This case study is about Silicon Valley professional entrepreneur, John Hanke's career and the story of Google's Niantic Labs. We will know the tough choice John Hanke made and the challenging path his team has taken to disrupt the gaming industry, and what makes Silicon Valley the mother lode of high-tech business.

1. Google
NianticLabs
&
- Part A -

2. The professional
entrepreneur and innovation
in Silicon Valley
- Part A -

3. Faculty, UC Berkeley
Founding Executive Director Emeritus of the Lester Center
Jerome S. Engel
The author
The full article is available at Harvard business review

4. Li Wei
Presentation by
Technology commercialization manager
Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd
A*STAR, Singapore

5. “When you come to a
fork in the road,
take it
Photo: SamFalk/The New York Times
-- YOGI BERRA
NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF
FAME MEMBER AND PHILOSOPHER

6. As one of Google’s many embryonic businesses,
Niantic Labs was created in 2010
Niantic Labs
(2010)

7. IF
to discover what opportunities might emerge
mobile geo-location social gaming

8. Since then, Niantic had become best known for its
globally popular augmented reality game
Ingress
(2012)

9. Ingress
(2012)
a location-based Massively multiplayer online game

10. A Game played in both
virtual and real world

11. By January 2015, it had been downloaded over
3,000,000times

12. With the success and the
technology behind it …

13. John Hanke
the head of Niantic Labs

14. distinct CHOICES
for the future of
Niantic Labs
TWO
had

15. Stay-IN
SPINOFF
With Google
from Google

16. would benefit Hanke and his team, Google, and any other
potential investors the most?
WHICHOPTION

17. About JOHN HANKE

18. John Hanke was
born and raised in
Cross Plains, Texas

19. University
of Texas
the U.S. State Department
Foreign Service
UC Berkeley
M.B.A.
1985 1989 1994

20. UC Berkeley
M.B.A.
1994
At Berkeley, he returned to his original
interest in computer technology

21. UC Berkeley
M.B.A.
1994
And, with steve sellers, created his first startup,
Archetype Interactive, a game company

22. UC Berkeley
M.B.A.
1994
And, with steve sellers, created his first startup,
Archetype Interactive, a game company

23. Few years later, they started another gaming
platform called the Big Network

24. Few years later, they started another gaming
platform called the Big Network

25. About keyhole

26. After two solid “modest” successes, Hanke formed
another start-up
Keyhole

27. a geographic
information system
EarthViewer

28. that layers data on
map and presents
the world in 3D

29. In 2000, Keyhole received
its first round of
financing led by Sony

30. During second Gulf War
EarthViewer were used by
Media companies CIA analyst

31. During second Gulf War
EarthViewer were used by
Media companies CIA analyst

32. In 2004, just as Hanke was
closing the terms for
Series B financing round
Googlecalled

33. Less than a day after the
EarthViewer presentation
Googleoffered

34. The opportunity was just
too good to pass up
With Google’s vast and
rapidly growing user base

35. About Google ‘Geo’ Product

36. After “spin-in” Google …

37. EarthViewer
Google earth

38. John Hanke
Vice President
Geo Division

41. The team was able to leverage
Google’s resources and operated at
differentordersofmagnitude

42. crowd-sourced
open innovation
also helped ‘Geo’ scale
up new products quickly
Google’s

43. Today, Google Geo products form a platform with
more than one million sites and app developers

44. to build businesses, serving
more than one billion users each week

45. About Niantic Labs

46. In 2010, Hanke started a project
called Niantic Labs with 30
employees in Google Geo Division

47. The Labs’ mandate was to find
new opportunities
for Google

48. Where
mobile, geo-based maps,
social, and gaming
trends converged

49. The Niantic team followed
basicdesignrules
4

50. The Niantic team followed
basicdesignrules
The World
Is the Map
Move
To Play
Urban
exploration
Social
network
4

51. the first success
Ingress

52. Great synergies
with google’s products
Storytelling
mechanism
video content about
the environment
Game books
and comic

53. Following an open
innovation model, the
team turned the
technology into
Programming
Buildingblocks

54. so that the same gaming experience
can be developed by others

55. Hanke’s Choice

56. “Two roads diverged in a
wood, and I -
I took the one less
traveled by,
And that has made all
the difference
-- ROBERT FROST
American Poet (1874 – 1963)
“THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”

57. Spin-off is a more challenging route for Niantic Labs

58. Without Google’s
resourceful platform,
the team has to build
a new infrastructure

59. But, over the long-run,
there would be the benefits
of not being restricted to
Google’s core brand and strategy

60. By mid-October 2015, Niantic Labs span off as
an independent company from Google

61. The initial round of financing
$30 million

62. In July 2016
Their first game

63. In 2 months
500million 500millionDownloads Revenue

64. Coming Full Circle

65. “I came in as entrepreneur. I got to see what it was like to
be a vice president in a large public company… it doesn't
have a lot to do with the product innovation, which was
the thing that originally interested me. I was at a point
where I was lucky to be able to have a choice, so I created
this new thing where I could do what I wanted to do.”
-- John Hanke
Niantic Labs CEO

66. www.innodiary.org
- available at app store -