The Godmother of Google
Rest in Peace, Susan Wojcicki
Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO and a key figure in Google’s creation, dies at age 56, after two years of living with cancer
By Abner Li / 9to5Google. View the full context on Techmeme.
I only met Susan Wojcicki a handful of times – first as a reporter and later during my time at Google – but I know a lot of people who knew her well. All of them always had nothing but great and glowing things to say about her in any context. In an industry full of fools, she was the real deal – and perhaps relatedly, she didn't get nearly the credit she deserved for everything she did to weave Google into the fabric of the world. Because she didn't seek out such credit, as so many do.
She's getting that credit now, posthumously, thanks to all of the great obituaries and remembrances about her life. Some of the best I've read below:
Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Dies at 56
Susan Wojcicki is one of this era’s great unsung executives—and was crucial to Google’s trajectory from its very beginnings in her garage.
Steven Levy:
Though Wojcicki’s career at Google/Alphabet qualifies her as one of the era’s unsung great executives, the circumstances of her original role of landlord has become the stuff of legend. Wojcicki once speculated that Google’s roots in a residential area led to the company's famous practice of coddling employees, where the workplace offered the comforts of home. “For example, having a shower is really important,” she once told me. “When you’re attracting a really young group that’s mostly come out of college, having these services is pretty important, like having food around, or a washer and dryer.” Google’s notorious food culture, she said, started one day when she and her husband ordered the refrigerator for their kitchen. When the delivery man came, Wojcicki was in the shower. “Sergey and Larry answered the door and said, ‘Oh, a new refrigerator—install it here, in the garage!” she recalled. That appliance essentially became the nexus of the first Google micro-kitchen.
In 2011, I interviewed Wojcicki at the WIRED business conference and asked her why, despite making a fortune from her early stake in the company, she kept working there. She flipped the question back to me, asking why I wrote the Google book I just published. Then she spoke from the heart. "Google is fascinating," she said, "and the book isn't finished. I'm creating, living, building, and writing those chapters." Her company, her family, and all of the business world will miss the chapters not written.
An incredible life and career
Message from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to employees mourning the passing of early Googler and former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Sundar Pichai
Susan always put others first, both in her values and in the day to day. I’ll never forget her kindness to me as a prospective “Noogler” 20 years ago. During my Google interview she took me out for an ice cream and a walk around campus. I was sold - on Google and Susan.
Susan Wojcicki, Internet Pioneer at Google, YouTube, Dies at 56
Susan Wojcicki, an early Google executive and long-time head of its YouTube video service who shaped how fortunes and fame are created on the internet, has died. She was 56.
Mark Bergen
“Susan is the true godmother of Google,” Keval Desai, an investor and former Google colleague, said when Wojcicki left YouTube. “She is a person who had a bigger impact than any of her titles would suggest.”
Thank You Susan
Thank you Susan. I owe a lot to you. Many people do. I’m thinking mostly about your wonderful family right now, but I did want to share two…
Hunter Walk
“Join product,” you said. And I thanked you for the offer but let you know that I was pretty excited about marketing. You leaned in a bit and said,
“Hunter, there are three ways things happen at Google. What Larry, Sergey and Eric want. What I want. And what You want. The first two want you to become a PM.”
Momentarily paused by this Godfather-style offer I couldn’t refuse, you then relaxed and said a bit more collaboratively, “Look, I spoke with Jonathan [Rosenberg] and come do product, and if you don’t like it, transfer into product marketing then. But Product is really where you want to be at a place like Google.”
Ms. Wojcicki was four months pregnant with the couple’s first child in 1999 when she joined Google; by then, the company had left her garage for more conventional office space. She campaigned for paid parental leave to become standard not only at Google but at other businesses, promoting the policy in an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal in 2014. She and Mr. Troper had five children.
A Silicon Valley pioneer who locked in on excellence
Susan Wojcicki was the model for excellence and responsibility that Silicon Valley often lacked
Adam Lashinsky
The Valley is full of bright and talented people who believe they are infinitely brighter and more talented than they are simply because they landed at a fabulously valuable technology company. Other than having been at the right place at the right time by providing housing to the still-wet-behind-the-ears Page and Brin, Wojcicki wasn’t like that. Even as Google employee No. 16, Wojcicki remained grounded and approachable long after Google grew massive and she joined its management team.