Disclaimer: I do not own Silicon Valley.
AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the delay. But here is the next chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 17 - Products & Relationships
Alright. It had been a few days since the welcoming party. Most of my employees found my escape with Monica from the party after that searing kiss, quite amusing. Though because of that, during the orientation that followed, I had to announce a very liberal office dating policy. The reason being, I was in no position to dictate any moral high ground over it.
The orientation also included setting a tone for the working environment.
Right now I had, 200 plus employees after the poaching of the Nucleus division from Hooli. This included other departments that Monica had staffed in my absence. In the orientation, I gave them an idea of Pied Piper's overreaching goals, mission statement, vision, all that crap along with going over the task-based technical stuff.
Stuff that in the cannon, Richard had completely botched due to vomit-inducing crippling crippling anxiety, when he had gotten a large workforce working for him. Seeing it on the show was as cringy as it was hilarious. But this is no longer a TV show. It's my life. And like hell I am going to mess it up.
And since I didn't want any issues propping up this time around, I just did the three-day orientation. Even if it was a bit delayed due to my business trip in India.
Right now this was my fourth day back and this was the first meeting I was having for the day. This meeting was being held in the office common area with the giant screen and an area that was big enough for over 150 employees to stand or sit in attendance. Though the ones present were mostly engineers and people from marketing.
"Okay so guys, without any delay, let's start the general staff meeting. So since all of our engineers and salespeople are here, we are going to go over our current and future products, who is going to be assigned to which project, what is the market potential and the scalability of each product.", I said starting the PPT and walking around the pseudo stage looking at my troops.
"The first and original product we were working on initially was the Pied Piper Compression Platform. But because of some recent events, we as a company have started working on Streaming as a revenue-generating product, the Pied Piper platform took a back seat. But with the number of engineers we have now, we can start working on it again. Obviously since its February right now, we have sales people CES deadline. But that alright. Now that we have time, energy, money, motivation and a very capable workforce of engineers we can get back to it.
From what I understand after talking with Gilfoyle and Dinesh that we are a month at most away from a working beta. So we are going to assign a team to start working on that. It will be headed by Gilfoyle, Dinesh and me. For sales people, who have questions about the scalability and USP selling points, we will get to that in the next meeting. The people who will be assigned to the project will get a mail in your inbox.", I said to the note-taking and extremely interested employees.
"The Second and currently the most important product of this company right now is the streaming and data compression. I am naming it StreamTuning. The division handling it will be headed by Dinesh and Carla with me being in oversight. A third of the engineers we have will be assigned to the division.
The third product was the original product from which Pied Piper started.
The song recognition app. I have decided to call the app – "ORIGINAL". As it says on the slide, Original - The first app that was born out of Pied Piper propriety patented technology. You want to know, what song is that? (To be added later - You want to know what movie that dialogue is from?) Who is the singer, writer, lyrics or who holds the copyright, its just one click away! As an additional feature, you can also find out other songs with similar lyrics or tunes with match ranging for 0%-100%.
See I have been working on this app, on and off since the start. When we introduce Piper Suite of app's, I want this to be one of them. So I am going to take a small team and work on this personally.
The fourth product is something I threw together when I was in India.
See it's a Video Chat app that we have been using for the past month or so to stay in touch. This is one of the products that we can most quickly get off the ground. I think we would be ready for beta in 6 months. And I am saying 6 months because I do not want it to be JUST a video chat app.
See when I was in India, I saw a need that no one else saw. All of us in America and Western European countries have been using texting, since the advent of cell phones. We have been sending pictures on text chat, again since the advent of cell phones. But in Asian, Middle Eastern, South American & Eastern European countries cell phone companies and providers took quite a few years to get off the ground. And when they did they charged a lot for services like calls, texts and internet data. It is only in the last couple of years, in the Asian markets, the prices of cell phones, Call & internet service providers have gone down because of ridiculously rising competition.
I want to make an app geared towards those markets, especially Asian, which could not only be used for making video calls over the internet but also voice calls. Not only that, but it could also be used for sending pictures, videos, documents and a whole lot of other crap.
In another year or so, I want to introduce a business-facing version of this app. This would be the paid version with a monthly subscription fee. It would work as a virtual conference room, that can host anywhere from 3 to 300 participants in the video conference.
Look, I have big plans for this app, I think it could be our next big thing, that could push us to rival giants like Facebook and Google.", I said brimming with excitement. The excitement was mirrored by all the employees present. Be it old or new ones.
Then one of our newly hired techs raised his hand to asked a question.
"Umm, do you have a name for this app?", He asked nervously and equal part's intrigued.
"Yes. Yes, I do. I think we will call it 'What's App!' and for simplicity's sake 'What's App Business' for the paid version.", that got quite a few chuckles and the whole crowd murmuring in excitement.
"This is the project that will be headed by me personally along with Gilfoyle and Dinesh. This is going to be super big guys.
