The classic version of “Reading Literature” join PayPal as soon as possible? !

My entrepreneurial opportunity came suddenly.

“You come here this Friday.”

“Wh…what?” I stammered a little, “What you said is true?”

Peter Thiel smiled and nodded. Obviously, my reaction amused him.

“No, no, it’s Sunday today.” I replied while shaking my head, “Only four days-I can’t quit my job at Arthur Andersen so soon! We are working on a project.”

But the CEO of Confinity doesn’t think my rhetoric is convincing.

“We hope that the next round of financing will end this weekend, and the exercise price of the share options will rise soon. So, let me take a look…” He paused, cracking a series of calculations on the computer, “According to your For stock options, if you wait two more weeks, you will pay a price of $8,000.”

As we continued to walk around the bay, I shivered with the cold, and a gust of wind under the Golden Gate Bridge blew my thin coat. The sky in San Francisco is gray all year round, and it is often windy, and this December afternoon is no exception. When I tried to keep up with Peter’s express thoughts, the cold distracted me—in fact, even in good conditions, it was difficult for me to keep up with him.

“$8,000?” I really don’t know how he calculated it. In fact, I don’t know anything about the principles of stock options, and I don’t know much about the problems of startups. The only thing I can be sure of is that raw stock options can make people rich, very rich.

Northern California was the geographic center of the dot-com economy before the new millennium. Many young people in their 20s, including my Stanford University classmates, fled their jobs in the old economy in droves and fell into the arms of Internet companies. They left the rigid, elite-led large companies and came to the small companies that allowed them to make important decisions and brought their dogs to work.

$8,000 is nothing to these people, but it is important to me. I work for the oldest old economic company-the conservative Andersen. At the time, this company was still regarded as one of the most trusted and respected professional services companies in the world. The partners of the firm said that it is a supreme honor for people my age to have the opportunity to work in such an institution, but in return, they only pay us a very poor salary.

Peter Thiel assured me that Confiniti will not be another Andersen. He didn’t even know which position I was suitable for, so he would vote with me to give me stock options and increase my salary. Because Confiniti has just launched its own software product, it needs to recruit talents as soon as possible. This software allows people to share expenses, such as dinner bills and utility bills. The idea is good, but the name is a bit stupid-PayPal.

“Yes, an extra $8,000.” Peter Thiel said, and his words brought me back to reality. “By the way, you can ask Andersen at any time to see if they are willing to pay you $8,000 to let you in The company stays for two more weeks.” He added with a smile.

He is going to convince me, he knows this.

Me and Peter Thiel

Five years ago, I met Peter Thiel at Stanford University. That was the beginning of my PayPal journey.

In an event in the first week after enrollment, I joined an independent student newspaper called “Stanford Review”. This newspaper was founded by Peter in 1987. The newspaper enthusiastically defended classical education. Value has been reported by a large number of media over the years. Peter Thiel majored in philosophy. In the difficult days of the newspaper’s founding, he was responsible for editing and fundraising, and developed it into a campus organization that can absorb dozens of student members every quarter.

In 1992, Peter Thiel graduated from Stanford University Law School and left California for New York. He first worked at the Sullivan Cromwell law firm on Wall Street for a year, and then went to Credit Suisse First Boston Bank to be responsible for financial derivatives transactions. Since then, he has collaborated with David Sacks, another former editor of the Stanford Review, to write the book Diversity Myth, which criticizes the changes in the Stanford curriculum.

Soon after I joined the “Stanford Review”, a senior introduced me to Peter Thiel. He was doing the finishing touches on his book at the time and needed someone to help “run errands” on campus, so I assisted He worked for several weeks. In my subsequent campus life, we occasionally contacted each other.

In 1998, I graduated from university with a degree in economics and a large student loan. I started to get in touch with the financial industry and accepted a job as a consultant at Arthur Andersen Accounting Firm near San Francisco. I think this job allows me to gain first-hand experience in contacting multiple customers in various industries, prepares me for further studies in business school, and also allows me to slowly and firmly follow the internal corporate Climb up the ladder. In the process, I paid off the loan, gained my personal reputation, and gained the respect of my peers in the financial industry. I had no idea that meeting Peter Thiel would eventually disrupt these plans and change my life in a way I never thought of.

Confiniti

Not long after I graduated from Stanford University, Peter Thiel returned to campus and gave a speech on the topic “The Link Between Market Globalization and Political Freedom.” This is a focal issue of his concern. Based on the vigilance of a liberal against a centralized government, Peter’s philosophical foundation was influenced by the oppression of totalitarianism in Solzhenitsyn’s works. At that time, Peter had just moved back to San Francisco Bay to start his own hedge fund. This lecture gave him the opportunity to discuss a problem he was very familiar with. Peter Thiel’s speech was very lively, and the 24-year-old programmer Max Levchin felt greatly inspired. After the speech, he took the initiative to find Peter to communicate.

Max Levchin has every reason to be interested in Peter Thiel’s speech. He was a Jew and grew up in the Soviet Union. Due to religious issues, he and his family were subject to many restrictions in education, housing, and employment opportunities. In 1991, the whole family immigrated to Chicago from Kiev. His parents took full advantage of the newly acquired freedom rights to buy a second-hand computer for Max. Max Levchin founded a company called NetMeridian after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which mainly developed automated marketing tools. Later, he sold NetMeridian to Microsoft and came to Silicon Valley to look for his next entrepreneurial opportunity.

