Fishbowl (39 page)

44

THE IPO OF
Fishbowl Inc. took place on 21 July, seven years and eight months after Andrei Koss launched the second version of
Fishbowll.com
, which was destined to become one of the world's great internet companies.

The offering was priced at $48 a share, valuing Fishbowl at $192 billion dollars. Andrei rang the bell by videolink to open the trading session of the NASDAQ, standing in front of the aquarium in the main Fishbowl atrium, flanked by Jenn McGrealy, Chris Hamer, Bob Leib and the two dozen most senior executives in the company. Ten minutes later, the stock price had gone through $50, putting the company at $200 billion. A cheer rang across the fifth floor of Fishbowl's headquarters where a huge screen above the aquarium showed the stock price. The stock ended the day at $57.40 – almost a 20 per cent premium on the launch price. Andrei now held 44.7 per cent of a company valued at $228 billion dollars. Chris Hamer's $1 million stake had been parlayed into $11 billion, while 182 paper millionaires were made that day in the offices on University Avenue, with many more employees owning shares and options in the hundreds of thousands, and every employee, even the most recent, having at least some stock. Jenn McGrealy was worth in excess of $9 billion; Ed Standish, the advertising executive who had sold the original advertising deal to Andrei and then joined the company twelve months later with a grant of half a per cent of the shares, was worth $1 billion. A good number of millionaires were made outside University Avenue as well: Eric
Baumer, the infrastructure guy who had kept Fishbowl alive in the first summer on La Calle Court, had 1 per cent of the company. James Langan, now an evangelist pastor in Denton, Texas, still held the 2 per cent that he had accumulated in his year at Fishbowl, and was a multi-billionaire.

That night, Fishbowl took over the Grey Warehouse in San Francisco. Every employee was invited to the party, as well as other people who had been involved with Fishbowl over the years. Ben Marks flew in from New York. Kevin Embley made it all the way from his office on Emerson Road off University Avenue, where his own start-up was finally picking up speed in social gaming.

At ten o'clock, Alan Mendes ushered Andrei to a balcony looking down on the central lobby of the warehouse from six storeys up. A sea of faces gazed back at him from the balconies and the lobby below. Seventeen screens hanging off the walls at various heights showed the parties happening simultaneously in each of the cities around the world where Fishbowl had an office, whether it was morning, noon or night. It was an awe-inspiring sight and, for a moment Andrei, with Sandy beside him, just soaked it up. Then he took the microphone that Alan was holding for him and raised his hand.

There was a roar.

When he finally got silence, Andrei put the microphone to his mouth and said, ‘You did it.
You
guys did it!' The warehouse erupted around him again. When he had silence once more, he gave a short speech. He said that what had happened that day on the stock market was testament to all the work they had collectively done in building Fishbowl. It was nothing more than they all deserved. Then he told them not to focus on the stock price, but to keep doing the things that had made Fishbowl what it was. As long as they did that, the stock price would take care of itself. The first eight years were just the beginning, he said. They had changed the world a little. ‘Stick around,' he concluded. ‘In the next eight years, we're going to change the world a lot.'

He handed the microphone back to Alan and, as the warehouse was filled with roaring and whooping, made his way with Sandy off the balcony.

He went through the crowd. Most people in the company never got to see him, let alone talk to him, and they crowded around him. At some point he got separated from Sandy. He glimpsed Ben and headed towards him. Later they found Kevin. Young Fishbowlers acclaimed Andrei as he walked past. They had no idea who Ben and Kevin were.

At around midnight they ended up on the roof. The three men who had founded Fishbowl stopped by the glass balustrade at its edge. The lights of the Bay glittered below them.

Kevin had a fat cigar in his hand. ‘Billionaires' club,' he said with a grin.

‘I don't know what I'm doing here,' said Ben. ‘You two guys … you built this thing. I was just there for the ride.'

‘Dude, that's why you only got nine per cent.'

‘He only got nine per cent,' said Andrei, ‘because he couldn't find another twenty thousand. And you weren't just along for the ride, OK? It was way more than that. I still miss you. I still want you back.'

Ben shook his head, smiling.

