Astro Teller (Alphabet’s X) - Celebrating Failure Fuels Moonshots [ETL Looks Back]

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Stanford eCorner

Journey, Startups, Education, Stanford, Culture, Strategy, Stanford University, Entrepreneurship, Business, Life Lessons, Thought Leadership, Creativity, Etl, Challenges, Leadership, Innovation, Founders

4.4 • 739 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this compelling talk from 2016, Astro Teller, director of Alphabet’s moonshot factory, X, explores how embracing failure fuels groundbreaking innovation. He shares how a culture that rewards audacity and transparency can systematically drive progress, turning ambitious ideas into reality. Teller discusses the importance of pre-mortems, rewarding teams for shutting down projects, and creating an environment where failure is seen as an opportunity for learning rather than a setback. As we revisit this talk, its lessons remain as relevant as ever, offering valuable insights for anyone looking to foster bold thinking and transformative breakthroughs.

The episode first aired on April 20, 2016

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, brought to you weekly by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
0:10.3	You can find podcasts and videos of these lectures online at eChorner.standford.edu.
0:18.2	Today we have a very special guest, Astro Teller, who is the captain of Moonshots at X, which is formerly Google X, an Alphabet's secretive facility in Silicon Valley that has produced audacious inventions, such as a self-driving car and internet-outfitted eyeglasses.
0:36.6	He got two degrees here, his bachelor's
0:39.2	and his master's in computer science and symbolic systems, and then got his PhD and Cardingee
0:45.3	Mellon in artificial intelligence. Astro also launched five companies, holds numerous patents,
0:53.1	and he's here to tell us about the secret life at Google X.
0:57.6	Join me in welcoming Astro.
1:03.0	So I wanted to start by telling you something
1:10.4	that happened six days ago at X, which was a little bit unusual.
1:15.3	And then maybe we can go back a little bit and unpack how something like that happened.
1:21.7	So we have these audacious goals awards.
1:25.2	Once a quarter, we get together and everyone presents how they're doing, and there's a
1:31.2	trophy.
1:32.3	The trophy hasn't been given out in a year now, because it's really hard to get this trophy,
1:37.9	and I'll talk a little bit about what it takes to get this trophy.
1:41.1	I think people care a lot.
1:42.9	I've seen a team cry, and this was a team of patent lawyers,
1:46.8	by the way, who were weeping, they were so happy when they got this trophy. So we had our
1:53.1	readback from Q1 that happened just Thursday last week. And very unusually, three different teams
2:03.6	potentially merited that trophy.
2:07.6	Usually it's nobody.
	...

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