Peter Thiel and Max Levchin hit it off. In the next few weeks, they agreed to lunch many times and started discussions. The two decided to start a company focusing on research and development in cyber security, allowing users to use PalmPilot (handheld computer) and other PDA (personal digital assistant) devices. Store encrypted information on. They identified the name of the product as FieldLink, which means “field connection”, because Palm devices can use infrared ports to connect to each other and transmit information. Peter initially agreed to use the seed capital of his own fund for venture capital, and Max Levchin tried his best to persuade him to serve as the company’s full-time CEO.

Although the information security issues of digital Palm devices attract company founders with privacy protection needs, its commercial applications are very limited. Who needs to encrypt the information on their PDA device? Why encrypt? How can this technology bring benefits to the company? As the two continue to improve the business model of the company, their reasons for existence have also begun to change. Peter Thiel’s background in finance prompted him to focus on payments as a potential market. In this way, the technology they developed seems to have applicability.

Payment is a universal demand, but the market has not yet provided the corresponding technology to solve various forms of payment demand. In the past few decades, credit card and ATM networks have greatly expanded consumer payment methods, but these “heavy” systems that rely heavily on infrastructure also have very large shortcomings. Only merchants can get permission to use the necessary equipment to accept credit cards, and ATMs cannot be available anytime, anywhere. Because of so many restrictions, neither credit card nor ATM can meet the needs of a single consumer to pay for another person. If the consumer does not have enough cash on hand, his only option is to write a check, which is a troublesome payment method and requires the recipient to go to the bank in person. As for the check settlement, although the payee can use the money, it still needs to wait a few days. Peter Thiel and Max Levchin speculated that there should be a technology that can replace cash to realize individual-to-person payments.

They believe that FieldLink can be positioned as a payment solution. Palm handheld computer is a portable device, which will be an ideal platform for digital wallets. The convenience brought by such an invention can make FieldLink’s products a killer application if the software behind it can send information from one user to another through an infrared port. However, the original focus of FieldLink is that privacy protection and security are as important as convenience. Without solving these two problems, digital wallets will not succeed. At this point, Max Levchin’s original encryption design can be used. The encrypted data on digital devices cannot be stolen. In theory, carrying an electronic wallet is safer than carrying cash.

Now, the only problem is the name FieldLink. For payment companies, this name is not completely a misnomer, but it does not contain the new strategy of electronic payment. Peter Thiel and Max Levchin thought of a new name—Confinity, which was created by combining the words confidence and infinity.

As a result, the company was at the helm of Peter Thiel and focused on the payment business, and Confiniti began to recruit talents. Max Levchin hired three engineers from the University of Illinois, and Peter Thiel hired Kenny Howery. Kenny Howell used to be a contributor to the “Stanford Review” and a classmate of mine. He used to work for Peter Thiel’s hedge fund. MartyHellman (the inventor of public key encryption) joined the company’s advisory board, and Bill Melton, the founder of VeriFone, also supported the company.

Of course, for a startup company that has no income and no practical products, in addition to talent, attracting investment is also crucial. Most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs obtain investment through the sale of private equity in a round of venture financing.

One year after Peter Thiel and Max Levchin met for the first time, in July 1999, a vigorous press conference was held. At the press conference, representatives of Nokia Ventures and Deutsche Bank used PalmPilot in front of onlookers and reporters to wirelessly send $3 million in venture capital to Peter Thiel. At that time, this became a public relations hotspot. “Wired” magazine (Wired) reported the company’s product demonstrations, “International Herald Tribune” quoted an analyst who predicted that millions of Palm users would choose the service. 1

Confiniti had a large amount of cash in the bank, the number of employees increased rapidly, and a new office was opened on the street not far from Stanford University, and the company began to develop software. Soon, I also joined.

The dull days in Andersen

White mist enveloped the 35-story office building of Arthur Andersen. In San Francisco, the autumn climate that lasted until October was always late. This is the most enjoyable time of the year, but it is too short. After October, people will take out their jackets, and foggy days will come back, just like this dull November afternoon.

For several months, I have been busy dealing with a fierce lawsuit, but the case came to an abrupt end because the client could no longer accept the ever-increasing charges of Arthur Andersen. From the current point of view, this is just another example of Arthur Andersen wanting to expand its lucrative consulting business, but the result has been counterproductive. Three years later, Arthur Andersen finally fell due to an audit scandal due to an obsession with consulting fees. 2

At the time, I just noticed that Arthur Andersen’s treatment of young employees shattered their illusions. The company’s managers sit in an office enclosed by a glass wall and give orders to employees to move them from one project to another. Basically, they will not draw the company’s grand blueprint, let alone plan their own career path. . After the project at hand is over, their names will be added to the list of unassigned consultants, and they sit in the office from 9 to 5, waiting for them to go online, expecting a manager to rush in and take them away. Lucky employees can get new tasks in just a few days, and unlucky employees may have to wait several weeks.

For young people who are proud of their work, this process is very frustrating and angry, not to mention employees who want to influence their decision-making. At Arthur Andersen, you have to strictly abide by the hierarchical order, and titles are often more important than skills or experience. Among young employees, some entrepreneurial people generally feel that the company lacks ownership and therefore lacks vitality and feels frustrated. The manifestation of this frustration is that employees continue to behave cynically. It’s no wonder that many people have invested in Silicon Valley startups in the past year. The idea of ​​finding another job surfaced in my mind more than once, especially during the days when I had nothing to do and waited for work.

