American History 1988
Chapter 112 - 106 BIT Software

Chapter 112: Chapter 106 BIT Software

Stanford’s winter break generally begins in late December, lasting roughly two and a half months from the end of September when the semester starts.

It’s already December, and many students are busy preparing for their final exams.

Especially freshmen and sophomores, who have numerous general education courses and have been running between different classrooms, libraries, and dorms for the past two months.

"Dean, if I don’t pass the final exam, you’re to blame," Marcus straightened the hem of his suit and repeated the complaint he had voiced two minutes earlier.

"Professor Moore likes football. If you can score some Super Bowl tickets for January, maybe he’ll give you an A out of respect for your love of sports," Dean said nonchalantly as he made the final adjustments to Teams.

"Really?" Marcus’s eyes lit up, perhaps seeing a shortcut.

"Not really," Dean unceremoniously burst his bubble, "The cheapest Super Bowl tickets start at over 1200 US Dollars, and usually by this time they’re being scalped for more than three times that.

And with only just over 60,000 seats in the Miami Stadium, with so many football fans in America, the tickets would have been snapped up long ago."

"Shit, I knew you were messing with me, Dean," Marcus angrily picked up the baseball bat by his bed, pondering which end to use to give Dean’s butt a good ’massage’.

"While Super Bowl tickets are impossible, I do know Professor Gonnard. You know, he and Professor Moore are very good friends," said Dean, unfazed, bringing a smile to Marcus’s face again with just one sentence.

"Boss, when do we leave? I can’t wait to take Teams global," Marcus was dressed up in a suit, tie, and leather shoes, ready to conquer Silicon Valley.

But when he turned to Dean, who seemed indifferent, he asked with confusion, "Dean, aren’t you going to change? Jeans and sneakers aren’t the best choice for conducting business."

"Marcus, you’re neither a qualified programmer nor a qualified entrepreneur," Dean said leisurely as he packed up his portable computer, "In Silicon Valley, you need to go against the mainstream."

"What?" Marcus looked down at his suit, thinking it was fine.

"Here," Dean pointed at the ground beneath their feet, "this is the birthplace of the hippies, the Silicon Valley where anti-government, utopian culture thrives.

Intel ditched the mandatory suit on their very first day, and Jobs turned it into his personal symbol. Just take a stroll in Mountain View or Redwood City, and you’ll find that over half the people in offices are dressed in casual clothes."

"So?" Marcus looked uncertainly at his suit, now unsure what to do.

"So the real tech engineers all wear plaid shirts and jeans. The more casual the attire, the more unfathomable your programming skills are," Dean pointed to the jacket on Marcus’s bed that he had just taken off, "To avoid looking like an idiotic salesman, you’d better change out of that quickly."

"Crap, Dean, why didn’t you tell me earlier?" Marcus hurriedly started changing his clothes again, "Mother F*cker, I even spent 5 dollars to get them pressed in advance."

"The pressing is good, fits nicely," Dean said as he packed his computer into his bag and pulled out two business card holders.

"Ah, much better now," Marcus said, now back in his jacket and relaxing his shoulders. "Dean, do I look like my programming skills are unfathomable now?"

"If you shave your head, maybe we won’t even have to sell Teams, people will come to buy it themselves," Dean handed over the custom business cards, "Here, get these out in the next three days."

"What’s this?" Marcus took the business card holder and looked at it, "Wow~ Is that my name on them?"

"Byte Software Company, how about that? Isn’t it cool?" Dean raised his eyebrows in pride, look, he had started his own third company.

"Cool~ I like the name!" Marcus was a student in the Computer Science department. A byte is a binary digit, the smallest unit of data in computing and the fundamental building block of the information world.

All information in the computer and internet realm is made up of bytes, they might be inconspicuous but they are ubiquitous, they are the cornerstone of the world of information.

"Since we’re planning to sell Teams as a product, we certainly need to have our own company," Dean checked his own business cards.

Byte Software, Dean Price. Yes, that’s it.

"For now, I’ve left our dorm’s phone number as the contact. When we’ve sold the first hundred copies, I’ll rent an office in Menlo Park.

Oh right, sign this agreement within the next couple of days. I’ll give David his copy tonight," said Dean as he handed Marcus the document he had prepared in advance.

"This is...?" Marcus instinctively lowered his voice.

"You and David each get a 10% equity share, it’s what you deserve." Teams might be primarily designed by Dean, but it wasn’t a one-man effort.

