_236436532

Thanks for sharing your view, I appreciate it! The point you mention was a large factor in my decision. Most of my former colleagues and advisors also "abandoned" superconducting quantum computing later to work on more fundamental research again (e.g. inventing new types of qubits) as they weren't interested at all in the engineering aspects of building a quantum computer. Personally I always enjoyed applied research so I think I would have had fun working on "engineering" problems as well, on the other hand I get to work on challenging computer science problems now too and in addition I can mostly decide myself what to work on (as long as I turn a profit, though). Maybe I'll return to QC after my current startup, which I think will turn out better than the last one!

Can you say anything about the reasons? I read that Cliqz only had a few 100.000 daily active users, which indeed seems low for a product with so much venture backing.

I still don't see why the investors would pull the plug right now, as clearly they should understand that it takes time to build a Google competitor. Then again, Cliqz has been at this since more than 10 years (7 years under Burda) with seemingly little traction, so maybe their patience just ran out. That the publishing industry apparently lost a large share of its ad revenue in the last months might have been a deciding factor as well.

I guess :) Just interesting sometimes to wonder where one would be if one would have chosen differently at a given point in life.

I almost joined his lab around 2014 as a PostDoc (without knowing about the Google deal, which was not yet official I think) but eventually I stopped the application process because I wanted to pursue my own startup instead. Today I kind of regret not having stayed in quantum computing as my startup was only modestly successful and as I would probably have been much better off working for Google, in retrospect. I'm working on my next startup now but I keep wondering if I should go back to quantum computing eventually, I'm not sure though if I'm still relevant as my PhD dates back to 2013 already (I had good results though and did it in a renowed QC group on superconducting qubits).