Disclaimer - I do not own Silicon Valley.
AN: Surprise. I am uploading a chapter early as I finished writing another chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 11 - Porn Is The Norm
So after the homicide gig was a success the valley was buzzing about Pied Piper. No VC's had approached yet, still afraid of the lawsuit, Gavin Belson and Hooli. But there had been back-channeled attempts to get the conversation rolling. But I had ordered them to be completely ignored.
Still, I had just given an interview for wired magazine and . The message I had sent, with my answers and body language, about totally being unbothered by the case was going to rattle quite a few cages.
Finance wise I was a bit tight for now, as I had just infused another two million into the company from my own pocket. All other liquid funds I had, I had invested in coin, when it was 83 dollars a pop. For now I owned just over a 110k coins. I was probably one of the largest owners of coins in the world at this point. Even if Pied Piper doesn't work out, I will be a billionaire. That is for sure.
But that was a few years into the future. For now, I was tapped out in terms of liquid cash to infuse into the company. But the money that I did just invest was put to good use.
I hired a whole division for sales. 13 people in total. Their job was now to get us streaming and compressing deals. I had given them generous expense accounts to help them accomplish the job. I had told them go after small fish for now and get the revenue rolling, and leave the big fishes alone for now. Though I knew they were trying their best, I understood it would take time. But hopefully soon the revenue will start coming in.
I had also just bought a plot outside of the city to convert into a server farm into the future. As well as ordered Gilfoyle to construct another 500k worth server in the office.
Though this was thought of as an overreaction by my team, none of them voiced it. They had good reason to go along with my plan, as all of them so far had worked. But they were justified by their concerns. The servers we already had could bear the load of millions of users. Adding more servers would give the capacity to host over 15 million users, at the minimum.
"Richard we need to worry about this EndFrame company. The basketball tournament though had a few glitches and was not as good as ours, its presence in the market indicates competition.
They already had a sales-based model before us and have been working on getting lucrative deals for months.", Monica told me in a board meeting. She was present there, along with Laurie who I had seen, for the first time in months. The reason Laurie was present for the first time in a Pied Piper board meeting was that I had activated my extra board seat by giving it to Erlich after the success of the Homicide gig. This had led to the activation of Raviga's extra board seat as well, which was promptly grabbed by Laurie.
"He is right Richard. Even with your recent infusion of another two million, we have been burning money at a spectacular rate. We might not even make it to CES before the cash runs out.", Jared told me.
"If you so desire, Mr Hendricks, Raviga could fund a Series A round tomorrow for you.", Laurie tried to slyly interject, even though she did it in a hurried tone avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room. I don't know what spectrum she fell on but she had issue.
"Oh so now you want to infuse your money covered dick into Pied Piper's vagina now that you know she can earn money. You ditched us when we needed you. Raviga ditched us when we trusted you. I don't think either Richard or Pied Piper need your money. We will find another way.", My newest board member Erlich Bachman said.
"Though I don't condone his choice of words, I agree with him. Like the man said, We will find another way.", I said nodding in appreciation at Erlich for having my back.
"Then you better find it soon or you will have to fire over half the people you recently hired.", this time Monica told me in the business like no-bullshit tone. "We just cannot maintain this burn rate."
I sat there contemplating her words for a few seconds before I spoke.
"Monica what do you know about the deals EndFrame is recently working on. Any idea?", I asked her, hoping that she would give me an opening.
"Well, from what I have heard from my contacts in the valley, they have been in talks with InterSite…" Monica was interrupted as Erlich said, "Aa the porn site….", Erlich completed with no shame.
"Okay, Jared find me the CEO of Intersite. Set up a meeting if possible. If not just check her social media logins and tell where she is or going to be. I will get us a deal. Now I am off to research my target. Meeting dismissed.", I left the board room and so did Jared and Erlich. Monica and Laurie stayed behind.
XxxxxX
"It seems Mr Hendrick's it more naive than I thought. Does he think that by just meeting or ambushing the CEO of InterSite he will be able to get a deal. This isn't magic. These things... deals take months of back and fourth before they are done." Laurie said scoffing and shaking her head.
At that Monica started chuckling which garnered Laurie's attention and her confusion.
"Huh, you think that people would learn. But no. Some people never learn.", Monica said chuckling and shaking her head in dismay.
"What is that supposed to me mean, Miss Hall?", Laurie asked frowning.
"You know, I would say I told you so. But I have done that a hundred times before. Still, I will do it again, I told you we should have funded Pied Piper, lawsuit or not. I told you Richard is not only the smartest engineer I have ever met but also the most ruthless, cunning and talented CEO I have ever encountered.", Monica said goading Laurie.
