[munificent]

> This will launch, putter along for a couple of years and then get shuttered unless it's a surprise success.

You say that like it's a bad thing, but isn't that effectively how Silicon Valley as a whole operates? Most startups putter along for a few years before running out of money and getting shuttered. A couple become surprise successes and take off.

Google is effectively just a single corporation acting like a hive of startups.