WEBVTT - Tim Armstrong 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:04.160 Welcome back to a brand new episode of Big Money Energy, 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.520 where we talk to super successful and self made people 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.399 to find out exactly how they did, how they went 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.040 from nothing to something. I'm Ryan Sarhand and today I 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.120 am pumped because I'm talking to Tim Armstrong. You might 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.600 not know who Tim Armstrong is, but he has affected 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.840 your life in ways you probably don't know. He's a 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.159 pioneer in the business realm of the Internet. He was 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.159 in the room at M I T when people showed 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.560 him up on the screen the Internet and he jumped 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.080 all over it. He's a serial entrepreneur, angel investor. He's 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.159 the former CEO of a O L and former president 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.800 of Google's America operations. He was part of the initial 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.000 Google team. It's totally totally crazy. We talked about a 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.680 lot of things, including how to not only welcome change, 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:56.360 but wield it as a weapon. We talked about how 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.400 expanding your network actually expands your network, and how to 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.840 stay open minded in business to create a culture of 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.000 free flowing ideas. This is awesome, Let's get into it. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:21.360 Welcome to another episode. Today is a very very special 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.399 one because I'm sitting down with one of my favorite people. 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.560 He doesn't know that yet, but I'm going to tell him. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.240 He is a mega, mega businessman and serial entrepreneur. Literally 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.760 the definition of an entrepreneur. Tim Armstrong, this man has 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.560 done it all. He is a leading entrepreneur, angel investor, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.319 and former CEO of a o L, one of the 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.880 largest companies in the world. And not to mention, he 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.440 was the president of Google's America operations, he helped establish 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.080 Google's AdSense, and now he's the founder and CEO of 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:57.200 d t X, technology company focused on the direct to 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.480 consumer economy. I mean, talk about an entrepe preneur, and 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.240 he's easily one of the most knowledgeable and influential people 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.120 in the world. I am so excited to be sitting 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.640 down with him today. So without further ado, Tim Armstrong, Right, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.760 good to see you, and uh, I'm a huge fan 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.280 of yours and UH always get a lot of energy 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.040 around you, so I'm really happy to be here. Yeah, man, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.280 I I am pumped. Well That's why I have energy 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.920 when I'm around you, because I'm just super excited. You know, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.799 you've lapped so many people over the years. I mean 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.200 just looking at your you know, your timeline from when 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:33.200 you graduated college in Connecticut to where you are today. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.320 Did you know when you graduated college that you were 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.680 going to be an entrepreneur. Did you think, maybe I'll 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.120 just go get a regular job and get a white 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.120 picket fence for the rest of my life. Like, what 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.040 was that thought process like for you? Yeah, I'll tell you, Ryan, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.560 And I think you and I have similar backgrounds to 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.720 some degree, which is uh. I started very early in 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.040 my um actually when I was about ten years old, 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.040 doing businesses, even before I got to high school, and 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.600 so I did a couple things that kind of got 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:04.600 me on that in that direction, and then kind of 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.040 naturally by doing some small, like little neighborhood entrepreneurial things 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.400 in high school, I started to read business biographies just 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.120 because I just enjoyed business so much, which I thought 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.240 I was going to go into investment banking, and that's 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:18.120 like kind of the path I went on. And I 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.600 was there for about three months, and the guy I 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.800 was sitting next to it the place I was was 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.080 so much better at the job than I was that 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:26.839 I went to my boss and I said, I said, 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:28.400 I'm gonna be leaving because I'm gonna go off and 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.400 do something entrepreneurial. But and the guy said, why are 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:31.920 you leaving? I said, well, the guy next to me 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.080 is a monster at what we do. He's amazing, So 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.320 I said, you should promote him or do whatever. But 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:38.440 I realized that if I had compete against this guy 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.640 the rest of my life, he should be the CEO 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:42.320 of this place. Sometime I'm gonna go off and do 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.640 something I'm good at. So I left and started a 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.040 newspaper and from there I've pretty much been doing that 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.400 type of stuff ever since. Were you always in tune 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.560 with your own strengths and weaknesses that way? Because that 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.800 takes complete balls. Most people wouldn't do that. They would say, ah, 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.560 but I'm gonna beat that guy, or they'd be angry 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.640 or they jealous. You you are humble enough at such 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.040 a young age to be to go and ask for 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.040 for his promotion and had quit to go start a 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.119 newspaper from an invested banking job. Are you crazy? Yeah, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.360 I don't know. It's probably one of the things that has, 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.760 if anything that I've been successful at I think in 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.560 life has been because I don't know if my parents 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.159 brought me up with this kind of ethos, And then 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:24.560 I played a lot of sports and I had a 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.560 couple of teachers that have been impact on me, and 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.240 they constantly used to say to me, celebrate other people's 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.039 success and and don't. It's not a reflection on you, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.320 it's a reflection on them. And the world's a big place. