It was just 11 days ago that Microsoft’s “ambassador to startups” Don Dodge was laid off as part of a broader workforce reduction. Last week he showed up in Silicon Valley to “see friends” as he put it. But it was clear that he was also interviewing for jobs.
We sat down with him to do a proper exit interview while he was in town.
I got a few tips from Googlers that he was seen roaming their Mountain View headquarters, and I confirmed tonight that he has been offered a job at the company. He has accepted, and will shortly begin working for the company that he only recently considered the enemy.
It’s unheard of for Google to go from a first interview to an offer in such a short period of time. For Dodge, the process from first interview to first day on the job was less than a week.
He’ll be working for another ex-Microsofter, Vic Gundotra. Gundotra worked 15 years at Microsoft as General Manager of Microsoft’s developer outreach efforts. He joined Google in 2007 as VP Engineering, responsible for mobile applications and developer evangelism.
Dodge will have a similar job at Google as he did at Microsoft – developer evangelism. He’ll be focusing on Google Apps.
Good call mike! must have some good sources
What a good win for google indeed… Bad Call Steve! lol
to make this post more interesting, I remember how Microsoft-Bing just let Google Wave be developed without them creating any New App to counter Google Wave.
http://bit.ly/g...ft-yahoo-tandem
History really Repeats itself indeed.
Your zoom on the logo & him – don’t think it didn’t help.
what about the do not compete agreement? all he’ll be able to do is water the grass? this a heads up to the competiton to think twice before you let your best mascots go?
Unenforcible in California. Like slavery and a few other creative agreements.
Nick,
Don Dodge lives in the Boston area. Non-competes are enforceable here in Massachusetts.
So is he moving go California?
He’s been a great cornerstone of supporting the startup community here in Boston.
I’ve been wondering about the non-compete issue myself. Obviously depends on if there even is a non-compete in place, and, if so, what does it say?
Usually they must have a radius based in miles to be enforced.
He may be heading out to a sunnier and warmer climate.
Marsh
He was let go, he did not leave if I remember correctly. The non-compete clause in this case is as good as my old K-Mart stock before the bankruptcy. If he would have left on his own, then that would have been another story.
“Unenforcible in California” is an oversimplification of California law.
For a non-compete clause signed along with a bunch of other papers by a run-of the mill employee on their first day of work, you are correct– those are often held to be unenforcible.
However, for a highly compensated professional who signs a specific employment contract that contains a non-compete– that non-compete clause is most definitely enforcable.
Considering how Google is really bringing it to Microsoft, it just emphasizes what is happening in the global scale of things.
Wow, that was fast.
Good for Google. Don Dodge is a class act.
Seriously, how the hell did you already know during the interview?
Why is the first paragraph appearing twice? :(
this is to make sure you got the idea, and it will make the post longer.
Instant Karma! Do good, be good and good things will continue to happen for you.
Congrats to Don!
Good on you Don! Here’s hoping that you get the opportunity to go head to head with MS Bus Dev again and that you come out on top.
Thanks for the article. It’s funny how whatever resources Microsoft has and do not capitalize on, Google will pick-up sometimes. This usually ends up with Microsoft filing complaints and moaning and groaning, lol.
Thanks again,
J.
great news for google and start-ups
dude the first two paragraphs are the same
Seems Mike pressed ‘Ctrl+v’ twice.
yep
Maybe it was Apple-V?
Only Mike can tell, whether it’s ‘Ctrl+v’ or ‘Apple+v’ .
:”It’s unheard of for Google to go from first interview to offer in such a short period of time. For Dodge, the process from first interview to fist day on the job was less than a week.”
clearly this guy isnt the typical hire
I’m sure the interview was merely a formality.
Also Mike, says “fist day”. I hope you meant “first”, unless Google has some sort of opening day ritual that I don’t know about it.
Actually, I think ‘fist day’ is the term they use to describe the activities during your MS exit interview.
Best TechCrunch comment Ever.
I second that, Drew!
But I love Microsoft too.
I think we all predicted this would happen 11 days ago…
Wow! Big time congrats.
As if it wasn’t obvious enough already, this is yet another sign that Google is gunning for Microsoft with both barrels.
