American History 1988
Chapter 298 - 288: Netscape

Chapter 298: Chapter 288: Netscape

"Free promotion?" Clark thought he had heard wrong.

They had spent so much time and summoned so many people, and the result was to give it away for free?

"Why?"

"Because the market isn’t mature yet, because other browsers don’t charge now, and because there’s a risk of copyright infringement."

Seeing the look on Clark’s face that he couldn’t hide his disbelief, Dean finally smiled.

"Alright, the real reason is that we need to wait for the right moment."

Clark’s eyes brightened, "I knew you had a plan, so what exactly is this moment?"

"We wait for the European Organization for Nuclear Research to agree to release these codes for free use as open-source code."

Only then would all the problems be solved; otherwise, no one would be willing to invest a lot of effort in this.

"Will they agree to it?" Clark was skeptical.

"I’ve talked to Berners Lee; he’s already persuading his bosses.

As the inventor, the nuclear agency will likely respect his opinion.

Moreover, the openness of the internet ensures that these codes won’t become the private property of any organization.

When it becomes stubborn, something else will soon replace it."

Dean had been in touch with Berners Lee, so he was very clear about these matters.

"So how long do you expect this will take?" Clark agreed with Dean’s reasoning, but the deadline was crucial.

"I don’t think it will take too long. This year, the hypertext language will definitely be released as source code."

Dean didn’t know the exact date, but based on his memory, it was earlier than ’94, so the issue would be resolved this year.

"OK~" Clark finally relaxed. He could accept half a year’s time.

"But what about our Explorer? Shall we start with free promotion as you just said?"

"Release it as a preliminary version for free; this is a good opportunity to gather user feedback."

Dean had already planned this, intending to get the brand’s reputation out there first.

"We’ll put it on a resource-sharing website, let the Internet distribute it freely.

But at the same time, we must leave our contact information so that users have a channel for feedback."

Dean hadn’t been too involved in the development of the browser.

Aside from the initial design requirements, most of the work was done by the team led by Teresa.

So Explorer inevitably had many details that weren’t perfect, and if they wanted to improve them.

Now was when users would be the best test group, they would find all sorts of bugs for Dean.

"Sounds good." Clark nodded approvingly; this was also a way of cultivating the market.

After all, the browser was a novel thing, and people’s understanding of it wasn’t widespread enough yet.

"But this brings up another issue." Dean spread his hands, "How are users going to contact us?"

"So, is it time to establish a company?" Clark pondered naturally.

"Exactly!" Dean snapped his fingers, "One project, one company!"

Don’t put all the creativity within the framework of one company; it’s not conducive to the quick monetization of new ideas.

"Explorer browser..." Clark stroked his chin, pondering, "How about the new company is called Explorer?"

"No," Dean shook his head with a smile, "I think Netscape is more appropriate."

"Netscape? A view of the net?" Clark thought it was also a good name.

It was apt for the browser’s function, symbolizing guiding people to experience the charm of the Internet.

Only, why did he always feel that Dean’s smile when he looked at him was somewhat peculiar?

"Shall we go with that?" Clark cast aside the messy thoughts in his head, focusing his attention on the business at hand.

Dean shrugged, "Netscape, that’s it."

Having satisfied a bit of his mischief, Dean resumed discussing the share allocation of Netscape with Clark.

Considering that Dean had provided the idea for Explorer and had maintained the team for nearly a year in the name of Byte Company,

he took the majority share, and Clark didn’t have much to object to.

Whether in terms of status or financial resources, he was no match for Dean.

For instance, Dean could provide office space and even salaries for Teresa and her team under the name of Byte Company.

But Clark couldn’t make such arrangements at Silicon Graphics, as he didn’t have the authority.

However, fortunately, Clark was well-connected; he had recruited most of the talented programmers for the development team.

In the end, after discussion, the two set aside a 10% stock option pool for the employees first and then allocated shares on this basis.

The option pool had to be established beforehand as a necessary means of attracting talent.

As for why only 10% instead of the 15% when Byte was first established?

That’s because this time Dean had no plans to go through multiple rounds of funding for Netscape, so 10% was enough.

"Considering that Netscape probably won’t have any income this year, we need to provide enough funds to operate for one year."

"No problem." Clark was already mentally prepared.

"Office space, staff salaries, basic equipment expenses, preliminarily estimated, this figure is between four to five million US dollars.

I will cover three million of it, you cover the remaining one million, any problems?" Dean had already assessed these budgets in advance.

"One million US dollars..." Clark quietly did the math; his checking account had enough funds.

"OK, no problem. You have 67.5%, I have 22.5%, and the remaining 10% goes into the employee stock option pool."

