AOL

AOL appears in Ron Conway on Google’s Early History and SV Angel’s Role as one of the large pre-Google internet companies in the crowded search market. Ron Conway says Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted Kleiner Perkins in the Google financing because the firm had an AOL connection that could help with an OEM or distribution deal.

In the episode, AOL is less a full company case than a distribution gate. Google could have strong PageRank Search Relevance, but the founders still wanted access to places where users already searched.

Connections

• Google, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin - search-distribution context.
• Kleiner Perkins and John Doerr - investor route to AOL access.
• Distribution Before Monetization and Venture Syndicate Orchestration - concepts grounded by the financing strategy.