The Social Radars Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel (Part 3)
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Apr 9, 2025 
In this engaging chat, Ron Conway, the founder of SV Angel, shares his journey as a venture capitalist with landmark investments, including Google. He reflects on the early days of Google, highlighting the competitive environment that birthed its success. Ron recounts humorous stories from the startup culture, offers insights into funding strategies, and discusses the emotional dynamics of key tech figures. The conversation also touches on significant moments like Google’s acquisition of YouTube, showcasing the relationships that shaped the tech landscape.
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Early Search Landscape
- Ron Conway learned about the search industry through his investment in Ask Jeeves in the mid-90s.
- The search landscape back then was cluttered, similar to the AI industry today, with many companies vying for market share.
Introduction to Google
- Ron Conway learned about Google through David Cheriton at a holiday party.
- Cheriton mentioned BackRub, a search algorithm developed by two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Google's PageRank
- Google's PageRank algorithm was revolutionary because it used backlinks to determine page relevance, a novel concept at the time.
- This approach aimed to surface the most authoritative and useful websites for a given search query.