For a moment there was silence as they watched the lights of the Bay twinkling below them. It was over four years since they had physically been together in the same place – not since Ben had left Fishbowl, before the Manhattan Project had even started. That was more than half the company's existence. Ben and Kevin had gone on to other things. Whatever tensions had existed with Andrei around their departures were long in the past, and paled in comparison with what they had achieved together. Their thoughts went back to Embarcadero, to Ramona Street, to La Calle Court, to Robinson House, places that were the stuff of myth now, so far away in the life journey that each of them had taken, if not in distance from where they stood.

‘Remember all those hours at Yao's?' said Ben nostalgically. ‘Man, we practically lived at that place. Is it still there?'

‘Sure,' said Andrei.

‘You ever go back?'

Andrei shook his head. ‘Not much. Occasionally. We actually have a couple of meeting rooms in the office now.'

Ben laughed.

‘I gave him shares, though.'

‘Who?'

‘Yao. I gave him two million dollars' worth. And I gave two million each to the guys. Lopez and Marina and Feliciano and Wong. I gave them two million each.'

‘Dude,' said Kevin, ‘that's cool. Stakhanovite.'

Andrei shrugged.

‘You know, everyone thinks you're there all the time,' said Ben. ‘Whenever anyone finds out I was connected with Fishbowl, it's like, “Aren't you guys at that noodle place all the time?”'

Kevin nodded. ‘There's like a legend of Yao's out there.'

‘It was that interview I did after Denver,' said Andrei. ‘I have never done an interview since where they don't ask me about Yao's.'

‘You've never done an interview since, period.'

‘Actually, that's not quite true.'

‘Dude, that journalist should just have called that article “Yao's”. I don't even know why you were in it. And there were monkeys, right? Something about monkeys.'

‘Orangutans.'

‘Stuff really happened at that place,' said Ben. ‘Do you remember the napkin?'

Kevin grinned. ‘Who can forget the napkin?'

‘Have you still got it?' said Ben to Andrei.

He nodded.

‘Is that where we first met Chris?'

Andrei thought briefly. ‘No. We went to that Vietnamese place. What was it called?'

‘It's closed,' said Kevin. ‘Closed about a year ago.'

‘I met Chris at Yao's when I asked him back up.'

‘Without us,' said Kevin. ‘That's when you sold us out, I believe.'

Andrei looked at him.

‘Dude, I'm joking.'

‘Is he here?' said Ben.

‘He's down there somewhere with some Fishettes,' said Kevin. ‘I saw him before.'

‘So he hasn't changed. Follow the Fishettes and you'll find Chris.'

‘Yeah,' said Andrei. ‘That's Chris, all right.' He stared down at the Bay. Then he glanced at them again. ‘It's good to see you guys. It's just … it's been too long.'

Kevin took a deep draw on his cigar.

‘We should do this more.'

‘What?' said Kevin. ‘An IPO? Sure. I'll take another thirty billion dollars any day.'

Ben was silent, watching Andrei.

‘You guys sell any shares today?' said Andrei.

‘No,' said Kevin.

‘You, Ben?'

Ben shook his head.

Andrei nodded. ‘Well, you should think about it,' he said quietly.

‘Why?' said Kevin.

‘You know what it says in the prospectus. There are risks and uncertainties. Anything can happen.'

‘Dude, it says that in every prospectus.'

Andrei looked at them. ‘I think the stock's peaked.'

‘Why?'

‘Trust me, I think it's peaked.'

Kevin saw someone come out onto the roof. He looked briefly at Andrei and Ben. ‘I'll be back,' he said, and headed off.

‘Don't poach my engineers!' called out Andrei.

‘Is that what he's going to do?' asked Ben.

‘Probably.' Andrei glanced thoughtfully at Ben. ‘You around tomorrow?'

Ben shook his head. ‘I'm on the six-thirty flight back to New York. I've got clients tomorrow.'

‘Why are you taking a commercial flight? Buy a jet, for Christ's sake.'

‘You buy a mansion first.'

‘You really take your client stuff seriously, don't you?'

