GV
Rich Miner
Android cofounder Rich Miner is stepping down as a general partner at Alphabet's investing arm to launch a mysterious new education project inside Google.
Miner, who has worked with GV for seven years and built its east coast investment team, will remain involved in the fund as a venture partner while focusing most of his time on his new initiative.
As a father, he's been thinking about doing something in the education space for two years, he tells Fortune's Dan Primack.
"I first thought about this as a startup, but then talked to Larry [Page] and… pitched Sundar [Pichai] who said, 'Let's do it,'" he said.
Google already has several education efforts, like Classroom, its suite of tools for teachers built on its apps like Docs and Forms, and Expeditions, for virtual reality "field trips."
Miner won't be leading all of Google's initiatives and says that even he's not sure what his new special project will look like. He compares it to the early days of Android, which he cofounded with Andy Rubin in 2003, and Wildfire, the communications startup he worked at before that. When Google bought Android in 2005, he spent several years leading its development.
"Just like Android took us our years to get the first device out and I helped create WildFire 25 years ago as a voice-based personal assistant, which is just now starting to happen," he tells Primack. "This vision is another big idea, but it will take time."