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:37.480 You can be successful and other people can be successful. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.520 So I have a personal mission statement I have that 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.200 I wrote seven years ago, but I think it encompasses 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.880 kind of my philosophy even back then, which is like 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.520 to this day, like nothing makes me happier than seeing 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.680 someone else kick and butt at what they do. And 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.160 it's one of the reasons when I when I met 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.039 you for the first time and I got to know 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.480 your background, I love people like you because, like, I'm 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.800 really energized and inspired by people who are successful and 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.440 people who take the risk and do all the things 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.080 you need to do. So, I don't know, I've never 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.840 had a gene where I'm like competitive with other people 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:10.960 in competitive with myself. I don't know, it's been that's 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.240 been actually I don't know if it's natural. It kind 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:14.719 of got talk to me, but it's actually been a 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.280 big advantage. You've got to be open to possibilities, right, 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.200 You've got to be open to the power of saying 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.520 yes and to also, I mean taking risks. So sitting 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:24.800 at a bank, like, what makes you think at that 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:30.560 time that media and digital journalism and advertising was the 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.080 future and was going to be your future and a 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.760 profitable future. When I was going to leave the bank, 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.360 I thought, I want to be successful, and I'm sure 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:39.960 there's a bunch of people that have already gone through 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.839 the gauntlets to be successful. So I'm like, I'm gonna 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.039 call all the CEOs in Boston. And so I started, like, 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:47.840 made a list of all the CEOs in Boston, in 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.599 the big places like Fidelity. There was a bunch of 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.960 big types of companies, and I started calling and of like, 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.400 of course I'd either get rejected at the front desk 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.960 or sometimes I get transferred to the assistant. One day 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.800 I called that the CEO of a big company, and 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.159 the assistant said to me, how are you? And I said, 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.159 you know, I'm twenty two. I just want to ask 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.239 the CEO of some questions about like career advice and stuff. 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.960 And she's like, look, the only people who get through 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.880 to him directly are journalists. So I hung up the phone, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.120 picked the phone back up and I called and I said, Hey, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.720 I'm Tim Armstrong. I'm from a new publisher on publication 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:22.840 that's coming out in Boston for young people, and we're 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.080 gonna want to do an interview with the CEO, and boom. 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.760 I got through and so basically I'm like and I 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.839 started thinking, like everyone my age probably has the same problem. 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.880 So I started a newspaper called Beginnings in Boston with 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.200 my best friend from high school. And all we did 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.440 was trying to interview people and give stories and road 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.760 maps in your young twenties, how do you become successful? 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:45.520 But it literally that's how I started. It was from 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:47.960 that one phone call. That's crazy and so funny because 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:52.200 that's now you starting that newspaper. That's people today starting vlogs. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.320 I guess you could still start a newspaper, but it 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.280 probably makes more sense to do it online. Well, let 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.359 me tell you crazy story. So I start the newspaper. 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.480 I have no idea. What I'm doing is business boot camp. 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.480 One on one. We my roommate and I. I learned 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.560 how to program because we had a program the interface. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.159 We but I sold my car about a quadr six 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.720 fifty computer Apple computer. We learned how to publish, put 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:14.960 the put the newspapers out. We haven't distributed all over 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.160 Cambridge and Boston. And a friend of mine calls me 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.400 and says, the name is Peter Dunn. He said, Hey, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.560 there's these guys down to M I. T. Who said 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.600 they can publish something like a newspaper immediately without paper 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.440 on a computer. So I'm like, all right. So I 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.040 went down to M I T. And the guys from 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.160 University of Illinois who had the first browser with there. