10,000 people joined Microsoft - Scoble, Niall, and Gundotra left

10,000 people joined Microsoft this year while three notable people (Scoble, Niall, Gundotra)left to pursue other interests. Techmeme is buzzing about Niall Kennedy's announcement that he is leaving to start his own company. Good luck to Niall! He is a great young guy and has a bright future ahead of him. Niall joined Microsoft in April and is leaving August 18th, so he really didn't give it much of a chance. But I understand the burning desire to do a startup...and do it fast before someone else does.

While I know all three of these guys and have a lot of respect for them, Microsoft will do just fine without them. There are 70,000 talented people at Microsoft. They wouldn't miss me if I left either. In fact, Bill Gates could leave and Microsoft wouldn't skip a beat. That is how strong and deep the team at Microsoft is today. Note, Bill hasn't left yet. He just announced that he will be leaving his day to day role in two years to devote full time to his charitable foundation.

I have worked on the management team of five startups, notably AltaVista, Napster, and Groove Networks. It was a blast! Working for Microsoft is a blast too. I love my job. Working with VCs and startups to build partnerships with Microsoft is what I love to do. On the other hand, if I was stuck in the bowels of a product group in Redmond and couldn't bring my ideas to fruition quickly...I would probably move on too.

Microsoft alumni have spawned lots of startups. It is a beautiful thing.

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Comments

[Lloyd D Budd]

Your experience is very different than mine including my four years with IBM. For me, even in software engineering *sic*, it has always been the people and their relationships.

Microsoft does have the opportunity to minimize the negative impact of these or Bill Gates departer, but it is far from a sure thing.

Given the current entrepreneurial climate in the industry, I think it would have been difficult for Microsoft to keep on staff those three at this stage in their careers.

Quantities of people don't solve problems (runaway projects or otherwise), individuals do, working together ;-)

[Don Dodge]

I agree that it is all about the people and relationships. You can work for the best company in the world, but if your immediate supervisor is a jerk...you will not have a good impression of the company. I have been lucky in that regard.

You are also correct that numbers of people don't necessarily help the situation. I wrote a blog about 6 months ago about hiring practices for startups. I stated that 1 superstar engineer is worth 100 average engineers. Even if you paid teh superstar 10X you are still getting a great deal. Always hire the best people, even if they are better than you. Many mid level managers are afraid to hire people better than them because it will make them look bad. The opposite is true.

[niallkennedy]

You misspelled Vic's name. Should be Vic Gundotra here and all the blogs with the copy and paste comments too.

[Don Dodge]

Niall, good catch. I have changed the title and text to reflect the proper spelling of Gundotra.

Good luck in your future plans. You have a bright future ahead of you...whatever you choose to do.

Don