Because Apple is not a webapp company, and webapps are the easiest and most common kind of startup.
Mobile app startups are a big #2 at the very least, and what with apple being a manufacturer of a very popular phone I'd expect more from there.
Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
21–30 of 157 posts
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#22Not sure if this is true - I would like to see some stats.
I think the problem is that the press will not write about some founder as "ex Apple engineer", "ex Oracle engineer", etc. It is not cool. The story will sell if founder are "ex-Google", "ex-Facebook", "ex-Dropbox", "Y-combinator", etc.
For example, if you are ex-Oracle, then you need to have significant revenue in order to be mentioned in the press as ex-Oracle fonder (PeopleSoft, Salesforce, Sibel, etc.). If you are ex-Google, you need to raise 100K seed and press will say ex-Google.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#23(I really hope I don’t offend any Apple people saying this) My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” It is not one of “Let’s conquer the world and become bazillionairres while we’re at it” — the Google culture — which is more pron…
both attitudes have their ups and downs i guess:)
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#24Perhaps people with an innovative or entrepreneurial bent don't gravitate to Apple in the first place, even if they love Apple products.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#25Maybe another reason why Apple spawned comparatively few startups might be that some of the areas of expertise for Apple and their employees are harder to do in startup-sized companies; namely hardware engineering and mass manufacturing innovation. Apple does a lot of work in hardware and hardware manufacturing, both areas which are pretty capital-intensive and might not lead themselves as easily to the startup world…
True, and it’s telling that maybe the biggest break-out startup from Apple was Nest. And for that very reason, I’m surprised that there aren’t more creatively stifled Apple hardware engineers pursuing IoT startups.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Although firm figures are hard to come by, Ganesan estimates Apple's tally of startups is about 50 percent smaller than companies such as Google, Yahoo and PayPal. (Coincidentally, smart thermostat maker Nest, the most prominent startup hatched by Apple alums, was acquired by Google last year.) " They did. Wheather that data is accurate is another matter.
I would argue Pixar is a far more well known example outside of SV.
What are you talking about? Pixar didn't come from Apple. It came from folks who left Disney. Then Steve Jobs, as himself - not Apple - invested in Pixar.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#27(I really hope I don’t offend any Apple people saying this) My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” It is not one of “Let’s conquer the world and become bazillionairres while we’re at it” — the Google culture — which is more pron…
In some ways it can be thought of, "This company is the apotheosis of tech. You can get the full experience of a startup, with the stability of a giant corporation. Why would you want to go anywhere else?"
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#28(I really hope I don’t offend any Apple people saying this) My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” It is not one of “Let’s conquer the world and become bazillionairres while we’re at it” — the Google culture — which is more pron…
I guess it could very well be that the mentality of Apple and Google employees could lean somewhat into those philosophies.
On the other hand, your described Apple culture sounds to me a heck of a lot more sustainable in the long run (I mean, Apple has now been around nearly 40 years now), especially since the "become a bazillionaire" part from Google really only works for founders and early employees with enough stock and only for very few selected unicorn companies.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#29Article doesn't seem to give any evidence of this. Apple's been around forever and former Apple (and NeXT, if you stick to the logic it's some sort of Jobsian startup-suppression field) employees have been involved in zillions of startups over the years. EA, Danger/Android, Nest, Flipboard come to mind.
Exactly. Though technically, NeXT is "a startup that Apple spawned", I think?
Also: Be Inc., Palm/Handspring (Donna Dubinsky), General Magic, Eazel.
Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?
#30(I really hope I don’t offend any Apple people saying this) My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” It is not one of “Let’s conquer the world and become bazillionairres while we’re at it” — the Google culture — which is more pron…
Interesting, I only know one person who works at Apple. She's a copywriter and she says that it's definitely a 60 hour a week job.