The rest in early November determined my fate. I was very boring, frustrated and frustrated. I kept thinking about it, and finally decided to spend some time in the long day to get in touch with some old friends. One day, I opened the email and saw an unusual email in my inbox. The subject of this email is curious: “Use PayPal to send your money!” The subject looks like spam—I have never heard of PayPal. But at that moment, I was really bored, so I chose to open it and wrote in the email: “Kenny Howell just transferred you a sum of money! Now you have $1 in your PayPal account waiting for you. Today Just visit www.PayPal.com and set up your PayPal account!”

I realized that this must be a payment service that Confiniti is developing. Obviously this website has just been established, and Kenny sent $1 to everyone in his address book and asked them to try the service. This is the first time I have heard that their digital wallet software is called “PayPal”. Although this name is a bit pediatric compared with the futuristic and noble corporate name “Confiniti”, the content of the email is still I was very interested, so I clicked on the link and visited the PayPal website.

The website surprised me. The last time I heard about Peter Thiel and Kenny Howell, their company was still developing software for Palm handheld computers, but now they have come up with a full-featured online money transfer service. It can be used with or without mobile devices. The website claims that anyone can open an online account immediately, only an E-mail address and a credit card are required. Among them, the E-mail address is a key factor, and PayPal uses it as a unique identifier, which means that if a person wants to pay another person, he only needs to know his E-mail address. After the payment instruction is issued, the money will be credited to the payee’s PayPal account, and the other party will receive an email notification. After that, the payee can withdraw the money by check, he can make an electronic transfer to the bank account, or pay the money in the account to other people.

Later I learned that this online service comes from a kind of “hidden sight.” Because Palm’s software users need to upload encrypted financial transactions to the PayPal website, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and the development team agreed that they can create an online account, regardless of whether the user has a Palm handheld or not. . This allows Confiniti to expand the attractiveness of PayPal from the three or four million Palm handheld computer owners in the United States to almost all Internet users. If the experimental wallet of the handheld computer really becomes a killer application, then taking advantage of the continued growth of the popularity of the handheld computer, online accounts can at least enable consumers who do not have a handheld computer to use this service.

No matter what the source of this inspiration is, the creativity of this system is outstanding. The principle is simple, easy to understand and use, and even better, this service is free. The website explained that Confiniti earns interest by using the funds saved in the user’s PayPal account. By depositing this money in the bank, Confiniti can earn interest; at the same time, it maintains the liquidity of funds so that customers can use the money at any time.

PayPal is not just a free service-its promotional rewards program will add $10 to all new account holders. All users need to do is register an account and associate a credit card. This is not all, as long as the users recommended by registered users complete the registration, Confiniti will also give a reward of $10! This is obviously a strategy for acquiring new customers, and it is very effective. That afternoon, I was busy stuffing money into my friend’s inbox.

accept an invitation

The car I drove was a 1988 Merck (Merkur, German car brand). I parked this small white car in the corner of the parking lot outside a restaurant that day. When the door was closed, it looked incompatible with the BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other models in the parking lot. It’s not that the engineering technology of these European luxury cars is amazing, but that their existence is a sign of the times. IlFornaio is an Italian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. It has attracted many car dealers in Silicon Valley. These people have benefited from the Internet boom and have a lot of money. I drove here on a Friday night in December to have dinner with two of these internet makers.

Peter Thiel specially invited me to dinner and thanked me for inviting so many users for him. I heard that Confiniti was seeking another round of financing. I introduced him to my former colleague Steve Kuo. After Steve Guo joined Andersen, he just proposed to his girlfriend, but within a few weeks, the company’s partner unceremoniously sent him to Brunei for a project, and he would stay there for several weeks. Steve Guo left Arthur Andersen in anger to join a mid-sized venture capital company as a senior analyst. Under my introduction, the talks between Steve Guo’s company and Confiniti progressed rapidly. Steve Guo is very interested in Confiniti’s management team and products. The venture capitalist Zhang Luo and a group of investors will form a consortium to support Peter Thiel’s entrepreneurship. Peter Thiel believes that this is good news worth celebrating.

Walking into the restaurant, I caught a glimpse of Peter Thiel and Steve Guo sitting at a table close by. We greeted each other and sat down to eat and talk.

“I have to confess,” Steve Guo said with a smile, “Peter, do you know? Starting today, my fiancee is also working for you.” Then he told us that his fiancee is Confiniti Newly hired marketing director Jennifer Chwang (JenniferChwang). “Steve Guo, after learning about Confiniti, encouraged his fiancée to apply for the job posting on the company’s website. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, she did not disclose her relationship with potential investors when interviewing for this position.

“This is a vote of confidence for our company,” Peter Thiel smiled brightly. “We have indeed hired a lot of employees recently. It is really not easy to recruit the people we want as soon as possible.” I met Peter Thiel. Anxious to recruit talents, he recently persuaded several original “Stanford Review” collaborators, including his friend David Sachs, the co-author of “The Myth of Diversity.”

Afterwards, Steve Guo directed the conversation to me. “By the way, Eric, how about Andersen? I heard you have been fighting with trolls.” He asked, exchanging a look with Peter.

Only then did I realize that that meal was a game they made. The so-called troll is an aggressive senior manager. In order to become a partner of Arthur Andersen, he did not hesitate to spread the “corpses” of other employees on his way forward. It is rumored that he is married and has several children, but most of us feel that he has been in the office for too long and has no time to beg a wife, let alone children. Because he is harsh and the tasks assigned are unreasonable, Arthur Andersen employees never ask how it feels to work with a troll, because the answer is well known.

I found a euphemism: “It’s very busy.”

Steve Guo “tsk tsk” and said, “That’s really sad, because Andersen’s salary doesn’t seem to be very high.”

