Former Microsoft evangelist Don Dodge, who was laid off two weeks ago, had the satisfaction of announcing on the eve of Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference — one of Microsoft’s most important annual events — that he is joining Google.
It sounds like he’ll be doing essentially the same job at Google that he did at Microsoft — helping developers and startups build products on top of Google, rather than Microsoft, technology.
In his blog, he thanked Microsoft and then proceeded to criticize several of its products — Outlook, Office, Windows Mobile and Internet Explorer — as flawed. He’s dropping them in favor of Google products. He also promised to write “extensively and honestly” about making the switch.
Dodge’s former colleagues, meanwhile, say that Microsoft is expanding its commitment to startups, despite Dodge’s departure, although there have been a couple of changes, according to Microsoft’s Cliff Reeves.
Venture capitalists — one of the groups Dodge worked with at Microsoft — are less central to Microsoft than they were a couple of years ago, Reeves said, because startups now require so much less capital to get going.
“We still view VC firms as phenomenally important sources of intelligence and signals about the market, but we’re adding focus on other things,” he said.
One focus for Microsoft is to single out startups that join its BizSpark accelerator program for extra attention, in an iteration called BizSpark One. Those companies that can really showcase Microsoft technologies will get extra help with development, marketing and other areas, Reeves said. The program will launch next week in 10 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Germany, France and the U.K.
One startup that’s qualified, CSRware, has 15 employees and makes software that helps large companies track how green they are. Marketing VP Dave Jarrat said CSRware chose Microsoft over Amazon and Google.
Microsoft even has open positions in the group Dodge left, Reeves said, although not, apparently, for work in the U.S. There’s a job for an evangelist in Caracas, Venezuela, and one in Redmond for someone who has experience working with Asia.
“As we start working more with the BRIC countries, almost all of our organizations have recruiting programs for the right talent in the job,” Reeves said.
As for Dodge, “Laying off 5,000 people when you have $37B in cash and huge profits is not cool,” he wrote. “But hey, thanks for pushing me on to the Next Big Thing.”