‘Well, it's like the question Chris used to ask – what's the most important thing you can be doing …'

‘I thought you didn't believe in that question.'

‘I thought you did.'

Andrei frowned. ‘Do you remember when I said maybe we should stop?'

Ben shook his head. ‘Stop?'

‘Fishbowl. Remember when we were thinking about the 4Site deal. I said, you know, maybe we should just stop.'

‘Instead of allowing advertising? I kind of remember. Vaguely. Yeah, you did. You said maybe we should stop.'

‘Your folks had just put in thirty thousand dollars. And you said, “What's going to happen to that?”'

Ben laughed. ‘Did I?'

Andrei nodded. ‘If your folks hadn't put in thirty thousand, what do you think you would have said? If you had nothing at risk.'

Ben gazed at him, wondering why he was asking that. ‘I don't think you should have stopped, Andrei.'

‘That's because you're worth twenty billion dollars.'

‘No. That money's ridiculous. I don't want it. It's way too much. I'm going to have to find a way to give it away.'

‘Yeah,' said Andrei. ‘It's crazy.'

‘What's going on, Andrei?'

Andrei shrugged. Ben continued to watch him. Andrei gazed down at the Bay.

‘You know, there's only one thing I'm really proud of,' Andrei murmured.

‘What's that?'

‘After Denver, when I gave the data. Everyone was telling me I shouldn't. But I did.'

‘You told me that was just a business decision. The night I told you I was leaving the company, that's what you said.'

Andrei shrugged.

Ben watched him closely. ‘Why did you do it?'

‘It was the right thing for the business. I think we showed that, eventually.'

Ben didn't say anything. He felt as if he was in a session with a client.

‘I don't know. I guess I thought it was the right thing to do. I was surprised James didn't.'

‘Yeah,' said Ben. ‘So was I.'

‘Chris, you know … I wouldn't expect anything more from Chris. And Kevin's Kevin. But I thought James, you know, this big Christian …'

‘Well, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.'

‘What does that mean?'

‘Do what you have to do legally, I guess.'

‘Do you remember the shitstorm we had in the Grotto?'

Ben laughed.

But Andrei gazed down at the Bay again.

Ben wondered what was going on in Andrei's mind. He had been brief and somewhat understated when talking to the crowd on the balcony, but Ben had thought that was just Andrei. The speech hadn't made Ben think that he was in a particularly introspective or downcast mood. But maybe it was natural to have a sense of deflation after the IPO, a feeling of anticlimax. It occurred to Ben that Andrei, as Fishbowl's CEO, had probably got used to putting on a façade quite a lot of the time, and that would only get worse now that the company was listed on the NASDAQ and his public commitments would increase.

‘At the time,' said Ben, ‘when you were trying to figure out what to do that night after the bombing, you told me it was
because you had a responsibility. You said you had this special responsibility because you had brought Fishbowl into the world.'

Andrei nodded.

Ben waited. Andrei said nothing.

‘You know, you're not giving yourself much credit. You have a lot more to be proud of than Denver. Deep Connectedness is real. You envisioned it, Andrei. You made it happen.'

‘Yeah, but you left. You left after we started Farming.'

‘I wanted to do other things.'

Andrei shrugged.

‘Just think of what you've done. Just think of everything you've made happen.'

‘It wouldn't have happened at all if you hadn't told me to make it a dating site for the mind.'

‘I don't think I actually used that term, Andrei. I think you invented it. Deep Connectedness is a strong, strong force for good. You should be proud of that.'

‘I'm only proud of Denver. And the march.'

‘Defence of Freedom? Didn't you meet the Dillerman that day?'

‘Yeah.' Andrei put up his hands with his second and fifth fingers extended. ‘Two
l
s!'

Ben laughed. ‘I wonder what he's saying today.'

‘Who knows?' It had been years since Andrei had worried about what the Dillerman or any of the other 300 would say.

‘Remember the Curse of the Dillerman?' Ben laughed. ‘Don't worry. He'd find a way to believe you were doing the right thing.'

Andrei didn't speak for a moment. ‘I'm only proud of Denver, Ben. That was the only time I stood up.'

‘Stood up to what?'