American History 1988
Chapter 127 - 121: There Won’t Be Such Good Things Anymore

Chapter 127: Chapter 121: There Won’t Be Such Good Things Anymore

How has the Teams software been received in Silicon Valley since its launch? Perhaps we can catch a glimpse of it from Byte Software’s sales over the past month or so.

Starting with Silicon Graphics, with the help of Clark’s network and recommendations and the endorsement of "Global Overview" magazine, Byte Software secured a series of new orders.

Honestly, whether it’s Sun Microsystems, MITS Chip Design Company, or Oracle over there.

These companies, along with the first contact, Silicon Graphics, they all have an intricate web of relationships.

Why Byte Software could easily secure so many orders is not only due to the notable features of Teams itself, but also the undeniable role of personal networks.

As for whether these gifts would need corresponding benefits in return, Dean was not concerned at the moment. The total sales figures in front of him were far more attractive, after all, this was the result of their hard work over more than a month that they could freely distribute.

"8,636 copies, the versions are even all priced at 149 US Dollars," Dean said with extreme satisfaction upon seeing the final summary.

The 7,000-plus orders from Silicon Valley companies were basically 149 US Dollar VIP annual services, and the standard buyout edition sold by computer shops was also priced at 149 US Dollars, making the pricing distribution quite perfect.

"So the total sales revenue of Byte Software’s Teams software is currently..." Dean picked up the calculator and pressed again, "roughly 1.28 million US Dollars! Subtract the negligible costs and the operating funds for two weeks of support, and we have 1.2 million left!"

"Wow~ hoo!" Marcus jumped onto the desk and wildly shook his butt, "F*ck me! Dean!"

"Shit! Get away from me, you damn homo~" Dean said with disgust, flipping him the middle finger, "I’m only interested in women!"

"David~" Marcus, still in high spirits, then turned to David, who was brimming with a smile.

"NO!" David’s smile faded, "Although I don’t have a girlfriend, I’m not that desperate."

"Come On~" Marcus jumped down from the desk and, shaking his butt, walked towards David.

"NO~!..." Although David struggled to refuse, Marcus still gave him a bear hug.

"Okay, guys, it’s time to share the fruits of our labor," Dean said as he pulled out a chequebook from his pocket and briskly wrote two cheques and tore them off,

"Here, according to our initial agreement, this is what you deserve."

"Oh~" Marcus took the cheque and immediately his eyes went wide in surprise. "Dean, isn’t this too much? 120,000 US Dollars, don’t we need to keep some as operating funds for Byte Software?"

Seeing the number in their hands, Marcus and David realized that Dean had taken the entire 1.2 million US Dollars earned and divided it.

According to normal startup logic, shouldn’t they continue to increase investment and then expand market scale?

Research and development, channel investments, employee recruitment, all these require more money. If they poured the 1.2 million US Dollars into a new round of expansion, they would harvest more in the future.

Faced with the puzzled expressions of Marcus and David, Dean smiled and shook the cheques in his hand, "Guys, the first rule of entrepreneurship. When your company is profitable, and the prospects are good,

then you should distribute the first profit you get because there will be more people soon giving you money and helping you manage the company."

Should this money be kept as reserve funds for the company? Don’t be foolish. The right thing is to distribute the funds before the venture capitalists step in.

Otherwise, the money you save frugally will all be "confiscated," becoming part of the stock capital of the company after financing. Then you wouldn’t only be unable to use it, but there would also be a portion of it belonging to the investors.

So if you have money, share it, improving your own life is the first priority. Dean hadn’t forgotten that he had already promised two groups of people that he would accept their investments in the future.

1.28 million US Dollars, apart from the negligible 80,000 US Dollars, Dean took everything else out for profit sharing.

"Dean, are you saying that someone will soon be investing in our company? But Byte Software isn’t short of money now, so why don’t we just run the business ourselves?" Marcus understood the role of venture capital companies, but that was for startups lacking funds.

Byte Software already had its own product, and Teams was well-received in Silicon Valley, so why still need venture capital to share in their profits?

"Marcus, it’s not as simple as you think. Have you not noticed the problem with Teams?" Dean handed the order information they had previously obtained to both him and David.

"Problem? What problem? Does Teams have a major BUG?" Marcus and David fiddled with the information in their hands, clueless.

"The BUGs in Teams are a minor issue. The real problem is that it has only opened up sales channels in Silicon Valley so far," Dean pointed to the order information in their hands, "There aren’t even orders from San Francisco or San Jose companies on this, and they are so close to Silicon Valley."

"Maybe it’s because Teams hasn’t spread there yet, after all, Byte Software has just been established," Marcus said, looking uncertainly at Dean.