Marcus and David had taken on a significant portion of the programming work, otherwise, Dean wouldn’t have managed such complex software in two and a half months.

As Stanford students, their lowest achievements are to be the future elites in various industries. Dean didn’t pay them a fixed amount for their work over this time, that would be an insult to Marcus and David.

Being in Silicon Valley, especially at Stanford, nobody is a fool. If Dean really did that, he wouldn’t be able to find any partners at Stanford in the future.

Distributing equity is part of the game of capital; he needed to use his own chips to exchange for other’s support.

"Dean, I don’t know if Byte Software will be successful in the future, but I will definitely be its most loyal adherent," Marcus, who had sacrificed a lot of his free time this semester for Teams, still felt that 10% was Dean’s generosity.

After all, the idea was Dean’s, and he also solved the most difficult part of the problem. Marcus and David just dealt with some minor issues around the edges.

"If you’re really grateful, then sell more of the software because now it includes your contribution." Dean handed him another laptop, "Now, we should get going."

"Okay, Boss, what do you need me to do?" Marcus obsequiously opened the dormitory door for him.

"Just make sure you do a good demo of our Teams later, and of course the follow-up training will be up to you and David. I need to think about its future upgrades."

"No problem!"

...

"Mr. Clark"

"Dean, I was just thinking about our last meeting at the Carriage Wheel Bar yesterday. I thought it would be next year before we met again."

"To make Mr. Clark’s insight more convincing, I gave up countless chances to go to parties."

"Haha, say sorry to those beautiful girls on my behalf, your Dean has been keeping company with codes this semester."

Dean, dressed in a cotton jacket and jeans, shook hands enthusiastically with Jim Clark, who was dressed similarly, "This is my partner and roommate, Marcus White."

"Wow~ Seeing you guys reminds me of the two Steves from Apple." This kind of duo is quite common in Silicon Valley, Jim Clark also had a partner from Stanford when he founded Silicon Graphics.

Following Dean, Marcus, who saw that everyone in the office was wearing jeans and sneakers, couldn’t help but give Dean a thumbs up in his mind.

Indeed, the truly unfathomable tech elites all dress alike.

Marcus also took notice of Clark’s hair, nice~ still quite full. It seemed his skills were not far behind.

After the introductions, Clark gestured for Dean and his party to sit down and talk.

"I see you brought computers with you, so can I see your idea turned into a tangible, usable product today?"

"I don’t think there is anything more convincing than seeing it with your own eyes." Dean and Marcus took out their computers, booted them up, and established a connection on the spot.

Once the two Zenith portable computers finished booting up, Dean arranged them side by side on the table. "Look, this is our Teams."

Two blue silhouettes of upper bodies standing side by side - that was the logo for the Teams software.

"Very minimalist design," which suited the serious and convenient philosophy of business flair. At least Clark wasn’t put off by them.

"Thank you for your compliment," Dean said. The logo was drawn by a student from the San Francisco Art Institute, as Stanford, being a research university, didn’t have arts majors.

Dean selected the Teams icon and clicked to open it, and soon a loading window appeared.

The blue background with the white, italicized "Teams" logo and the slightly smaller "BIT Software" company name below it.

This screen lasted for about eight seconds, quite good - its loading speed had already exceeded Clark’s expectations.

Only very mature software companies could achieve this, as usually, those with average optimization took over a minute just to load the page.

As the loading finished, a brand new window popped up.

On the left, something like a group list, from Dean’s computer, it appeared to be menu categories such as contacts, workgroups, and historical messages.

On the right, aside from a toolbar at the top, was all chat windows. The entire Teams window by default occupied one-fourth of the computer screen in the center.

This ratio was just right, not too small to see clearly, and not so big as to crowd the view and interfere with other office activities.

These subtle design details were undoubtedly very avant-garde at a time when the software industry had not yet formed a concept of design aesthetics. But it had already given Clark an even better impression of Teams.

"It looks very simple, on the left is the menu..." Clark pointed at the icons on the screen, identifying them one by one, "These are contacts, groups, and also work logs... these kinds of function buttons."

"Yes!" Dean watched the president of Silicon Graphics with excitement. "Mr. Clark, have you noticed? I haven’t even introduced to you how to use it."

Carlock’s eyes widened slightly, software that exists without a manual? He thought of the headache-inducing hundred-page manuals from Lotus and Oracle.

"So Dean, does Teams have its own manual?"

"Of course," Dean said as he pulled a neatly printed software manual out of his bag, "It’s just eight pages. Believe me, you can easily master Teams without them, just as you have seen."

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