What is this I hear about you?
“What is this I hear about you?” Randy had answered the call from Guy Kubota, but the voice on the other end of the line sounded like a mix between a joke and an accusation. Randy scrambled for an answer, “Kevin and I didn’t need VC funding on this one. We just worked through it on our own this time.”
Randy could hear Guy’s good nature laugh on the other end of the phone. “No. Not that. What’s this I hear about a Cowboy Think Tank? I’m not invited and if I’m not invited, then I’m sure you didn’t invite anyone else, so you’re just going to keep all these ideas for yourself?”
Randy wiped his face in one long movement from his forehead to his chin before he answered. He typed the words, “cowboy think tank,” into Google. Valleywag was the number one search result. “Let me read this Valleywag article to see what you’re talking about, Guy.” He scanned it quickly. Somehow, Valleywag had heard about his projects.
Random McCain is at it again. Last year, his Cowboy Think Tank brought us the popular SN Connector, the mysterious Tso Speed Tech and something called The Snow Eater. This year’s Cowboy Think Tank has grown to fill the local high school auditorium, but not one venture capitalist has been invited to attend.
Has Random McCain forsaken all of Silicon Valley?
“Guy, I’ve been doing this projects thing for years now. You never got your feelings hurt when I didn’t invite you to the campus two years ago.” Randy tried to lighten the implication that he no longer needed his friends in San Francisco. He could hear Guy on the other end fidgeting with the phone. “Jerry says this whole thing has gotten too big for you and it’s spiraling outta control. Of course, I’m not supposed to tell you that Jerry said that. Heck, how’d he know? He’s as far away from you as I am.”
Randy nodded. After Jerry had been fired from Zaunter, he went running back to San Francisco, trying to run seminars on how to get rich in the Internet world. “How IS the get rich quick thing working for Jerry?” Randy jabbed at Jerry, but brought the subject back to his projects. “Seriously, Guy, you wouldn’t like to be part of this thing. It’s more like Ignite than a think tank. It’s really not your style.”
“Not my style?” Guy was laughing. “What part of SN Connector is not my style? How did that girl do all that by herself? She just writes a program and everyone buys it and then she writes it for the iPhone and everybody buys that, too? Don’t tell me you didn’t hire a room full of programmers to help her finance that.”
Randy shook his head, “No, Guy, I didn’t. Bree did all the programming for SN Connector on her own. I didn’t invoke my right to buy it because I want my programmers to succeed on their own. I don’t want to profit off of them. I want them to excel. I hired her to work in a corn field. She doesn’t even work for me anymore.”
“Of course not!” Guy was laughing again. Randy could imagine his smiling face. “She’s going to be a millionaire on her own. She don’t need to work for you ever again.”
Randy shook his head. “You know that isn’t true. Next time I ask her to work for me, she’ll do it for nearly free because I have always done right by her. That’s what they never understood.”
The phone was silent for a moment when Guy’s serious voice finally spoke, “I didn’t make you sell to them, Random.” Randy smiled. “I know, Guy. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even their fault. It just wasn’t a good fit. I’m never doing anything ever again that isn’t a good fit for me.”
Randy could hear Sierra’s slim frame slinking down the stairs. “So, Random, am I invited to the Cowboy Think Tank?” Randy turned to look at his wife and she looked thinner than a sparrow in winter. “Sure, Guy, why don’t you come down in April and see what my town has to offer.”