As a slight departure from our normal informative posts, here is a short story for your enjoyment. Bookmark it and enjoy it on your next airline flight.
We humans walk around with a bubble around us. We develop patterns of associating with our colleagues at work, our family, our small circle of friends. The rest are relegated in the non-touch connection of email, text, Facebook, twitter and whatever insulating technology comes our way. With Jet travel total strangers penetrate our normal protective zones. In coach we’re so close we actually rub elbows. Most of us want to remain isolated but, every once in a while that unlikely stranger sitting next to us can flip our world…
Ninety-five passengers, mostly millennials (formerly labeled yuppies), were congregated around gate 32 preparing to board a flight from Boston to San Francisco and most likely on to Silicon Valley. The raw brainpower of this group will certainly impact the future.
Practically every passenger had their faces buried in some form of electronic device: smartphone, tablet, or laptop. They were answering their emails, checking their companies’ stock prices, or playing Candy Crush or Angry Birds. A few were doing actual work like software coding or polishing a sales pitch.
Amidst all this technology was a stately older woman, Regina. She was a smartly dressed, divorced, and an African-American seventy-something reading a hard cover book entitled “The World is Flat” and jotting notes in the margins.
She possessed certain air of confidence, of worldly knowledge gained through both formal education and a life filled with hard knocks. She was completely unintimidated by the surrounding youth and all their technical prowess.
At the agents’ counter Jack, a forty-something, testosterone-abundant, over-caffeinated exec, was trying to bully his way into getting an upgrade on the last remaining first class seat.
“I’m sorry sir”, said the agent, “it’s a first come first serve basis, see those names on that computer screen up there, you’re fourth in line for that one seat.”
“That’s garbage!” said Jack, “My Company gives your airline a lot of business; I’ve personally logged in 200,000 miles in the past year alone — I need that seat to do my work! I can’t work in coach.”
“Terribly sorry,” and with that she gazed her eyes down to the computer screen as a subtle way of indicating that ‘this discussion is over’.
Jack threw his luggage bag over his shoulder nearly hitting the passenger behind him, picked up his computer bag and huffed off. He was the founder and CEO of a three-year-old software company based in Cambridge. He was on his way to Sandhill Road in Menlo Park to make a pitch to some VCs to secure mezzanine funding.
Jack’s anxiety about the VC meeting ignited his short-tempered behavior. It wasn’t meeting the powerful money brokers that bothered him, he had enough testosterone to go toe to toe with them. It was something deeper, more visceral. There was an angst in his gut and he couldn’t figure out why.
The loudspeaker rang out, “American Flight 211 to San Francisco will now begin boarding at gate 32…”
So began the long, slow process of passengers herding down the Jetway to board. The process was painfully slow as they tried squeezing overstuffed bags into the overheads.
The plane was an older model 757 without the personalized touch screens on the back of each seat; it had the older ceiling drop down screens. Not a bother to this crowd since nobody would be watching anyway. The one good observation Jack made was that there was a satellite phone in each row; he could check in with the office.
Jack impatiently shuffled his way through the aisle to row 24 seat B. “Great”, he thought, some snot-nosed techie kid has the window, and there was Regina cozily seated in the aisle seat, he was stuck in the middle. “When I get back, I’m going to kick Mary’s ass” he whispered to himself. Mary was his assistant, although young she was smart and efficient, but was only given 24 hours’ notice to book his ticket on a full flight. Jack just sat in the middle brooding.
He strapped himself in, crossed his arms and was generally in a foul mood. He needed to prep tomorrow’s meeting, but his laptop needed to be stowed under the seat until the O.K. was given.
The jet roared down the runway, there was liftoff, the steep climb angle, and soon they were banking the turn over Winthrop to head on a westerly vector.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pilot finally came on the intercom, “Folks, we’ll be climbing to 35,000 feet and our route to San Francisco is clear. Our computer model indicates we’ll be landing perhaps 15 minutes early, so there shouldn’t be any issues making connections. Flight control has indicated smooth air the whole way, so I’m going to turn off the seat belt sign, but, as always please keep them fastened when in your seat as we could hit unexpected turbulence. Seat back, enjoy the flight and I’ll check back with when we get closer to San Francisco.”