Now for the final new product, something our sales team can push along with StreamTuning is going to be the Pandora's box. The name is tentative. I also think Piper Box is a good option, but I am open to suggestions. Now, what is this box? Well to explain it, I have made a small video." I exclaimed. Then a video began playing on the big screen behind me. A video I had painstakingly copied from cannon when I made it.
It's a big world, but thanks to modern technology, it's smaller than salespeople business moves at the speed of light.
You can access your company's data anywhere, anytime.
But if you can get your data, who else can get it? Spies, thieves, criminals, and foreigners.
I heard a big "Fuck you Richard!" from Dinesh, when his photo eating a bagel from the fridge was shown for the Foreigner.
"Then don't steal my bagel!", I said laughing uproariously.
Every single one of my employee's laughed at our byplay as the video continued.
What if there was a way to take all of your company's data and back it up in a protected enclosure completely isolated from the world at large? Oh no.
The ultimate enterprise data storage solution
The Pandora's Box!
There was huge applause when the video ended. And Dinesh showed me the finger. But that was okay.
"Now, Gilfoyle is going to head this project and Dinesh and I will be helping him where he needs us. We will have the prototype ready in a month, max. Monica and Jared are going to be working on finding us production factories.
Then I want our sales people to go crazy." When I said that there was a loud cheer from the salespeople. I could understand them, they now hand another concrete product they could market to the businesses, get the revenue rolling and thus achieve bigger bonuses.
"Now we are going to have multiple meetings today and tomorrow, with the sales, business and engineering department regarding who is going to be assigned where and how to proceed. Those meetings will start within an hour. Till you get a mail to come to the conference room for meeting… back to work everyone.", I said finishing the presentation with excited murmuring breaking out amongst the crowd of employees.
XxxxX
"Richard, that was awesome!", Erlich said catching me on my way towards my new office.
"Thanks, man! And thanks for helping with the video at the end.", I told Erlich.
"Anytime boss man. Listen, Richard, I just heard something interesting from the Hooli employees. We might have an opportunity to piss off Gavin Belson, even more than he already is at your existence. More than that, I think we can win a lawsuit against Hooli and Belson, without settling and can actually push for more. Are you game?", he asked me grinning.
"Always. But first, tell me about it.", I replied grinning.
"Oh, get this, the fucker fired most of the Nucleus people before having them sign an NDA. And many that have joined us had refused to sign an NDA and simply walked out when they got our offers.
Since their employment contracts were null and void anyways, they have been singing all sorts of songs regarding the bullshit Gavin had them do though the years. Especially against us. And get this, they have confirmed, that Nucleus has been based on your stolen prototype.
Richard, we have Belson by the balls.", When Erlich finished, I stood stock-still. Pussy Fucking SHIT! I just wanted to hire the experienced group of engineers for all my new projects and at the same time give Gavin a finger, as an added bonus. I had no fucking clue, it would have such a ginormous unintended consequence.
"Richie?", Erlich inquired with a bit of worry and confusion at my stock still frame.
I didn't respond, I jumped in his arms and gave him kiss on the mouth and then started laughing like a mad man, "That! Deserved a kiss. That was glorious! And FYI you are a hairy mother fucker that smells of Cheetos and a dead rat. But I love you anyway man! Let's go meet Ron, right now!", I said, still megalomanically laughing to a now fake annoyed and disgusted Erlich.
Though I knew internally he was patting himself on the back and was beaming full of pride at my praise.
He was right about one thing though, We had Belson by the Balls Now.
"Oo, Yea sure… But that's not all man!", Erlich said grinning from ear to ear still.
XxxxX
"So you are telling me that Gavin Belson is censoring Hooli search to manipulate search results just so it doesn't show any links to websites that are censoring Hooli and Gavin Belson?", I asked Erlich grinning from ear to ear in my new office.
"Yes, that's what the new guys from Hooli told me. And I checked it myself by comparing search results from Hooli, Google, Bing and a few others. What do you want to do about it?", He asked almost giddy jumping on his toes.
"Leak it to the media discreetly and anonymously and watch the fireworks. And by anonymously I mean to make an untraceable dummy account and mail it to all major and minor publications. Let them investigate and reach their own conclusions. ", I replied.
By the end, both of us were laughing as evil cartoon villains.
XxxxX
As I was working, Tracy the Human Resource head and Jared came barging into my office.
"Richard" "Richard", they both greeted me. Though I could see Jared was quite anxious.
"Hey guys, can I help you with something?", I asked both of them.
Tracy elected to speak first. "Richard, as I emailed you, I think some offices need to be shuffled around to better optimize the productivity of the team. So I was thinking that we could move Jared's office from next to yours to closer to Biz Dev and marketing."
I could already see on Jared's face he was anxious about my reply. I had actually thought that spending so much time with him in India and working so closely with him would have helped with his abandonment issues. But looking at his face I could already see it was still a long road ahead.
