American History 1988
Chapter 194 - 188: Opponent or Teammate?

Chapter 194: Chapter 188: Opponent or Teammate?

Palo Alto, in a common office building in Silicon Valley, one of the meeting rooms was a scene of bustling activity.

"Kapur, when is our guest arriving?"

Durell, in a rush, made this anxious question the first thing he asked as he entered, making the nervous Mitch Kapur stop pacing.

"Oh, God, you’re finally here!" Kapur tossed a stack of documents in front of Durell, "These are the speech materials I prepared."

Durell didn’t even look at them before pushing them aside, "First tell me how much money you need to make that damn stylus notebook computer?"

Kapur and Kaplan exchanged looks, "Including development, production, and subsequent promotion, roughly around 5 million US dollars."

The moment they finished, the meeting room fell into a quiet so intense Kapur and Kaplan held their breath and sneakily glanced towards Durell.

However, against all odds, Durell didn’t explode with rage, "What’s the current valuation of Go Company?"

"6 million dollars," Durell’s partner Kostler accurately reported a figure.

Kostler had also participated in the formation and investment of Go Company; he was one of the first angel investors.

"So, what’s our valuation for this round of financing?" Durell crossed his legs, slowly swinging his toe.

"12 million dollars!" Kapur stood up excitedly to declare, wanting to double Go Company’s valuation.

Kaplan, sitting beside him, held his head in his hands and looked at Durell.

He hoped Durell would temper Kapur’s audacity, damn it! Go Company hadn’t even delivered a single product to date!

This valuation was too high for a company that had nothing!

Kaplan was hoping Durell would politely tell Kapur that he was spouting nonsense.

But after sitting quietly for a few seconds, Durell stopped wiggling his toes and suddenly stood up to announce.

"I think we should raise the valuation to 16 million dollars!"

Durell and Kapur looked at each other for a long while, and the entire meeting room once again plunged into silence.

Kaplan, observing from the side, couldn’t help but feel he was witnessing two lawless poker players.

One was increasing the other’s bet, and it seemed the game was far from over.

Sitting between Durell and Kapur, Kostler, to avoid being "collateral damage" in their confrontation, could only continue to lower his posture.

Knock knock knock... Just when the atmosphere was turning unbearably tense, there came a knock at the door.

Whew~, Kaplan seemed to hear a sigh of relief.

"I’ll get the door," the quick-witted Kaplan, beating the barely visible Kostler to his feet, took on this honorable task.

Click, Kaplan saw a young man standing outside the door, someone he found vaguely familiar.

"You are...?"

"This is Go Company, right? I think I’m in the right place."

"Dean, come in quickly, we’ve been waiting for you." The gambling was over, and Durell greeted Dean cordially.

Dean smiled genially at Kaplan before stepping through the door.

"I’m Dean Price, pleased to meet you all. A stylus notebook computer, what a genius idea!"

The people from Kapur’s meeting room exchanged puzzled looks, Dean Price? The founder of Byte Company?

"Dean is somewhat interested in Go Company," Durell clarified everyone’s confusion with a single statement.

"Pleased to meet you, Dean, I’m Mitch Kapur."

"I’m Jerry Kaplan..."

Upon hearing that Dean had taken an interest in Go Company, everyone looked at him with eagerness.

This guy might really bring the funding Go Company desperately needed – Byte Company had already become Silicon Valley’s darling.

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle had run an explosive piece of news; Byte Company’s Teams software had officially sold its one millionth copy.

It was November, and Byte Company was established last November.

A company barely a year old had sold one million copies of its product, with total sales reaching 140 million US dollars!

Everyone knew Byte was on track to go public on Nasdaq, and everyone was waiting for Byte Company’s first initial public offering.

And now its founder, Dean, was also enjoying the same kind of attention Steve Jobs did in his day.

Investors from Sand Hill Road were trying their best to get close to him, Stanford even arranged to have him speak at the school auditorium, and apparently, Time magazine was preparing to interview him.

Now, this entrepreneurial genius who was regarded as the most emblematic of the 90s in Silicon Valley was standing right in front of them, naturally leading Kapur and the others to let their imaginations run wild.

Go Company only needed a few million US dollars, a sum Byte Company surely wouldn’t miss.

"Dean’s here today to help,"

Just when Kapur couldn’t resist the urge to pitch his idea, Durell timely interrupted him.

Help? What did he mean? Kapur and Kaplan looked at each other, puzzled.

Knock knock knock... The knocking at the door once again broke the strange silence of the meeting room.

This time Kostler beat Kaplan to it, claiming the glorious task of opening the door.

"Welcome..." Kostler’s welcome was cut short when he was startled by the sight at the door.

A varied group of seven or eight people, all wearing proper business suits, each person looking distinguished.

"Welcome to Go Company," said Durell, greeting the newcomers like a hospitable pastor welcoming the faithful to church.

These were the investors he had contacted, including the New York-based Bessemer Venture Partners, partners from the Harvard Foundation, and even a director from the State Agricultural Insurance Company.

To pull off this financing round for Go Company, Durell had used almost every trick in the book.

With so many people entering the office, the spacious area suddenly felt a bit cramped.

