A year of 50 interviews, 50 rejections—until one person passed. What made the difference wasn't business credentials. Page and Schmidt's 17-year collaboration through the Work DNA lens.
In 2001, a company interviewed 50 of Silicon Valley's top executives over the course of a year. None of them passed. The company's two founders kept interviewing through a process so demanding that they ended up on bad terms with the top executives themselves, but all 50 were rejected.
Then there was one person who passed at the end. What made him pass wasn't business credentials. It was Burning Man.
The company was Google. The two people were Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. This is the story of how a 17-year collaboration began.
One Founder Knew What He Lacked
In September 1998, two Stanford PhD students started a company in a garage in Menlo Park, California. One was Larry Page; the other was his co-founder, Sergey Brin. Both were 25, and the company was called Google. The search engine they built grew fast. The company went from 8 employees to 40 in one year, and by 2001 it had passed 200 employees.
As the company grew quickly, the board made one decision: the two founders needed an external CEO with business operating experience. At 25, Page was an engineer from a PhD program. He was good at seeing new possibilities in the search engine, but running a rapidly growing company was a different kind of work. Google's two main investors, John Doerr (KPCB) and Michael Moritz (Sequoia), strongly urged the founders to bring in a CEO.
The recruiting process wasn't easy. Page was a demanding interviewer. He was famous for vetting candidates on GPAs, SATs, and even Mensa-style brain-teasers. Over the course of a year, the two founders interviewed 50 of Silicon Valley's top executives. None passed.
The result of 50 interviews was 50 rejections. It was hard to find someone who fit Page. What Page did was one thing: getting clearer and clearer, over the course of that year, about what exactly he lacked.
The outline of the person he was looking for became sharper. Someone with deep business operating experience, who could respect the vision and decision-making of a 25-year-old founder. Someone who wouldn't cling to their own position and could build a balance alongside him.
After 50 interviews, Page knew precisely what kind of person he needed. That recognition led to one person walking into the room.
The Other Brought the Experience of Business Structure
When Eric Schmidt came to meet Page, he was 46. He was 21 years older than Page.
Schmidt had a long career behind him. After graduating from Princeton with a degree in electrical engineering (1976), he earned a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley (1982). In 1983, he joined Sun Microsystems as its first software manager. The company had only been founded a year earlier. Over 14 years at Sun, he rose to CTO and was involved in the development and promotion of the Java programming language. Java became one of the core languages of the internet.
In 1997, he moved to Novell as CEO. Novell was a company losing market share to Microsoft in network operating systems. For four years, Schmidt tried to rebuild Novell's business structure. The company itself couldn't reverse its long-term decline, but during those four years, Schmidt gained the experience of running a public company and rebuilding its business structure.
What Schmidt had was the experience of business structure. Operating a large technology company, public-company governance, managing an organization of thousands of employees. That was exactly what Page had spent a year looking for.
In early 2001, Schmidt walked into Page's interview room. But what decisively made him pass wasn't his business credentials. It was Burning Man.
Burning Man is an art and community festival held every year in the Nevada desert from late August to early September. Page was a regular attendee. So was Schmidt. The topic came up during the interview, and that moment was decisive. Schmidt himself later recalled:
"Part of my hiring was that I was a fellow fan of Burning Man with Larry and Sergey." - Eric Schmidt
A seat that 50 top executives couldn't pass through on business credentials was passed by one person on the grounds of being a fan of a festival together. On the surface the reason looked odd, but underneath it was the essence. What Page had spent a year looking for wasn't someone who only had business credentials—it was someone who could share his values and culture. A person you would run a company with had to be someone of the same grain. That couldn't be revealed through business interviews alone, and a shared fandom around Burning Man revealed it.
In March 2001, Schmidt joined Google as Chairman. In August, he was promoted to CEO. From that day on, the collaboration between Page and Schmidt began.
Ten Years of Collaboration: From Adult Supervision to Peers
Page and Schmidt's collaboration took one form from the beginning: a structure where the CEO did not have sole decision-making authority. Schmidt was CEO, but together with Page (President of Products) and Brin (President of Technology), the three made decisions as equals. The form later came to be called a "Triumvirate." Inside that structure, the person Schmidt always faced across the table was Page. Page led the company's vision and product direction; Schmidt held up the business structure and operations.
Around the time the collaboration began, Schmidt later recalled how he treated Page:
"I would treat them as 'the boys,' the young men that I worked with; with respect but almost a fatherly way." - Eric Schmidt
A 46-year-old CEO and two 25-year-old founders. At the beginning, it was naturally that kind of relationship. Schmidt had 21 more years of business experience; Page was the person with the vision for the search engine.
Over 10 years, the two of them built things together: Google's IPO in August 2004. Gmail, Google Maps, the Chrome browser. The acquisition of YouTube in 2006. Android rising to become the world's largest mobile OS. All of it was made during the 10 years Schmidt was CEO. Employees grew from 200 to 32,000, and revenue grew from $86 million to $38 billion. About a 440x growth in ten years.
There's a phrase Schmidt himself used to describe how the collaboration worked. He often called his own role, jokingly, "Adult Supervision." The term circulated in Silicon Valley too. The 25-year-old genius founders needed an adult to keep business operations in balance, and Schmidt was that role—that's the read.
But somewhere in the middle of the collaboration, there was a moment when Schmidt's perception shifted:
"There was one day we were having some huge argument over strategy, and I realized these aren't 'the boys' anymore, these are men who've been through some of the toughest business challenges in the world and resolved them." - Eric Schmidt
What Schmidt did was one thing: not clinging to his own place, and reducing his own role as Page grew. His stance, which began as "adult supervision," gradually shifted to "someone who decides alongside Page" as time passed.
