A personal story shared about Google's early days

On the 25th October 2006, I had occasion to listen to Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google speak at the "Women in Technology: Path to Success" meeting organised by the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California.

It was very interesting hearing her personal story of how she joined Google and how they first started off in her garage in 1998 (she has recently sold her garage to Google). She was working at Intel during that time and happened to know the CEO of Google through another friend. When she asked Google founders who their target market was, they would say "the world". They intended to be THE search engine of the world. She joked about how it was hard to believe that when at the same breath, the founders would ask her if they could use her washer and dryer at her home too!

Later when she was expecting her first child, she decided to leave Intel and explored working with Google. Even though she was known to the founders, she was made to go through several rounds of interviewing before they decided that she was right for the team. She joined Google as their first marketing professional. She was responsible for a wide range of activities, including the establishment of the corporate identity, some of the first holiday logos, marketing activities and collateral. She product managed the licensing of web search, site search and responsible for the initial development of Google Image Search. She had another 2 children working at Google and joked how when someone complained to the CEO that she was pregnant again- he looked at them puzzled and said but "Susan is always pregnant".

When joining Google, the founders were keen on having her help start up day care and other such facilities for the staff, which she has done amongst other things.

It was a great evening listening to leading women in the Valley share their personal stories. It was also interesting to see how these companies were forward thinking enough to attract such talented women, who were clear about having balance in their lives. The other women speakers included Janice Chaffin, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Symantec, Ms Kristin McDonnell, Chief Executive Officer of LimeLife, and Amy Shuen, Industry Thought Leader and Former Professor of Haas, Wharton and CEIBS.

(PS check out also www.getit.org on a story of Google's predictions about free cellphone with mobile advertising)