"I don't think so. Jared is my right-hand man, I need him in shouting distance. Besides, I saw your email, I just ignored it as I was going to talk to you personally later. Jared stays where he is, closer to mine and Monica's office. Besides, it's a 90-second walk. I am sure Biz Dev and Marketing will manage without him sitting on their heads.", I said instantly bring a smile on his face, I could almost feel him being reassured as I spoke the words. "Unless Jared, you want to change office?", I asked this time looking at Jared.
"No No…. Richard, I want what you want. Being in your shouting distance. I would like to stay where I am.", He said smiling.
"Good. And Jared thanks for hiring Holden as my assistant. I am sure you will be training him straight.", I said hiding a smirk, thinking of the hell Jared is going to unleash on my poor assistant.
"You don't have to worry Richard, by the time I am done with him, you won't even realize the difference between me and him.", Jared said with a maniacal glint in his eyes.
Ohh, Suddenly I feel like I am a very very bad person. Poor Holden.
XxxxX
"….Then she did this thing where you roll your eyes but try not show it and she obviously failed at it because I spotted it in a second. Richard… Richard are you listening to me?", she said snapping her fingers in front of my face as I was looking at Monica transfixed tuning her out but thinking about her all the same.
I had been doing a lot of thinking about Monica lately. Before I went to India I knew I was in love with her. But while I was there, away from her, it was like every second of every minute I was missing her.
I woke up every day wanting to see her and went to sleep dreaming about her. I would not be an exaggerating to say that I was hopelessly, hilariously, head over heels in love with her.
And I knew I might have been inserted in a TV show, but it was my life now. A life I wanted to spend with her. I just needed to know she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me as well.
Some would say it was too soon. But it felt right to me, as evidenced by a small black box with a ring inside it in my sock drawer at home. But I need to make sure it felt right to her as well.
"Monica, where do you see us in 5 years?", I asked her bluntly.
She was startled when I said that. It took her brain a good few seconds to catch up with what I just said.
"Why are you asking me this?", she asked with a nervous expression.
"We both love each other. Overwhelmingly so, in my opinion. And I know I might sound like a girl when I say this, but do you want more? Do you want to get married and have kids someday?"
Monica didn't say anything for a few minutes after that, looking down as if recalling past memories and I could already see her eyes getting red and puffy and tears starting to build.
I didn't say anything, I would be here to comfort her but I thought she was building up the courage to say something that she had wanted to for a long time.
"Richard, I never had the best of luck when it came to men in my life. My dad left my mom, me and my sister when I was 7 years old and never came back. All the past relationships I have had have ended in one of two ways, either with them leaving me or cheating on me.
After my last relationship ended like that, I had sworn off men and stopped dating for 3 years. Then I met you. You came like a storm in my life and swept me off my feet.
Richard… Sometimes I feel I love you so much that it scares the shit out of me. I have never felt this… Like I feel with you, with anyone… ever.
You are right Richard, I am so in love with you that… there aren't words. But it also scares me… It scares me to think about what would happen when and not if…but when you inevitably leave me. I know it's screwed up… I am a bit screwed up. But that fear is always there, lurking behind the strong confident businesswoman I play in front of everyone.
Richard, I love you… But I am also afraid that you will eventually leave me. And sometimes I feel, that I should end it before it gets worse….Before I fall even more for you. Because the more time I spend with you, the more it will hurt when…. It happens.", she was bawling her eyes out.
I moved next to her and enveloped her in a hug.
"I know you might not believe me when I say this…. But the only way I will ever leave you is the day I die. I want to love you, Monica. I want to marry you someday. I want to have kids with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.", I said kissing her on the forehead as she was hugging the life out of me.
"Promise?", She asked in a small voice.
"Pinky Promise.", I said earning a guaff on my chest from the still hugging love of my life.
"Are you proposing?", she asked looking up with both anxious and hopeful red puffy eyes.
"Ohh, no this is not proposing. You will know when I propose. And I promise you it is coming. Soon. So stay on your toes.", I said with a smile in my voice, ending it with a kiss to her lips.
She laughed and then finally got enough control of herself to start fixing herself up again. "I am a mess.", she said looking at her ruined makeup in her compact.
"You are my mess. And a hot one at that.", I said bringing her close and kissing her.
As we both came up for air, I asked her the question I had planning to ask for a long long time, "But for now…. Will, you move in with me?", I asked and in return, I got the biggest smiles I had ever seen on her face.
"Took you long enough."
XxxxX
AN: So Thoughts? Reviews are my fuel! Sorry for the late chapter but work has been busy. But as a treat, I am going to upload this chapter as well as Rise of JST's next chapter back to back. Go check it out if you haven't.
Also please do let me know what did you think on the new products? And the progress of Monicas and Richards relationship.
~Till The Next Time