Copyright Benzinga
Former Nest CEO Tony Fadell holds a rare vantage point in Silicon Valley, having worked closely with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) cofounder Steve Jobs and, later, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) cofounder Larry Page and says he learned different lessons from each. Tony Fadell’s Lessons From Steve Jobs "I respect what Larry and Sergey (Brin) have built. I've learned a lot from Larry, and a lot of the people that they've hired are just top-notch. For me, it's really contrasting this with Steve [Jobs], because I learned a lot from Steve about experience and marketing and product design,” Fadell told Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance in 2016 while discussing his decision to step down from Nest. “With Larry in particular, it was about looking out well beyond the horizon and trying to pull out that horizon you can't see. They can jump up really high and see it well before anyone else does and try to pull it in. That is unheard of in Cupertino (Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters), from my experience there. To me that was an eye-opener,” Fadell explained. See Also: Ford CEO Jim Farley Predicts EV Adoption In US Will Only Be About 5% As Company Pauses F-150 Lightning Production Page's Influence: Looking Far Beyond The Horizon “Every time I open up another (Google research) lab or somebody introduced me to something, I'm like, ‘What? You're doing that? Oh, my God.' And it just—you know, it's candy for my brain," he added. Often dubbed the mercurial "godfather" of the iPod and a key contributor to the first iPhone, Fadell said Jobs shaped his thinking on marketing, product design and end-to-end experience, while Page pressed him to "look well beyond the horizon." Culture Contrasts And Career Timeline Fadell has also contrasted the cultures at Apple and Google. He has argued that Google's perks and freedom can breed complacency, whereas Apple's intensity meant "you couldn't hide." "Everyone was critical," he said, recalling the difference after Nest was acquired. After early roles at General Magic and Philips and a failed startup, Fuse, Fadell joined Apple in 2001, leading the team that launched the iPod and later working on the first iPhone. He co-founded Nest in 2010. Google bought the smart-home company for $3.2 billion in 2014 and Fadell stepped down as Nest CEO in 2016, remaining an adviser. Now an investor through Build Collective (formerly Future Shape), Fadell backs deep-tech startups. Among them is Smartex, a Portuguese firm founded in 2018 that uses artificial intelligence to prevent textile waste on factory lines. Read Next: T-Mobile Touts Close Collaboration With Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Aims To Replicate 5G Lead In Satellite: ‘Flying Towers In Space’ Photo Courtesy: Anton_Ivanov on Shutterstock.com
