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Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

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Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#61

Post by ColinWright »

jasonwilk wrote: post #59
ColinWright wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I appreciate that, but it doesn't make much difference. For me, HN is now more of a sink than a source. On balance as many people hate the dup detection as like it, and the comment threads no longer seem to shed the light they once did. I guess I've changed, and my interests no longer really align with HN. So I'm moving on. I still have the bookmarklet, so I may still remember to submit things, but I doubt…

Coli, at least you are learning on this site. I can't say the same for Reddit.

Jaso: the re-assessment has convinced me that I'm not learning any more. I did once upon a time, but I'm not now. That's why I'm largely stopping reading, certainly stopping reading the comments. I'll still read the links submitted by people I've learned to trust - people who have similar interests to mine.

I've never used Reddit, so I can't comment about that.

ADDED IN EDIT: Just to clarify a little - there are still people here from whom I can learn a lot, and I'm sure there are still comments and submissions that I can learn from, but they are drowned by stuff I consider irrelevant, repetitive, uninteresting, or otherwise not something to learn from. The gold is hard to find now, the returns are no longer worth the effort.

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#62

Post by roc »

cookiecaper wrote: post #60
roc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much would Google have to spend to hire a complete team to add and expand fridge-like features for Google+? It's got to be in that same ballpark. Surely it's worth the premium to hire a cohesive, motivated team that's already learned the domain and has a proven ability to execute. Particularly considering the benefit Google can realize from getting a better solution to market faster.

Why would it be in that same ballpark? Google has a notoriously silly hiring process so its costs are probably higher than the costs of some other companies, but really 5-10MM to hire 3-4 people? I guess if they're willing to spend that on a "talent acquisition" it may not be that far out of line with normal hiring costs but I'd say there's certainly a problem there. As I stated in my post I understand that demonstra…

I think the part of the equation that we're weighting differently is the value to Google of having better features for Google+, available sooner.

I'd join you in surprise if we weren't talking about Google Plus.

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#63

Post by revorad »

nadam wrote: post #16

Funny how the startup scene changes. Years ago, Paul Graham wrote essays like 'You weren't meant to have a boss'. Nowadays talent aquisitions are seen as huge successes while (money aside) we are celebrating that some former founders found jobs at big companies. (I am also more pragmatic in this question than years ago, so I am not criticizing anyone.)

Years ago, PG also wrote "Hiring is obsolete" - http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#64

Post by hristov »

nadam wrote: post #16

Funny how the startup scene changes. Years ago, Paul Graham wrote essays like 'You weren't meant to have a boss'. Nowadays talent aquisitions are seen as huge successes while (money aside) we are celebrating that some former founders found jobs at big companies. (I am also more pragmatic in this question than years ago, so I am not criticizing anyone.)

I never really understood talent acquisitions. They are still puzzling to me. If you only need the talent why pay for the company? A huge chunk of the money you are paying for a company goes to the investors.

Why not just offer the people that you like multi-million dollar signing bonuses and have them join you. But what if they want to stay in the company and believe in their product, you say. Well if that were the case why would they agree for their company to be acquired in a deal that shuts down their service?

I don't know, I must be missing something.

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#65

Post by fourk »

The wording on this article makes it sound as though this was NOT an acquisition of the company, but a "job offers for everyone on the team" sort of deal. To be clear, was the company acquired, or did everyone quit and join Google? How do investors generally react to deals of the latter form?

Edit: The Techcrunch article [1] states that the company as a whole was acquired, in this particular case. However, how do these deals work out for investors when the company is not acquired, but the entire team quits and joins Google? Note, this is seemingly what occurred with YC Summer 08 company Scoopler yesterday, as mentioned in the TC article.

[1]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/g-google-acquires-privacy-c...

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#66

Post by ChuckMcM »

hristov wrote: post #64
nadam wrote: post #16

Funny how the startup scene changes. Years ago, Paul Graham wrote essays like 'You weren't meant to have a boss'. Nowadays talent aquisitions are seen as huge successes while (money aside) we are celebrating that some former founders found jobs at big companies. (I am also more pragmatic in this question than years ago, so I am not criticizing anyone.)

I never really understood talent acquisitions. They are still puzzling to me. If you only need the talent why pay for the company? A huge chunk of the money you are paying for a company goes to the investors. Why not just offer the people that you like multi-million dollar signing bonuses and have them join you. But what if they want to stay in the company and believe in their product, you say. Well if that were the…

Perhaps your puzzlement comes from a lack of exposure to all the variables? Not being critical here, I don't know anything about your background.

For some people, they have a demonstrated level of competence which allows them to work on what ever they are passionate about. If that is combined with a modest disregard for money such that they work somewhere because they are passionate, and for any salary as long as it meets some base level. If you want to hire them it is effectively impossible.

You have recruiters call them, they brush them off. You invite them to conferences and schmooze them with all the great things going on at BigCorp and they thank you politely for the invite and don't call back. You shower them with flattery, gifts, whatever and they persistently ignore you.

But if they get passionate about an idea and start a company around it and work day and night to breathe life in it, and more importantly take outside money, then BigCorp gets a chance. If BigCorp can convince the investor(s) to sell them the company they can move this thing you are passionate about into their company and have this star entrepreneur follow it.

Then there is a somewhat less sensational side, you've started a company and you've convinced people to invest, people who are now your friends, and it hasn't turned out quite the way you hoped it might. Perhaps the timing is off, or there was some gotcha you thought would be insignificant but turned out to be much more difficult, or maybe someone turned up a patent or something that makes your idea impossible to implement. Maybe its as simple as customers are willing to pay you what you need to make in order for you idea to be a viable business. You've got talent, you demonstrated an ability to execute, but your investors aren't going to come in on another round of funding because they, like you, no the concept as planned is dead.

You are friends with these folks (your investors) and you don't want to screw that up, so if BigCorp comes along and buys the company which pays off the investors, you get to keep your friendships intact, BigCorp gets to put some golden shackles on you for some period of time, and you get to try again after the shackles come off.

The short of it is that its rarely successful for a large corporation to 'poach' employees by luring them away with promises of better pay and more regular working hours.

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#69

Post by Hisoka »

nostrademons wrote: post #40
onewland wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$250k easily? I think that's a level of skill that is not at all common. I'm not saying nobody gets paid that all, but developer compensation needs to be more realistically looked at on this forum. I'd say the majority make less than $100k, and $150k or more puts you in the top 5 percentile.

The level of skill needed to build a company from scratch and have it bought by Google is also not all that common. Apples-to-apples here: if you're going to compare a startup founder to an employee, you should compare them to someone of equal skill.

Anyone can "build" a company from scratch.... But it takes a lot to build a successful company from scratch, which isn't what Fridge did here. I mean, I know not everyone is a startup founder, but the costs and barriers to being one is pretty low these days... just start a website, say you're doing something special, and you can call yourself a "founder".

Re: Fridge is Joining Google+ Team

#70

Post by jamesteow »

ColinWright wrote: post #61
jasonwilk wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coli, at least you are learning on this site. I can't say the same for Reddit.

Jaso: the re-assessment has convinced me that I'm not learning any more. I did once upon a time, but I'm not now. That's why I'm largely stopping reading, certainly stopping reading the comments. I'll still read the links submitted by people I've learned to trust - people who have similar interests to mine. I've never used Reddit, so I can't comment about that. ADDED IN EDIT: Just to clarify a little - there are stil…

Well if it makes you feel any better, a friend and I started another service that hopes to give people more control over the quality of their front page. We literally just released started inviting people to the site today.

If you'd like an invite, let me know. james@forrus.org

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