[HN Gopher] The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
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       The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
        
       Author : krajzeg
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2024-09-05 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (medium.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
        
       | dmonitor wrote:
       | Fascinating story. It's amazing hearing about how the seed of an
       | idea that eventually became Steam started from preventing piracy
       | of Half-Life, and later materialized as a contingency plan due to
       | their awful publishing deal. Glad the author could share her side
       | of the story and get some credit for her attributions.
        
       | echelon wrote:
       | This is such a good story. Drawing down personal finances to
       | underwrite the company, hiring pizza delivery drivers ... this
       | was a really incredible journey.
        
       | ryandrake wrote:
       | What really struck me was how OK Microsoft seemed to be with her
       | moonlighting for Valve, basically working for a competitor
       | (albeit a small one) directly in a role that was also her role in
       | Microsoft. Pretty much unheard of in FAANGs today. You can't so
       | much as breathe on an external project today without FAANG
       | claiming IP ownership over anything and everything you breathe
       | on. Imagine working for Apple and telling your manager, "Hey, by
       | the way, I'm going to be helping out a little with a small-
       | potatoes competing mobile operating system project... You're cool
       | with that, right?"
       | 
       | > I had another conversation with Microsoft execs about my role
       | and the conflict with Valve, and again I was essentially told,
       | "it's fine, we're OK, we like where you're at, don't worry."
       | 
       | WOW!
        
         | intelVISA wrote:
         | Oof. What a sly way to imply the person doesn't have any real
         | value to the company, MS truly be ruthless.
        
           | fn-mote wrote:
           | The way I took it was that she was producing a lot of value
           | at Microsoft and they estimated the "threat value" was very
           | low.
           | 
           | In this case they were wrong, but could anyone have known?
        
           | klyrs wrote:
           | I read this as hubris from Microsoft
        
       | Sakos wrote:
       | Oh wow, the (now ex) wife of the co-founder. The guy who sold his
       | stake in Valve before Steam was launched and then went sailing
       | for 6 years with his wife. This paints a whole new picture of why
       | he ended up leaving and it's fascinating. Grateful that she
       | shared her side of the story.
       | 
       | > The structure of the deal meant that we would be vested in
       | Valve's success over the next five years
       | 
       | Great foresight.
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-05 23:00 UTC)