With this opening remark, Peter Thiel told me straightforwardly: “You should work with us. We have a few new positions, and you are very good at them.”

This Italian dinner unexpectedly turned into a pivotal moment in my young life. This is a critical moment that I should take seriously. I usually think of myself as a left-brained, analytical person who carefully weighs my choices before making judgments. But this time, I already have a ready answer. Maybe it’s because of the frustration of working in the old economy, maybe I have greed for those European luxury cars in the parking lot, maybe the most likely is that I’m still young and naive. No matter what, I should weigh this carefully. The idea no longer existed, and I immediately replied confidently: “Okay! I’m very interested, let’s start.”

“Great! I will go to the city on Sunday to meet some Japanese people who are interested in investing.” Peter Thiel said, “Let’s see you at the pier around one o’clock.”

In this way, with a plate of ravioli, I stupidly joined the group. Within the next 48 hours, I received a verbal offer from Peter Thiel to perform my duties next Friday.

“World Domination Index”

On Monday afternoon, I left Arthur Andersen and drove to Palo Alto. Peter Thiel suggested that I go to the company a few days before starting work so that I can introduce me to my new colleague. That morning, after informing Andersen of my decision to resign, I looked forward to seeing some enthusiastic faces. What surprised me was that the troll actually congratulated me, but the general partner of our team was flushed with anger and roared that I was crossing the river to demolish the bridge. He was furious and said that I had rashly given up the great opportunity to learn the skills needed by the market, but ran to pursue the “Fool’s Gold.” His strong reaction made me shake, and it was only then that I realized that for the new job, I hadn’t even received a written invitation, let alone a job description.

The scenery along the 101 highway is very beautiful, at least it can make me not think about the conflict that happened in the morning for the time being. Flashy and exaggerated billboards were erected along the highway, pointing to Internet companies one by one. While driving, I thought about how to design a huge and prominent “Confiniti’s PayPal.com” billboard that can stand out from the endless online advertisements for pet food and health care products. I heard that it costs $100,000 a month to rent a billboard along the highway, but for a company like Confiniti that can quickly raise millions of dollars in venture capital, this is just a piece of cake. Maybe we should rent two?

Soon, my little reverie was over. I got off the highway, turned onto the elegant University Road in Palo Alto, and headed to Confiniti’s office. Imagining my new office, my heartbeat speeds up and I am excited.

Confiniti’s name is hung outside with only a plastic sign. The office is located on the upper floor of a two-story building, and downstairs is a bicycle shop and a coffee shop. Although it looks as inconspicuous as the other beige buildings on both sides of this boulevard, 165 University Street has a very good historical record-the Internet search engine Google and the mouse designer and manufacturer Logitech (Logitech) have successively rented the same building. building. 3 But Peter’s main consideration is not the myth of startups, but the old-fashioned relationship between supply and demand. The Internet boom has caused the price of commercial real estate here to soar. After Confiniti moved out of the original office, Peter Thiel was able to provide enough stock to the owner of this building to obtain a lease here.

I parked the car nearby and entered the front door. The stairs are wide, but with glazed tiles on them, it’s a bit slippery. This dangerous staircase leads to a small open-air courtyard surrounded by Confiniti’s offices. Re-entering the outdoors, the bright light made me a little uncomfortable. Because there was no mark, it took me a minute to find the door to the hall.

I introduced myself to the receptionist, and she didn’t even know that I had an appointment. She quickly went around the offices and finally confirmed that Peter Thiel was not in the building. She called him and was directly transferred to the voicemail box, so she asked me if I would come back another day. I began to feel uneasy-I just blocked the Arthur Andersen retreat for this position for which nothing has been determined. I didn’t even get the offer letter for the new position because Peter asked me to come soon, but now I can’t find it. Him.

“So, can I meet Kenny Howell?” I asked, thinking my friend, Kenny Howell, who is also Peter Thiel’s right-hand man, must have heard of me coming to work. thing. As a result, I was wrong.

“Oh, really? That’s great!” My buddy said in his gentle Texas accent. But when he looked up from the computer screen, his face was confused. Obviously, he knew less than me about my coming to work here, but he thoughtfully said that the company’s only human resources specialist should have heard about it.

“Laurie, have you ever heard of Eric coming to work?” he asked as he walked to the cubicle on the other side of the small room, and I followed him, hoping that the last person would know,” he said to Peter Let him start work this week.” I later discovered that Laurie was only in charge of Confiniti’s human resources business. In addition, she also managed a series of legal and financial matters and reported directly to the chief financial officer. The busy woman frowned and answered Kenny Howery with a bewildered face, saying that she didn’t even know who I was. She asked, “Which position Peter promised you?” I knew nothing about it and couldn’t answer her.

My worry deepened. The three people in the company who should know my job offer most seem to have no idea about it. Could it be that Peter changed his mind? Then why does he urge me to join immediately? I don’t know what happened.

Kenny Howell obviously needs to go back to his desk to continue working, but the guy still played a little like a landlord and led me around the office building and saw a few people. “This is Jamie Templeton, our product manager, and the engineer…oh, you know David Sachs, right?”

I first met David Sachs several years ago, when he came to Stanford University to promote the “Diversity Myth” he co-authored with Peter. People like to call him “Sachs” by his last name. Hearing someone calling his name, David looked up from the computer screen and said that it was great that I could join the group. He immediately asked for my mobile phone number and stored it in his mobile phone. The person next to him immediately ridiculed: “Well, once your number is in his hands, he will call you anytime and anywhere!” David Sachs ignored the joke and continued to work, leaving Kenny Howell. Standing there thinking about how to entertain me.

