So, my real question: how much, on average, does a founder get as part of one of these acquihires? And does s/he actually, y'know, have to do any work after getting paid?
Yes, they're called "golden handcuffs". You basically get a compensation package so good that it'd be stupid to leave. Usually they try to get you to stay 3-5 but YMMV.
I ask this not to be negative, but out of serious curiosity.
Say your employer is bought by Google - are you axed because you slept poorly and couldn't prove Fermat's Last Theorem on the whiteboard in 15 minutes?
n=1
n = 1
And yet you referred to it as "BS" and provided a sarcastic example in the same post. I'd say your attempt not to be negative and to sound serious failed.
https://cloud.google.com/products/machine-learning/
* Cloud Vision API - Upload an image, and it will tell you what is in it
* Cloud Speech API - Upload a wav and it will transcribe it
* Natural Language API - Parse sentences, extracts entities, sentiment and syntax
* Cloud Translate API - Translate from one language to another.
Api.ai would make a great bullet point to add to the end of that list!
Typically a "shotgun" clause is triggered and all employees immediately vest and cash out.
Founders, however, negotiate "earn out" clauses with the acquirer, which provides some upfront cash with the balance to be paid out over time, contingent on performance or retention goals.
I wouldn't assume that. Developer-friendly natural language APIs will only become more important over the next few years.
Edit: I should add Firebase could have(and should have) been the next PHP/Access. Could have solved almost every SMB business custom software need in a way that a business could go from front-end to front-end and never get locked into another 1,000 crud app for XYZ vertical. Could have wiped it all out. Firebase could have become the data store of the internet. Then Google showed up....
Where does the belief in the tech come from? Are there any examples of real success with this tech?
Bots can't solve discovery in a novel way without big advances in NLP. There doesn't seem to be a bridge from here to there where it makes sense as a user.
Is this just irrational exuberance?
I'd love to understand why microsoft/google/facebook are all continuing to bet big here.
Because they can afford to. And because if you wait for success examples, you might just be too late.
That being said, I actually haven't seen a successful implementation of a full transition from a hybrid to a chatbot example (maybe like x.ai or something, but nothing on a large scale). Think there is really good opportunity there for some basic tasks, but still see bots as glorified menu options for the time being.
Having worked at 2 of the firms you listed above and doing some deep V1 bot explorations for one of them, the immediate idea for bots in the short-term is to replace apps (which is not the best UI interaction model for tail-end apps)
If so, I think Apple's approach in iMessage widgets is fantastic: If you send third-party content to a person that doesn't have the plugin installed, they'll also get a link to install it. So it boosts word-of-mouth.
My sense of discovery was meant in the UI sort of respect. When a feature is hidden from the user, that feature might as well not exist.
Bots (and command lines, for that matter) are awful unless you know exactly what they're capable of. There is an extrinsic knowledge you need.
That is, you can't expect a bot to know whatever you throw at it but you're unsure what you /can/ expect it to know.
The problem is that command lines are sort of made for the expert users whereas bots are said to be the opposite.
In the meantime you're making a lot less than someone working at a large company. You could take the $50K/yr pay difference and buy lottery tickets with that.
I love when great companies do well.
I'm a happy customer (and wish I were also an investor, but I'm not).
Using the word "journey" is this context is rather... risky.