The only questions remaining are whether they’ll be able to avoid Microsoft’s mistakes and whether Google will be just as hated as Microsoft in a few more years.
Seems to be well on its way. A couple of weeks ago I sat through a half hour rant by a drama student from UCLA about how evil Google is. Seems a number of core demographic folks are appalled by the big G’s appetite for information which they see as extremely vicious, greedy and dangerous. Who would’a thunk it? Aparently, lots of people don;t believe that Do No Evil stuff any more.
“aparently” is spelled with 2 p’s and that “;” in “don;t”? You know what that’s supposed to be. Sorry.
So let me get this right, you’re saying a drama student is now the arbitor of good vs evil?
You know drama students. The equivalent of the canary in the coal mine.
Congrats to Don and Google!
Get a copy editor. Not only is the first period appearing twice but you have that idiotic apostrophe in Googlers. You don’t use apostrophes with simple plurals. You know what? If you’re not a good writer…don’t write.
“You know what? If you’re not a good writer…don’t write.”
So unless you’re a born genius who doesn’t need any practice writing (or any editing for that matter), then you should write? Got it.
I’ll add that unless your ego is as big as a solar system, you probably shouldn’t be a copy-editor either.
Signed,
A Writer
“You know what? If you’re not a good writer…don’t write.”
So unless you’re a born genius who doesn’t need any practice writing (or any editing for that matter), then you shouldn’t write? Got it.
I’ll add that unless your ego is as big as a solar system, you probably shouldn’t be a copy-editor either.
Signed,
A Writer
(Duplicate post to fix a typo that this writer caught and a copy-editor missed.)
That was fast. Good for him and good for Google.
Next person who posts about the first paragraph appearing twice is a douchebag.
MSFT is detinitely toast now, with Don Dodge on board the google train.
Yes, they may as well fire everyone else now.
MSFT is going to tank tomorrow when this news gets out in the mainstream media.
I think I saw Lou Dobbs and Geraldo Rivera in Redmond tonight. If I were Steve Ballmer, I’d be refreshing my resume.
How do you come to that conclusion?
Microsoft made a terrible mistake and I’m sure now they are sorry about it. Congrats to Don!
I guess Don really needs the money and needed a job, fast.
Google is picking up the useless fat that Microsoft has been trying to get rid of. These type of evangelists / pseudo-technologists are exactly what have made MS what it is these days: bloated, fat and an incoherent strategy.
The Bobs say the evango-hippies have got to go!
No doubt, I’ve been in teams that were crawling with these, they are getting tossed all over the company now, good riddance! Time to slash HR and recruiting.
Superb!
You know you did a bad move when your enemies are acting so fast….Microsoft will definitely realize their lost… Don was promoting Microsoft like nobody else
Is anyone commanding the USS Failboat that is MSFT?
Do they have anyone or any program that’s reaching out to the startup community? Are they going to try and sell Azure to established businesses?
They have a huge worldwide program reaching out to the startup community.
It’s called BizSpark and they have a student version called WebSpark.
http://microsof...ne.com/bizspark
They give you free software development tools and marketing support for 3 years…plus 8 months of free Azure hosting as well.
Yours can be built in either C# or PHP. They also support jQuery within Visual Studio now.
There are over 22,000 startups worldwide in the BizSpark program.
I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it.
Marsh
And you can comment your code in virtually any language you wish, so long as it uses the latin1 character set. This truly is the future.
This is business 101, hire good people, give them good resources and let them do good things, MSFT has clearly lost the plot without a doubt, good job Don!
Congratulations to Don (and Google).
Will Don still be based in Massachusetts?
Congratulations to Don and Google! Well done for both!
It’s great that Don found a new job so quickly. However, I think everyone is overplaying Don’s importance to Microsoft and his influence in the industry.
It’s not like he was a key developer or a strategic visionary. It sounds like he was in developer evangelism, which is sort of like sales, only without the quota and more networking/smoozing involved. It sounds like he was pretty good. But clearly he wasn’t a Rock Star. If he was a Rock Star, then Microsoft would have a much better reputation/following in places like TechCrunch….and then this really would be the “Big Mistake” everyone is bantering about.