With that, Jack flipped open his laptop. Finally, he could settle in and get some work done. He was going to finalize his slide deck for the VC pitches. The first group was set for 9:00am tomorrow, the flight time was precious to prep, there would be little time in the morning.
The beverage cart arrived and the flight attendant asked what they all wanted. “Coke” said the nerdy window seat kid. “Coffee black!” snapped Jack.
Regina, with credit card in hand, said “I’ll have two white wines, please”.
Sipping her first glass of wine, Regina settled in to make the most of the 5 hours remaining on the trip.
Ignoring the movie being shown, the passengers were absorbed with their own laptops and tablets. This is a crowd that doesn’t stop.
Having savored her first glass of wine, Regina was feeling really tranquil and melted into her seat; she leaned as far back as the seat rest could possibly recline. She was genuinely happy, content with this stage of her life.
She retired two years ago after a 40 year teaching career at what is now Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. As a professor of management and entrepreneurship, she constantly honed her craft and stayed current with all the Boston business news, especially about the high-tech businesses which propelled most of the economic growth out on Rt. 128.
She allowed the pleasurable thoughts of arriving at her destination to bathe her. Her only child, Caroline, lived in Palo Alto with her husband. They both had fabulous jobs at Apple and had enough space in their home for their 10-year-old daughter and a guest room for Regina’s regular visits.
Regina was looking forward to some quality time with the family. She was leaving Boston where the mercury hovered in the twenties to go to Palo Alto which hardly ever dips below 40 degrees, a welcome relief from February.
In the next seat, Jack had his laptop open and was working on his slide deck. The key phrase on this screen page was “Paradigm Shift” and of course his product was going to be the new, new thing, a world changer, a disrupter, he was searching for unique power words.
He was entering that slippery slope of foilware. Words like ‘breakthrough’ are too trite, he needed to totally electrify the VCs. Of the thousands of presentations given by budding entrepreneurs on Sand Hill, every adjective by now has become totally hackneyed. Shit, even “Paradigm Shift” was hackneyed – what to use?
Regina downed her second glass of wine, it had the effect of making her affable, and she sought conversation to shorten this long flight. Did she dare strike up a conversation with this type A, self-absorbed egotist sitting next to her? Oh Hell, why not?
She gently inquired, “Interesting claim, what product do you have that’s such a ‘Paradigm Shift’?”
Jack looked up at her, slightly taken aback.
“Sorry, your screen’s so big I couldn’t help but notice.”
Normally Jack would be really pissed at the interruption, but he pondered the question. He recalled, years ago, going to a management training seminar put on by one of Tom Peter’s seminar leaders – the best way to deconstruct complexity for succinct communication is to pretend you’re explaining it to a child – it forces you to break it down to its simplest, clearest nature.
He wondered, could this work with old ladies too? This may be precisely the right exercise to codify what he is trying to explain to the VCs.
“Well we don’t have a deliverable product yet, it’s still into development”, he replied.
“So, what will it do when it’s finally completed?”
“We’re still working on the name, but functionally it’ll be a knowledge navigator.”
“A knowledge navigator?”
“Yeah, the knowledge assets, or treatises, on just about every topic from medicine to science, to business practices is donated by crowdsourcing similar to Wikipedia. But the difference is we offer a grid of atomic labels. When you pass your cursor over a label on your screen, a snippet appears. To the researcher, it may be close but not quite what they’re looking for, then they move the cursor to the right, left, up down, and even at diagonally until they’re getting warmer. Then they expand that module to its new grid and you repeat the process, navigating through all these modules until you land upon the exact one you’re seeking.”
“Oh, kind of like a 360° Dewey Decimal system.”
“Yeah that’s it, a 360° Dewey Decimal system!” ‘How the Hell did she label it so quickly?’ He thought to himself
“But won’t it take a long time to create or curate all the knowledge?” Regina inquired.
“That part’s taken care of by crowd sourcing, we’re developing the AI engine that can scan a page and slot its components into the appropriate grid position. I mean, even the founder of Wikipedia never believed that ordinary people would post accurate articles without an extreme editing by an editorial board. Plus those ordinary people are posting articles that are so arcane that professional researchers couldn’t possible come across.”
“So, you’re adding a navigation tool that’s better than hyperlinking?”
