No matter how carefully chosen and tight knit your team may be, it’s important to remember that they are fallible people who make mistakes — and could always decide to go elsewhere should a new opportunity arise.
An ongoing legal conflict between Alphabet and Uber has thrown this fact into stark relief. Earlier this winter, Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, brought a lawsuit against the embattled ride-hailing service, alleging that Uber stole the proprietary design of a system built in its vehicles.
A key person in the case is Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who left Waymo and launched self-driving truck company Otto, which he sold to Uber, where he is currently the VP of Engineering.
When Levandowski worked at Waymo, he said…