Be a smart computer scientist

Get a job at Google

Leave Google,create startup

Use your Google resume to get high profile Silicon Valley backing

Build something cool, win some fans

Sell to Google

Tell Silicon Valley insider press about sale

Kill product, break a few hearts, get absorbed again by Google but with millions of dollars in your pocket

Work on less interesting Google product…

Repeat, if you can get away with it.

via Etherpad Goes to Google – Just Another Silicon Valley Soap Opera.