Google Establishes In-House Startup ‘Area 120’ To Keep Talented Employees

Google has launched a new start-up incubator in order to prevent talented employees from leaving to start their own companies, reports The Information.

“We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google”, it wrote. Her loss was big deal for Google and the company hopes that it does not suffer such losses any more.

Google will soon release “Area 120”, spearheaded by Google executives Bradley Horowitz and Don Harrison, the report says.

On the other hand, there’s Nest, a company inside Alphabet that advances in the home-automation and Internet of Things field, so Google’s incubator for startups is clearly in line with their philosophy.

An article on The Information revealed that Google has proposed a project called “area 120”, where it would provide a platform and monetary support for entrepreneurs who are brimming with promising ideas for futuristic technologies. Upon the approval of the same, they will be allowed to work full time on their idea in Area 120. Many Googlers leave to pursue their ideas on their own or – even worse – with a rival company. If qualified, they will be given time to develop their ventures at a separate building off the Google complex in Mountain View.

While details are not yet confirmed and are thus expected to change, the idea would be for Google teams to join the incubator for several months.

Google is good at spotting and attracting such talent, but not always at retaining it. It’s a bit of a first world problem, admittedly, but it’s one that Google is said to be looking to address with a secretive new project.

The name “Area 120” comes from Google’s popular “20% time” policy that has been followed since long. Also, Google will allow staff to work on their better ideas full-time, once they’ve drafted an appropriate business plan.

For Google such initiative may prove useful in the development of additional product and services which may be incorporated with Google later.