The founders Kapur and Kaplan consciously stood up to make room; these were their money gods, and it was only natural to serve them well.

However, there was a young man still seated there, motionless, and naturally, he drew everyone’s attention.

"You are... Dean Price?" Scott Sperling, a partner at the Harvard Foundation, walked up uncertainly.

"Yeah," Dean smiled and rose to his feet, "Pleased to meet you."

"I am Scott Sperling from the Harvard Foundation, just call me Scott." Scott extended his business card warmly.

Dean Price? The eyes of the partners from several investment firms that had just entered lit up. Was it Dean Price from Byte Company?

Under Durell’s proud and affirming gaze, the investors flocked forward in a swarm.

"Mr. Price, I am Danny from Bessemer Venture Partners, here’s my card."

"I’m Rick from Locke Venture Capital..."

Dean was inundated with a pile of business cards...

Engineer Kaplan looked up at the office wall. There was the logo of GO Corporation, unmistakable.

Indeed, this was GO Corporation, not Byte Company.

"Alright, guys. Today we’re showcasing another great product, and Dean is also very interested in it."

As the organizer, Durell had to remind everyone of the day’s focus.

At his glance, Dean nodded with a smile, as if to agree with what Durell had said.

Indeed, Dean’s endorsement filled everyone with anticipation for the product of the day.

Good, this was exactly the effect Durell wanted.

Durell signaled to Kapur and the others, who immediately went to the front of the meeting room to pitch their ideas to the potential investors.

However, due to an earlier engineering prototype’s sudden failure, Kapur could only use a model the size of an A4 paper to show everyone the system interface of Pen Point.

Kapur’s speech was brilliant. In his description, Pen Point was flawless, surpassing current PCs in every aspect.

A stylus notebook computer, the future tablet computer, naturally shined brightly.

The investors standing by the long table exchanged a few words and then began to pose their questions.

"How does this differ from GRiD Systems Corporation’s GRiDPad?"

"They just crammed a desktop computer into a heavy, 4.5-pound black plastic box, but Pen Point is revolutionary!"

This era had not only notebook computers but also the earliest versions of tablet computers.

They usually featured a 10-inch black and white LCD screen and a wired stylus.

But the operating system was another story, still stuck on the DOS system with its character-based interface, and one shouldn’t have too high expectations for the user experience.

Last year, GRiD Systems Corporation had released their first tablet computer, but besides niche customers, no one wanted to buy them.

However, the Pen Point system was a real graphical user interface, which was something GO Corporation prided itself on.

Having already shown the conceptual drawings along with the model and diagrams, Kapur had demonstrated their capabilities.

Just from appearances, Pen Point indeed seemed much more advanced than GRiDPad.

"Dean, what do you think?" Scott Sperling from the Harvard Foundation suddenly sought Dean’s opinion.

As a successful entrepreneur who founded Byte Company, everyone valued his viewpoint highly.

Dean, who had originally intended just to watch the excitement, was forced to his feet by Durell’s pleading gaze, to do business.

"If the Pen Point system can operate smoothly, I think the stylus computer will have its market in the future."

"We’ve completed the development of the Pen Point system, we’re just lacking the funds to produce engineering prototypes."

Kapur cleverly gave a reassuring promise, it wasn’t GO Corporation’s fault they lacked models; they had finished developing the system and were merely short of money.

"What’s the valuation of GO Corporation?" someone from Bessemer Venture Partners asked the key question.

Durell brightened up, "20 million dollars!"

Thud! Jerry Kaplan, who had been standing on the side trying hard to maintain his smile, turned pale and staggered.

What, it changed again?! Still, 20 million dollars?!

Kostler wasn’t faring much better; despite the cool weather in November, the sweat on his forehead was profusely emerging.

Dean, who was about to stand up and applaud, abruptly halted himself.

Damn it! This wasn’t the price he and Durell had agreed on.

The venture capitalists seated by the long table started to look shifty, their expressions ambiguous, yet they expressed no opinion.

"Dean, is Byte Company interested in this idea?" Again, it was Scott Sperling from the Harvard Foundation.

"The idea is fine, but Durell..." Dean looked at him with a significant gaze, "isn’t this valuation a bit too high?"

"Yeah," Scott Sperling nodded in agreement, "GO Corporation doesn’t have anything right now."

"That’s right," someone from Bessemer Venture Partners added, nodding in agreement, as if price reduction was a tacit understanding among them all.

But this was a matter of offending someone, especially in front of so many people.

Yet now Dean had "gloriously" accomplished this task, and the remaining venture capitalists swarmed in support.

They were even inwardly grateful to Dean, look at that, the greenhorn directly rebuffed Durell to his face.

"OK, what price are you willing to accept?" Durell threw the question back to the venture capitalists present.

"I think..." Scott Sperling hesitated, "around 15 million dollars?"

Seeing him look over again, Dean subtly nodded without comment, "I have no objections."

Bessemer Venture Partners and the other investors conferred briefly and did not express any clear opposition.

Durell’s mouth showed a barely perceptible smile, while Jerry Kaplan and Kostler were just staring dumbfounded at the whole thing, in disbelief.

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