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.480 They turned it on, they loaded a website and I said, 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.200 wait a minute, did you just put information that you 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.040 input a someplace else through you know, through this network 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.200 and up on the computer screen and like that's all 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.480 that happened. And somebody had to input electronically, and they're 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.000 like yep. I literally got up, left meeting, went back 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.160 to my office, told my best round phone high school, 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.240 and I was selling the newspaper and we're doing this 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.080 thing called the internet. I'm like, I don't know what 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.880 it is, but it's a thousand times cheaper and faster 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:01.600 than what we're doing in the newspaper, and we're gonna 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.360 put the newspaper online. That's how I got introduced to 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.120 the Internet, and that's changed the rest of my life. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.880 That that one meeting in m I t that is crazy. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.760 What did you learn? You know that's stuck with you. 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.600 From building the newspaper, as you said, business one oh one, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.760 to building companies, which you did later on, you have 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.360 to understand your business at a core level. And I 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.040 think that's something else that people don't appreciate is when 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:26.880 you're younger in your career and you look for it, 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:28.800 you think that all the people went up to career, 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:30.960 they just got bigger and made bigger decisions and things 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.679 like that. But many of the people that I met 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.520 during that early part in Boston, some of the CEOs 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.760 and some of the other people in networking with, I 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:43.439 noticed that they were all super knowledgeable about the details 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.080 of their business. And I took that when we've built 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.400 the newspaper, like I knew how to do everything at 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.880 the newspaper. And I think that's another powerful attribute, is 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.120 like knowing being the world's expert at what you do, 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:57.960 and you I know you are for what you do 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.240 ryan and like, and you write books about it and 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.880 you talk about it and you meet with people, and 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.959 that if you don't have that you're gonna lose to 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:07.920 other people in your business. If you don't want to 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.640 become the world expert, guess what someone else is. So 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.880 that that's one takeaway. The second takeaway is just change. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.640 Change is a there's a weapon. It's either pointed at 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.080 you or you're holding it. When I didn't know what 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.640 I was doing, I was able to learn and change, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.120 learn change, learn change, and then that formula gave me 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.400 risk taking. I learned how to take risks, and so 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.600 I always think back to that, which is like, if 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.160 I'm not changing and evolving, I'm probably losing. It's about 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.880 being part of the running river instead of a still pond. 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.319 The still pond smells, it's weird, still a body of water, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.120 but you know, you might not want to go swimming 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.559 in it. The running river is clean, there's fish, there's life, 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:49.000 there's things happening, and there's amazing, amazing opportunities around every bend, 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.280 even if you don't know it. So you sold the 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.360 newspaper and then you got involved and started working at 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.840 a company called star Wave. What was star Wave? I 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.800 got invited to go to a nast horror event with 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.360 the owners in NASCAR, The France family so that I 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:04.760 went to this big meeting and I was sitting in 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.240 the back of the room. How do you meet all 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.719 these p I'll ask you that later. Basically, I went 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.360 to this meeting. The Francis gave this whole president on 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.040 the NASCAR and at the end they said, oh, by 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.480 the way, we're gonna launch a website. And so in 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.520 the back of the room, I was like, you know, oh, hell, yes, 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.040 you know. Now you're talking my language. So after the meeting, 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.920 I went up to them and said, hey, um, Tim Armstrong, 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.559 you don't know me, but that last thing you talked about, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.960 I'm super excited about it and building this company in 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.839 Boston that's been doing internet stuff. So anyways, uh, the 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.440 Ryan Frant said to me, Hey, there's this company, star 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:45.000 Wave in Seattle that's growing. Paul Allen started its growing quickly. 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.120 They're doing internet content for how excited you are you 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.360 should think about you know, star Waves. So I went 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.199 back to my apartment in Boston and I had a 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.160 message from the recruiter at star Wave because they had 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.199 been calling around the United States trying to find people 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.040 who were doing internet stuff and was so small at 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.360 that point that they had called somebody that I knew, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.160 and they said, hey, this this kid and I at 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.240 the same time had sent my application, and so I 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.000 said the woman, I said, you know, I can believe this. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.760 I just sent an application. It was a third party 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.320 recruiter to star Wave and she said, well, your name 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.640 came up because we were asking around of people who 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.920 are doing Internet stuff. So advance short, Bluda Seattle got 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.240 a job offer the day I went there. UM told 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.760 him yes on the spot, moved out like I don't know, 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.360 maybe two months, no, no, two weeks later or something 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.680 with a bag of closed didn't know anybody, and started 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.000 at Starwave. And Starwave was did launch ESPN dot com, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.480 NFL dot com, Nascar dot com, a Snews dot com. 