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Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

willweinraub.com

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Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#21

Post by danielweber »

octaveguin wrote: post #6
zbruhnke wrote: post #2

Well written and thought out post, I hope you get to sit down with the right people at Google tomorrow Will. Best of luck with Live Ninja, as an early beta user of hangouts and someone who had never seen Live Ninja before this AM I have to say i am truly impressed with what you guys have built at Live Ninja

Maybe I missed something but it sounds like a rant from a company that wishes they were bought but weren't. There doesn't seem to be any insight into how google is 'doing it wrong' other than a kind of 'they don't have the experience like us'.

I really really wished he would have told me what his product does a lot sooner. I don't read LiveNinja's blog every day. In fact, I had never heard of them before today.

I got to "Google copied us, and they suck," and then I simply lost interest.

I have had bigger companies copy my stuff before, sometimes including the typos, so I can feel for his tough position, but this doesn't sit very well.

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#22

Post by exacube »

jfasi wrote: post #13

I'm actually curious about what sort of mistakes Google is obviously making here besides being a competitor to LiveNinja. Did I miss something or is this post just vague trash talking?

It's a pretty dry post, it sounds like the author wants to talk to Google to see if they can "work together"

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#23

Post by lstamour »

willaaye wrote: post #7
octaveguin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I missed something but it sounds like a rant from a company that wishes they were bought but weren't. There doesn't seem to be any insight into how google is 'doing it wrong' other than a kind of 'they don't have the experience like us'.

Not the case. I'm surely not going to spell out exactly what they are doing wrong publicly in the post. We are competitors now after all. :)

It'd be nice to let potential customers know the difference. :)

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#24

Post by _wmd »

Wish more companies cut to the chase and simply advertised themselves as e.g. "exactly like Google Helpouts, except Not Google"

The "not Google" tag in itself is enough to drive me to click, where previously I didn't even know what Helpouts was, and had been ignoring the links. "Gee, another free product I'd need a Google Account for, I immediately don't even care what it does"

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#25

Post by obvious01 »

a-priori wrote: post #4

I'm surprised Google didn't aqui-hire these folks and turn LiveNinja into Google Helpouts.

Google already had the tech infrastructure for Helpouts. They would have aquihired them for their tiny user base and/or their domain-specific knowledge.

While, the author of the article has learned a lot over the past year - I think it is a safe bet that the information was not worth a lot to google. First, they could easily discover the same information after a few quick iterations. Second, there is a lot of organization debt during an aquihire which would make the knowledge transfer very expensive.

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#26

Post by madoublet »

This sounds like a good rallying cry, but as someone who is seeing both products for the first time, I would say that Google does a much better job of communicating their product. In fact, I would not have not know what SiteNinja did if not viewing the Google product first.

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#27

Post by bluetidepro »

kin wrote: post #9

Great attitude. I've known a start-up or two that either pivoted or dropped their project altogether at the news of Google releasing a similar idea. Google is great at engineering, but the new iteration of Google Maps is proof IMO that they're not a great at products. With that said, I'm sure y'all at Live Ninja will throw the knock out punch.

I know it's slightly off topic, but your comment "... the new iteration of Google Maps is proof IMO that they're not a great at products." I'm curious as to what you don't like about the new Google Maps? Personally, I think that while it took a little bit to get used to, it's great and works way better than before. I'm just curious to hear your two cents on what you don't like about the new maps. Thanks!

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#28

Post by latj »

highace wrote: post #11

tl;dr: Please buy us. Having Google enter your space must be one of the most crushing things that can happen to a small company. The feeling these guys felt when they saw the announcement must have been mortifying. Even if you have a superior product, like LiveNinja says they have, Google will outmarket you by so many orders of magnitude you just disappear into nothingness.

Please buy us or give me a job.

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#29

Post by willaaye »

highace wrote: post #11

tl;dr: Please buy us. Having Google enter your space must be one of the most crushing things that can happen to a small company. The feeling these guys felt when they saw the announcement must have been mortifying. Even if you have a superior product, like LiveNinja says they have, Google will outmarket you by so many orders of magnitude you just disappear into nothingness.

That's a terrible way to think. Drew Houston knew Microsoft and Google were already in the midst of building competitors when he applied Dropbox to YC.

I hope fellow entrepreneurs dont ever get discouraged when they see larger companies follow them on the same trail. It means they are on the right track more than anything else.

Dropbox didnt get discouraged and neither should any other startup.

Re: Dear Google, Thanks For Copying My Startup But You’re Doing It All Wrong

#30

Post by ebarock »

exacube wrote: post #22
jfasi wrote: post #13

I'm actually curious about what sort of mistakes Google is obviously making here besides being a competitor to LiveNinja. Did I miss something or is this post just vague trash talking?

It's a pretty dry post, it sounds like the author wants to talk to Google to see if they can "work together"

agree! it seems that he is just "running-to-dont-loose-the-company"
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