What are the best examples of growing pains that Google is now facing as it grows into a 100K+ employee company that are the same problems Microsoft faced 25 years ago?

I Joined Google after years at Microsoft, left a year later for a startup (Box, which is now no longer a startup :)). The Answer is very simple: performance review system. The engineering culture suffers when a developer’s compensation depends very little on the quality of a product and a LOT on how he/she performs compared to peers. Developers are much less likely to collaborate, more likely to compete, use meetings/email to intimidate and demonstrate their superiority, even claim credit for others’ ideas in a subtle way.

The Full-Stack Startup

Q: So what’s a full stack startup? You’ve mentioned that it’s a new, important trend, and a pattern of startups we’ve been seeing over the past couple of years.

Chris Dixon: The old approach startups took was to sell or license their new technology to incumbents. The new, “full stack” approach is to build a complete, end-to-end product or service that bypasses incumbents and other competitors.

A good example from big companies is Apple versus Microsoft. For years, Microsoft just built pieces of the stack — the OS, apps — and relied on partners to build semiconductors, cases, assembly, do retail etc. Apple does everything: they design their own chips, their own phone hardware, their own OS, their own apps, the packaging, the retail experience etc. Apple reminded the world that you could create a really magical experience if you did many things well at once.

 

.. Q. What are the main challenges for full stack startups?

Dixon: Full stack founders care about every aspect of their product/service, so they need to get good at many different things besides software — hardware, design, consumer marketing, supply chain management, sales, partnerships, regulation, etc. It takes a special kind of founder to do this.

The good news is if they pull it off, it will be extremely hard for competitors to replicate all those interlocking pieces.

What Mountain Climbing Can Teach You About Business

“Most people go around with a jacket designed for weather that’s going to happen 5 percent of the time. The other 95 percent of the time it’s overdesigned.” In other words, wouldn’t we rather be really comfortable 95 percent of the time and figure a way to get by during the other 5 percent?

.. I was climbing with Brad Petersen, who now runs Utah’s Office of Outdoor Recreation. We had a particular route in mind. But a storm rolled in, and we were forced to change our plans. For a moment, I was frustrated that we had been derailed, and it looked like we weren’t going to make it to the summit. I found myself wondering, “What was the point if we couldn’t finish the climb?”

Then I reminded myself, “Wait a second. We’re having an amazing day on the mountain. The rainstorm is beautiful, and I’m with one of my best friends. What do I have to be mad about?” We adjusted. We found a little shelter and enjoyed the moment. A little later, the storm passed and we moved up the mountain to see what it would give us.