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.720 And it was like the beginning of the Internet. All 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.440 these smart people from engineers and content people and media 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:49.520 people from all over the US showed up here to 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.959 work for Paul Allen and this guy Mike Slaves, Bill 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.560 Gates's best friend, and Tom Phillip, the guy who started 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.800 Spy magazine and was I worked with met Google also. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.720 So anyways, long seriy short. It was an amazing environment, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.000 my first environment on the West Coast. I grew up 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.120 in a small blue collar town. I didn't travel much, 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:13.320 but I learned it was like West Coast, high energy technology, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.360 smart people. And also I was really creative growing up, 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:18.560 and where I grew up was not like a hyper 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.600 creative environment. And this was the first place I got 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.400 dropped where I was like, God, I'm home. This is 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:32.760 like all creative people walk us through. How you met 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.280 Sarah gay Brand and Larry Page and and landed at Google. 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.520 That meeting alone is something that millions and millions to 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.040 people could only dream of, and you actually got to 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.280 do it and you got to work with them. How 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.400 did that all happen? There's another super important lesson. As 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.319 I always say, the most important decisions of your career 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.920 happen when you're not in the room. At star Wave, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.200 I had the opportunity to do a couple mega deals, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.760 bigger than any other deals the company had ever done. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.520 I got a very good reputation as someone who was 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.280 like highly creative, knew the space well, and could do 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.880 mega deals. So Um, one of the women that I 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.079 worked with, Um, who was a peer of mine, went 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:14.960 to go be a recruiter after we all we all 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:16.839 left Starwave, and I did a couple of things after 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.280 Starwave before Google. Again, this came back around as a 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.800 super helpful thing. She mentioned to the Google people, Um, hey, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.880 there's this guy. He's in New York. So Omid Cortis Donni, 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.600 who's now the chairman of Twitter, came to New York. 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:32.680 He was at Google. He was really the first business 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.439 employee at Google. Another's the crazy thing. It was like 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.720 a Friday afternoon, pouring rain. I was downtown that this 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:41.600 woman called me. She said, you got to meet this guy. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.400 There's this company Google. I said, oh, I've been using 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.520 Google because I was stabbing on the Space. So I 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.559 love that company. And I had another job offer at 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.160 the time to go be the president of one of 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.040 the gaming companies. And I said to us, so, I 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.880 have this other job thing I'm working on. And she said, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.640 you know, Tim, She's like, I know you just take 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:01.439 the eating. So I said, all right, yeah. So I 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.880 hustled uptown, went to the Regency Hotel met Ohmed, who 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.160 I didn't know, who's now one of my one of 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.520 my really close friends. I sat down with him. We 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.120 had a great conversation and he said, look, I don't 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:15.719 know what's going to happen at Google. I don't know 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:17.679 if we're gonna be a you know, big and advertising. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:19.480 I know you're like a big guy, you know, blah 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.000 blah blah blah. You know, come out and meet Larry 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:23.920 and Sergey. So what was the Omed's role at that 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.880 time at Google? He was basically the chief business officer 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.800 of Google. Um So Google was like I don't even remember. 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.040 It was probably like fifty people at that point or something, 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.600 or maybe seventy. It was all. It was basically all engineers, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.040 and then O Mead and another woman, Joan brad Eye, 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.880 and a guy named Wiskowski, and there was there was 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.000 like three or four business people, all engineers, and it 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.720 was the search licensing business, and they were gonna start. 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.640 They just started to think about getting an ads. There's 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.920 another guy, Davidkacko. So anyways, long story short is I 0:14:54.080 --> 0:15:00.160 fly out and have breakfast with Sergey and Omed. And 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.680 Sergey comes to breakfast and he's like, hey Tim, He's like, 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.560 you know, just you know, we had a little chit chat. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.960 Then he's like, I don't know what questions to ask you. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:14.400 You interview yourself, ask yourself the questions you think I 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.720 should ask you. So I was like, all right, So 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.520 I'm like, I asked all the tough questions. I'm like, 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.480 I'm I'm not gonna help pull any punch. I'm gonna 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.480 ask what I think you know chess? So I I 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:26.240 you know, he would interject some questions, will me to 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.480 ask some questions, but in general, I would say the 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.120 main part of the interview was me coming up with 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.640 the questions and explaining why I was asking the question. