[ChuckMcM]

I am aware of the difficulty. Google X is hardly "from scratch" however.

First, you have all of the infrastructure for a business already in place. Even when I was there it was straight forward to get resources allocated to a project.

Next, you have billions of "seats" in that users the world over are already using Google branded services every day, have a reasonably good impression on the brand, and typically a low barrier to "trying out something new."

Finally, you have a tremendous amount of smart, experienced, people you can call on for advice for free! I know a lot of people have left but when I was there it wasn't uncommon to have the argument about a thing settled by the person who invented the thing weighing in on the argument. While it became clear to me that Google and I were not compatible long term, it was still intoxicating to walk around bounce ideas of some really really sharp people who could trim months off idea research and development.

As a result of that, starting businesses within Google was akin to scoring in baseball where you got to start at third base (or maybe second base if it was a longer stretch). That is significantly easier than starting from scratch.