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How to Start Google

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Start Google

#421

Post by cmrdporcupine »

neilv wrote: post #230
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the thing. "Search" was not a great business problem. It still isn't. I used Google for years before their IPO and people were always like "how is this thing going to make money" and believe it or not there was a lot of skepticism even at IPO time that they even had a possible reasonable business model. (Same for Facebook at their IPO, too.) Search is not a good business. Ad sales over top of search turned…

When Google started, you didn't need a business model for a "dotcom" (as we called them, before "tech stocks" became the "tech" that we now call ourselves). We already realized the necessity of finding information amongst the exponentially growing wealth of Web servers (sites). And Google obviously worked much better than the existing crawler-based search indexes and curated directories. And lots of people thought a…

> And Google obviously worked much better than the existing crawler-based search indexes and curated directories.

Funny thing is I recall using Google from the very day I first saw it come across Slashdot -- probably late 1997 -- before they were incorporated even... but I also recall that at some point around 1999 I actually switched back to using AltaVista or something similar for a bit. Because I preferred the search results I got.

It was actually a more competitive situation than people might remember in hindsight.

The big difference is that Google made it through the .com crash filter better than anybody else. That and they kept the good will of their customers by keeping minimal and straightforward and (for a while) ad free.

Re: How to Start Google

#422

Post by Animats »

1. Get into Stanford just as Stanford is getting into the VC business.

2. Use Stanford bandwidth for your web crawler.

3. See how AltaVista does it; they're in downtown Palo Alto.

4. Get 100K from the guy who founded Sun.

5. Move into the space above the bike shop in Palo Alto. (9 major startups began there.)

6. Get more funding from the guy who founded Amazon.

7. Sell search ads.

8. Profit!

Re: How to Start Google

#423

Post by xeonmc »

justsocrateasin wrote: post #400
abhayhegde wrote: post #396

While I absolutely agree with PG here on identifying a missing link and solving it with technology as your own project is a good way to own a startup, I also feel most of his examples are reminiscent of survivorship bias. For every one of these giant trillion dollar companies, there are also thousands of companies that couldn't make it. Also, just by the distribution of it all, not every company can be a Google. Not…

I think he answers the second point of "not every company can be a Google" though. He says this will get you to the point where your company could be a Google, but makes no promises that it will be one. I agree with the first point. I do think that the experience would nonetheless be valuable, though, to pilot a failed company.

“Not every company can become a Google; but a Google can come from anywhere.”

- Peter O’Toole, probably.

Re: How to Start Google

#424

Post by gyomu »

abhayhegde wrote: post #396

While I absolutely agree with PG here on identifying a missing link and solving it with technology as your own project is a good way to own a startup, I also feel most of his examples are reminiscent of survivorship bias. For every one of these giant trillion dollar companies, there are also thousands of companies that couldn't make it. Also, just by the distribution of it all, not every company can be a Google. Not…

Yes, that’s inherent to the problem statement. Any guidance on “how to become a gold medalist Olympic athlete” would suffer from the same limitation.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t insightful things to say about building a Google or becoming a gold Olympic medalist.

Re: How to Start Google

#426

Post by [deleted] »

tomhoward wrote: post #69
alismayilov wrote: post #62

I'm wondering if there is a research about which percentile of these two groups became rich: People who started a company vs People who worked for Tech companies.

Unless you're very early (and/or very lucky), you can't get "rich" (i.e., can choose never to work again and can invest in many other things) as an employee (though of course a highly-paid employee can become very well off and comfortable). Yes you need to be lucky to get super-rich as a founder too, but you have a lot more control, i.e., you make the primary decisions that determine whether the company will make goo…

[deleted]

Re: How to Start Google

#427

Post by fragmede »

tomhoward wrote: post #141
tomhoward wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's giving advice to school kids on what to do during their remaining school years or early college years.

Also, Larry was 23 when PageRank was first published - that's not much older than "barely out of high school", even if we have to be so literal about everything :)

"not much". at that age it's material! who I was at 18 and who I was at 23 is way different than the difference between 35 and 40

Re: How to Start Google

#429

Post by alphazard »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #70

PG is remarkably consistent in his advice; much of his writing is about developing a nose for "what's missing" and having the chops and resources to attempt a solution. Also, I think 'Google' in this instance is more for motivation rather than a literal comparison. He's leaving out the part that Google was founded by graduate CS students a) looking for a thesis, b) into node-link graphs, and c) inspired by academic c…

I wouldn't fixate on the Google part too much. It's pretty clear he is using it as a common point of reference for 14 and 15 year olds. "You guys know about Google?, the giant company with the web site? Okay well let me tell you how companies like that are built."

Building a successful company depends on many things. The point made here is that you are unlikely to be expert enough, and motivated enough to build a successful business in an area you are not interested in, and haven't played around in. So to increase the amount of domains that you could create a business in from 0 to a small positive integer you should build things that interest you.

Of course if you have money, or know how to persuade people who have money, you can be something of an idiot and still develop a successful business. Usually you are not really developing the business in this case, more attaching yourself to a business that smart people are running for you.

In a pool of high school freshmen, most probably have a better chance of success following the first path, than the second.

Re: How to Start Google

#430

Post by dpbriggs »

Animats wrote: post #422

1. Get into Stanford just as Stanford is getting into the VC business. 2. Use Stanford bandwidth for your web crawler. 3. See how AltaVista does it; they're in downtown Palo Alto. 4. Get 100K from the guy who founded Sun. 5. Move into the space above the bike shop in Palo Alto. (9 major startups began there.) 6. Get more funding from the guy who founded Amazon. 7. Sell search ads. 8. Profit!

In the zero interest rate environment it was easier to get good advice and orders of magnitude more more money. A lot of those companies are crap.

Google had good timing but importantly, a good product and market fit. Prior search engines sucked in comparison with obnoxious monetization.

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