Google Ventures a Good “Idea”
I think the recent announcement of Google Ventures prompted unwarranted negative responses in the blogosphere. To many, this seemed like a distraction from their core business. However, Google is starting to see a flight of top talent leave. As their stock options have reached their 4+ years of vesting many want to take their new fortunes and create their own Googly startup. Google realizes one of their advantages has always been their ability to attract the best talent in the world to come and work for them. There is another company that the top talent in the world used to want to work for: Microsoft. And we’ve seen their brain drain, mostly to the benefit of Google.
As Google matures and moves more into status-quo corporation mode, it’s good to put some money aside to invest in some of these startups being created by Google alumni. Of course, we’ll see how much money they actually invest. Saying they’ve set aside $100M (an amazingly nice, large, round number) doesn’t mean the money will actually be invested. So we’ll have to wait and see where they place these funds, if at all.
