On Sun, Jan 13, 2008, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about "Re: [Job Offer and a
byte more] PHP programmer and CTO":
> There are lots of companies who have tried to change technologies mid
> stream and failed. HotMail is a good example, when M/S bought them they
> went over to IIS, but it took many years if they've actually done it yet
> and only the kind of money that M/S could afford.
>
> Ask your self seriously, would Google have grown to the size it is if
> after a year of running their open source systems, they went to Oracle
> and IIS?
Actually, your example proves you wrong! Do you think that Google would have
grown to the size they are if they kept the same technology they had 10 years
ago? In those 10 years, Google adopted completely new technologies that they
didn't have before - they devised new ways to manage clusters (which they
didn't need when their cluster was just 50 machines), new filesystems, new
ways to show interactive pages ("ajax"), new concepts for email (like the
whopping 1 GB mail quota), new ideas and software for advertising, and much
much more. Someobody had to direct the company to go in that direction, and
not - say - to the Orace/IIS direction you mentioned.
So it's silly to think that a company only decides technology issues when
it is formed. Maybe what you are thinking about are these "dot com" startups,
which were formed with some technology and indeed never lived long enough to
switch or update their technlogy.
> Both are certainly capble of doing the job with as much tailoring as Google
> had to apply to what they do use, but when did Google reach the point they
> could not have switched?
Never. If Google were convinced today that Oracle/IIS had some clear benefits
to them, they could switch to them, at least in new installations (which in
an exponentially growing business, is almost the same as switching everything).
Obviously, they didn't find Oracle or IIS of any benefit to them, because
they could do the same - or more - with free software without having to pay
royalties (paying royalties for hundreds of thousands of copies for a piece
of software is damn expensive).
> So the question, which you don't have to answer to me, but will have to
> answer to any prospective CTO who actually knows what one is, is when
> is that point of no return?
I work in a company that has existed for over a hundred years. It still
hasn't reached that point. We are still always on the lookout on how to
change, what are the new technology trends, and how we can leverage new
technlogy to become more efficient, before all our competition does it.
If a company stops doing this, it will go out of business quickly.
> How much equity are your really willing to give this stranger (i.e.
> not a founder) to be CTO? 5%? 10%? any more and you risk diluting
> your control and making your seed investor nervous.
>
> When the company gets to a "short exit", i.e. buyout in 2-3 years or
> IPO, the 10% will be about 2%. If you go for the long term exit, which
> someone is espousing in an article in Friday's Jerusalem Post (presented
> as an op-ed, but really a free ad for his "late stage" investment fund),
> that will be down to less than 1%.
In 1999, when I was looking for a job, the "jive" from prospective employers
I interviewed ( :-) ) was always the same - I would get a percentage of the
company (usually at the order of 1%), and since it is public knowledge that
every IPO is at least 1 billion dollars, even after dilution I was sitting
on several million dollars, almost guranteed. Yeah, right...
Reminds me of that circa 1999 joke:
How To Form Your Very Own Silicon Valley Startup
1. Go to Menlo Park. Find a tree.
2. Shake the tree. A venture capitalist will fall out.
3. Before the venture capitalist regains its wits, recite the following
incantation: Internet! Electronic Commerce! Distributed Enterprise-
Enabled Applications! Java
4. The venture capitalist will give you four million dollars.
5. In 18 (12? 6? 3?) months, go public.
6. After you receive your check, go back to Menlo Park. Find a tree.
7. Climb it. Wait.
--
Nadav Har'El | Sunday, Jan 13 2008, 6 Shevat 5768
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |The meek shall inherit the Earth, for
http://nadav.harel.org.il |they are too timid to refuse it.
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