American History 1988
Chapter 346 - 335: Crossing the Swamp

Chapter 346: Chapter 335: Crossing the Swamp

Mayfield had once been one of the investors in Bit Company, based on its market value today.

If they had retained that 5% share, even after two rounds of dilution, it would still be valued at over 700 million US dollars.

Unfortunately, Mayfield had jumped ship before the third round of financing.

At that time, Bit Company was involved in a lawsuit with Bell and AT&T.

Glenn Miller pessimistically believed that a startup like Bit could not compete with AT&T, which monopolized the telecommunications industry.

So, he sold his fund’s shares at a premium to KeyPoint Ventures.

This transaction also turned Glenn Miller and Mayfield into a laughingstock in the Silicon Valley venture capital circle.

For a several million-dollar gain, they gave up the potential for several hundred million dollars in profit.

Now, newcomers in Silicon Valley’s venture capital scene are taught by the veterans,

when a promising startup faces challenges, do not rush to withdraw your investment.

As a venture capitalist, be more patient, or you might become the next Glenn Miller.

Glenn Miller had never imagined he would become famous in this way.

Even as Bit Company’s market value continued to climb, his "legend" would further be passed down as a classic story.

He had tried to explain his initial actions, but to little effect.

Eventually, he simply gave up and resolved never to mention that investment again.

Though he became a case study of what not to do, Glenn Miller was still active in the venture capital scene.

To make a mark in this industry, you not only need to be smart but also have firm convictions.

Venture capital does not miss out on any revolutionary ideas, which is enough to make investors overlook past grievances.

Now, Glenn Miller was ready; he was prepared to wade through the swamp to embrace his former colleagues.

"Jim, we had a wonderful collaboration before, didn’t we?

We co-founded SGI, which is now one of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley."

"Thanks for reminding me, Glenn! You were the one who kicked me from the CEO position!"

Clark retorted with a forced laugh. How did this guy manage to overlook his past misdeeds and act as if nothing had happened in seeking to collaborate again?

"Jim, our initial intentions were aligned, you and I both wanted SGI to do better.

We just had different methods, but that shouldn’t stop us from collaborating again."

Glenn Miller insisted confidently, feeling no remorse for his actions.

"You kicked me out of SGI, and now you’re telling me our goals are the same, ah?!"

Clark was stunned by his shamelessness. What had he been thinking choosing such a partner in the past,

"Jim, you shouldn’t dwell on the past..."

Slam! Clark didn’t let him finish and hung up the phone right away.

This man had no shame; Clark vowed never to collaborate with him again!

He had left SGI earlier this year, thanks to him,

And it wasn’t the first time he had called since the news of Netscape seeking financing had spread across Silicon Valley.

Every venture capitalist here, fueled by excitement, surged towards Mountain View.

Clark didn’t know the specifics at Dean’s,

but he knew these phone calls were nearly drowning him in the past few days.

Netscape had already become the brightest star in the Internet frenzy.

Ring-ring...

Clark frowned. Another venture capitalist?

"If you’re inquiring about investing in Netscape, please hold on, we are discussing the process."

"Jim, you’re always so impulsive. If you don’t want to talk to me, could you refer me to Dean?"

"You again!" Clark was furious and ready to hang up the phone on the spot.

"Jim! We are friends, I just want you to arrange a meeting with Dean!"

"Aha, I almost forgot~" Clark said with a sardonic smile.

"Who was it that snatched the opportunity to invest in Bit Company from my hands?

A 5% share—that would have made me a multimillionaire by now if not for you—Glenn!"

Clark gritted his teeth; the other had literally shattered that possibility.

"Jim, if you don’t let me invest, my partners will kill me!" Glenn Miller pleaded.

"I swore I would never collaborate with Mayfield again!"

Slam! Clark hung up mercilessly. He had enough of those greedy venture capitalists.

...

"Dick, I know Netscape isn’t refusing financing.

But this time is special, you have seen how popular Explorer is, so its valuation is going to be very high."

"Enyi Investment has a sufficient fund pool, I’ll support Netscape just like I supported Bit!

You should come to my house and see, even the doorknobs have the Bit logo on them."

"Oh~ Thank you." Dean replied, his eyes widening in surprise, "In that case, call Durell.

KeyPoint Ventures is leading this round of financing, I think he’ll need other peers to join in completing this investment."

"I knew you wouldn’t forget our friendship!" Dick excitedly hung up the phone and then immediately called Durell.

