an acquiring company wants to move, they know how to do so quickly, at least to engage in sufficient due diligence to see whether they might want to do the deal. Thus, when you do get in a situation where yo…

Google only became aware of Zenter at their YC demo day, months after my initial contact with them, and snatched them up very shortly after that.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#55

Post by amadiver »

theturtle32 wrote: post #41
epo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the American "could care less" is the same as the British "couldn't care less". Two nations divided by a common language as someone is supposed to have said.

"could care less" is actually wrong -- it literally means that you do actually care about the thing in question.

The common use of "nonplussed" means exactly the opposite of the intended meaning. It may be wrong, but it's generally understandable in context. I'd argue "could care less" works the same way.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#56

Post by deyan »

Seems to me that your analysis suffers from a fundamental attribution error (blaming you rather than circumstances). While it is possible that you could have done a few things better (with the help of the ever so omni-potent captain hindsight), my experience is that such deals are complicated and involve a lot of people. So I think it is much more likely that the final outcome was more out of your control than your essay implies.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#57

Post by robk »

The "get on a plane" advice is crucial. Product managers lead acquisitions at Google and are the hardest to reach. If you get any interest expressed from them, try to get in person w/ them within a couple weeks max, even if just for coffee. From there, it's helpful to send them a monthly or bi-monthly ping just to keep them abreast of any developments. They might not be ready to acquire now, but it's very helpful to remind them of you when they're ready or thinking of an acquisition

*disclaimer - ex-Google PM

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#58

Post by civilian »

jlees wrote: post #14

One thing I have learnt since joining Google: everyone inside Google is always infernally busy. I'm British, so my concepts of bothering people, being a nuisance, and being impolite are already vastly out of skew with the American work culture -- I've had to relearn a lot of that behaviour since coming to the USA and Google. IMO it's not really specifically a Google thing. I think the lesson to be learned from this p…

You have a good point- but I really don't agree with your IM/phone etiquette. If you don't want to be woken up at 3am, then have your phone on alarm-only or don't have the IM go to your phone.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#59

Post by StavrosK »

icey wrote: post #48
epo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the American "could care less" is the same as the British "couldn't care less". Two nations divided by a common language as someone is supposed to have said.

I'm not sure what you're referring to; I don't know anybody that uses "could care less".

Everything I read seems to have it that way. It makes no sense, it confuses and infuriates me.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#60

Post by icey »

StavrosK wrote: post #59
icey wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're referring to; I don't know anybody that uses "could care less".

Everything I read seems to have it that way. It makes no sense, it confuses and infuriates me.

Judging from the sibling responses, it would appear that I live a grammatically sheltered life.
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