It's hard to remember what it took to get around before the invention of Google Maps. But the technology has changed everything from daily routes to road trips to navigating unknown territory. Because of Google Maps, the entire globe seems reachable. But the road to inventing Google Maps? That's another story. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite uncovers the tale of this indispensable technology and the team that built it. In 2001, Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen, Noel Gordon, and Stephen Ma are developing a product they believe will change the mapping landscape. But like so many great inventions before it, "Where 2 Technologies" – not yet Google Maps – is just a fledgling startup run from a small room in Sydney, and constantly one wrong turn away from a dead end. Rent checks bounce, savings accounts evaporate. The dream could be only a mirage on the distant horizon. But the team discovers a way to keep going, to find new pathways, until they reach their final destination. Hear from Google Maps co-inventors Lars Rasmussen and Noel Gordon as they take us back through the detours and U-turns of the journey, including working alongside competitors, that eventually leads to a creation that changed the world as we know it. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.
Continue for 200ft on Centinela Avenue.
I don't usually go that way, but okay, in 50ft, turn left onto state Route two, US Route 101, Interstate 210, Glendale Freeway, Angeles Crest highway.
Yeah, you could have just said the 210.
Turn left onto state Route two, US Route 101, Interstate 210, Glendale Freeway, Angeles Crest highway.
Seriously?
Are you gonna say that every time?
Continue for 5 miles on state route two, US Route 100.
Most of us don't remember what it was like getting around without Google Maps.
I barely remember using paper maps, or it seems even crazier figuring out how to get somewhere by asking people.
But even though most of us can't imagine life without Google Maps, it wasn't smooth sailing from idea to finished app.
There were obstacles and even route changes along the way.
We thought we're sailing on a wonderful day, and the next minute the rain comes and the squall and the waves go to 15ft and then everything's terrible.
This is when we were deciding, would we do this startup or not?
In fact, the creation of Google Maps is a story about striving to get to what you think is your destination, only to realize you still have a long way to go.
Something I can't emphasize enough that any team wants to reach a certain size.
You start getting difference of opinions and disagreements can emerge and people can get a little polarized.
I'm Gabriella Cowperthwaite, and this is team history, an original podcast from Atlassian.
This show is all about the chemistry of teams and what happens when people are so open to new ideas of working, innovating, and expressing themselves together.
They end up doing something amazing.
It's 2001, and the tech bubble has just burst.