After hearing about Netscape’s financing rumors, he had been calling Dean, and now he had finally received a response.

Dick didn’t even ask about Netscape’s valuation because that wasn’t the point.

Initially, he got only 1 million US dollars of stock in Bit, but the final profit was as high as 30 million US dollars.

A return rate of over thirty times, that already allowed Dick to ignore the initial investment cost.

Netscape’s valuation is high? So what? Initially, when he invested in Bit, its valuation was also up to 500 million US dollars.

Didn’t it still make money? The important thing is whether the investment target is worth the price.

He trusted Dean, whose assets said it all.

Dean hung up the phone and started to busy himself with the task at hand.

"Michael, how about it? Can our servers pass the reliability test?"

"From the feedback from the Price List, they have already met the design requirements.

The important thing is that our software is fine, and Sun also has enough experience in hardware."

What was in front of Michael Sheridan at that time was the source code and Sun Microsystems’ collaborative Web server project.

They looked like computer mainframes, only flatter and somewhat heavier.

After half a year of development, the first generation Web servers had a relatively mature prototype.

Even a few had been put into use at the Price List, and Dean today was there to validate their performance.

"How many users can such a server support accessing web pages simultaneously?" Dean curiously touched the black metal body on the table.

"Depending on the server’s bandwidth, as well as the distinctions between static and dynamic, we developed various models of Web servers."

Michael pointed at the big and small rectangular bodies on the table and explained, "Low to mid-range servers can support about 2000 people online simultaneously.

High-end servers can reach tens of thousands, and our current limit is 20,000, but that’s already ample.

Because multiple servers can form a server group, their resource utilization will be more efficient, and it will also reduce downtime incidents."

Twenty thousand per unit? Dean nodded in satisfaction, which was quite impressive for that era.

And according to the initial agreement with Sun Microsystems, the price of mid-range servers was about 10,000 US dollars each.

For every unit sold, the source code would earn a cut of a few hundred to a thousand US dollars.

High-end servers, because their prices reached more than a hundred thousand US dollars, started the source code’s cut at five thousand to ten thousand US dollars.

It can be said that the profit here was actually very high, far incomparable to the personal computer market.

Unfortunately, the source code wasn’t capable of hardware production yet, otherwise, the profit per server would be even more substantial.

But as a server software development company, there was also a benefit.

That was that the source code could update the web server’s system, and with each update came another purchase.

This is similar to Microsoft’s cooperation with computer manufacturers—installed systems are charged by Microsoft.

And after users buy the computer, if Microsoft developed a new system, it could be installed separately.

The same principle applied to Web servers; once the market ownership reached a certain scale, the source code could entirely make selling server software its main business.

So the initial market promotion was key, but fortunately, the source code entered the market early enough.

It was almost the only Web server developer in the market now—look, the opportunity has come.

"If there’s no issue, then the next step will be when the Price List starts sending in the first batch of orders.

Their website’s daily active users number in the millions, and Web servers are just what they urgently need.

Following that, there are Netscape, Yahoo, and others; with these companies leading, I believe the source code will soon become the standard brand of the internet."

The websites with the highest active numbers on the network at the moment are all connected to Dean.

So, leveraging this card, Dean could easily promote the source code.

Besides supporting web services, the internal architecture of the Web servers also integrated a JSP programming environment.

That means as soon as corporate customers buy the server software from the source code, they automatically get the development authorization for JSP.

Doing business while promoting the Java programming language was a multitasking benefit.

Even in Dean’s view, promoting JSP was as important as selling Web servers.

It was for the sake of long-term planning, where profit was not the primary factor.

And hearing that massive orders were about to come in, Michael and the others got excited.

"Dean, business is coming, isn’t it?"

"Of course, it’s just the beginning now.

I guarantee, next year the source code will undergo earth-shattering changes."

There are still not many internet companies in Silicon Valley, waiting for when web pages start springing up everywhere—that will be the golden age for the source code.

Michael and the others understood this principle, as the development of the internet was happening right around them.

Just thinking about how those internet companies all needed the source code’s Web servers, they grinned from ear to ear.

They all held about 5% of the stock in the source code, which in a sense made them Dean’s partners.

"Alright, guys. Ensure our servers are flawless; they determine how much money we can make in the future."

"I will keep an eye on it!" Michael was full of energy.

"OK, I’m taking a call." Dean’s pocket phone rang again.

"Durell? OK, I got it." Dean needed to make a trip to Netscape, where Durell was waiting for him.

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