"What I did was right at the time and still might prove to be, as the proceedings for the lawsuit against Richard and Pied Piper hasn't even started. There is still a high chance that Richard Hendricks might lose the lawsuit and his company with it. And you should resign from this board seat. You are biased and have put Raviga in a precarious position by being in a relationship with the CEO of Pied Piper. You can no longer be objective about any decisions you make on the board.
If I had known, you were sleeping with Mr Hendricks I would have never signed those papers." Laurie said in frustration.
"But you did and now without the majority vote you cannot remove me from the board, neither can you fire me from Raviga. Because even if you fire me, I will still hold the board seat for the next 5 years.", Monica continued gloating. Then her expression became sympathetic.
"Don't you understand why this happened? Why we are where we are?", she asked Laurie in a gentle tone without any previous gloating present.
"I don't understand what you mean?", Laurie's face became confused but still avoided eye contact.
"What I mean is, Richard knew. Richard is always 10 steps ahead of everybody. Richard knew Gavin would sue him as soon as he won the Tech Crunch Cup. Richard knew even before he met you what was your personality like, he even told it to your face. That's why he had you sign those papers so that he would never lose control of his company.
If you have been through the freeway, then you must have seen, the Pied Piper billboards with Richards arrogant smiling face on them. Did you recognize it was an almost exact copy of the picture of Gavin in the Hooli office? A few months ago we all thought he was crazy for spending thousands of dollars on billboards when they were struggling for funding and had no product. Did you know he put the biggest one of all the billboards directly in the view of Gavin Belson's office?
That kid who hasn't even been a CEO for a year was playing mind games with Gavin Belson. And he won. He wanted to frustrate Gavin and make him do a mistake trying to put Pied Piper and Richard Hendricks in their place. And he did that mistake. The…"
Monica was saying but was interrupted by Laurie with a stark realization, "The UFC fight!"
"Correct Laurie. Richard goaded Gavin Belson and Belson fell for it face first. The moment the fight was announced Richard started preparing by hiring more engineers and staff people than he needed or could afford at the time. He knew Gavin would fuck up somehow and he wanted to be ready to take advantage of it and he did.", Monica explained shaking her head.
"Even right now, I have no doubt Richard is going to get us a deal that will fix all the cash flow problems. From the months I have known Richard, I have understood a very fundamental rule about him. You can either stand with him or get out of his way. Because if you stand in his way, he will go through you. Fuck! When Gavin Belson tried to destroy his business a few months back, by blackballing him form renting any web hosting services, the man went and erected a server farm in his own office. I don't know if that isn't ingenuity and dedication then what is.", Monica said her peace and walked away. Leaving a stone-faced Laurie contemplating in the board room.
XxxxxX
"Miss Kendall.", I called the woman at the porn conference who was talking to some of her colleagues after her presentation. And oh boy what a presentation. I am both investing in and buying that iWack as soon as I can.
"Yeah.", she said turning around and spotting me.
Her eyes widened a little at seeing me. I guess I was eye-catching, cleaned up and smartly dressed, in my still only 50k Armani suit.
"Hello. My name is….", Before I could complete, she completed for me. "Richard Hendricks. The man all over the freeway billboards. That man who pranked Gavin Belson. The man whose company is being sued." She said shaking my hand.
"I am also the man with the best data compression technology on the market.", I told her with a charming smile.
"May I have a few minutes of your time ma'am.", I asked politely.
"My my my, Young, smart and respectful. You would do so well in many of our videos." She said chuckling before she continued. "Sure Mr Hendrick's, I like many people in the valley are very interested in you and would like to get to know you better.", she said.
"Well then, can I tempt you for a drink at the hotel bar?", I said giving her my elbow to swing her arm around.
"Sure. Why not.", she said.
We talked about a few inconsequential things till we reached the bar. "So I heard, you are doing a deal with a company called EndFrame. A 15 million dollar deal to be exact.", I commented, shocking her.
"How did you know about that?", she asked with narrowed eyes.
"I am very good at what I do ma'am", I just replied with a charming smile, totally not affecting her sour and suspicious mood.
"I am not sure I should be talking about this.", she said closing up.
"Sure. It's alright. But you can listen at least, correct?", I told her with a smile. She didn't reply. " Let me guess, maybe EndFrame is telling you something like they can lower your bandwidth and storage costs by delivering your new 4K video stream at 20 megabits per second," I told her getting an even more shocked expression. She got up to leave, but before she could take two steps I told her, "What if I told you I could save you millions in Bandwidth?" that stopped her on the spot.
