YouTube CEO Who Shaped Online Video, Susan Wojcicki

⏱️ 11 min read                

Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO who steered YouTube through nearly a decade of groundbreaking transformation, tragically passed away at the age of 56 on August 9, 2024. She leaves the legacy of a woman who shaped the future of online video and how we consume it. She played a pivotal role in Google’s meteoric rise. What does her loss mean for the digital landscape she helped create? 

Welcome to That's Life, I Swear.  This podcast is about life's happenings in this world that conjure up such words as intriguing, frightening, life-changing, inspiring, and more. I'm Rick Barron your host. 

That said, here's the rest of this story  

At the age of 56, Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering figure in Google's early days who later became the chief executive of YouTube, lost her two year battle with non-small-cell lung cancer.

She had worked at Google for nearly 25 years.

Susan was a key architect in developing the digital advertising ecosystem that now dominates the internet. As one of Google's first employees, she spearheaded the creation of AdSense, a revolutionary tool that allowed the tech giant to extend its advertising reach across countless independent websites, cementing its position in the digital ad market.

Google Adsense logo. Courtesy of: Google

Her leadership at YouTube marked a transformative period for the video-sharing platform. Under her guidance, YouTube evolved into a lucrative venture, generating substantial revenue for content creators and bolstering the financial success of Alphabet, Google's parent company. Susan also tackled the challenge of moderating controversial content to maintain the platform's reputation.

In 2023, Susan stepped down from her role as YouTube's CEO, expressing a desire to prioritize her personal life and pursue other interests. She continued to serve as an advisor to Alphabet, maintaining her connection to the company she helped shape from its inception.

Dennis Troper, Susan's life partner, revealed on social media that she had been battling lung cancer for the past two years. He described her as not only his soulmate but also a brilliant intellect, a devoted mother, and a cherished friend to many. Dennis emphasized the profound impact she had on both their family and the world at large.

Susan Wojcicki and husband, Dennis Troper. Courtesy of Getty Images

Sundar Pichai, who leads Google and its parent company Alphabet, shared a heartfelt message on social media platform X, highlighting Susan's integral role in Google's history. He expressed the difficulty of imagining a world without her presence and praised her as an exceptional individual, leader, and friend who positively influenced countless lives, including his own.

Despite her significant influence, Susan maintained a low public profile, earning a reputation as a crucial yet understated force within Google. She cultivated an image of work-life harmony, balancing her high-powered career with down-to-earth pursuits like raising chickens and driving her children to sports activities in the family car. This approach contributed to her persona as a relatable figure in the tech industry.

Susan championed two of Google's most pivotal acquisitions. In 2006, she advocated for the purchase of YouTube, then a fledgling platform for user-generated videos that had surpassed Google's own offering. The following year, she pushed for the acquisition of DoubleClick, a leading advertising network for major web publishers.

These key moves evolved into cornerstone divisions of Google, broadening the company's revenue streams beyond its lucrative search engine. However, these acquisitions also drew scrutiny from antitrust regulators. DoubleClick, in particular, became central to a 2023 Justice Department lawsuit aiming to dismantle parts of Google's digital advertising empire.

Susan's roots trace back to Santa Clara, California, where she was born on July 5, 1968, just as the region was on the cusp of transforming into Silicon Valley. The eldest of three daughters, she was raised on Stanford University's campus, where her father, of Polish-American descent, was a physics professor. Her mother worked in journalism before transitioning to teaching at a local high school.

As a young girl, Susan participated in Stanford's renowned marshmallow experiment, which assessed children's ability to delay gratification. According to her mother's 2019 book "How to Raise Successful People," Susan demonstrated exceptional self-control, outperforming all other participants. Notably, her younger sister Anne went on to co-found and lead the genetic testing company 23andMe. Her other sister, Janet, is a doctor and professor at UCSF. 

Sister, Anne Wojcicki and Susan Wojcicki. Courtesy of: ARTSLOPE

Susan's academic journey began at Harvard University, where she delved into history and literature. Her pursuit of knowledge then led her to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned a master's degree in economics. Following her studies, she gained valuable experience at several management consultancy firms, including a short duration at Bain & Company.

