Google's 2004 IPO founders' letter, "An Owner's Manual"

About this letter

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, wrote this letter for the prospectus in the registration statement Google filed in April 2004 as it prepared to go public. Written largely in Page's voice and addressed to prospective investors, it is subtitled an owner's manual, a debt it credits to Warren Buffett's essays for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Google was by then generating cash, and the founders explain that a legal requirement for certain private companies to report as if public, together with liquidity for employees and early investors, hastened the decision to list.

The letter sets out how the founders mean to run a public Google. It covers serving users, a long-term focus, and the unusual arrangement in which Page, Brin and the chief executive, Eric Schmidt, run the company as a triumvirate. Later sections discuss employees and their benefits, the principle of not being evil, and plans for a Google Foundation funded with about 1% of equity and profits.

What to notice

1. 1

   The founders refuse traditional earnings guidance, comparing short-term targets to a dieter weighing himself every half hour.