"Do you still do not wish to even hear what I have to say Miss Kendall?", I asked being ever the polite gentleman as a waiter arrived with two pre-ordered Martinis.
She looked at me and then the drink. Then back at me again. Then she sighed and sat back down on her seat, with a small smile. "The algorithm is lossless. I can deliver the same 4K video, at seven megabits per second, 60 fps.
We are faster and have a higher quality than EndFrame at a third of the bit rate."
"Bullshit.", was her instant reply.
"Then let me prove it to you. Why would you want to waste, 15 million dollars on a third rate compression when in a few months your competitors will have a significantly better compression running their sites and you will have to jump in the bandwagon with us anyway to stay in the race.
"You are an awfully confident little fuck aren't you?", she asked snarkily.
"Since the day I was born ma'am.", I said smiling as I took a sip of my Martini. That elicited a chuckle from her as she took a sip from her Martini as well.
"You know I'm on the board of two charities and a no-kill animal shelter with Gavin Belson, right? The man who is suing you for stealing his IP.", she asked testing me.
"That lawsuit is about as strong as a house made out of single-ply tissue paper.", I told her looking directly in the eye.
"Is that right?", she asked grinning, trying to read me.
"Do you see me flinching.", I said with a cold look in my eyes.
"No. I suppose I do not.", she said smiling again.
"Now how do you suppose I test you Mr Hendricks?" she said examining me from top to bottom like a piece of meat.
I completely owned it and replied with a smile, "Miss Kendall, how do you like a bake-off." After 30 minutes of further discussion, both of us parted and two people from tables near mine in the hearing range got up and started following me.
When we were out of sight from the hotel bar, both of them jumped on my back hugging me. "That was brilliant Richard. Fucking brilliant. Oh, I love you so much you sweet ass mother fucker!", Erlich said still having me in a headlock and laughing uproariously.
"Erlich is right Richard. You had her wrapped around your finger from the start. It is beautiful to see you work Richard.", Jared said joining the impromptu group hug.
"Well, it's not a done deal yet. We still need to defeat EndFrame in compressing the files and then get all the lawyers and negotiators involved so that we are not screwed on the deal and we can keep leasing the algorithm to other companies." I told them, getting them back on planet earth.
"We will get it done Richard. Just like we have jumped over every roadblock till now, we will do this one as well.", Jared said with a smile.
"Thanks Jared. Oh and here I have something for you.", I said digging into my pocket and finding a key. He had a questioning look on his face looking at the key.
"I found out that you are currently homeless and that you were squatting in Erlich's garage without any of us knowing. That is the key to my house. I wish you had told me this a few weeks ago, I would have told you to move in then itself.", I told a now very emotional Jared.
"Richard, you don't ne….need to do this…. I am fine…", he said with red puffy eyes.
"No, you are not. Look, Jared, I am really sorry you didn't have a family growing up. But you are one of the best people I know. As fucked up as it is, I consider You, Gilfoyle, Dinesh and even Erlich my family. So think of it as your brother asking you to move in with him till you are ready or capable to move out.", I said putting the key in his palm and closing.
"Come on now let's go home and give everyone the good news.", I said getting in the car.
XxxxxX
Since there was no Russ Hanerman to put a tequila bottle on the delete key, the bake-off went smoothly. In fact, I had ensured that during bake-off there no alcohol of any kind in the room and all the computers had post-it notes on it saying- 'Mind the Delete Key'.
After the successful bake-off where we blew the competition out of the water, the lawyers got to work hammering out a deal. Where EndFrame had settled for 15 million, we asked for 50 million per year fees for the next 5 years for the privilege of using our algorithm. They first thought it absurd and blew us off. Then I started negotiating. I leveraged our better software and going to the competition as a negotiation tactic and had them settle for 40 million. In exchange, we would not lease the privilege to use our algorithm to any other porn site for the next 18 months. After that, it would be open season.
XxxxxX
AN: Next chapter will either be next Sunday or Tuesday. Though I don't think it will be posed on Alternate History. The reason being it has a little bit of soft core port with story mixed in which is essential to character development. I am not willing to cut it this time. So I will post a summary on AlternateHistory and the whole unedited chapter on FanFriction. You can find the story on FanFriction with my handle - Y-T3cH or the story tittle - Rise of Richard Hendricks.
Also if you liked the chapter, please leave me your reviews. The are food for writers. Please feed me. :)
~Till the Next Time