Three years ago, the smartest critique of Google was that it had too many peacetime generals.
Capable people. Big budgets. No urgency. A culture where the audience that mattered was your manager and your peers, not the messy, warring market outside. The company optimized for not losing rather than for winning.
At I/O 2026, Google looked like a different company. Not because the models got better, though they did. Because the posture changed. Agent-first development platform. Agents in Search. An agentic shopping cart. A general-purpose agent meant to act across your apps. The pitch was not "we built a tool." It was "now anyone can be a builder."
Here is what I keep turning over.
Google did not win this by out-engineering the upstarts on raw capability. It is winning, where it is winning, on distribution. Three billion Android devices. Search. YouTube. Workspace. The agent does not have to be the best in the world if it is already sitting on the surface where the work happens.
For founders, that is the uncomfortable lesson of the moment. The incumbent that looked asleep was actually holding the one asset you cannot raise a Series B to buy: a place to stand. When the giant decides to fight, it does not need a better mousetrap. It needs to wake up.
The defense and dual-use world is full of the same setup. Slow, well-funded, internally focused organizations that own the distribution, the contracts, the relationships, and the trust. They have been peaceful for a long time.
What happens to your edge the day the sleeping incumbent in your category decides it is at war?
Enjoy the ride + Plan accordingly.
-Marc A. Ross
Founder @ Brigadoon
Brigadoon | Know what's next.
You can always reach me @ marc@brigadoon.live.
