Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/When out-of-work coder Jens Rasmussen couldn’t find directions to a cafe in Copenhagen, he wound up changing navigation forever. Alongside his brother Lars (also an out-of-work coder), Jens developed a radical vision—not just for a faster map, but a vibrant, multi-dimensional platform to help plan your entire life. With maxed-out credit cards, these Danish brothers built a prototype that caught Google co-founder Larry Page's eye—but faced HUGE technical issues to get it over the line. From CIA-funded satellites, to a ""Mad Max"" desert race, the road to Google Maps was a journey in itself that created an $11 billion revenue generator powering everything from Uber to Airbnb. Discover why you should never correct your customers when they make a wrong turn, the power of an SNL name check, and why Google Maps is the best idea yet.Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — and the bold risk takers who made them go viral.Episodes drop every Tuesday, listen here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Full Episode
Yetis, Nick and Jack here from the T-Boy Studio. Right now, you're probably stuck in traffic or on a tarmac just trying to get home. Memorial Day, fun three-day weekend with two days of travel. So to keep you company as you're trying to get home, we're dropping an entire episode of our other show, The Best Idea Yet.
Now, ironically, this one is about Google Maps, the very thing that says your ETA is still two and a half hours. Two and a half hours in this episode, we'll go deep on how Google Maps was created and scaled into something used by billions of people every day. And how two Danish brothers wildly changed a map from a two-dimensional piece of paper to an entire economy.
So after this, make a U-turn and go subscribe to The Best Idea Yet. We put a link in the episode description. You're going to love it. But in the meantime, Jack, let's hit the show. Jack, would you say that the world breaks down into two types of people? Those who have a sense of direction and those who simply do not. Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate.
Although anyone who comes out of the subway in the Lower East Side of Manhattan doesn't have a sense of direction. There's no grid. There's no numbers. It's just chaos down there. It's a vortex. But in general, we all have that buddy Timmy who knows exactly where their car is parked and then the other buddy who thinks Southwest is just an airline. Yeah. Geographic literacy, if you will. Right.
But Jack, I discovered that there is also a behavioral element here on your sense of direction based on where you grew up. Is that so? It is so, Jack. If you grew up in a urban situation versus a rural one. So if you grew up in like a farm environment, you have a better sense of direction. Kind of like your upbringing, man. Okay. Because we grabbed onto landmarks as a way to orient ourselves. Yeah.
Yeah, like, you know, meet me by that tall hill by the oak tree across from the sunset pond kind of a thing. Meanwhile, I, like, grew up in a city, so, like, if I had to meet someone on 5th Avenue and 14th Street, as long as I could count numbers, I was going to be fine. Right.
But yet is, whether you are geographically literate or not, especially, though, if you are not, you're going to need a good map. And today we are talking about the single most popular map of all time. Nick, you're talking about a product that ushered in a new era for humanity, one where you will never get lost again, unless your phone dies.
Simply put, without this product, Google wouldn't be nearly the company it is today. And so many of the apps we rely on, like Uber, Airbnb, Strava, and others, they wouldn't even exist. This invention, it lets you zoom out and view Earth from orbit, or
zoom in and find your nearest coffee shop, and then gives you step-by-step directions on how to get there, see the menu, read the customer reviews, show you the vibe with a virtual tour, and even tell you how long you're going to have to wait for that mocha cookie crumb frappuccino. We're talking about Google Maps. More than 2 billion people use Google Maps every month.
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