"No, it’s different," Dean shook his head, "This is Silicon Valley, where any new idea from here, if proven effective, will spread to the surrounding areas in a very short time, with San Francisco and San Jose being the first stops.

But there is no movement in these two places now, what does that tell us?"

Without waiting for them to respond, Dean’s expression became serious, "It means that they are waiting and watching to see if Teams will still be welcomed by the market after leaving the support of Silicon Valley’s network."

Don’t underestimate the software market; here, countless big and small companies are seeking the next opportunity. A brand-new idea, a brand-new software, believe me, its appeal is no less than the personal computer market that Apple initially pioneered.

Of course, there’s another possibility, that Byte software lacks its own sales channels. Although Teams has received a certain level of welcome in Silicon Valley, without the support of many Stanford alumni, it is still just a nice-looking piece of software.

Without channels, without promotion, there’s no influence. Perhaps in the next two months, we will never see such high sales again, because no one knows us.

No matter which of these two scenarios it is, both mean that Byte software needs support, we need to leverage external forces to help Byte software become a qualified software company in the shortest time!"

Byte software may seem to be operating well now, but it’s still just a makeshift team. As time goes by or our scale expands, Dean and the others will encounter more and more problems.

After hearing Dean’s explanation, Marcus and David looked at each other, truth be told, they hadn’t thought that far.

Teams’ booming sales over the past month had led them to mistakenly believe that Byte software could continue this prosperity indefinitely.

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Dean didn’t blame them. After all, everyone was just a student and had never had any business experience before.

"Dean, what do we do now?" Holding the check in his hands, Marcus instinctively sought Dean’s opinion.

"Nothing!" Dean said with a smile, pointing to the checks in their hands, "For now, just enjoy life with them! Such good times won’t last."

"Mother F*cker, I also think this suggestion suits me better!"

thousand US Dollars! Marcus was already fantasizing about the luxurious life ahead.

"By the way, 1.2 million US Dollars is just pre-tax income. But for your taxes, I’ll take care of them later. So the current 120 thousand US Dollars is all yours; you don’t have to worry about tax issues."

"Oh~ Dean~" Marcus flirtatiously opened his arms wide again.

Before he got close, Dean had already cut him off, "Like I said, no more good times like this in the future."

"But Dean, you’ve put in a lot..." David did a rough calculation. If they paid the taxes themselves, they wouldn’t even get a hundred thousand US Dollars in the end.

Now Dean was shouldering almost 240 thousand US Dollars in taxes by himself, which meant he wasn’t getting as much as the 80% profit share mentioned in the agreement.

"I said," Dean gestured for them not to worry, "this is our last chance to freely utilize Byte software’s wealth. From now on, everything will go by the book, OK?"

Marcus and David exchanged glances and nodded seriously, "OK!"

"Alright, while the company isn’t too busy, take a good break for yourselves." Dean knew that visitors would soon come to see him.

Marcus and David had recently put in even more effort than he did, especially since Dean had also spent a lot of time on homework assigned by Professor Donald Knuth.

Paying their taxes for them was a small way for Dean to compensate them.

...

Whether or not Teams software has caught the attention of venture capitalists, various BBS forums have recently seen a consecutive rise in posts about using Teams software for free calls.

Of course, Kevin had a hand in this, because if computer enthusiasts take an interest in Teams, many will choose retail stores like computer shops.

Moreover, the purchase demand coming from individual consumers is invariably for the full version. For them, the key feature of Teams is its voice calling capability.

As more and more people shared their experiences of using Teams, including how to set up local networks or use NSFnet for long-distance calls, the strategies were shared as well.

Gradually, Teams software even came to be described as free telephone software in their discussions.

When such talk started to gather more and more attention, it finally caught the eye of some unexpectedly interested parties.

In San Francisco, near Willie Mays Plaza, the California branch office of AT&T is located here.

Above the towering skyscrapers, the blue and white AT&T logo proudly overlooks San Francisco Bay to the north. The pedestrians below on the streets and the white sails in the bay area seem as small as ants and doves, respectively.

The glass facade, reflecting the sunlight, held within it the comings and goings of suits and white-collars. Alexander was one of them, hurrying along; he was in charge of the company’s internal network communications department.

Recently, his subordinates reported to him an interesting phenomenon: a software from Silicon Valley allows free phone calls.

God knows how shocked he was when he heard the news. How could there be software for making free phone calls?

How do they profit from it? How do they achieve the calls? And ultimately, what’s their purpose in doing this?

After understanding the general situation, Alexander decided to go see his BOSS.