SAN FRANCISCO: Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that if he were to start a company from scratch today, it would be in nano technology.
“I think the notion that the materials that we use could just be dramatically better…I think that’s very powerful,” Brin said in an interview at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University on Friday. His remarks followed a panel featuring President Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also spoke.
Brin referred to an article he recently read about taking carbon dioxide out of power plants and turning it into carbon nano tubes, the strongest of known materials. “I think it’s incredible what people are looking at in nano technology,”he said.
The interview came to a close on a more sentimental note with the question, “Who have been your main influences or who has had a huge impact on your life?”
Without hesitation, Brin — who co-founded Google with Larry Page when both were Stanford students — gave “kudos” to Yahoo co-founder Dave Filo, another Stanford student, who he said not only pushed him to create Google but inspired Brin with his humble attitude toward Yahoo’s success and unpretentious lifestyle.
Brin said when Yahoo was becoming very wealthy, Filo would drive Brin around in his 20-year-old car that didn’t have a working gas gauge.
“I’d say maybe abnormal car that few people of normal income would tolerate,” Brin said, to laughter from the audience. “It was great to see how he didn’t let his wealth or notoriety affect him much.”