I also find it interesting that one day he’s peddling Microsoft, and the next day he’s peddling Google to the same people. It seems to me that he is just an evangelist mercenary – willing to advocate for any technology company who will pay him (no ill-will, everyone’s got to feed their family, right). It just might put a nick in his credibility armor…“ That Microsoft pitch I gave you last week, that was just a shtick I was peddling….but this new Google stuff I’m talking about today, now this is the real deal, the best thing for you.” I don’t know the details of his current and prior jobs, so maybe it’s not so cut-n-dry.
It’s truly great that Don found a new job and I wish him much success. However, if you think this is breaking news, then you have 1,000 similar stories just waiting to be told (see your TechCrunch Layoff Tracker).
Or, Don did believe in the concept he was selling. The medium may have changed but the development philosophy hasn’t been altered.
InternetCharlie clearly didn’t watch the exit interview, where Don Dodge talked specifically about NOT wanting to be a “evangelist mercenary.”
well said, couldn’t agree more.
What a stupid post. As if one guy can make Microsoft be loved throughout the blogosphere. In fact, Don had way more impact than is normally possible being just one guy. And if you two can buy a clue, Don was evangelizing Microsoft products, not trashing Google’s. In case you dumbsh*ts hadn’t noticed, MSFT is at the same level it was in Nov 1998. It’s business has stalled, it’s products are mediocre and except for Xbox, it hasn’t done anything new in over a decade. It should be trying to keep intelligent employees who are painting bright futures.
Windows 7 rules.
InternetCharlie
You might want to read up on Don Dodge before you start spewing stuff like that around.
Don hasn’t said one bad thing about Microsoft, he’s actually been really loyal to his old employer.
He’s also very much a non black and white guy, as you seem to be. He can see the good in even the competition, so no need to bash others when you can sell your product on what it does better.
And yes it is newsworthy, we are a lot of people who actually like what Don represents and want the best for him. Just because something is not important to you, it might be to a lot of others!
Do you skip through the sports section every time they write about another team than yours, going “Buh I don’t care about this team, write about mine”
PS: He is a rockstar
I second that Rasmus.
So Internet Charlie, you’re smarter than the execs at Google now?
Do you know his background? Have you met him in person? Have you heard his “schtick”?
Don Dodge is a household name here in the Boston startup community.
I guarantee you he’s had more of an technology startup rockstar career than you have had…and I’m not even looking you up.
Marsh
ever wonder why rockstars of startups dont “own” a successful startup of their own? or at least cashed out on one to work when you want and never be subserviant to the whims of emperors. isnt that the ultimate startup goal? breaking away, prospering, leading, changing the game, boldly going where no startup has gone before? some like working for emperors.
Mike,
Why do i feel you had some thing to do with him getting interviewed and hired?
Your influence is becoming scary!
Awesome news for Google. Well
done, Mr. Dodge!
Well done Don
At 01:38 in the article http://www.tech...exit-interview/
the Google Logo Shows up on the screen behind dodge!
:-)
Congrats for Don!
Not to rain on the parade, but I doubt this was the first time he was contacted by Google 9though it appears to be the first time he met with them in person at the Google campus to discuss a role). In recruiting circles, Don was known as a passive candidate on a competitors organizational chart that was seen as an influencer. The one question I’d now like to see asked is when was the first time Google reached out to you in some manner, though Don would likely not answer the question.
Ah, the power of bloggers – now if only companies would see that value in the non-passive candidate segment. There are thousands of highly gifted bloggers out there who know alot more about the subjects than some of the passive candidates being moved around by recruiting teams who often don’t understand the skills they are recruiting for in most cases. To be clear, this is a not the fault of the recruiter but the fault of management teams not valuing or understanding the ture value of hiring the best competencies.
But in this case, chalk one up for the good guys!
Congrats Don!
David, I can tell you this wasn’t the first time Google has talked to me over the years. The fit and timing wasn’t exactly right previous times. This time it worked out well.
Congrats Don!.
I was exchanging emails with Kevin D (Ex MSFT) few days back who you connected recently on LinkedIn.
We were wondering how long it will take for some company like “Google” to offer you a job. It did not take long……
Google at this size still looking for good people.
