🧬 16 Years at Google Taught Me How to Scale From 1 to 150 People

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"You had this combination of being able to move fast, make changes quickly, but at the same time, responsibility and empowerment."

In this part of the podcast, Javier Tordable shares his early career journey—from starting at Microsoft to spending 16 years at Google as a Staff Engineer and Technical Director. He reflects on the engineering-driven culture at Microsoft and the welcoming environment that shaped his foundation in tech.

Javier recounts joining Google in 2008 when the company was still under 25,000 people, and details his work building key features for Webmaster Tools (now Google Search Console), including the Fetch as Googlebot feature. He and Jon also swap stories about the scrappy early days of building products with limited resources.

Key Topics Covered:

Javier's early career at Microsoft and its engineering-driven culture
Transitioning to Google in 2008 and the interview process
Building features for Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console
Google's culture of empowerment and moving fast
Comparing early startup resourcefulness with big-tech engineering scale

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Subscribe to the Podcast:

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Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Find our guest, Javier Tordable at these links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtordable

Website: https://www.pauling.ai/

Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee/

Learn more about Excedr:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/

Website: https://www.excedr.com

Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:

Website: https://flow.page/kyojin

Resources & Articles:

Engineering Leadership and Tech Lead Responsibilities: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/careers/ic-leadership/tech-lead/

Google Search Console and Webmaster Tools: https://search.google.com/search-console/about

Organizational Design in Tech Companies: https://a16z.com/scaling-your-technical-org/

Scaling Engineering Organizations and Process Documentation: https://stripe.com/guides/atlas/scaling-eng

SEO Tools for Business Growth: https://www.semrush.com/seo/

Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:

Google: https://www.google.com

Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:56 Adjusting to US Culture from Spain

04:06 Microsoft's Engineering-Driven Culture

05:20 Joining Google in the Post-IPO Era

06:40 How the Google Opportunity Came About

08:46 Working at Google: Speed and Scale

09:12 Building Webmaster Tools and Search Console

10:06 Jon's Early Days Starting Excedr

12:26 Transitioning to Ads as Staff Engineer

16:58 Management Roles and Team Leadership

18:59 Operating at Google's Massive Scale

20:29 Documentation and Knowledge Management

21:05 Office Culture and In-Person Collaboration

27:16 Outro