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.040 He made you have a conversation with yourself. Yeah. But 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:38.240 by the way, this is one of the things that 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:43.840 Larry and Sergey absolutely brilliant at is he was getting 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.640 a much fuller picture of me, which is, how do 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.560 you think, how do you handle that situation? What questions 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.320 do you come up with? Why did you come up 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.920 with the questions? And it was you know, and then 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.440 I can tell you a million stories about how they 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.000 did stuff like that at Google, but but they were 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.800 incredibly billy and that that stuff. And I'll tell you this. 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.520 I had another job offer that was I forget the number. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.400 It was probably twice the amount of money. It was 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.880 a massive benefits package. I think it had a card, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.400 had like a house payments for a year. It was 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:19.600 like an unbelievable offer. Google was way smaller, way riskier, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.040 all those other things. And I was just in the 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.160 process of getting married. So I was engaged and about 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.520 to get married. So I came back and I said 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.080 to my wife, who was my wife, Nancy Now, I said, 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.120 and there's another lesson in this, which is one of 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:35.920 the biggest decisions you make in your life is who 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.920 you partner with. They have a huge imprint on you 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.640 and what you think and and those things. So I 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:44.000 said to my now wife than than fiance, Nancy, I'm 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.800 trying to make a decision between these two things. She said, 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:48.160 what do you think. I said, Well, this is that 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.320 there's all this money and all this other opportunity and 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.360 like gaming is gonna be big and all this other stuff, 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.200 and you know, but you know, Google, I I just like, 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.360 I don't know, I'm like more passionate about it, but 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.960 it's like a way not as good as an offer 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.520 or you know, blah blah blah. So she she said, Tim, 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:05.960 I'm gonna give you one piece of advice. She said, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.600 I've been watching your eyes while you're talking about the 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.159 two companies for the last month or so. Go to Google. 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:13.720 You'd be going this other place for the wrong reasons. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.239 And I you're a passionate guy. Your energy level when 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.720 you're talking about Google is ten x. What is the 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.240 other thing? And she's like, we'll figure it out. We 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.040 don't we by the way, we had no money. We 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.480 were living on one bedroom apartment Eightio six and Columbus, 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.560 And she said, whatever, we'll figure it out. You know, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:31.840 don't worry about it. So anyway, so that's how it 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.359 went down. What was it like being on the Google 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.640 train in those nine years, because that's when it went 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:40.560 from Google to Google. It was like the world's most 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:47.720 intense science project. First years there, it was unmitigated mess 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.560 like a messy science project where we were testing everything 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:52.760 and and like you know, when they hired me, by 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.040 the way, there's a funny story. So when they hired 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.520 me that they gave me like a one page sheet 0:17:57.600 --> 0:17:59.680 that said we're hiring you this, here's just salary, here's 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.720 your act. And by the way, if it doesn't work out, 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.240 no harm, no foul. The reason I was able to 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:06.639 go to a o L was I didn't have a 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.320 noncompete because Google didn't know whether or not they were 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.439 going to be big in the ad business. So they didn't. 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.959 I had this like sheet of paper that said, you know, 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.120 if it doesn't work out well, just part ways, no harm, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.560 no foul. So anyway, as long astorry short as the 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.120 first order I got, I said, I have an order 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.760 coming in for advertising, you know, and um, Larry and Sergey, 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.360 I said, I need to get a fax machine because 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.240 I can't get the order. Just said that we're clear. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.160 They made you head of head of US right ahead 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.479 of US sales sales. And I was in New York. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.720 I was in California. So my harmon in New York 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.960 was the first office outside of Mountain Views. So I 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.440 get the first order. I called them. I say, guys, 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:42.119 I gotta I got an order. And I'm like, I 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:44.240 gotta buy a fax machine. And the fax machine was 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:45.240 like I don't know how much it was. It was 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:47.679 like a bucks. I'm like, I gotta buy this fax machine. 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:53.080 They're like, prove that you have the order. What They're like, yeah, 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.560 proved that you have the order. I'm like, guys, I 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:58.720 can't get the order. Let's have the fax machine. They're like, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:00.320 we don't want to spend the money on the fax 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.320 machine unless you have the order. And I'm like, so 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:09.080