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Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

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Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#91

Post by joeblau »

calgaryeng wrote: post #8

> This offer is available to startups that meet the following criteria: > - In an approved Accelerator, Incubator or VC fund Why is this a thing? Not everyone wants to build their startup through venture capital, or an accelerator. This just reinforces the existing "permission-based" startup ecosystem.

It may be seen as a decent way for accomplishing due diligence. Most accelerator programs will check out the company, product and team. This also helps Google avoid being the first investor in as most accelerators usually invest in projects in their program. That being said, you can still use Google's services for free as long as you're below the cap.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#92

Post by ntakasaki »

jedc wrote: post #29
brudgers wrote: post #23

Asking myself how this makes business sense. Answering myself that it only does if Google hits a homerun based on: + Vendor/plat-form lock-in. + Data mining startups' traffic. + Access to startups' code and data. + Ability to pull the plug. For Vendor/Platform lock-in this could be virtual, ie the burden of switching the code base for administrative tasks to Amazon or Azure or some other provider could be prohibitive…

Points 2-4 would involve Google violating (likely) their own Ts&Cs with customers and (possibly?) state/federal law. But I think your Point 1 is highly likely. How many startups are going to build on Google's Cloud Platform, then after a year port everything to AWS, particularly if Google can prove that they're cheaper or at least cost-competitive with similar feature set. (Assuming that's true, of course, and that y…

>Points 2-4 would involve Google violating (likely) their own Ts&Cs with customers and (possibly?) state/federal law

I don't think it does. Until recently, they seem to have been using the paid apps for Business e-mails to build advertising profiles with no repercussions.

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/04/protecting-stud...

I also don't think there's anything in the T&Cs for Google Drive(both free and business) that says that they won't use the contents of the docs for advertising purposes.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#93

Post by dragonwriter »

calgaryeng wrote: post #8

> This offer is available to startups that meet the following criteria: > - In an approved Accelerator, Incubator or VC fund Why is this a thing? Not everyone wants to build their startup through venture capital, or an accelerator. This just reinforces the existing "permission-based" startup ecosystem.

> Why is this a thing?

Because this isn't free for Google, so they are expending resources building relationships with the customers they think are most likely to provide more business in the future; so they aren't giving to any small business, they are giving it to businesses that have been vetted by groups they trust and are receiving capital with some kind of plan for expansion that would grow the startup's business -- and therefore the business that Google would see from the startup if the startup stayed on Google's platform.

> Not everyone wants to build their startup through venture capital, or an accelerator.

Sure, but the cost to Google to vet each individual startup to see if they were the kind of potential customer they'd like to expend these resources for would drive up the cost of providing the service. Google isn't a charity, its a for-profit business.

$100,000 in service credits plus 1:1 technical architecture reviews plus 24/7 support isn't something even Google can afford to provide to everyone.

So they outsource the work of screening by instead screening a smaller number of accelerators, incubators, etc.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#94

Post by kordless »

icebraining wrote: post #56
walterbell wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

University partnership? GSOC competition? AWS customers with high month-over-month revenue & traffic growth and less than 10 employees? There are many ways of triaging worthy candidates and involving the broader tech community, without further advantaging the already over-advantaged.

AWS customers with high month-over-month revenue & traffic growth and less than 10 employees? Seems a little late to lure them into the Google Platform.

Except for the fact the luring is the goal of the program.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#95

Post by miles932 »

trjordan wrote: post #15
calgaryeng wrote: post #8

> This offer is available to startups that meet the following criteria: > - In an approved Accelerator, Incubator or VC fund Why is this a thing? Not everyone wants to build their startup through venture capital, or an accelerator. This just reinforces the existing "permission-based" startup ecosystem.

It's not perfect, but what's a better way? There's a million people who could use this $100k to mine bitcoins, run personal servers, do scientific calculations, or more. Google isn't interested in those people: they want to lock in companies and keep them there as they grow quickly. If you worked at Google, what would you propose to catch these long-term valuable customers, without giving away a ton of free infrastru…

Where are you seeing evidence of lock-in? Compared to the financial lock-in of having plunked down $$ on servers, most cloud players seem pretty open to me.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#96

Post by tedchs »

idlewords wrote: post #31
patio11 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel obligated to point out that Microsoft Bizspark will give you free software/services for 3 years and it is "one guy working from his kitchen table"-friendly. If you're building things, they will give you stuff. Bonus: You can help support underdog upstarts like Microsoft against uncaring tech titans like Google.

Wow, did they change the name of their thing again? I am really leery of these various clouds. They are like architectural catnip-using them requires you to use an order of magnitude greater resources than you would on a single server, but it's really fun to assemble the moving parts. I feel like some people don't fully recognize how much you can do on a single tiny machine in 2014 if you don't have 29 abstraction la…

Having done both, I have a few comments.

Primarily, I hate to tell you, but Linode is now a "cloud" provider; "Cloud Hosting" is the headline on their homepage.

- Nothing stops you from running your full stack on a single large EC2 or GCE or Linode instance.

- Unfortunately, running your whole stack on a single server is a great way to experience a lot of pain when growing or when you write a runaway SQL query that burns all the CPU on the box and starves your Apache server, causing page loads to be multiple seconds and turning away potential users/customers/investors.

- Managing your own OS is a great way for guys who are great at writing Java but not experienced with Linux to have a ton of painful distractions that don't contribute towards building a successful product. Nobody's going to buy your SaaS app because your kernel is always up to date.

- The phrase "the server went down so we can't currently operate our business" drives me absolutely insane in 2014.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#97

Post by jdoliner »

idlewords wrote: post #68
meowface wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just Google's form of semi-automatic due diligence. Instead of them having to carefully vet each startup, determine that they're actually getting work done and are a real company and have at least some tiny bit of potential, they'll just defer to the accelerators and incubators to decide on that. Remember they're giving away $100,000 of credit for free, so they have to make sure it's not being squandered. I a…

I don't dispute anything you say. But the fact that they can make this an eligibility criterion speaks to the conformism in startup culture, and the gatekeeping role of a very small establishment.

The fact that they can make this an eligibility criterion speaks to the fact that they're giving you something you'd otherwise pay $100,000 for. If this deal is somehow keeping startups outside the gate then said startups must really have been screwed 3 hours ago when this deal didn't even exist.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#99

Post by claudiusd »

Hmm... it seems like the data captured from a service like this would be very valuable to Google's venture arm. Even if they can't inspect the details of your environment, I'm sure they're still privy to metadata like resource utilization, deploy frequency, what stack you're on, etc. They'll be able to sort a bunch of early-stage startups on this information and cherry-pick the ones with the best characteristics without holding a single meeting.

Re: Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

#100

Post by miles932 »

tonysuper wrote: post #82
calgaryeng wrote: post #8

> This offer is available to startups that meet the following criteria: > - In an approved Accelerator, Incubator or VC fund Why is this a thing? Not everyone wants to build their startup through venture capital, or an accelerator. This just reinforces the existing "permission-based" startup ecosystem.

Yeah. This was pretty disappointing for me. I'm in the process of starting a company with a friend, but neither of us are 18 yet, so the chances of us getting into an accelerator or VC fund are next to zero (not that it's going to stop us from applying). We could have really used this service. Oh well. I understand why Google is doing it, but it's still disappointing.

What are you working on? Maybe I can help?
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