Ex-Googler
and Beeswax CEO Ari Paparo tweeted last night that "tons of engineers
[are] looking to leave the goog after bonuses."
"The goog" that Paparo is referring to is, of course, Google.
Paparo was responding to a tweet from venture capitalist Hunter Walk, also an ex-Googler.
Walk wrote that for his firm, Homebrew, and the startups in its portfolio, there has "definitely [been a] seasonal January increase in big company people looking to leave their jobs." Walk said that he expects exits from Google won't really pick up for "another month" - after bonuses are paid out there.
Then, presumably, Googler poaching season will be on.
(For startups, it's the hap-happiest season of all...)
It's important to remember that, in the tech industry, the migration of talent from big companies to startups is an ancient cycle, as regular and as expected as San Francisco's frigid temperatures in August.
That said...
During a trip to Palo Alto earlier this week, we spoke with another high-profile venture capitalist who said that he also expects talent to flee Google in increased numbers during 2015 — but only if the company is unable to get its stock growing again.
Google's share price is down to $501 from $577 per share on this date a year ago. In Silicon Valley, where employees are often compensated as much or more in stock as they are in cash, a down stock price like that means Google is literally paying its people less money in 2015 than it did in 2014. That makes retention harder.
It's always hard to say exactly why a stock is going down, but it's clear that Google had a relatively rough 2014. In December, an ex-Googler told us: "I think 2015 is going to be disastrous."
Some data points to back that claim up:
In 2014, CEO Larry Page, frustrated with the pace of innovation at the company, took a big step back from day-to-day operations, turning over control to Sundar Pichai.
Google's core business, search advertising, is looking shakier than it has in years.The problem is the rise of mobile. Search advertising is the best way to make money on the web. But people aren't using the web as much on their mobile phones as they did on their desktops. Last quarter, Google's advertising business grew at its slowest rate in six years.
People are searching for products on Amazon, rather than using Google. The only reason search makes money for Google is that people use it to search for products they would like to buy on the internet, and Google shows ads for those products. Increasingly, however, people are going straight to Amazon to search for products. Desktop search queries on Amazon increased 47% between September 2013 and September 2014, according to ComScore.
"The goog" that Paparo is referring to is, of course, Google.
Paparo was responding to a tweet from venture capitalist Hunter Walk, also an ex-Googler.
Walk wrote that for his firm, Homebrew, and the startups in its portfolio, there has "definitely [been a] seasonal January increase in big company people looking to leave their jobs." Walk said that he expects exits from Google won't really pick up for "another month" - after bonuses are paid out there.
Then, presumably, Googler poaching season will be on.
(For startups, it's the hap-happiest season of all...)
It's important to remember that, in the tech industry, the migration of talent from big companies to startups is an ancient cycle, as regular and as expected as San Francisco's frigid temperatures in August.
That said...
During a trip to Palo Alto earlier this week, we spoke with another high-profile venture capitalist who said that he also expects talent to flee Google in increased numbers during 2015 — but only if the company is unable to get its stock growing again.
Google's share price is down to $501 from $577 per share on this date a year ago. In Silicon Valley, where employees are often compensated as much or more in stock as they are in cash, a down stock price like that means Google is literally paying its people less money in 2015 than it did in 2014. That makes retention harder.
It's always hard to say exactly why a stock is going down, but it's clear that Google had a relatively rough 2014. In December, an ex-Googler told us: "I think 2015 is going to be disastrous."
Some data points to back that claim up:
In 2014, CEO Larry Page, frustrated with the pace of innovation at the company, took a big step back from day-to-day operations, turning over control to Sundar Pichai.
Google's core business, search advertising, is looking shakier than it has in years.The problem is the rise of mobile. Search advertising is the best way to make money on the web. But people aren't using the web as much on their mobile phones as they did on their desktops. Last quarter, Google's advertising business grew at its slowest rate in six years.
People are searching for products on Amazon, rather than using Google. The only reason search makes money for Google is that people use it to search for products they would like to buy on the internet, and Google shows ads for those products. Increasingly, however, people are going straight to Amazon to search for products. Desktop search queries on Amazon increased 47% between September 2013 and September 2014, according to ComScore.
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