I'm glad Apple didn't buy Nest

[Rogifan]

This article from The Information about Tony Fadell and the Nest culture is just brutal. Fadell sounds like Steve Jobs but only the ******* part. I can't see how he ever would have fit in at Tim Cook's Apple.

https://daringfireball.net/misc/2016/03/the-information-tony-fadell.html

Mr. Fadell attended Mr. Rogers’ wedding last year. Afterward, Mr. Fadell ordered Mr. Rogers to cancel his month-long honeymoon in June, Mr. Rogers confirmed. A spokeswoman for Nest said it was a critical time at the company: Nest was announcing a refresh of its entire product line. When Mr. Rogers refused, Mr. Fadell told him that if he went, he wouldn’t have a job when he came back. Mr. Rogers went anyway. Mr. Fadell did not follow up on his threat.

 

[Zirel]

I also read that.

Interesting that the mainstream media didn't pick that, if it were Apple...

Google is always perfect.

 

[Rogifan]

Wow Dropcam founder had a go at Tony Fadell on Medium.

https://medium.com/@gduffy/the-dropcam-team-b9e81f44f259#.1uqkvjw5a

I can’t publish Dropcam’s revenue, but if you knew what percentage of all of Alphabet’s “other bets” revenue was brought in by the relatively tiny 100-person Dropcam team that Fadell derides, Nest itself would not look good in comparison. So, if Fadell wants to stick by his statement, I challenge him to release full financials (easy prediction: he won’t).

The ~50 Dropcam employees who resigned did so because they felt their ability to build great products being totally crushed. All of us have worked at big companies before, where it is harder to move fast. But this is something different, as evidenced by the continued lack of output from the currently 1200-person team and its virtually unlimited budget. According to LinkedIn, total attrition to date at Nest amounts to nearly 500 people, which suggests that we were not alone in our frustrations.

One gets the impression Fadell is not very well liked in SV. Jan Dawson published some really odd tweets from Fadell on his site.

Every time a not so nice story has come out about him he takes to Twitter and re-tweets people saying nice things about him. It's almost like Fadell wants to emulate Steve Jobs but at the same time is desperate to show that he's loved. A few months ago someone tweeted Fadell saying they wished he was CEO of Apple. He actually responded to the tweet and said something like "I'm flattered". Ok I'm sorry but that's not a tweet you respond to or if you do not in that way.

 

[Rogifan]

Brutal assessment from Nest engineer.

https://twitter.com/caseynewton/status/717127794858156032

I suspect Fadell will be gone from Alphabet within a year. Rumors are the Amazon Echo like product is being developed by Google, not Nest. Interesting that the executives closest to Steve who are still at Apple don't seem to have inherited his worst traits whereas the ones who have left did.

 

[maflynn]

Brutal assessment from Nest engineer.

I think the issues with Nest is Tony Fadell, while he founded the company, one has to wonder about how he's running the division now. I've not known any managers who blame their employees and be a successful leader.

Interesting that the executives closest to Steve who are still at Apple don't seem to have inherited his worst traits whereas the ones who have left did.

I wonder if this is why Apple chose not to pursue Nest.

 

[Rogifan]

I think the issues with Nest is Tony Fadell, while he founded the company, one has to wonder about how he's running the division now. I've not known any managers who blame their employees and be a successful leader.


I wonder if this is why Apple chose not to pursue Nest.

In that becoming Steve Jobs book there's a small section about Tony Fadell and one definitely walks away with the impression that there is no love lost for Fadell at Apple (at least amongst the current executive team). Perhaps some of the tech media treating Fadell as the next Steve Jobs went to his head a bit. But part of me also wonders if it wasn't his own PR people pushing this narrative. It is interesting that whenever something negative about him or Nest comes out he starts re-tweeting nice comments people tweeted to him. Says to me he's got some insecurities. Also interesting that you don't see anyone coming out to defend him. Even Alphabet has been basically silent.

As far as Apple acquiring Nest, i always wondered where it would go from an organizational standpoint. Apple already has leaders for hardware engineering, hardware design and chip/wireless technology. I don't see how Tony Fadell fits into that picture. Plus Nest probably didn't have valuable enough IP that Apple felt it was worth paying $3B for. Also if Fadell is that difficult to work for I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for Apple to woo back some of the Nest engineers that previously worked at Apple.