The loss of life of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on Friday highlighted her key position in one in all Silicon Valley’s most legendary origin tales.
When Larry Web page and Sergey Brin began Google in 1998, they rented out Wojcicki’s Palo Alto storage to make use of as a “worldwide headquarters.”
Throughout a 2014 graduation speech at Johns Hopkins College, she described the circumstances that led to the fateful choice. She mentioned she was newly married and simply purchased the home, however may barely afford the mortgage. A mutual good friend related her with Web page and Brin, who have been nonetheless Stanford graduate college students on the time.
“They appeared good,” Wojcicki mentioned. “Their concept sounded form of loopy.”
Whereas the identify of their new firm struck her as odd and she or he wasn’t certain what it meant, none of that mattered on the time.
“So long as you guys pay your hire on time, you guys can construct your Googly factor right here,” she recalled telling them.
Finally, she joined them in late-night periods of consuming pizza and M&Ms, she added, with the Google cofounders speaking about how their know-how may change the world—and the way excited they have been that the storage had a washer and dryer.
In line with Google, the corporate expanded its workspaces into the three small bedrooms on the bottom flooring because the workers grew to 6 individuals.
In 2018, to mark the twentieth anniversary of Google’s founding, the corporate used archival footage to recreate what the storage appeared like again in 1998.
The Road View staff then posted photos of every room, permitting viewers to nearly discover the startup’s unique workplace house in all its cluttered glory.
The workplace additionally featured a piano keyboard for music breaks and a requisite ping pong desk, although photos present it was folded up and stashed in a nook.
In a 2018 video accompanying the recreated workplace, Wojcicki mentioned, “Wow, it’s wonderful to see it appears to be like the identical. It’s like going again in time.”
Google additionally posted an unique grainy video of the storage that was shot by the corporate’s sixth worker, engineer Harry Cheung, who has since moved on to turn into an angel investor.
After touring the rooms together with his digital camera, he noticed Web page arduous at work in entrance of a pc.
