> Corporate Development, aka corp dev, is the group within companies that buys other companies. If you're talking to someone from corp dev, that's why, whether you realize it yet or not.
Can someone piece this together?
> I remember once complaining to a friend at Google about some nasty trick their corp dev people had pulled on a YC startup. "What happened to Don't be Evil?" I asked. "I don't think corp dev got the memo," he replied. [3]
Hey, Paul Graham not afraid to call out Google! Good for him.
I deleted my comment with the same complaint. He means if someone from another company's corp dev is talking to you it's because they may want to buy your company. This was unexpectedly unclear coming from PG.
The (unstated) context is that PG is talking to startups. They don't have CorpDev of their own, because they're startups. So the only CorpDev they could be talking to is someone else's.
I'll agree that it could have been clearer. But it was probably clear enough to be workable for the target audience.
yes the 'thats why' is referring to the previous sentence, 'is the group within companies that buys other companies'. So he's saying 'hey this is the group that buys other companies, if you're talking to them it's because they [maybe] want to buy you'. Not really clear though.
I think he means it this way: "...if you're talking to corp dev (as opposed to anyone else, or the person you expected to talk to), it's because they're the ones in charge of buying other companies...."
Can someone piece this together?
> I remember once complaining to a friend at Google about some nasty trick their corp dev people had pulled on a YC startup. "What happened to Don't be Evil?" I asked. "I don't think corp dev got the memo," he replied. [3]
Hey, Paul Graham not afraid to call out Google! Good for him.