One of the more freewheeling, I hope, and fun sessions at Web 2 this year will be “The Google Alumni Club“.
This idea for this panel came from the observation that 1. Google is getting very big, 2. Folks are vesting out, and 3. Startups are often more fun/lucrative/stimulating/free than big companies.
That means interesting folks are leaving Google and doing new things. I’ve got four of them on the panel
Franck Poisson, CEO and Founder, Webwag (ran Google France)
David Friedberg, CEO, WeatherBill (ran a chunk of AdWords, and was a key Biz Dev dude)
Patrick Keane, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive (was a key ad strategy man)
Bret Taylor, Entrepreneur in Residence, Benchmark Capital (key developer guy, and also launched Local, Maps, etc.)
Each of these folks had senior positions at Google, but left. What would YOU ask them?