Google Launches Cloud Platform for Startups

Post by ryanjshaw » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 3:43 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #43

idlewords wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoy the dissonance between startup mythology (bold innovators who play by nobody's rules) and the very conservative reality, as expressed in eligibility criteria like this. Think different, in one of the approved ways. Why this part of our industry is exempt from disruption, while everything else is fair game, is a source of constant wonder to me.

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…

Post by wj » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 3:47 PM UTC

pender wrote: post #116

jdoliner wrote: post #97

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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.

Most startups need all the help they can get. Google has decided to provide help only to those who have sold their souls away. Seems rather evil to me.

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 4:00 PM UTC

alandarev wrote: post #122

walterbell wrote: post #34

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It's effectively a subsidy to accelerators: $100K of risk capital being matched by $100K of hosting, doubling the initial runway for a startup which needs that level of capacity.

Though that $100k balance expires in a single year. If your server bills are $100k for a first year start-up company, you are doing something VERY VERY wrong.

Post by jiggy2011 » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 4:03 PM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #125

dragonwriter wrote: post #93

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> 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 busine…

It's up to $100K credit, not all startups may use all of their credits. And this is not the cost to Google. But nitpicking aside, why not have two tiers, one $100k for approved startups, and another with, say, $10k credit and with some support. Google championed the idea that the road to classification success is a (relatively) simple algorithm paired with a lot of data. This way they could get hundreds, if not thous…

Post by wj » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 4:05 PM UTC

glimmung wrote: post #124

Offering a very large freebie to a relatively very small no. of "qualifying" start-ups all of whom already have a degree of mentoring and investment sends an interesting message about Google's world-view and objectives. If they'd offered a small freebie to a large number of much more liberally defined start-ups, I would have been much more impressed. This has no relevance at all to my own modest start-up, but feels l…