America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 18 Headquarters

Mountain View, Ernst decided to locate Google's headquarters there.

Not only does it follow history, but a very important point is the geographical location.

Like Santa Barbara, where Ernst lives, Mountain View is also a city under the jurisdiction of Santa Barbara County, but the two places are far apart, with a straight-line distance of more than 400 kilometers.

It borders Palo Alto to the north, Los Altos to the southwest, Sunnyvale to the southeast, and San Francisco Bay to the northeast. It is an inland area surrounded by California universities.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, and of course, the most important is Stanford University, located in Palo Alto, just over ten kilometers from Mountain View. This area can be considered a talent production base.

In the tech world, talent is the hard currency, and education is the money-printing machine!

"How's it going? Are you satisfied with the office environment?"

An old white building in Mountain View now has a Google logo hanging at the entrance, designed by Ernst himself.

The building has four floors and an office area of ​​over 700 square meters. It has a very old feel, with peeling paint on the walls that looks like a game of tearing name tags, and cracks in the walls big enough to fit a small penis.

If it hadn't been simply renovated, it would definitely be the best venue for a haunted house murder mystery game.

But Ernst was overjoyed, as if he had struck gold. Why? Because it was large, had a separate courtyard, and was over 300 square meters in size, offering a secluded and independent environment.

The key point is that the rent is ridiculously cheap, only $11 a year. I guess the landlord also knows that he can't rent it out at all without spending money on renovations.

The fact that they rented it to Ernst at such a low price doesn't mean they didn't want him to pay for the renovations.

But he miscalculated; Ernst was now a complete pauper.

Because Dolly Pictures acquired the rights to the Hulk and Iron Man, Ernst was forced to take out another loan.

He now has less than eight million dollars in funds, of which five million dollars were used as seed money for Google.

Even renovating an office building requires careful budgeting, and this still cost him over $400,000, which shows how much damage the headquarters had suffered.

"That's great, I thought it would be in the garage."

Larry Page looked around at his surroundings and was very satisfied.

"While I don't deny the garage culture in America, I'm still willing to do my best to provide my employees with a relatively comfortable working environment."

In America, garage culture is very popular, it's a family tradition, and countless large companies have been born in this place.

It's not that the founders like it, but that they have no other choice.

The main reason is that it's cheap. In most people's minds, a garage is just a single-function building used to park cars. But in American families, garages are actually idle most of the time, and cars are mostly parked on the street for easier travel.

Therefore, many families choose to rent out their garages to people in need as storage rooms to finance their homes.

Another reason is that American law allows companies to be registered at a residential address.

But more important is superstition, also known as garage culture.

Many large companies in America started in garages, such as Harley-Davidson, which was founded by three brothers in a garage in Milwaukee.

The same goes for Chevrolet. This century-old brand, which represents the American spirit, also had its first car born in a rented garage.

Of course, the company that had the most profound impact on technology companies was Hewlett-Packard, the origin of the Silicon Valley myth.

$538, a rented garage, created one of the world's most famous brands.

Countless business tycoons have defied the odds by working in their garages, leading many startup founders to believe that great companies can only be created in garages. But this is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Without air conditioning, ventilation, or heating, and without sunlight, who would choose a garage if given a choice?

A windowsill with some flowers and plants, an office with central air conditioning, a cafeteria, and a lounge—compared to a garage, any working person knows which to choose.

"Ernst, you're right, at least I'm very satisfied with the fact that there are no limits on food and snacks."

Jason Arlington, Google's current CFO.

Strictly speaking, this person shouldn't be considered someone Ernst recruited, but rather someone he invited.

The two are relatives, because Ernst's mother, Svetlana, originally had the surname Arlington, so this guy is Ernst's cousin.

I certainly can't be stationed at Google all the time, so I need a trustworthy person to help me manage Google's finances.

Jason graduated from the University of Notre Dame. Despite the university's funny name and lack of fame, its Dosa School of Business's accounting program has consistently ranked among the top in the United States, always in the top ten.

This American-style obese cousin is ten years older than Ernst. After graduating, he went to Wall Street. The reason he was able to resign and come to Google is simply because Ernst's promises were too good to be true.

"Finance can be very profitable, but it's not all your money. Relying on a salary will keep you a slave your whole life. Believe me, within ten years I will help you achieve financial freedom and become someone who can truly live a life of luxury."

Of course, Jason wouldn't quit his job with an annual salary of over $300,000 just because of this argument, in order to earn Ernst's annual salary of $80,000.

Besides his optimism about Google, Ernst also promised MGM a satisfactory position for him even if Google went bankrupt.

"If everyone eats like this, I might have to change my mind. I don't want Google to become the first internet company in history to be eaten into bankruptcy by its employees."

The staff canteen is one of Ernst's ways of retaining talent, aiming to make employees feel a sense of belonging to the company.

This kind of benefit became common in major American internet companies in later generations, but in this day and age, employee cafeterias are still a very special existence, and even Wall Street giants do not set them up.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of American meals—fried chicken legs, sandwiches, hamburgers, various fruits and vegetables, along with some coffee, drinks, and ice cream—which may satisfy employees, but for the wicked capitalists, these are all costs.

For someone like Jason, a meal consisting of two hamburgers or sandwiches, a fried chicken leg with a vegetable and fruit salad, two bottles of beverages, and a few scoops of Häagen-Dazs would cost nearly twenty dollars, which would amount to five hundred dollars a month.

If there are few employees, it's not a big deal, but if there are many employees, this expense will become a burden.

But Ernst was still willing to do it, not only as a competitive tactic, but also as a way to strike at his rivals.

Raising the cost of talent and increasing benefits will naturally attract more talent, forcing competitors to cut costs on benefits.

Once competitors follow suit, costs will increase, turning it into a game of capital, where it comes down to who has more money.

For giants, this is a very effective way to crack down on emerging competitors.

Therefore, capitalists are never kind-hearted; every sugar-coated bullet has an ulterior motive.

"Call Marissa, let's meet in the conference room for Google's first high-level meeting."

Marissa Mayer, Google's Chief Marketing Officer; Jason Arlington, Chief Financial Officer; Larry Page, Vice President of Research and Development; Sergey Brin, Vice President and Vice President of Human Resources; Wenger, who handled legal affairs; and Ernst, the President—this is Google's current senior management team.

Marissa and Jason are professionals who have worked in their respective fields for many years and have extensive experience.

Sergei and Larry, on the other hand, made full use of their respective strengths.

Larry Page is an introverted man with a passion for technology. He likes to think about problems from a macro perspective, making him the perfect candidate to lead the R&D department.

Sergei Brin, on the other hand, is outgoing, good at conversation, and likes to solve problems by starting with details, making him more suitable for an administrative position.

As for why they're given the title "Deputy," well, there's no reason to feed them all at once; they need to be kept on the hook.