Most if not all of the job moves I’ve made was generally out on Monday and Tuesday working at the new place. Don is definitely not down in the middle of the pack like I am but it does seem to be a quick move. I expect that the initial news of his layoff on this site probably gave a heads up to the competition that somebody needed to get cracking if they wanted his services. I could see it happening right in front of me and I’m tickled to hear that he is gainfully employed once again.
If you remember his comments on the initial thread showed that he could see the outpouring of support from total strangers and that he was touched by it.
I’ll conclude by giving you, Don, my sincere congratulations on your new place of employment. Go get ‘em….
I am not trying to suckup but,The first thing that came to my mind after reading the news was that ..Arrington is good at predicting things… checkout 7:20 in this video… http://www.tech...exit-interview/
too bad, was hoping he’d do something interesting with a start-up
Don’s not really a startup guy. He should be a good add at GOOG.
Not a startup guy?
He’s been all startups until MSFT.
He’s fellow deNovis alumni.
Was hoping he’d want to do something with SocialGrow! :-)
I hope that Google can absorb all the Microsoft employees (>90000) after Microsoft shuts down (which is what everyone seems to want these days)
These days? Where have you been the last 10 years?
Awesome to see someone loosing his job and getting a new one, whatever they were doing, whatever their next job is going to be.
In this case, I think the news is not really a Don/Google story, but rather, sometimes something bad (laid off) has to happen for something good to get to you.
For many though, the most, the transition will be a long one.
“It’s unheard of for Google to go from a first interview to an offer in such a short period of time. For Dodge, the process from first interview to first day on the job was less than a week.”
- Wow. Many years ago, the first time I interviewed with Google, I had 11 interviews over four rounds over several months and got rejected. At a later time, I had interviewed over a few rounds and then was told by a recruiter that I should be expecting an offer letter soon, only to be told later that someone internally had accepted a position.
Maybe Google is making offers more quickly because there is a steady stream of Googlers leaving Google for other companies because there is not much upside potential at Google and it’s big and bureaucratic.
My friend at Facebook says there is a steady weekly stream of new ex-Google employees starting at the company and that FB is now approximately 20% ex-Google (I’m not surprised it is not higher…)
Sacking Don Dodge was a bad mistake by Microsoft and is symptomatic of its inability to compete in a truly competitive market.
Microsoft bosses are under the pump, Microsoft programmers are under the pump, Microsoft sales staff are under the pump, and the result is a company in a state of panic.
Such mistakes are not going to decrease, in fact they will increase, because the Microsoft culture is incapable of handling the new business models it is competing against.
Good news. Good luck
As a Google partner who works on Google Apps solutions, I am excited to hear this! I was hoping he would go this direction. I feel like he mentioned gmail in his interview with you last week and that made me think this was going to happen.
The soggy days are over, Don!
Here comes the Sun(ny Kalifornia)!
Don dodge might not be the best Google Apps supporter at the start as for he has supported the Microsoft Platform but now Google having him has the advantage of expanding and reaching towards those targets and markets where Google never imagined to go.
Good snatch Google Kudos
http://thetechn...hire-don-dodge/
Yet another indication that Microsoft’s values devs/prosumers differnetly. Google gladly will grab anyone with a proven capacity of rallying these folks and adding to their pro-people brand. They, Facebook and Twitter have a big lead when it comes to growing their prosumer clouds.
I’d like to take full credit for letting Don know in the other thread about this new-fangled “Google” company and the fact that they might need his skills :-).
Congrats Don!! Time to rock the Plex :-).
Cheers,
- Bill
He’s a spy from Microsoft.
MS may be losing some good employees, but they have a bigger problem. They are starting to lose me, one of their biggest developer/fan boys. If it wasn’t that .Net was just such an awesome set of tools I would have been gone already. It is sad to see all of these other companies doing things better than MS – or getting there first.
The trend is bound to accelerate as the prosumer bar is lowered and more and more people start contributing meaningfully to platforms. The bright side – expect more incentives and rewards!
Its nice to see a good guy like Don land on his feet so quickly. Balmer and co made a big mistake letting him go.
May be Google made a big mistake hiring him?