He checked the job at hand and handed me to Luke Nosek, the vice president of marketing. Luke was a lanky young man with dirty curly blond hair. He immediately got up from the chair. “Hi! My name is Luke,” he said. This was the first warm greeting I got after I walked in, but I didn’t have any enthusiasm myself. “What position are you interviewing for?”

“Actually, Peter just invited me over.” I was a little bit astonished. On the one hand, because I heard such a problem, on the other hand, I faced this energetic 24-year-old vice president. “He said I can do anything related to marketing, News or investor relations work.”

“Oh,” Luke Nosek put a leg on the arm of the chair, “Then, why do you come to work at Confiniti?” He continued to ask, showing a sincere smile at all my reactions. And interest.

Before I could answer, there was a loud “ding” on Luke Nosek’s computer screen, “Another one!” Luke Nosek said, “Look at this!”

A rectangular box popped up on Luke Nosek’s monitor with the words “World Domination Index” (WorldDomination Index) on it. This is an index counter connected to the PayPal database and updated every few minutes. The number in the box is 2413.

“Isn’t it great?” Luke Nosek asked. “As long as it moves, I will look at it. In the past week alone, it has risen so much.”

The name of the counter caught my attention. I like this concept that allows employees to keep an eye on the company’s business progress tool, but the name is too high. At Arthur Andersen, the tools we use are generally “knowledge space” or “risk management matrix”, and have never been arrogant enough to call it “World Domination Index”. But this arrogance can at least make Confiniti an interesting place to work-of course, if I can really get a job here.

That afternoon, between Luke Nosek “interviewing” me, the index counter rang several times. But Peter Thiel never showed up, and I finally left Palo Alto with more confusion and worry than when I first came.

My anxiety continued into the evening, until I finally got through the CEO’s cell phone. He explained that there was an accident during the day and he was not in the company, and then assured me that everything would be arranged on Friday. Although it was a bit unsatisfactory at the beginning, my journey in the new economic field seemed to be on the right track.

Disorderly startups

I originally hoped that the first day at work would be more formal than the last time I visited, but the reality quickly dispelled this idea.

Following Peter’s suggestion, I came to report at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday. I think it’s a bit late at this point, but I think that leaving a little extra time may be to prepare my new colleague for my arrival. When I climbed the sleek stairs and passed through the small courtyard into the reception area, it was obvious that my expectations fell through. Except for one or two engineers walking past me, and obviously going home to sleep, the entire corridor was dark and silent. All these signs showed that I was the only one in the office area.

Twenty minutes later, Kenny Howell came in through a side door and rescued me from the terrible silence. At this time, a few employees have begun to come one after another, one of whom is the company’s only technical support expert. Kenny Howell asked him which computer was assigned to me. The young man shrugged and said that no one had ever mentioned to him that I would come here, and even if someone mentioned it, he couldn’t help it because the company already There is no free table. They discussed for a while, and then decided to let me sit in the seat of a customer service representative for the time being. He won’t come to work until a few hours later.

What situation am I in? I tested whether my Confiniti mailbox was opened on a borrowed computer, and wondered: I didn’t get a job description, my colleagues didn’t know who I was, and there was no desk for me in the entire office building. ! Even Arthur Andersen will at least arrange seats for newcomers!

At this time, a familiar face appeared and greeted me, allowing me to temporarily get rid of doubts about career choices. This person is Dave Wallace and a Stanford alumnus. He shook hands with me amicably, and then sat down at the customer service desk.

I met Dave Wallace at several parties before when I was working at the Stanford Review. He was very strong, tidy up all day, brown hair, and well trimmed. He graduated in the early 1990s and then engaged in journalism, first as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, and then as the editor-in-chief of a Palo Alto weekly newspaper. I thought to myself that Peter Thiel might have hired him to write Confiniti’s website content or to deal with inquiries from other media. But to my surprise, he is the manager of the company’s customer service department.

Dave Wallace turned on the computer and began to work. I was lost in thought, thinking that his news background and his role in the company did not seem to match. There is little in common between reporters and customer service. Because anyone who knows journalists knows that journalists tend to dig into the horns and sometimes have to use a snack machine to dig up stories. This skill may be the opposite of the skills needed to help employees deal with angry customers.

Assigning a reporter to the current position is obviously my new employer playing the piano. But as I got to know more colleagues, I found that Confiniti’s personnel decisions were messier than I initially thought. Like Dave Wallace, many employees’ past experiences bear little resemblance to their current positions. Peter Thiel later told me that when he looked for staff for the company, he valued talents rather than experience. This philosophy clearly explained why he invited me. He believes that Dave is trustworthy, will work hard, and can make the right decisions. Although Dave’s background has nothing to do with customer service, Peter pays more attention to these known traits than to the so-called experience that some candidates who do not know where they may come up.

At this moment, this work concept has clearly paid off. The head of the customer service department just made a phone call to help a customer of Hewlett-Packard to solve the trouble that his handheld computer encountered when synchronizing with our server after installing PayPal. “Sir, I will definitely check it for you and call you back.” Dave Wallace assured him, and made some notes at the same time, “I think the reason why you can’t sync is because of your palm The computer is behind a firewall, but there may be a workaround. I’ll try to help you think about it.” For a team leader, this task is a bit tiring, but he starts to deal with the consultation without hesitation.

