>Some Rough Statistics (from August 29th, 1996)
Total indexable HTML urls: 75.2306 Million
Total content downloaded: 207.022 gigabytes
>The first funding for Google as a company was secured in
August 1998 in the form of a US$100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim
>
>In January 2004, Mark Zuckerberg began writing the code for a new website, known as 'theFacebook'.
> Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.
>In the summer of 2004, venture capitalist Peter Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment
>
So both were up and running before getting investment. And not massive amounts to begin with. I do kind of disagree with Taleb's point:
>What is needed? 1) .... and above all, 5) risk loving
Neither Page nor Zuckerberg took much risk. If their projects failed business wise they just would have ended up with a PhD from Stanford and a degree from Harvard respectively. What they had that was needed was enthusiasm for building cool stuff.
Google started with practical attempts to improve searches and had a hard time at first because they were a search engine when people thought search engines were over. Facebook started as a way of connecting people at school and didn't get big funding until much later when the leader took a major risk by leaving school which seems to emphasize what Taleb is saying about risk being central. Relying on funding too soon may indicate that investors are the only real customers.
>Some Rough Statistics (from August 29th, 1996) Total indexable HTML urls: 75.2306 Million Total content downloaded: 207.022 gigabytes
>The first funding for Google as a company was secured in August 1998 in the form of a US$100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim
>
>In January 2004, Mark Zuckerberg began writing the code for a new website, known as 'theFacebook'.
> Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.
>In the summer of 2004, venture capitalist Peter Thiel made a $500,000 angel investment
>
So both were up and running before getting investment. And not massive amounts to begin with. I do kind of disagree with Taleb's point:
>What is needed? 1) .... and above all, 5) risk loving
Neither Page nor Zuckerberg took much risk. If their projects failed business wise they just would have ended up with a PhD from Stanford and a degree from Harvard respectively. What they had that was needed was enthusiasm for building cool stuff.