Google co-founder Sergey Brin offered a candid lesson on ambition, timing, and product maturity during a recent talk at Stanford University, held as part of the engineering school’s centennial celebrations.

Asked by a student what mindset aspiring entrepreneurs should adopt to avoid repeating past mistakes, Brin pointed directly to one of Google’s most famous missteps: Google Glass.

“When you have your cool, new wearable device idea, really fully bake it before you have a big stunt involving skydiving and airships,” Brin said with a smile. “That’s one tip I would give you.”

Moving too fast, too soon

Brin acknowledged that Google pushed Glass to market before the product was truly ready for consumers.

“I think I tried to commercialize it too quickly, before we could make it cost-effective enough and polished enough from a consumer standpoint,” he said.

Looking back, Brin admitted that ego and excitement played a role. He believed the Google Glass launch would be his defining moment, similar to Apple’s iconic product reveals.

“I sort of jumped the gun and thought, ‘Oh, I’m the next Steve Jobs. I can make this thing. Ta-da,’” Brin said.

Why Google Glass failed the first time

Google unveiled Glass in 2013, pitching it as a breakthrough wearable that projected notifications, navigation, and smartphone functions directly into the user’s field of view. While the technology drew global attention, consumer adoption never followed.

Critics and users alike pointed to several issues:

A bulky, awkward design
Privacy concerns around the visible camera
Limited real-world use cases
A steep $1,500 price tag

By 2015, Google had discontinued Glass for mainstream consumers, quietly shifting the product toward niche enterprise applications.

A second chance for smart glasses

More than a decade later, Google is preparing a comeback.

In May, the company announced a partnership with Warby Parker to develop a new generation of smart glasses. The devices are expected to launch as early as next year and will run on Android XR, Google’s operating system designed for extended reality hardware.

The revamped glasses will also integrate Gemini, allowing users to control the device through natural voice interactions.

This time, Brin says, Google is taking a very different approach.

“I’ve learned a lot. I definitely feel like I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass,” he said, adding that he still strongly believes in the glasses form factor.

“And now it looks like normal glasses, without that thing in front,” Brin noted, referring to the conspicuous camera module that defined the original prototype.

For Brin, the lesson is clear: bold vision matters, but execution, timing, and humility matter just as much.

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