Seeing Dave dealt with a problem that was within his responsibilities and outside of experience, I realized that I was not the only person in the company with no fixed responsibilities. Arthur Andersen treats the company’s internal hierarchical structure as strict as the US military, while the role of Confiniti employees is obviously more flexible. This stark difference, and the flexibility it requires employees to have, sometimes requires employees to take some time to adapt.

The morning passed quietly, and I kept busy on the borrowed computer, doing some weird tasks that Kenny Howell asked me to do. PayPal has been launched for nearly a month, and Confiniti is preparing to hold its first online advertising promotion. In order to hold this promotion, Kenny Howell needed someone to help him do some pre-run errands, so he gave me a bunch of Internet advertising companies’ contact information and asked me to call them and learn about their CPM (CostPerMille , Cost per thousand). I never knew what CPM is, but at this time, I am very happy that I can play some role, even if the role sounds like a fool calling strangers.

A few minutes later, my temporary “guide” Kenny Howell returned and told me with the joy of victory that he had found a desk for me and only needed to do a little cleaning. I followed him to the outside central courtyard, through the reception area, and turned right into a very dark room. I didn’t notice that there was still this room when I came last time. “Right here, our table tennis room!” He said loudly, opening the door of the room.

I looked around. This is a 20-foot square (about 36 square meters) room with no windows, only a door, and the only furniture is a folding table tennis table. Obviously, this is the worst room in this relatively open office building. Therefore, it is not surprising that such a small box room was previously used as a seldom used table tennis room.

“Not bad.” I said with a shrug. “But, I must have a desk and a computer?”

“Scott will bring you a computer soon.” Kenny Howell replied. He said Scott was from the information department. “As for the table, I remember I just ordered a batch, but we have to borrow one for now.”

As a result, the table he borrowed turned out to be a long table the size of a banquet table, which was originally placed in the office of the chief financial officer. When we passed by, Chief Financial Officer David Jaques was constantly signing checks on his desk. He is a British national and used to be the treasurer of Silicon Valley Bank. He greeted us with a British accent, and when Kenny Howell and I staggered out of his office, he barely raised his head.

This thick wooden desk became my temporary workstation, and it was not decommissioned until I assembled the newly bought composite board desk myself at the weekend. With the help of several engineers, the removed table tennis table was moved to David Sachs’ room. There is also a commentary written by Sachs for the San Francisco Examiner on the table, praising some companies for granting stock options to young employees and allowing them to engage in some leisure activities, such as playing table tennis after work. The engineers happily commented that they had never seen this Chicago law school graduate set foot in a table tennis room, so they moved the table in front of him to see if he could play.

Subvert the global financial system

My disturbing entry experience and the disordered state of the first day at work show that Confiniti is not an organized company at all. As a young company, it is understandable that it does not have enough resources to invest in human resources and IT departments, and cannot provide planned induction education for new employees. Nonetheless, this apparent chaos is a bit disturbing. Although I don’t want to have this kind of thought, at noon on the first day, I found myself still wondering whether my blind trust in Peter and my desire to make quick profit and quick profit caused me to commit the crime. A terrible mistake.

I scanned the surroundings and thought this was a reasonable conclusion. The interior layout of the office is nothing like Andersen. In Arthur Andersen, the cubicles of consultants all face the glass-walled office of the manager. Moreover, it’s even a far cry from the typical “dot-com” working environment (offices with vaulted ceilings and post-modern furniture as shown in TV commercials). It is more like a dormitory, with many kinds of board games to play and chess pieces scattered on the floor. Engineers stack boxes of Domino’s pizzas on their desks. The employees all wore shorts and T-shirts to work. Because of the occasional water gun battles in the corridors, this attire was very decent. By the entrance to Max Levchin’s office, there is a tattered sofa with sunken cushions. He shares that office with two other programmers. In this environment, besides creating chaos, what else can be produced?

Throughout the afternoon, I was almost in a state of being forgotten. I wonder if the source of Confiniti’s abnormal behavior is that there are too many young people here? After all, the average age of company employees is only 25 years old. The 32-year-old Peter Thiel is the second oldest person in the company, and the age of the company’s business employees is about 3 to 6 years younger. Max Levchin is 25 years old. The engineers he recruited are basically his college classmates or people of the same age. Only the chief financial officer David Jacques may be over 40 years old. Maybe in Confiniti, there are too few people who understand the outside world, which makes it not like a real company?

At this time, the receptionist, my first visitor in more than an hour, put his head into the table tennis room and announced that Peter Thiel was going to hold a company meeting, which finally pulled me back from my contemplation. I happily walked towards the center of the office building, where my 26 colleagues have gathered. In the two aisles that are at right angles to each other, some people are already queuing, and a few employees choose to sit on their desks in a nearby cubicle in order to have a better view.

Peter Thiel was standing in a small corner, chatting with David Jacques, waiting for everyone to arrive. When the employees were almost there, Peter Thiel cleared his throat and started an impromptu speech.

“Since the last meeting, some time has passed. I think a lot of people have joined us since then.” The CEO said, “Everyone walked around and let everyone know your name. And introduce myself.” I tried my best to think about it, and I wanted to think of as many names as possible. In addition, I was thinking about how to satirize my previous experience in the post to introduce myself to new colleagues.

“Now, another piece of news.” When everyone introduced themselves, Peter Thiel added, “We may have to wait a few more days to end the next round of financing.” Hearing this, my jaw was It was about to fall. After all, the urgency of the latest round of financing was the reason I left Arthur Andersen in a hurry. “But don’t worry, we are just bargaining over some details, and we have been oversubscribed. Everyone wants to invest in our company!”

