Hockey Stick Growth Charts
Google: Stage-By-Stage: How They Did It
Tinkering/Pre-Start (Pre-1998)
- January 1996 research project of Larry Page and Sergey Brin while at Stanford
- Develop “page rank” technology to create search engine (nicknamed BackRub; devoted to connecting backlinks)
- September 15, 1997: Official launch of the Google.com domain
The Blade Years (1998-2002)
- September 4, 1998: Launch with Page as CEO
- 1998: Year 1-no revenue
- 1999: Page finds a way to stack multiple servers into one tiny space to maximize speed for the Google engine
- October 2000: Google AdWords launches
- 2001: Millions of users, important investors, over 400 employees
- July 2001: Larry Page fires all of Google’s project managers (they are soon rehired)
- August 2001: Eric Schmidt becomes CEO
Growth Inflection Point (2002)
- Year 5 growth inflection point: $475,354,250.55 revenue (grew 400% from 2001)
- Schmidt builds his own exec team and sales force
- Google Labs and Google News launch
- Page begins to take a backseat and just work on the products
Surging Growth (2003-2004)
- IPO August 19, 2004
- Gmail and Google Scholar launch in 2004
The Hockey Stick Principles: The 4 Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success
For anyone toying with the idea of founding their own company or launching a new product, this accessible guide will teach you what to expect when you first start out—from the tinkering phase, to the blade years, the crucial growth inflection point, and onward to surging growth.
