Microserfs

my question about sound and memory was lost.

I sure wish we had that Bali money back now.

One must grudgingly admit Ethan does seem to know a good deal about Valley business. Like many people in computers and gaming, he never went to college. He designed a game that sold millions in the Pong era, became a millionaire, went bust with Atari, became a millionaire again in Reagan’s ‘80s with a SEGA-based something-or-other, went bust again, and now I guess he’s going to become a multimillionaire in the Multimedia ‘90s.

His tech credentials are good, too. Somewhere amidst all the money he did manage to squeak in work with Xerox’s El Segundo Lab and TRW in Redondo Beach.

I‘ve never seen a stock get more attention than 3DO. Everybody’s wondering if they should invest in it. I mean, if we had money to invest. I must remember to drive by their parking lot some Sunday afternoon.

Karla asked Mom out to lunch and Mom balked at first—“I don’t know how much time the Library can spare me for.” That kind of thing. I mean, if someone wants to have lunch with you, they simply don’t make pseudo-excuses like that.

But Karla wore her down, like someone who’s been to Anthony Robbins lectures. The three of us are going to have lunch later this week, but I hope it isn’t a grudge match.

I asked Michael what he wanted for his 25th birthday next week. His message flashed onto my screen at 2:40A.M., from his office where he was working with the door shut:

»Birthday:

I want one of those keys you win in video games, that allows you to blast through walls and reach the next level - to get to *the other side*.

This is a particularly long message for Michael whose e-mail tends to be about three words long, normally. A carriage return, punctuation marks and everything!

Now that I’ve been thinking about it, I’m not sure what exactly Oop!’s money structure is. Wouldn’t it be a sick joke if I got into something without understanding the financial underpinnings … if I hadn’t even bothered to ask the questions I’m supposed to ask because I’ve never had to ask them before because I’d been coddled to death by benefits at Microsoft? Naaaaah …

There was a windstorm last night and a bunch of branches blew off the eucalyptus tree beside the garage. Around sunset Bug, Karla, and I pretended we were a trio of evil Finnish masseuses named Oola, swatting naughty victims with much vim. I’ve got mentholated scratches all over my arms.

Karla is preparing a list of subjects to discuss at lunch with Mom. I said, “Karla, this is a lunch, not a meeting.” She wants to make a good impression so badly. I am surprised by how much that pleases me.

Michael is furious at Todd for taping over a VHS cassette of Oop! graphic animation that Michael had done as a demo for potential investors. Todd replaced it with The Best of Hockey Fights III.

Todd and Susan have the flu, so I guess we’re all doomed for it now. And Ethan’s been acting weird all week. Our bank account must be running on fumes again.

* * *

unraveled brown

cassette tape

on the freeway

Staples

CK-one

PIN number

basketball hoop

If we were machines, we'd have the gift of being eternal and I want you to understand

TUESDAY

Everybody’s flu-ridden today except for Ethan and me. Ethan asked me to accompany him up to Electronic Arts in San Mateo, and then down to a VC meeting out at the Venture Capital mall at the corner of the 280 and Sand Hill Road — in his ruby red Ferrari.

“The Ferrari is like a rite of passage here for new money. You buy one at 26, get it out of your system, flip it for a gray Lexus or Infiniti, and then you drive gray sedans the rest of your life. I keep mine because I can’t afford anything else at the moment, and I can’t afford the capital gains taxes if I sold it. I should get one of those ‘ don’t laugh: at least it’s paid for’ bumper stickers. Nobody would appreciate the irony that I’m holding on by my teeth.”

We roared south past the rolling hills that oozed trees and fog. I looked down at the palm of my hand, slapped it, and said, “Hey, Ethan — I’m looking at my sympathy-o-meter, and the needle isn’t moving.”

“It’s the Valley, pal — think sideways. This is the Lexus Freeway, the most scenic in America.”

I told Ethan about the book on freeways I had read, Robert F. Baker’s Handbook of Highway Engineering; Ethan in turn told me that 280 — the Lexus Freeway — is also nicknamed the Mensa Freeway.

I looked in the glove compartment and there was a bottle of Maalox cherry. Ethan said, “I keep Maalox in the glove compartment of the car, and sometimes I swig it like a wino in parking lots before meetings. I once walked into this meeting with dried white Maalox powder caked on my lips and everybody thought it was coke or something. I told them it was Pixy Stix and they said, oh, how cute, but they still thought I was coked out. Man, if they only knew the truth—that a Pixy stick would burn a crater in my stomach like Mt. Saint Helens.”

Then we got into a discussion about volcanoes, and the year Mt. Saint Helens erupted and that old guy who lived on top of the mountain, who was all crotchety, and wouldn’t leave, and everybody thought he was a real individual — and then he got creamed when the mountain blew. And this got me thinking of all the people at IBM, and I got to thinking about Dad and …

This is my first-ever VC meeting. Ethan has attended hundreds of them during his Valley career. Apparently, the Monday Partner’s Meeting is a Silicon Valley tradition, according to Ethan. They mostly occur up at the venture capital “mall” at the corner of Sand Hill Road and Interstate 280. Monday is when partners agree to agree. And Tuesday is when the decisions are acted upon.

Fifteen years in the business have loaned Ethan a rote tour-guidish quality. Humming up the 280, he further briefed me on the situation:

“Initial presentations are made by capital seekers. If their idea seems promising, then there’s a callback for a broader presentation — not unlike Broadway.

“The ‘VC team’ by then will have run due-diligence checks — spoken with insiders who have provided background on an idea — its suitability or marketability — as well as checked the technical robustness of the idea. Essentially, they must know what is the significance or defensibility of the technology underlying the idea? What is the overall viability of the idea? What do you have that the others don’t? Is the necessary technical acumen on the team? Michael and I have been through this already. Today is the callback.

“We passed all of the techie checks, but the VC firms aren’t quite sure about Oop!’s marketability. With round-one seed capital, all the risk is ahead of you. Plus, software is a consumer, not a corporate business now — it’s 10,000 units off to CompUSA instead of one jumbo unit to Delta Airlines or National Cash Register.

“This isn’t good for us, because Silicon Valley firms have little or no experience with Procter & Gamble-