"On their first day in Bangalore, India, ... 500 rupees (about $13) to spend on "items that don't suck," with a prize awarded to the one who attains them at the highest discount. For Jini Kim, it's the first time she's bargained with street vendors. "I usually buy at Neiman Marcus," she says, after getting the price of a necklace down from 375 rupees to 250. Dan Siroker wins by snaring a deep burgundy sherwani???a traditional Indian outfit???for a third of the asking price.
Yes, teach them young on how to take advantage of the poor in other countries.
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But Israel re-energizes the travelers, both for the beach outside the hotel and the similarity of the local tech scene to Silicon Valley. Google has asked Yossi Vardi, a top investor in start-ups, to bring in a lineup of new companies that will present short pitches to the APMs. That night he hosts a party at a funky garage where the local geeks have built a robot that plays Guitar Hero. Vardi is also present the next morning at a big event where the Googlers are greeted by hundreds from the Israeli tech community. "I have one thing to tell you," Vardi says to a few APMs who've gathered around him. "When you are offered a deal, you can say yes or you can say no. But never, never be arrogant."
It is but one of many lessons the APMs are absorbing on their path to becoming leaders. And not necessarily leaders at Google: almost none of the APMs sees him- or herself at the company in five years. This is only one of many employee concerns for Google. When most of these APMs were hired barely a year ago, the company was about half the size it is now. Try as Google may to keep things "flat"—meaning that there are very few layers of reporting and one doesn't have to go through channels to talk to a higher-up—the demons of process cannot be held at bay permanently. At times during the trip the APMs can be overheard having quiet conversations about creeping bureaucracy. Even though some of the APMs' parents think that their kids work for "a hippie company," it's getting less so every year.
And Google's no longer the new kid on the block. A few months ago an APM left Google for Facebook and wrote a mass e-mail, where he described his new home as "the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago." Some high-profile stars have left Google recently, including Bret Taylor, the former APM who launched Google Maps. "There's less of an entrepreneurial feel now" at Google, says Taylor, whose new start-up is called FriendFeed.
After hearing a brief performance by a Druze musician atop Mount Carmel, Mayer addresses the possible exodus of these APMs. That kind of restlessness, she says, "is the gene that Larry and Sergey look for. We get two to four good years, and if 20 percent stay with the company, that's a good rate. Even if they leave it's still good for us. I'm sure that someone in this group is going to start a company that I will buy some day."
The last gathering of the full group occurs in a tent in the Negev Desert, where nighttime activities include a midnight walk with a Bedouin guide and a drumming session. It is nearly 2 a.m. when the group gathers in a circle: there is storytelling and singing. Kim leads everyone in a tune she often sings to her brother—"Rubber Ducky." The APMs, all bred on "Sesame Street," hit every note. But the trip feels over. Maybe the lasting legacy of the trip will be the bonding, one more cluster in a Google mafia that will make its mark on new products and technology, both inside and outside the company. Google's top people hope that it happens inside. "The APM program is one of our core values," says Eric Schmidt. "I'd like to think of one of them as the eventual CEO of the company. I just don't know which one."
© 2007
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