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Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

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Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#121

Post by codesushi42 »

ridiculous_fish wrote: post #119
codesushi42 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious which years you were at Google? The bottom-up culture has been dead for the past 2 years, and a deluge of projects were canned in the past 12-18 months. There's really zero chance now of starting your own project at G and building a team around it.

I left literally last week. I looked for other positions internally, and I did get the sense that there were lots of "startup opportunities" within Google. Cardboard is an example of new-ish team, in the process of ramping up. I wonder why we saw things differently? I stayed away from the big central codebase (you know the one), instead working in Android and Chrome. Maybe the bottom-up culture is more vibrant on the…

Perhaps that is part of it. I did work in the main repo. I was looking into some of the teams under the Android/Chrome org before I left, but none of it seemed too different to me despite seeing some new projects. They didn't seem like bottom-up initiatives though.

AFAIK 20% time is dead, and has been for > the last 2 years. People only use it to try out new teams before transferring.

But I never did get access to the "other" codebase, so you know more than I in that respect. :)

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#122

Post by throwaway4343 »

threeseed wrote: post #118
cromwellian wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working backbreaking hours with bad work/life balance is considered unGoogley. There are sometimes when people burn the midnight oil, but in general Googlers don't work 60hr weeks. I think the primary difference may come down to a culture of secrecy. Openness breeds cross fertilization, couple that with very few restrictions on Googlers in working on side projects, open source，and collaborating outside Google and it…

I've worked at Apple and none of what you said rings true for me. Apple doesn't prevent you working on side projects, open source etc. It's just that you are working so many hours under tight deadlines that you want to spend time with friends/family during a spare time. And Apple absolutely allows challenging management and product vision. In fact I was involved far more in product design that I expected to be. Every…

(Throwaway account, because I work there)

Just a correction, Apple does indeed forbid employees from working on side projects, including selling software on the AppStore and most contributions to open source projects. This is made very clear during the employee's initial (and yearly) Business Conduct training. To me it's one of the major drawbacks of an otherwise great place to work.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#123

Post by jeroen »

dasil003 wrote: post #117
acqq wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft didn't need servers when they were a startup Wrong. Gates and Allen used Harvard's University mainframe to do their first gig, then paid for other mainframe time: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_BASIC

That's a dev box not a server Mr. holier-than-though smartass.

thou (you)

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#124

Post by BJBBB »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #18

(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…

Interviewed Apple EE last year-> BSEE from caltech and MSEE from UCB, so educated enough, but a rather narrow range of experience for a Sr Engr position. In fact, too narrow to be of any use to our small-potato company. So perhaps their organization is big and anonymous enough to find places that are well-hidden; that is, they find a comfortable niche, then just park it for a while.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#125

Post by nickpinkston »

Animats wrote: post #109
nickpinkston wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Plethora, we're building the mechanical pieces of this - starting with full-auto, on-demand CNC milling as fast as LuLu or similar, then adding more capabilities. Happy to make some free parts for anyone's ideas on here! http://plethora.com nick@plethora.com

Compare emachineshop.com. They have been doing that for years, and have a site with useful information instead of just pretty pictures.

Ha - yea, we're not the first machine shop, but we're doing something really new in regards to: instant pricing/feedback (inside your CAD), speed, and much more to come

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#126

Post by ridiculous_fish »

throwaway4343 wrote: post #122
threeseed wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked at Apple and none of what you said rings true for me. Apple doesn't prevent you working on side projects, open source etc. It's just that you are working so many hours under tight deadlines that you want to spend time with friends/family during a spare time. And Apple absolutely allows challenging management and product vision. In fact I was involved far more in product design that I expected to be. Every…

(Throwaway account, because I work there) Just a correction, Apple does indeed forbid employees from working on side projects, including selling software on the AppStore and most contributions to open source projects. This is made very clear during the employee's initial (and yearly) Business Conduct training. To me it's one of the major drawbacks of an otherwise great place to work.

Open source contributions are in general acceptable, as long as it's not to a competitor's product. You should reach out to legal, they'll probably OK it.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#127

Post by threeseed »

throwaway4343 wrote: post #122
threeseed wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked at Apple and none of what you said rings true for me. Apple doesn't prevent you working on side projects, open source etc. It's just that you are working so many hours under tight deadlines that you want to spend time with friends/family during a spare time. And Apple absolutely allows challenging management and product vision. In fact I was involved far more in product design that I expected to be. Every…

(Throwaway account, because I work there) Just a correction, Apple does indeed forbid employees from working on side projects, including selling software on the AppStore and most contributions to open source projects. This is made very clear during the employee's initial (and yearly) Business Conduct training. To me it's one of the major drawbacks of an otherwise great place to work.

It's been a few years since I was there but I definitely knew of a lot of engineers who were flouting this rule. I just assumed it was contract boilerplate. Definitely understand you couldn't write an iOS app in your spare time however.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#128

Post by paulsutter »

Younger companies spawn more startups because they have many employees who just experienced the hypergrowth phase of going from startup to known company. These employees have not only the right experience to start a company, they want to recreate the experience.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#129

Post by robotresearcher »

sgustard wrote: post #116

Here's one minute of methodology to throw at this question. Search LinkedIn for title keyword "founder", past company Apple. I get 7668 hits. Same search for Google, 7277 hits. For Yahoo, 4268.

To add a bit of context: Apple is 39 years old. Google is 17 years old.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#130

Post by reagency »

ridiculous_fish wrote: post #100
cromwellian wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working backbreaking hours with bad work/life balance is considered unGoogley. There are sometimes when people burn the midnight oil, but in general Googlers don't work 60hr weeks. I think the primary difference may come down to a culture of secrecy. Openness breeds cross fertilization, couple that with very few restrictions on Googlers in working on side projects, open source，and collaborating outside Google and it…

I've worked at both Apple and Google, as a SWE. I found very few engineers at either company who are phoning it in. There is great passion in both organizations. I also found engineers to be very vocal internally at both companies, Apple at least as much as at Google. Apple engineers absolutely do not "fall in line" without a fight. Google is definitely more open in the way you describe, both in terms of collaboratin…

Apple was famous for building multiple prototype versions of a product internally and then scrapping all but one pre launch.
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