“Why not?” He continued, “We are doing big projects. The demand for PayPal is huge. Everyone in the world needs money-they want to get paid, to trade, and to live. Paper money is an ancient one. Technology, payment inconvenience, you may happen to be in short supply, they may be worn out, or they may be lost or stolen. In the 21st century, people need a more convenient and safer form of currency, as long as there is a handheld computer or It’s a network connection and you can get it from anywhere.”

“Of course, for American users, what we call’convenience’ is revolutionary for people in developing countries. The monetary policies of many countries are changing,” the former derivatives trader pointed out, “just like Russia and several Southeast Asian countries, they sometimes inflate and sometimes devalue their currencies, use these methods to steal wealth from their people. Most of the people there never have the opportunity to open offshore accounts or hold their hands. The currency is exchanged for a stable currency like the U.S. dollar.”

“Ultimately, PayPal will change this. In the future, as we expand our services outside the United States, and as the Internet penetration rate continues to increase, people in all economic classes can enjoy it. PayPal will allow people all over the world to have the right to themselves The unprecedented and more direct control of the national currency. In this way, it is almost impossible for corrupt governments to use the old methods to steal wealth from the people, because if they try to do so, people can exchange their currency for dollars. , Pound sterling or yen, abandon the worthless local currency and replace it with a safer currency.”

“Of course, we are still some time away from this goal.” Peter Thiel continued, taking a look at the people who were listening attentively. “During this period, our great handheld computers and Internet products are developing rapidly, and our users are growing. The momentum is very good. I think that in the next few weeks, we will get a lot of media attention. I have no doubt that this company has the opportunity to become the Microsoft of the payment field and the operating system of the world’s finance.”

Laughter and applause erupted around. Although most people had heard a similar version of Peter Thiel’s speech, they still seemed to like to hear it again.

I can say that I stood there with almost awe. I know that Peter is a man with deep thoughts and a strong vision for the world. When he convinced me to join, he talked about great products. There is no mention of these global ambitions. Now, I am surprised to hear him explain the great mission of our startup company in a regular meeting of the company. Bold vision and company management do not always go hand in hand. Few managers of Arthur Andersen are willing to participate in such seemingly cliché meetings. The two qualities of excellence and empowerment are precisely what Arthur Andersen lacks. While Peter Thiel provided a grand and specific vision, he did not mention a milestone that most Internet companies will focus on-going public. Why? He does not need to mention that the changes to the way he is discussing international trade have made listings seem trivial.

Of course, there can also be a cynical explanation for his speech. Every successful company needs some form of grand vision to guide its decision making. Making employees feel that their company is different is also a way for the management team to motivate employees. Both situations apply to Confiniti. But these negative opinions cannot obliterate the importance of Peter’s vision. Although he himself has never directly quoted the following sentence, his promise is tantamount to making Confiniti an advocate of “creative destruction”, the situation described by Joseph Schumpeter 60 years ago . He seems to really believe that his own startup company can give consumers unparalleled control over personal financial affairs, thereby subverting the global financial system.

You may have your own opinions on whether this vision is credible, but in the days after the speech, I began to believe that Peter Thiel was not the only person in the office who believed in this vision. The company’s website designer designed a T-shirt with a pattern from a part of the mural on the roof of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, showing that God and Adam exchanged cash through a handheld computer. Many engineers carry with them Neil Stephenson’s “Code Book”. This novel is about the army’s cryptographers conspiring to establish an offshore paradise in Asia during the Second World War, using encryption to protect data.

The “Domination Index” program on the computer kept making “ding” sounds. The employees laughed and pointed out that the paper money was out of date. They insisted on using PayPal to pay for the lunch bill, and everyone used PayPal to transfer the meal expenses. As a colleague in the programming department said, there is no need to move atoms in order to exchange bits.

What Confiniti is developing is far more important than those e-commerce sites that sell goods or standardize pet food. There is basically no objection to this concept within the company. My colleagues really believe that PayPal can change the world, and they spend much more time talking about this vision than discussing profiting through public offerings. Although I was tempted to escape from the old economic entity because I yearned for a more valuable workplace and believed in the promise of wealth, most of the employees here seemed to only care about creating something new and different-development one. This is something that can have a positive impact on the lives of millions of people.

It is this potential that makes Confiniti’s vision of “ruling the world” believable. The currency crises in Asia, Russia, and Latin America show that people around the world really need to increase their control over their money.

In the late 1990s, many “contagious diseases” that plagued the currency market were caused by the government’s attempts to manipulate exchange rates and interest rates. When investors discover these little tricks of the government, they will sell the local currency, putting downward pressure on the exchange rate. Since commodity traders no longer want to settle in the local currency, the country has to use U.S. dollar reserves. These sell-offs forced many countries to lower the official exchange rate of their currencies against the U.S. dollar, thereby devaluing their currencies. As a result, the purchasing power of their currencies in the world would be reduced. This, in turn, caused local prices to skyrocket, which in turn devalued the currency in the savings account.

When this happens, ordinary citizens of these countries, especially the poor and middle class who have little access to foreign banks, are always hit hardest. If PayPal can find a way to allow these people to transfer funds with the click of a mouse, and convert the currency in their hands into a more stable currency, then we have indeed created an amazing thing, which is better than helping everyone share it. The dinner bill is more revolutionary. With the popularization of the Internet, even people in the lower classes can theoretically protect their property by exchanging cash for a more stable foreign currency and storing it in a place far away from the reach of their government.

