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Comment on Ask HN: Did Google/Alphabet ever try to build a Starlink?parent

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your comments remind me of some related, potential factors. I was at Google in the early aughts... definitely had some mega futuristics visions (including later with moonshot).

But their CFO (excellent, loved by everyone) had major traditional telco background, so GoogleFi was natural idea, despite it's limited market traction. And you are right -- Google dominant mindset was "ad supported" everything.

Separately, Musk of course was physics major. Google 99% CS. So mindsets and ideas vary (with plenty of overlap too)

I think you are referring to Nikesh Arora, who runs Palo Alto Networks, the telco guy. He was the business guy, not the CFO.

I don't think Look etc was seen as competitive to Google Fi at all. If anything, that would have been a distribution channel. It was entirely execution-related. Musk is much more serious at shipping than Google where X was mostly Sergey's playground of hobby projects.

Nikesh was a telco guy, too. But I was referring to Patrick Pichette, Goog CFO. Before Google, Patrick was at Bell Canada, as President of Operations and CFO.

Agree with your sentiment about Musk shipping.

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