Her career path turned towards the tech industry after completing an MBA at UCLA. This led to a position in the marketing department at Intel, a leading chip manufacturer. It was during her time at Intel that a serendipitous opportunity arose.

In 1998, the same year Susan tied the knot with her husband, they made a decision that would unknowingly alter the course of tech history. The couple chose to rent out their Menlo Park home's lower floor and garage to two ambitious young men: Sergey Brin and Larry Page. These tenants were in the early stages of developing what would become Google. For $1,700 dollars a month, the two rented the garage as their office to build the search engine we know today.

Susan's mother later recounted in her book, "The arrangement seemed ideal, and Larry and Sergey were clearly working on something incredibly exciting. However, Susan hadn't anticipated they would be there constantly, surrounded by numerous computers in the garage." This unexpected living situation would be the beginning of her long and influential association with Google.

Susan's connection to Google became legendary, and she soon joined the fledgling company as its 16th employee. Her initial role was to market the emerging search engine against established competitors like AltaVista. Working with limited resources, she devised an innovative strategy: allowing other websites to embed Google search boxes on their pages, significantly boosting the company's visibility.

Her responsibilities and accomplishments at Google expanded over time, and there were many:

1.     She led Google’s ad business and played a key role in its acquisition of DoubleClick, an advertising technology company, in 2007.

2.     She later became the company’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce, leading the company’s signature project, Adsense, a initiative that allowed websites to make money by displaying Google ads. Adsense spread more that $6 billion dollars in ad revenue across the over 1 million websites that used its service, and was Google’s second-largest source of revenue.

3.     She took charge of Google Books and Google Images, and by 2011, she was overseeing all of the company's advertising products - a division that had grown into a formidable $28 billion enterprise. 

4.     In a pivotal move in 2014, Page appointed her as the CEO of YouTube, the very platform she had advocated for Google to acquire eight years prior.

5.     Additionally, when Susan joined Google, she was four months pregnant. She campaigned for paid parental leave to become standard not only at Google but at other businesses, promoting the policy in an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal in 2014. Because she championed the initiative at Google to increase paid maternity leave to 18 from 12 weeks in 2007, the rate at which new moms left Google fell by 50%!

Susan set an ambitious goal at the helm of YouTube: to "reimagine television." Tasked with strengthening YouTube's commercial potential, she steered the video platform's advertising business to impressive heights, transforming it into a $32 billion powerhouse. Additionally, she introduced subscription-based services that generated billions in annual revenue. Under her leadership, YouTube evolved from a user-generated content platform into a major player in the global media landscape.

She also led the charge to expand its user base of YouTube to more than 2.7 billion monthly active users as of August, 2024. The size is approximately one-third of the worlds population, visiting the site every year, according to Business of Apps.

Susan navigated YouTube through increasingly complex content moderation challenges during her tenure. A significant crisis in 2017 led to a widespread advertiser exodus. In response, she bolstered the video review team and spearheaded the development of new content policies. As she once articulated in a Wall Street Journal piece, her approach sought to "safeguard our community while fostering a platform for diverse voices to emerge."

At YouTube, she introduced new forms of advertising and subscription offerings for music, original content and YouTube TV. During her tenure, YouTube became the internet’s most popular video service, and her role shifted to control of hate speech, inappropriate content, extremism and misinformation.

Her advocacy extended beyond her personal experiences, as she consistently pushed for policies supporting working mothers and promoting work-life balance in the tech industry. This stance influenced Google's corporate culture and contributed to broader discussions about family-friendly policies in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Susan's legacy lives on through her husband and four of their children. The family faced a tragic loss earlier this year with the passing of their son, Marco Troper, at the age of 19 in February of 2024. 

What can we learn from this story? What's the takeaway?

CEO, Sundar Pichai, stated it best about Susan when he wrote, and I quote: “I’m unbelievably saddened by the loss of my dear friend Susan Wojcicki after two years of living with cancer. She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her.”

Well, there you go, my friends; that's life, I swear

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website, which you can find on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, for show notes and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for the privilege of you listening and your interest. 

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