It’s interesting to monitor the reactions of people to Google’s acquisition of YouTube. There’s a good deal of dismay and envy I’m hearing. And people who object to the innocent “Two Kings” video from Chad and Steve are really expressing the sentiment: “Damn, they’re rich and I’m not.”
But get this: a third, previously unknown partner Jawed Karim, profiled in today’s NY Times (reg req’d), stands to make almost as much as Chad and Steve who slaved away for a little over a year to realize this wealth. 
From the article it appears that Jawed, who got rich once when PayPal was sold to eBay, had a few meetings, threw out some ideas and went back to Stanford Biz School.
That reminds me of the line in the 1977 Woody Allen movie Annie Hall in which he parodies the “Hollywood” creative process:
“Right now it’s only a notion, but I think I can get money to make it into a concept … and later turn it into an idea.”
Of course he did also put money into the company. Now Karim gets to cash the big check (or when he sells Google stock he does). I gotta admit my own amazement at the whole trajectory of the thing. But life isn’t fair. These guys had an idea, took some risks and had some good luck.
Hopefully now they won’t just buy cars and jets with their money but do something “socially” responsible as well.
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Related: If anyone doubts this is a win for Google read this AdAge article (via MarketingVOX; reg req’d): “Digital Media Buyers Love GoogTube Merger.”