"No," Dean interrupted him, "We need to leave a bit more aside.

I’ll take 60%, you get 20%, and the employee stock option pool remains at 10%."

Clark was startled, "What about the remaining 10%?"

"Reserved for someone who can do us a big favor." Dean’s eyes were flickering.

"Who?" Clark instinctively lowered his voice.

Dean leaned closer to his ear and whispered a sentence.

Clark turned his head in surprise, "Dean, you... You actually..."

"Shh~" Dean put his finger to his lips, "This is absolutely confidential."

"I just... I’m just surprised~" Clark felt a storm surge within him, this kind of thing had never been done before in Silicon Valley.

"Jim," Dean looked out the window with narrowed eyes, "Wealth and power always come hand in hand."

"I understand, it’s just that I realized it too late."

Jim thought back to his first venture when he was nothing but a newbie.

In order to raise startup funds for Silicon Graphics, he sold 40% of the company’s stock to Mayfield’s Glenn Miller for 800,000 US Dollars.

This round of financing brought the company’s valuation down to a laughable 2 million US Dollars.

Then, in less than a year, Clark raised funds again, selling part of SGI’s equity for 17 million US Dollars.

Two consecutive financings steadily diluted the equity of both him and his engineers, making Mayfield the veritable major shareholder of SGI.

However, at the same time, SGI maintained a steady annual growth rate of 40%, and its revenue increased from a few million US Dollars to over a billion US Dollars now.

It wasn’t until the IPO in ’86 that SGI’s operations soared, but the share of stocks in Clark’s hands dwindled even further.

Now Clark’s stock was only a pitiful 3%, which was simply the lowest record among Silicon Valley founders.

This year he even ceased to serve as CEO and became merely an honorary chairman of the board.

The one truly in charge of SGI’s actual operations was Ed McCracken, the CEO Mayfield had installed.

So now Clark really had nothing to do; he wanted to find a new venture of his own.

And the browser was his target; Netscape was his second spring.

Clark happily took on the task of organizing Netscape company, having the time and passion for it.

...

"Hey~ Hillary, remember I told you about making big money?"

Having just seen Jim Clark off, Dean took out his phone.

"Big money?" Hillary, who was sunbathing on the elliptical lawn, somewhat didn’t catch on.

"Dean, didn’t the financing of Intuit just end?"

Just last month, Intuit had its last round of financing before going public.

With a valuation of 500 million US Dollars, Hillary invested a modest one million in it, of course through Dean’s shell fund account.

And that million nearly emptied Hillary’s coffers, almost half of her assets.

Now Dean telling her there was another opportunity to make big money made Hillary ponder.

She wanted to do big business, but just didn’t have the capital anymore.

"This time it’s real big business, not the small-time deals we did before."

Dean’s tone made Hillary even more uncertain; a million dollars was considered small-time?

"Dean, what do you mean by ’business’?" Hillary prepared to first hear what the business was.

"Ever heard of a ’browser’?"

"What kind of machine?"

Dean was taken aback, never mind, he lost interest in explaining.

"It’s a type of software, the future market is huge, potentially tens of billions in scale."

Tens of billions of US Dollars? Hillary took a sharp breath.

How much capital was needed for such a big business? She felt scared yet incredibly eager.

This was tens of billions of US Dollars, my God, she couldn’t even begin to imagine that number.

"Dean, how much should I write on the check?" Hillary inhaled deeply.

"Let me think, I’ve reserved 10% of the equity for you and Bill..."

"10%? Dean... how about I stay in California for a couple of days?"

"Roughly around 400,000 US Dollars."

"What?" Suddenly both were stunned.

"Uh" Hillary quickly caught on, "400,000 US Dollars, right?"

"Yeah, according to the proportion of the investment, 450,000 is enough."

"OK, once you get the paperwork done, the money will be transferred to the fund account." Hillary hung up the phone in a flurry.

Dean, still clueless, was filled with confusion upon hearing the dial tone on the phone.

What did he just hear? Staying for a couple of days? What did that have to do with 400,000 US Dollars?

Forget it, he didn’t have the time to think about this; he was very busy lately.

Strategic meetings at Byte Company, contracts with the federal government.

Not to mention Miranda, as well as AOL, Intuit, a pile of things waiting for him.

Of course, among them, Netscape and Price’s List were the priorities; Dean expected he would hardly have any vacation time this year.

...

While Dean and Clark were tinkering with Netscape on the West Coast, in Champaign, a city in Illinois, Midwest, a new dawn was also breaking.

The light of the Internet flickered across North America, and similar ideas kept bursting and colliding.