Jack couldn’t believe he was conversing with this total stranger about the soul of his product, not only a stranger, but an old woman. He went on.
“Sure, just imagine you have a vague concept like the earlier computer operating systems before Windows. You would use Windows as your starting point, then you keep moving your cursor until MS DOS appears, and you know that’s the thread you want, you keep moving in that direction and Apple IOS appears, and you know that’s not it, you move 45° to another module and CPM appears and you know you’re on the right path. So on, and so forth until you get to the root of your research.”
“Sounds fascinating, I could have used that when I was researching my papers”
“Your papers?”
“Yes, when I was writing my dissertation at UMass. It took two years. Most of my time was spent, not so much in writing, but in walking the stacks, sifting through all the publications to find topics related to my thesis; I had index cards on top of index cards.”
“So, do you think what I described would have been a help?”
“If you create in reality what you just described, it’ll be a sea change. I can imagine researchers navigating quickly through an infinite amount of decoupled knowledge to derive the precise threads they need for their work. Google brings back a result for a specific query term, but if the sought after information is too abstract one could head into the general direction of where it feels warmer I think that’s where true informational serendipity could occur there can be more breakthroughs.”
Jack thought, Hmm, may I should have her write my presentation, Jack thought, she can articulate it far better than I can.
Regina interjected, “So, are you presenting to a customer?”
“No, to VCs.”
“So, you’re pitching for money?”
“Right.”
“If they invest, they’ll want a chunk of your company, right”?
“Oh yeah, a big chunk”.
“Why a big chunk, I mean your product is a ‘paradigm shift’, they should be lucky to get in on the ground floor, shouldn’t they?”
Just then, they were interrupted by the Fight Attendant who had the drink cart. “How we doing here, need a refresh.”?
“Yes, I’ll have another white wine, please,” and Regina reached for her credit card.
Jack broke in, “This one’s on me, and I’ll take two vodkas and a can of club”. With that, he paid the fare.
He was silently pondering the question asked by this total unlikely stranger who unwittingly was now a factor in on his argument to raise money tomorrow. ‘Why a big chunk? Money is good but at what price?’
“You see – by the way, what’s your name?”
“Regina”.
“I’m Jack.” With that he stuck out his hand. Regina shook it. The ice was broken.
“You see, Regina, our product isn’t totally developed yet, so it’s riskier, so investors will want a bigger percentage of the company.”
“I get it. The further along a product is developed, the higher the odds that it will work, hence lower risk. Late money to the party gets less equity stake. Conversely if it’s just vaporware, that’s betting on long odds, they’ll want your company and your first born.”
“Yeah…yeah, that’s it”
“So, they’ll give you the money you need to finish your product. Hopefully, they’ll write you a check and let you get back to work without butting in”.
“Oh they’ll butt in all right. First, they’ll put iron rails around how their funding can and cannot be used, most likely they’ll want it earmarked solely for marketing and sales, and they’ll want to get it to market fast”.
“First mover advantage, and all that, that’s how Amazon got started. Then every dot-come start-up in the late nineties used the term ‘internet speed” to get to market first.”
“Something like that. Then there will be the dreaded Friday afternoon calls for a status report on how much progress is being made; there will be pressure to cut corners to meet the ship date.”
“Every Friday? Can a lot of progress happen in just one week? I mean you’re ‘shifting paradigms’ here”.
“There will be a lot of arguments, and a lot of compromises on product features.” Jack felt his voice fall off, like for the very first time he was visualizing the circumstances he was heading toward.
“You know, when I was teaching, I followed all the Cambridge and Route 128 tech companies: Lotus, EMC2, Digital, Data General, Biogen, and all of the rest. What I observed is that there’s a lot of very smart competitive people out there. I’m not sure first mover advantage is all it’s cracked up to be. I mean in 1979 VisiCalc was the first computerized spreadsheet and four years later was easily eclipsed by Lotus 1-2-3 then Excel; although it had early market share, Yahoo search got totally trumped by Google. First movers can get to market first, but ultimately it’s going to be the best product that will win the war.”
