Google Brain Drain Continues

Big news at Google as Sheryl Sanberg announced that she is hopping over to take the COO role at Facebook.

This is the same movie as the one I saw at Ebay in 2004. Expect to continue seeing many more announcements like these, as options have vested for a lot of folks and the demand for the Google pedigree grows.

One thing going for Google is the uncertainty in the market. Good talent will be more reluctant to jump to emerging companies if the funding and exit environment looks tepid.

This isn’t to bash Google at all. It’s part of a company’s natural evolution. It’s hard to have a large organization with so many A+ players. I think it was Jack Welch who said that great companies that have been around a long time are built on maximizing their “B” players and giving “A+” players the freedom to grow and innovate.