Well, they're supposed to know the startup beyond the i-saw-you-on-hacker-news level. Be able to argue why it's a good startup and be able to introduce them...
But yeah.. I can see a bunch of Googlers bending the rules and reaching out to unknown startups they happen to see in HN. After all, there are incentives for both the startup and the Googler.
FTA : "If Google Ventures invests, the employee that referred the startup gets the $10,000 in cash."
Seems like a win-win-win for all 3 but hinges on one criteria -- How many startups does GV invest in ? Is this number expected to increase dramatically?
GV in one shot will increase the quality (current employees won't pitch crap) and quantity of investment opportunities its going to see.
I had a dream last night (after reading this article) where I met a Google employee (who happened to look a lot like Agent Frank Lundy from Dexter, it was weird) and I was trying to give him a demo of my project. For some reason my laptop was running really slowly and stuff kept popping up and messing up my demo, it was awful!
I blame this article on my dream last night.
So...any Google employees want to become fast friends? I like Python, Django, Android, Git, and long walks on the beach.
