I don't normally like the "betting the company" metaphor as I feel it's overused and over-dramatic. There's also a sense of motivating staff with fear, in that if you don't work hard enough or if you make any mistakes, we'll lose this bet and the company will fail and everyone here will be out of work. No pressure, or anything, though :)
When I met Microsoft's Chief Software Architect at PDC last year, he kindly thanked me for "betting on Azure" and I thought to myself "I'm just experimenting with a new technology that may make my life easier, I try my best not to ever bet on anything". Not wanting to be a smart-ass jerk, I just talked about lolcats and 4chan instead.
Reading about what Scribd is doing, it seems that the metaphor is pretty appropriate.
When I met Microsoft's Chief Software Architect at PDC last year, he kindly thanked me for "betting on Azure" and I thought to myself "I'm just experimenting with a new technology that may make my life easier, I try my best not to ever bet on anything". Not wanting to be a smart-ass jerk, I just talked about lolcats and 4chan instead.
Reading about what Scribd is doing, it seems that the metaphor is pretty appropriate.