Larry Page — Creator (C)
One-line definition The architect who finds connections others overlook and opens up new possibilities.
Keywords Creativity · Originality · Reframing · Dimensional thinking · Insight
Strengths
Brings new possibilities so the team doesn't stay on the same path
Offers original perspectives and fresh solutions
Expands the range of what can be imagined
Cautions
Can linger in the ideation stage, making execution harder
Long thinking time may slow the pace when quick decisions are needed
Eric Schmidt — Facilitator (F)
One-line definition The coordinator who finds conclusions that satisfy everyone, balancing rules and care.
Keywords Smooth communication · Inclusiveness · Mediation · Stability · Cooperation
Strengths
Mediates opinions so no one feels excluded on the team
Balanced decisions prevent leaning to one side
Creates a stable environment where people can work without pressure
Cautions
Waiting for everyone's agreement can delay decisions
Caution about changes that disrupt balance can block new attempts
Through the Work DNA lens, it becomes clear why the two of them collaborated the way they did. Larry Page is a Creator (C) type—someone who puts work and craft first, takes time to think, and enjoys new attempts every time. The essence is the architect who sees possibilities others don't and opens new territories. Building the PageRank algorithm, the moonshot projects at Google X, restructuring the company into Alphabet in 2015—all of it is Page's essence.
Eric Schmidt is a Facilitator (F) type—someone who puts people and relationships first, builds full consensus, and works within established systems. The essence is the coordinator who finds conclusions that satisfy everyone, balancing rules and care. Creating the balance between the two founders, establishing the company's business structure and IPO, gradually reducing his own role over time—all of it is Schmidt's essence.
The two had different centers of gravity (Page leans craft and technology; Schmidt leans people and balance). Their stances toward new attempts differed too (Page is always trying something new; Schmidt works within established systems). Only one thing was the same: building decisions through full consensus. Both preferred careful debate to fast unilateral decisions.
That's why the collaboration worked for 10 years. When Page's new vision and Schmidt's business structure met in the same room, they naturally moved through full discussion into decisions. One person threw out a vision; the other received it through the lens of structure and operations.
2011: "Adult Supervision No Longer Needed"
C-F Strengths
• Natural complementarity of new vision and balance: When C sees a new possibility, F creates the balanced environment in which that possibility can be realized. One. takes responsibility for craft and new attempts, the other for people and balance
• Shared posture of building through full consensus: Both prefer careful debate and consensus over fast unilateral decisions, so the pace of decision-making naturally aligns (diagonal-R signature: R-axis aligned)
• Natural division of territory: C handles new vision and product direction; F handles organization, operations, and balance—a clear separation
• Collaboration through yielding one's place: When F doesn't cling to their own position and reduces their role as C's vision grows, it becomes the most graceful collaboration
C-F Cautions
• Center-of-gravity difference (C leans craft and new attempts vs. F leans people and balance) → Build a process that runs decisions through both perspectives (C's vision lens + F's people-and-balance lens)
• Difference in stance toward new attempts (C is always trying something new vs. F works within established systems) → Clearly separate the review stage for new attempts from the stable execution stage, and agree on each
• Risk of slow decision-making: Both prefer full consensus, so the pace can lag when fast unilateral decisions are needed → Divide pace by the size of the decision (major vision and strategy through full consensus; operational decisions delegated to F's sole authority)
• Risk that F's yielding becomes one-sided: If F yields their role too often, their own contribution can become invisible → Need explicit expression of mutual recognition (Schmidt jokingly calling himself "Adult Supervision" while clearly recognizing the value of his own role is a good example)
On January 20, 2011, Google made an announcement: Schmidt would step down as CEO on April 4, and Larry Page would return as CEO. It was a decision 10 years in the making.
Right after the announcement, Schmidt wrote a single line on his Twitter:
"Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!" - Eric Schmidt (Twitter, January 20, 2011)
For 10 years, he had jokingly called his own role "adult supervision." On the day that role was ending, he announced his own resignation with the same joke. The essence of an F—holding himself lightly while keeping balance—showed up to the last moment.
It was a decision Schmidt made voluntarily. Behind the decision was the recognition he had reached in the middle of the collaboration: that "these aren't 'the boys' anymore." Page had turned 38 and had all the capabilities to run the company, so it was time to yield his own place.
The way he stepped down was graceful, too. Schmidt didn't leave the company. He moved into the role of Executive Chairman and supported Page from beside him. He held that position for six years from 2011 to 2017, then remained as Technical Advisor until 2020. Ten years as CEO, nine years in subsequent roles. A total of 17 years of collaboration continued that way.
Had there been only Page, Google would not have become a global company so quickly. The business structure, public-company operations, and management of tens of thousands of employees that the 25-year-old founder lacked—Schmidt filled those alongside him for 10 years. Had there been only Schmidt, Google would not have opened new territories so quickly. Without Page's vision and new attempts, there would have been no Gmail, no Chrome, no Android, no Alphabet.
When a young founder admits what they lack and places someone who shares their values beside them, collaboration goes the furthest.
The reason Page interviewed 50 people over a year wasn't just to find an executive with business credentials. It was to find someone of the same grain. That's why a seat that 50 top executives couldn't pass through was passed by one fellow Burning Man fan. The essence that a person you would run a company with has to be someone of the same grain—Page got clearer and clearer about that essence over the course of a year.
And when someone who knows how to yield their own place by their own decision is beside you, collaboration ends gracefully. When Schmidt yielded his place in 2011 with a single line—"Adult supervision no longer needed"—it was both an acknowledgment that Page had grown and a clear statement that his own role was over.
When you deliberately seek out someone who shares your values, and someone who knows how to yield their own place by their own decision is beside you, collaboration begins most gracefully and ends most gracefully.