6 Signals That Your Startup Could Be The Next Google

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Inside Larry & Sergey’s Brain
Larry PageSergey Brin

1. Independently outstanding, but complementary founders. Larry is the primary thinker about the company’s future direction, and still weighs in heavily on key hiring decisions. Sergey, a mathematical wizard, is the arbiter of Google’s technological approach. Both have a deep sense of moral values and ethics, and work well together.
   
2. Unique business tactics. Technology alone does not make a great company. Business tactics do. Google developed the most profitable form of advertising anyone had ever seen, ads selected real-time based on search terms. They focused on small advertisers looking for bargains. The model was a perfect fit for the Internet Age.
   
3. Survived phenomenal early growth. In 2003, just four years old, sales hit $1.5 billion, profit was $100 million, and it had taken over some 80 percent of the world’s search queries. Google now employs about twenty thousand people. Most founders don’t survive this kind of growth and change, but Larry and Sergey are still a well-balanced machine, with a net worth of over $50 billion each.
   
4. Leaders loved and hated at the same time. Larry and Sergey have been wickedly clever. They break the mold. They challenge old industries and make a lot of enemies. They’re ruthless businessmen. Yet through it all, they’re idealists, believers in the power of the Internet to make the world a better place.
   
5. Founders surround themselves with the best people. Early on, they were able to get money from the likes of Andy Bechtolsheim and John Doerr. They convinced Eric Schmidt to take the reins with them for growth as interim CEO and Executive Chairman for years, and had Dr. Larry Brilliant to set up the philanthropic arm. Amazing.
   
6. Continue to think big. According to the book, both founders continue to think big. Some of their ideas are as flighty as space travel; others are as grounded as the DNA that makes them who they are. No one proclaims to know where its leaders will take Google and Alphabet next, but everyone expects more great things.