I wrote a book. The publication date is May 29, 2024 (if you’d rather not deal with Amazon, your bookstore can also order it from the distributor Ingram Spark, or print-on-demand if they have the equipment). You can read it for free here, although it’ll be in serial form. My fond hope is that you’ll find it so compelling that you just buy the book instead of waiting 8 months to see what happens. There will be a chapter each week, 33 in all.
In Chapter 5 we shifted to Silicon Valley, where Matt Finegold has been goaded by his wife Miriam into interviewing at GO Corp, because they’re The Next Big Thing. She’s desperate for him to make them rich.
Reading in serial form has a long and honorable history. My cover artist sent me this “Read Like a Victorian” website. Enjoy.
========= Let’s GO Already ===========
It was September 1990, GO and IBM had announced a few months ago that they were working together, and the news was all over the tech press and the general press. Miriam was insisting, more and more frantically, that Matt had to get a job there, before they went public and all that founder’s stock was gone. Finally, he caved in and asked Kim to get him an interview.
He drove up to Foster City, which was way farther north than almost any Valley company he’d ever heard of. Foster City was this soulless strip of landfill, containing the 92 freeway, office buildings, shopping centers, and strip malls with absolutely zero character, not that the Valley had much character anyway. You could buy a townhouse along one of the many waterways connected to the Bay, if you craved that faux Florida vibe.
The interviews were surprisingly unstructured for such a hot shit company. He’d have thought they’d have some super-sophisticated interview process, with coding tests, teams of interviewers who cooperated with each other, and all that, but it was pretty much like any other tech interview. They asked him about his work at 3Com and at the University, why he wanted to work at GO (“To make a lot of money, like all of you!” he wanted to say), and generally explained how pen computing was going to take over the world.
All of them had ready answers for why Microsoft and Apple wouldn’t just add pen support to their own operating systems. According to them, really supporting a pen required such a different Weltanschauung that it would be “a bag on the side” if you added it to Windows or MacOS. “A bag on the side” was the standard tech insult for any addition that didn’t really fit. “These guys have really all drunk the Kool-Aid” he thought.
Matt got the feeling that they were all pretty burned out and just wanted to get back to work, but at the same time they knew they needed a lot more help to do what they were attempting. GO had gained a reputation for “vaporware,” the industry’s term for products that existed only in presentations and press releases, and they resented it. He knew better than to ask in the first interview when the product was actually going to be delivered, but he had the distinct feeling it was “soon.”
That night, Miriam grilled him about the interview. He told her he thought it went well and they’d probably call him back in, but you just never knew. This was unsatisfying for her, but she’d just have to live with it. Only a loser would pester a company he’d interviewed about its intentions. Maybe if he had another offer with a deadline on it, he could let them know, but he didn’t.
Naturally, he told Dan about it.
“Hey, I interviewed with GO up in Foster City yesterday!”
“So how’d it go?” Dan and he were always sharing their job search news. Dan had been through a bunch of Valley prospects before settling on a transfer within 3Com, but Matt didn’t know if he’d been to GO or not.
“Pretty good, I think. It’s hard to tell. Did you ever interview there?”
Dan looked irritated. “Fraid so. Thankfully, they didn’t make me an offer.”
Matt laughed. “Well, it could be you’re the lucky one. We’ll see.”
“So what do they want you to do for them?”
“Not clear. I don’t think it’s Directory services, anyway. Maybe it’s really managing of some sort.”
Dan thought about this, but there wasn’t anywhere to go with it. He looked at his watch and stood up.
“Well, good luck. I have to go to a meeting!”
Time passed slowly for Matt. He thought that Miriam regarded this whole process as similar to taking the SAT and having her Mom bug her about how well she thought she did. She would sit by the phone if she could. Conversation at home was strained.
Finally, the call came! They wanted to have him back. This time he was talking to Kevin Doren, the VP of Engineering. It’s gotta be serious now, he thought. Miriam was ecstatic. She wanted to go out and celebrate, but with a lot of effort he calmed her down and got her to wait for the offer.