Jack paused reflectively…”So, where did you say you taught? “
“I didn’t. But after completing my PhD, I taught business and management at Northeastern for 40 years. My laboratory was the Boston Business Journal and the Globe business section. I’d also read the local case studies that were published in the Harvard Business Review. As an academic, I found the high-tech business world all very fascinating.”
Jack was astonished. It was baffling, but no brutally honest VC, consultant, or colleague hit him with the naked truth that struck like a sledge hammer, as did this elderly lady. Who would have thought?
He sat silently, still. He suddenly felt he was way off course.
The wine had a soothing effect on Regina, she pushed her recline button and pushed the chair back as far as coach seat would go and just let her eyes lids soften.
Jack didn’t go back to his PowerPoint; he folded the lid on his laptop, he was pondering the whole purpose of this trip from a totally new perspective. He knew in his inmost soul that the product, to be truly great, needed a lot more development. If he walked into that room tomorrow odds are he would get the money and then the pressure would be on to start shipping sooner rather than later. Ship a shitty product that would be first, but not best…not by a long shot.
As the jet engines droned on, he peered out the window. At 36,000 feet above the hubbub at ground level, in a cell phone free zone, as the wispy clouds drift by below, one gets transported to different perspective. His mind was contemplative, did he lose his way?
Regina was still asleep, Jack was now solely focused on the Why? Why was he seeking money? What were the founding precepts of his company? What is the true value-add of this nascent product?
After much torment, he gained a sense of calm. There was an option, in fact the only option. He paused for a moment for one last double-check his logic. O.K., let’s roll, he thought.
Jack pick up the phone off the seatback in front of him, swiped his credit card, and dialed Raj’s direct line.
Raj was Jack’s CTO. Ten years ago he graduated 3rd in his class from the Indian Institute of Technology which some would argue graduates higher technical talent than MIT or Cal Tech. Jack was able to lure Raj away from Google with a substantial equity offering. So, any decisions Jack made will have a financial impact on Raj as well.
“Hey Raj, greetings from 36,000 ft up somewhere over west bumfuck America.
“Hey Jack, wassup? How’s the pitch coming? ”
“I’m not going to do it”.
“Not going to do it…not going to do what?”
“You’re going cancel all of tomorrow’s meetings; I’m not going to hold out my rice bowl for their blood money”
“Okaaaaay…” Raj was totally befuddled and trying to assess the ramifications of what Jack just said.
Raj knew that Jack could oftentimes be short with people, especially those that didn’t ‘get it’ quickly enough. Although very decisive, Jack never made an important decision without thinking it all the way through, and he was usually right, but this was out of left field.
“You’re on the plane…and in mid-flight, you just changed your mind. What the fuck, are you on drugs?”
“No, let’s just say I had an epiphany. Look it, if I go to that meeting tomorrow, yes, we’ll most likely get the money and give up a huge equity stake. But worse, will we be free to finish the product? By our definition? No. They’ll want to rush it to market to get their first. But if we do that. We’ll be first to market with a piece of shit. Yeah, we’ll have 6 months, maybe a year of euphoria of reading the press clips on how smart we are to be first with a navigator. Then out of the blue, a competitor trumps us with a better, less buggy version and then we’re second best. Then Google or Mark Zuckerberg thinks they can make an even better one and with their deep pockets they probably will”.
“Wow why such a doomsday scenario all of a sudden?” Raj could see that Jack was cogent, but seemingly manic. “You’re the drumbeater saying we were going to change the world”. So, you’re not optimistic anymore?”
“I’m more optimistic than ever, but shipping this product before it’s ready violates what we set out to do – make a truly elegant product, a game changer, the envy of Steve Jobs: “Insanely great”.
“But we were banking on that money coming in, I’ve got creditors pounding at our doors, how are we going to make it?”
“We’re going to make, we’ll work day and night, I’ll take another mortgage on my house to get us by, I’ll sell my Tesla”.
“O.K., O.K., I’ll call the VC’s and cancel your appointments”.
“It’s not a cancellation, it’s merely a postponement. One day we’ll take their money not because we need it, but because we need their cache to go public with a great product”.
“So, tell me, Jack, who or what brought on this divine intervention?”
“It was brought on by an angel.”
“An angel?”
“Yes, there’s an angel by my side”.
Overhearing, Regina lips curled up ever so slightly in a smile.