Last night at the Techcrunch event it dawned on me that if you were to consider Google 20% time as angel/VC funding then they’re the most expensive VC in the valley. Google engineers only see an ROI in their already vesting stock.
If you have an idea that can’t be commercialized then go ahead and build it at Google. Otherwise you’re just making Larry and Sergei even richer.
The dynamics are changed here a bit of course. For example Google can take your product and release it to millions of users overnight. You can’t do that in a startup.
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September 23, 2005 at 11:44 pm
Google offers its employees founders awards for kicking ass in extraordinary ways. The founders awards are worth million and you are eligible whether your accomplishment was during your 20% time or not. The awards are worth millions, and a few ahve already been given out. I think the Google Maps team may have gotten a founders award but I’m not sure.
The founders award is designed to payout similar to a startup but taking into account the significantly less job risk involved in working for Google.
September 24, 2005 at 11:26 am
Google seems to have made the 20 % things sticky, but it is nothing original at all. MSFT also do – heck, my first full-time employer – the University of Edinburgh – did it and that was back in 1994.
September 26, 2005 at 12:23 pm
I’ve heard _of_ awards for successful 20% time projects, but I never heard what the amounts are, which is the key for people with ideas who have options of bringing their ideas to life through Google, on their own with a help of VCs, or on their own + lots of caffeine.