Yahoo Builds ‘Brickhouse’ To Encourage Start-Ups From Within
The yet-to-be-announced Brickhouse is designed to help the Internet giant keep up with cutting-edge startups and archrival Google.
Yahoo is trying to get back in touch with its “inner start-up,” BusinessWeek says, by targeting business development from within. The name for this effort is Brickhouse, a new unit within Yahoo that is scheduled to be officially unveiled in March and is intended to serve as a kind of in-house VC firm/incubator. Brickhouse is being led by Caterina Fake, who co-founded Flickr, which Yahoo acquired in March, 2005
Brickhouse marks a dramatic break from the old ways of doing things at Yahoo. It's designed to feel completely different from its established—and yes, older—online parent. The 14,000-square-foot offices are located in the hip South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, 40 miles away from Yahoo headquarters in strip-mall-laden Sunnyvale. The facility is bereft of Yahoo logos. Purple, the company's signature color, is noticeably absent.
The staff is made up of Yahoo employees with the kind of ideas that, in theory at least, would have the venture capitalists of Sand Hill Road whipping out their checkbooks.
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