When I grow up ...

Every small company or startup wants to be a Google when they grow up. From one startup's description,

[ ]'s mission is no less than to be the next Google. They want to be the next great software company right here in Ann Arbor ...


Looks like Microsoft is not cool anymore. Since 1997 a number of former role models have fallen from their pedestals, in the minds of new startups at least. The idea that the above description seems to suggest is that Google is synonymous with rapid growth, innovation, coolness, and high valuations. Which company does not want that? It was a rather pathetic way to lure undergraduates into thinking that they had a chance to work for the 'next Google'. I wish these companies all the best in trying to get there. While Google will be around ten years later, I still wonder if it will still be that company that every currently unemployed nerd has a wet dream just imagining he works there.

For now, a great business opportunity is to cash a la mode Levi Strauss is to make T-shirts and sell them to these startups. The tagline: "I work for The Next Google".

2 comments:

Abhishek said...

But for how long? They'll be someone coming along soon enough. Google already becoming too big, bloated, lawsuits. Apple is the only one I see which has remained cool, yet is as old as the industry itself. There is some of the best work coming from other oldies like IBM and Sun too, but they'll never be cool.

Peepz said...

google defines "collness" for this age (circa 2003-2008) and rightly so by taking the right kind of decisions.after that I am waiting to be "cooled" by another company (although google is trying to outcool itself)