David Lieb's Bumpy Ride to Google

From failed startups to Google Photos: How David turned setbacks into a billion-user success story.

January 07, 2025

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Welcome to Money Making Story,

Today, we’re thrilled to share the story of David Lieb, who turned a side project in business school into the foundation for Google Photos, a billion-user product.

In this discussion, we’ll discuss his:

  • Top Advice

  • A Passion for Building

  • A Random Idea Becomes Bump

  • The Challenges of Scaling

  • 12 Communication Skills of High Performers

  • A Pivot to Flock

  • The Google Photos Revolution

  • Building Google Photos

  • A Life-Changing Diagnosis

  • Mentoring the Next Generation

  • Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

  • A Story Worth Reading

Top Advice:

"Success is not a straight path; it’s a winding road filled with risks, failures, and perseverance. But if you keep moving forward, the impact can last a lifetime."

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In the world of tech innovation, few stories are as inspiring as David Lieb's—a tale of persistence, creativity, and reinvention. Lieb’s journey from suburban Dallas to spearheading the creation of Google Photos and becoming a guiding force at Y Combinator is a testament to his relentless drive and vision. This article chronicles the twists and turns that defined his path.

A Passion for Building: Early Years

David Lieb grew up in suburban Dallas in a family that valued math, science, and engineering. His father was an engineer, and his mother a school teacher, instilling a deep love for learning. A top student in school, David’s drive for excellence propelled him through Princeton, where he majored in electrical engineering and computer science.

After Princeton, David’s curiosity led him to Stanford’s PhD program in artificial intelligence, where he worked on early iterations of self-driving cars through the DARPA Grand Challenge. Yet, he never felt at home in academia.

"I wasn’t a PhD researcher at heart. I wanted to build things."

Dropping out of Stanford, David found himself working at Texas Instruments, but it wasn’t long before a spark ignited. Reading about YouTube’s billion-dollar acquisition, he realized he wanted to create something impactful, too.

A Random Idea Becomes Bump

David’s entrepreneurial journey began during his MBA program at the University of Chicago. In his first week, as classmates exchanged phone numbers, David noticed how inefficient the process was. He thought:

"Why hasn’t someone solved this? Why not just bump two phones together to share contact information?"

That moment of frustration birthed Bump, an app that allowed users to share contact information by simply tapping their phones together. With help from his friend Andy, David developed the app as a side project, launching it in 2009.

Without any promotion, Bump went viral:

  • Day 1: Tens of downloads.

  • Day 2: Hundreds of downloads.

  • Day 3: Thousands of downloads.

"When you’re building a product for yourself, you can trust your intuition. That’s what guided us with Bump."

The Challenges of Scaling

As Bump grew, David and his co-founders joined Y Combinator (YC), receiving $16,667 in funding. Bump became the second most popular app on the App Store, trailing only a virtual glow stick app.

Despite its early success, the app’s usage plateaued. David realized Bump was stuck in a dangerous quadrant: low frequency and low value. Users didn’t need the app often enough, and its utility wasn’t compelling enough to sustain engagement.

Mistakes compounded:

  • Rapid hiring: Bump expanded its team too quickly to meet demand.

  • Fundraising pitfalls: They raised too much money without solving core product issues.

  • Overconfidence: The hype masked deeper problems.

"We made all the classic mistakes. It was only when we went back to talking to users that we realized where we’d gone wrong."

12 Communication Skills of High Performers

A Pivot to Flock

User feedback revealed an unexpected insight: people primarily used Bump to share photos, not contact information. This insight led to a pivot. David and his team launched Flock, an app that used geolocation and social graphs to share photos with friends automatically.

But Flock didn’t resonate with users either.

"People would say they loved it, but the data told a different story—they weren’t using it."

With money running out and the company facing failure, David turned to Paul Graham, co-founder of YC, for advice. Paul suggested a radical idea:

"Why not replace the entire Photos app on the phone?"

Though daunting, the suggestion inspired David and his team to build PhotoRoll, an app designed to revolutionize photo management. While PhotoRoll never launched, its potential attracted attention.

The Google Photos Revolution

In 2013, Google acquired Bump, not for the app, but for the PhotoRoll concept. The plan was to turn PhotoRoll into a Google-powered app, but internal restructuring at Google initially derailed the project. David was tasked with working on Google+, but he couldn’t let go of his vision.

"I was certain Google Photos could be a billion-user product. I just didn’t take no for an answer."

Despite being reprimanded—and even fired twice from the project—David continued working on Google Photos in secret. Over time, he garnered support from engineers and eventually convinced Google leadership to greenlight the project.

Building Google Photos

With a small team, David built Google Photos from scratch in just nine months. Launched at Google I/O in 2015, the app was an instant hit. Google Photos provided a home for all your memories, featuring innovative AI tools for:

  • Searchability

  • Facial recognition

  • Photo organization

  • Automated editing

The app reached 1 billion users in under four years, becoming one of the fastest-growing products in history.

"It was the best period of my career—building, iterating, and seeing our work resonate with so many people."

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

In the midst of Google Photos’ success, David’s life took a dramatic turn. In 2020, he was diagnosed with leukemia during the height of COVID-19.

"That night in the ER, I thought I might die. I spent the night looking at photos and videos of my family on Google Photos."

David’s treatment involved a grueling year of chemotherapy and a renewed perspective on life. Surviving cancer reshaped his priorities:

"I didn’t want to be a bureaucrat at a big company. I wanted to work with people building the future."

Mentoring the Next Generation

In 2022, David left Google and joined Y Combinator as a mentor, helping startups navigate the challenges he once faced. His mission now is to guide the next generation of entrepreneurs, sharing the lessons he learned from both his successes and failures.

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

  • Trust Your Intuition: Build products that solve your own problems, and let your instincts guide design decisions.

  • Talk to Users: User feedback is critical to understanding what works and what doesn’t.

  • Embrace Failure: Failure is a stepping stone to success. Every misstep is an opportunity to learn.

  • Take Risks: You can afford to take more risks than you think, especially when the stakes are high.

  • Build for Impact: Focus on creating products with lasting value, even if it means defying conventional wisdom.

David Lieb’s journey—from struggling with Bump to transforming how billions manage their memories with Google Photos—is a testament to resilience, risk-taking, and relentless innovation. His story serves as an inspiration for anyone striving to build something meaningful, no matter how uncertain the path may seem.

"As long as you keep moving forward, the possibilities are endless."

A Story Worth Reading

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