He met with Kevin and a couple of other guys, one of whom was clearly assigned to get more technical with him. Finally, in walked Jerry Kaplan, the CEO! “This is either their best effort to sell me, or the last chance to veto me,” he thought. “Hopefully the former.”
Jerry was wearing a blazer and an Oxford shirt with no tie, like practically every executive he ever met. He tried to look bright and chipper, but the strain on him was impossible to miss. It seemed clear to Matt that he could lose the offer if he really tried, but basically it was his. Kaplan mostly gave his spiel about pen computing and what a great opportunity it was.
The next day, his offer letter came by courier. This time there was no stopping Miriam. She’d bought a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and had it chilling in the fridge just to be ready for this. “What would she have done if I didn’t get the offer?” he thought. Anyway, they each had several glasses and then decided they were too drunk to go anywhere, so they continued celebrating at home.
The next day he went into work and turned in his notice. Eric Benhamou immediately called him and tried to talk him out of it, hinting that a big promotion could be in his future. He thanked Eric profusely, said he’d enjoyed working at 3Com so much and learned all about networking, but now it was time to grab an exciting new opportunity. They both knew all the lines to this play. “Don’t burn your bridges & leave ‘em smiling” on Matt’s part; “thank him for all he’s done and wish him the best” on Eric’s part, etc. etc. His two weeks passed uneventfully, and Janet organized a little celebration for him on his last day.
On his way out the door for the last time, she caught up to him and walked with him to his car. She said,
“Well, we’re going to miss you, Matt.”
She’d already said that at the celebration, so he figured there must be more. She continued,
“Let’s keep in touch. You never know!”
Now that they weren’t rivals in any sense, real or potential, they could be allies. He said,
“Yeah, you never know. What are you going to do? You seem to be doing pretty well here.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I don’t really feel like I’m actually doing anything anymore. Eventually someone will figure that out!”
He laughed, “Oh, come on. You could be VP of Engineering anywhere you want nowadays.”
“But what do I want? That’s the question. Right now, Walt and I are both worried about my dad.”
“I remember your dad. God, please tell me nothing’s wrong!”
She suddenly realized she’d made him think Len had cancer or something, and quickly said,
“No, no, sorry, nothing like that. It’s just that he retired a few months ago, and I don’t think he’s adapting well at all. A couple times lately I’ve talked to him and it really worries me. He’s never been much of a drinker, but… I’m not sure what I heard.”
Matt didn’t really know what to say, so he asked,
“Why? You think he’s depressed, or what?”
She hesitated a little. “Walt’s had some friends who retired and started drinking, or just sat in front of the TV all day, and I can tell he’s worried. He’s always called Len ‘Dad’ since he didn’t really know his own father very well. My first husband would never do that.”
Matt smiled a little, thinking of Miriam’s father Marv. He’d never in a million years call Marv “Dad.” He always thought old Marv looked down on him for being from the poorer part of Queens. Marv was a VP in his company, while Matt’s father was “just” a salesman.
But there was nothing much more he could say about it.
“Well, hang in there. Let’s have lunch after I get situated up there.”
“For sure.” They hugged, and Matt drove home.
Miriam was at work, but Mookie was thrilled to see him, wagging his tail furiously. They went in the back yard and played ball for an hour or so. Then they went inside, Matt grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed for the couch, and Mookie curled up next to him.
=========================================
There! That wasn’t so bad, was it? There’s a companion “Notes” doc where I detail what really happened back then, who helped me with it, and answer any other questions you might have.
Yes, there’s no free lunch: you can read this for free, but going deeper into the history will cost you a modest $5 a month. The Paid section will also include all the chapters, whereas they age out of the Free section after a few months. If you like what you read, buy the book.
There will usually be a Notes post on each chapter, where you read the real story if there is one.