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How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

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Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#61

Post by tptacek »

joshu wrote: post #10

Another one I learned that pops up in this tale: get on the plane if the meeting is important.

Telling your counterparty that you're about to get on a plane to meet them is one way to qualify a deal: they may tell you not to.

A bizdev friend of mine taught me another: reschedule a call to a Saturday (make up a reason). If it's a serious deal... like, "you're going to be Powerpoint in our office suite"... they'll bitch, but do it.

Sometimes these things are about followup, but a lot of times they're really about qualification; they may just not be into you. It can be important to know that if you're otherwise going to spin your wheels.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#62

Post by StavrosK »

deyan wrote: post #56

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 e…

He can't influence the part that was out of his control, though, while he could indeed have influenced the part that was in his control: Give them a call when you haven't heard from them in a month. Even though that obviously doesn't make the acquisition a certainty (obviously), it's doing the best you could do at the time, so you don't have to kick yourself over it later.

In short, if he had called them, the post would be "Google moved to acquire me, but it fell through. The end."

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#63

Post by StavrosK »

zandorg wrote: post #19

I (a UK developer) just dealt with a company who were interested in my Pretext software, which finds text in images. I rang at 2PM their time when I rang, and when his development committee finally rejected me after a month of waiting, he said "You have written very capable and useful software - however, we want to develop in-house", I was polite and said goodbye, etc. Everything to gain. Nothing lost but a couple tr…

Which Skype makes local.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#65

Post by davedevelopment »

willmacdonald wrote: post #51
burgerbrain wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

It's not uncommon to hear "Can I bum a fag?", which translates to "Please could I have one of your cigarettes?"

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#67

Post by danwolff »

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.

You are correct, of course. It is so frustrating that I've justified it for the incorrect as a shortening of:

I could (exhibit that I) care less (because I do care less than I currently exhibit).

Or, as a matter of giving the benefit of the doubt:

I could (exhibit that I) care less (because I am, through effort, caring more right now than I would naturally).

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#69

Post by Swannie »

jayro wrote: post #7
trickjarrett wrote: post #3

A great read about politeness (though it had some negotiating impacts) causing a missed opportunity. I too err on the side of politeness when it comes to business interactions and I've learned that more often than not, when I'm dealing with someone remotely whether it be a colleague or a point of contact, that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I think it was a mistake to let it ride for so long. A few weeks, maybe two…

Yes, in retrospect I was stupid not to at least have sent a short email or two. Honestly, I look back and wonder what the hell I was thinking.

It sounds to me like the Writely engineer who called you didn't know why he was meant to call.

That would have set of very loud alarm bells for me. What did you think at the time?!

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#70

Post by jlees »

civilian wrote: post #58
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.

Oh yes, it was partly my fault for leaving my phone on non-silent mode, but that doesn't sound half as good in a story.
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