Google Employee #302 (Virtually) Visits CC

On October 3, 2023, two of CC’s Economics & Business classes, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Investments, had a virtual class visit with Ted Souder, former Google executive and one of the company’s earliest employees. (The writer would like to note here that the need to hyperlink “Google” or provide any kind of descriptor doesn’t seem necessary. The understanding of what Google is seems intrinsic to today’s readers, and thus also points to the significance of this guest.)

Now retired from Google after 20+ years with the company, Souder travels the world, sharing his practices of the Google playbook with businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations. He is the authority on the transformative power of having a digital mindset. Just before Zooming in to CC, Souder was in Chamonix, France, where he was leading the Summit of Minds with prominent global business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers, and thinkers. He is also a board member of 1871, an incubator for startups in Chicago and one of the world’s largest technology incubators, and the former director of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

For this visit, Souder joined CC’s Executive-in-Residence Jacquie Amacher and students from the Block 2 Business classes for a “fireside chat” to discuss his experience in the tech world, life as an entrepreneur, and his thoughts on the current state and future of digital business.

Amacher noted at the beginning of the chat that Google had recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary, pointing out that the company had its start before any of the students in the room were even alive. Souder then commented that, while this is true, most of the people at the company in those early days, were not much older than today’s college students. He went on to share stories about the early days of Google:

After sharing what life was like in the early days of the tech world, Souder shifted to his thoughts on entrepreneurship. “I always like to say that great entrepreneurs have a healthy disregard for the way things are currently done and they try to come up with something better,” he said. He advised the students that great entrepreneurship is about, “taking an existing business and updating it with modern thinking, updating it with a digital first mindset. And there are infinite opportunities to do that. So don’t worry that if you’re not an engineer solving some computer science problem, there’s a zillion opportunities to be a fabulous entrepreneur doing other things too.”

Next, he spoke to the idea of being an entrepreneur. Amacher asked if Souder considered himself an entrepreneur and, if so, what that meant:

When asked what entrepreneur he would want to have dinner with, the answer certainly took several people in the class by surprise:

As he was speaking to an entrepreneurial marketing class, Souder then touched on the difference between traditional marketing and entrepreneurial marketing:

When asked what he thinks one of the biggest challenges is for newer entrepreneurs, Souder stated that, more than anything, it’s time management online. “How do you spend more time online in a quality manner, as opposed to just kind of endlessly scrolling… because it’s all of a sudden two hours later and you haven’t done anything. You’re not any smarter as a result of it.”

The conversation then shifted from the successes to the less touted side of business and marketing. “Failure is a part of the entrepreneurial journey,” said Amacher. “I was curious if you could share any notable experiments or even a failure within Google, that you could speak to and what the impact of that failure had on the business.”

The answer was quick and easy for Souder:

Afterward, the conversation opened up for students to ask questions. One student asked about the work ethic and leadership styles in the early days of Google:

Lastly, Souder was asked what he thought were some key trends as they relate to digital marketing that entrepreneurs should be aware of in the current market landscape:

In closing…

SOME WORDS OF ADVICE FROM TED SOUDER

1. Whatever you do, you should always strive to provide the best service, to provide the best customer experience, to provide the best work environment for your employees. And if you do all of that, you’re going to be more successful than if you don’t.
2. Don’t build for today. Build for the future. So, when you’re going and talking to a startup founder or you’re interviewing someone or you’re reading a business plan… If you think, “there’s no way,” or if your first reaction is, “that’s crazy,” or if you’re like, “huh, how’s it even possible?” That’s the business you go join. It’s the importance of vision.
3. Get out there and meet people. You can’t have a big enough network. You can’t shake enough hands. You can’t take enough coffees with people and you can’t attend enough industry type events. You can’t engage enough with LinkedIn. The greatest things in your life, the greatest opportunities that come your way, will come as a result of the network that you have.