Facebook acquired wit.ai in January 2015, and I wonder if this acquisition is Google's quite belated response to that?
Could be, if you think about it. "Api.ai" is very similar because it also has a three letter name and an ".ai" /s
Api.ai is joining Google
121–130 of 159 posts
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#122Congratulations to the api.ai team. Unrelated to the acquisition directly, but fantastic logo placement. I can't be the only person that looks for their color-changing sign every time I drive down the 101. Awesome advertising / growth hack. :)
Where in 101?
In Redwood City if i recall correctly.
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I've seen, people with PhDs in CS are less competent as devs than devs without PhDs.
That doesn't make sense at all. I do not see why a PhD would disproportionally filter out people with talent for coding, so that the graduates even after years of industry experience afterwards would still be unable to be great at coding.
I'm speaking anecdotally, and there are many ways my sample may be biased. (Also, maybe bad PhD devs make sure everyone knows they have PhDs, while competent devs never mention it?).
OTOH, there could be something in culture and personality that pushes lesser devs into getting PhDs.
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what of the ones that don't get brought on? Do they get anything for their equity typically? For key employees i can see them sticking around, but early hire support staff that may not be needed could still have considerable equity.
Most startups use double trigger acceleration for vesting. The first trigger was the acquisition and the second was the termination (not offered a position). So they would vest their entire equity grant. Of course that implies that the equity is worth anything. Most acquihires are at low multiples so the VCs tend to take the entire price, leaving founders and employees with nothing.
I would be curious about "most". My n=1 experience didn't have acceleration terms. In fact, all of my remaining unvested ISO's vanished at acquisition ...
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you mean discovery as in me figuring out which bots would I like to install from a "bots store"? If so, I think Apple's approach in iMessage widgets is fantastic: If you send third-party content to a person that doesn't have the plugin installed, they'll also get a link to install it. So it boosts word-of-mouth.
I could have been clearer because you're right that it's ambiguous. My sense of discovery was meant in the UI sort of respect. When a feature is hidden from the user, that feature might as well not exist. Bots (and command lines, for that matter) are awful unless you know exactly what they're capable of. There is an extrinsic knowledge you need. That is, you can't expect a bot to know whatever you throw at it but you…
The beauty of (NLP) bots is supposedly that you can just ask what they can do.
Whether that's a viable UX strategy is still up for debate.
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what of the ones that don't get brought on? Do they get anything for their equity typically? For key employees i can see them sticking around, but early hire support staff that may not be needed could still have considerable equity.
Most startups use double trigger acceleration for vesting. The first trigger was the acquisition and the second was the termination (not offered a position). So they would vest their entire equity grant. Of course that implies that the equity is worth anything. Most acquihires are at low multiples so the VCs tend to take the entire price, leaving founders and employees with nothing.
Interesting. And I assume that there's a lot of fudge room on the valuation as well with more of it being shifted towards hiring bonuses for those kept on?
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm assuming Google doesn't need any of the company's business, and that it is being acquired for its talent. I wouldn't assume that. Developer-friendly natural language APIs will only become more important over the next few years.
How's firebase going these days? Edit: I should add Firebase could have(and should have) been the next PHP/Access. Could have solved almost every SMB business custom software need in a way that a business could go from front-end to front-end and never get locked into another 1,000 crud app for XYZ vertical. Could have wiped it all out. Firebase could have become the data store of the internet. Then Google showed up..…
How's firebase going these days?
Given that Firebase seems to have become the foundation of Google's mobile app development offering I'm guessing ... pretty well?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#128Congrats to the api.ai team. I love when great companies do well. I'm a happy customer (and wish I were also an investor, but I'm not).
> I'm a happy customer What are your plans for transitioning off their service? The script for this sort of acqui-hire is pretty well known at this point.
That's true, though I suppose Waze is still working, and Nest was allowed to continue operating too.
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, I'm not so sure its a acquihire. Google has very recently announced a bunch of cloud machine learning products: https://cloud.google.com/products/machine-learning/ * Cloud Vision API - Upload an image, and it will tell you what is in it * Cloud Speech API - Upload a wav and it will transcribe it * Natural Language API - Parse sentences, extracts entities, sentiment and syntax * Cloud Translate API - Transla…
From what I know, Google's NLP service does not include intent extraction. Intent extraction is essential for voice command interfaces, such as those in Siri and Google Now. But I don't see why they would need to buy a startup for that, when they can do it themselves even better.
What about the possibility of Google being scared of being outrun or innovated out of its position in the AI race? Google does not have a monopoly on smart people.
Re: Api.ai is joining Google
#130Congrats to them. I do find this sentence a bit awkward: "It has been a long and fun journey. Since API.AI’s launch in 2014..." I think the CEO referring to the total time into the company (including the Speaktoit phase), but it comes across badly - leaves me thinking "You think 2 years is a long time???" I don't think that's what the CEO meant to say.
My guess is it was an attempt to avoid saying 'incredible journey'. https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
What's the point of that page? Starting and selling your own company is an incredible journey. I don't see the problem with that phrase.