Google's Journey

Interesting account of Google's journey to IPO. Reflects on the ideology of its founders and also some interesting events and turning points in the history of the _hot_ company. Focusses too much on the CEO's role in the company tho.

Here are come quotes from the article:
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A quote from on of the VC's: “If you like the founders and you like the technology, price doesn’t matter.”
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The typical CEO's say: “Hey, some people just want to paddle across the Atlantic Ocean in a rubber raft,” Doerr recalls Bezos replying. “That’s fine for them. The question is whether you want to put up with it.”
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“Most young people starting companies are afraid,” says Joe Kraus, who at 21 was a founder of Excite. “They’re afraid of failing. Afraid of getting it wrong. Afraid of missing their chance. Afraid, especially, of saying no to John Doerr. But these guys weren’t afraid.”
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“I did not understand when I came to the company how broad Larry and Sergey’s vision was,” Schmidt says. “It took me six months of talking to them to really understand it. I remember sitting with Larry, saying, ‘Tell me again what our strategy is,’ and writing it down.”
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There was the time the boys suggested having Google enter the business of low-cost space launchings. And the time Larry reportedly tried to ban telephones from a new Google office building.
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....... , “Don’t be evil” the corporate motto. (Asked later what the slogan meant, Schmidt would say, “Evil is what Sergey says is evil.”)
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Schmidt now looks back fondly on the genesis of the relationship. “Our roles evolved quickly,” he says. “Sergey is the master dealmaker, Larry is the deep technologist, and I make the trains run on time.”
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John Battelle, author of a forthcoming book on the company, observes, “I’m not saying that Microsoft—or AOL, or Yahoo—can’t prosper, or even ‘win’ in the long term. But crush Google à la Netscape? No friggin’ way. The only thing that can kill Google is Google itself.”
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But if the history of the technology industry teaches us anything, it’s that no one is ever that lucky—at least, not for long....... When crisis eventually comes to Google— and it will—the company’s fate will depend on whether they have absorbed a handful of lessons that apply as much to life as they do to business: Adulthood happens. You can’t make all your own rules. And everyone [screws] up.