When I hurriedly escaped from Arthur Andersen and joined this startup that seemed full of chaos at first, I might not have realized this potential possibility. But in the few days after listening to Peter Thiel’s speech, I began to understand its meaning. A company that is full of young entrepreneurs and is determined to subvert the world’s financial system does not bother about where to put its desks or provide new employees with formal and appropriate induction training. Peter wants to hire good people-and fast. He needs them to help him carry out a technological revolution, and the details of it need to be sorted out slowly in the future.

“Star Trek” Project

As the days passed, my role in Confiniti became clear. At the beginning of the second week, I officially got my title-Marketing Manager, and my department. Together with Kenny Howell and Jennifer Zhang, the fiancee of my venture capitalist friend, I became a member of Confiniti’s newly formed marketing team, reporting directly to Luke Nosek.

When I went to work on the first day, Kenny Howell threw me the job of direct mail (direct mail), and now it seems that it is not useless work. PayPal’s extensive publicity and bonus promotions have steadily increased the number of users. By mid-December, there were hundreds of registered users every day. A new round of funds is about to be injected, and Peter Thiel wants to use some funds to expand PayPal’s user base faster. When meeting with the team, Luke Nosec also agreed with this strategy. He insisted that growth is the most critical thing for startups at this stage, which can hinder potential competitors and put us in a favorable position to implement the necessary business models and obtain real benefits.

Therefore, we make growth the focus of the company. Luke Nosek asked us to combine advertising banners with direct mail campaigns in order to increase new users.

I quickly transformed from a financial consultant to a junior marketer. I kept browsing the web, calling the salesperson of the advertising company, asking them about their click-through rate and the rate of importing related websites through web links. Only a few weeks ago, I didn’t know anything about these things.

At the same time, David Sachs worked with a public relations company to improve Confiniti’s image before a new round of major marketing activities. David Sachs was inspired by an article titled “Scotty, send me some money” and suggested that the company hire James Doohan, the actor of Scotty in the “Star Trek” film series, as Confiniti Spokesperson. 4 This sounds like a good idea-Scotty is a familiar role for the public, and the wireless transmission expression also highlights the characteristics of our products. Before us, there was an Internet company that was very good at using celebrities in “Star Trek” as endorsements. Priceline, an online travel service company, has soared in popularity after launching a series of advertisements for William Shatner (played by Captain Kirk) to read poems aloud. If Priceline can risk becoming the ultimate pioneer, why can’t Confiniti?

Within a few days, our agent signed an agreement with James Doohan, asking him to endorse PayPal. However, Scotty can’t go the same way as Captain Kirk, and can’t shoot TV commercials, at least not initially. After all, Confiniti only has millions of cash on hand, not hundreds of millions, so making a “Super Bowl” advertisement is not considered. Peter Thiel and other executives basically do not believe that TV can bring new users. They insist that the TV advertisements made by many Internet companies are generally expensive, the audience is not very targeted, and the audience only sits in front of the computer. In order to remember a specific website address, TV advertising is very cost-effective compared to online promotions.

In the end, we chose to let James Doohan host a media campaign about the growth of PayPal. “Scotty” will borrow his classic line “pass me on the spaceship” in our website and emails to introduce potential customers to our future service-“pass me the banknotes”.

But before the company started at full speed and launched activities to acquire new users, the whole company slowed down a bit, so that everyone could breathe. If “ruling the world” is our final goal, Peter realizes that friendship and teamwork are necessary to achieve this goal. Peter Thiel set aside an afternoon and led the employees to a holiday party in a different place, allowing them to relax away from the office before the final pre-holiday sales event.

The employees came to the party from the office in a team, which was located near Menlo Park, in a conference center on Dune Road. If you are not familiar with Dune Road, let me tell you that Dune Road is to venture capital what Wall Street is to the stock market. Sandhill Road is located at the bottom of the undeveloped foothills behind Stanford University. There are many top venture capital companies in Silicon Valley on the road. In the late 1990s, these venture capital companies provided 4/5 of the capital for California startups. You can hardly guess this just by looking at this road. Most of the buildings along the way are not very interesting. Most of these buildings are two or three-story small buildings, with wooden slats on the exterior walls and nondescript signs. On the whole, the message to visiting entrepreneurs looking for funds is thrift.

The afternoon party started with everyone enjoying drinks and appetizers around the warm fireplace in the large lounge. After drinking cocktails for half an hour, everyone moved to a private dining room with a huge round table. Looking around, I realized that I have not yet recognized all my colleagues. In the first week I came to work at the company, 6 more employees joined, and the list of vacancies posted on the website is still long and growing.

A few minutes later, Peter Thiel picked up the microphone and walked to the front of the room. After thanking the employees for their hard work, he mentioned that Confiniti has added many new faces. This time, instead of asking everyone to introduce themselves, he went to everyone in turn and said the name and position of the employee. When he walked up to David Sachs, someone jokingly called “oldhuffandpuff!” (referring to the sound of the big bad wolf blowing in the Disney animation “Three Little Pigs”), and the engineers laughed. Sachs often flew past the office and rushed to an unsuspecting victim to hold an emergency meeting. At this time, he said aggrieved: “I hope this nickname won’t stick to your body and you won’t be able to tear it off.”

After introducing everyone, Peter Thiel pointed to the person standing behind. “Finally, let me introduce Reed Hoffman to those who don’t know him yet.” He said, “Reed is the founder of SocialNet.com and a member of our board of directors. Starting next week, Reed wants Come as a full-time president and report directly to me. He will be responsible for the company’s operations and daily affairs, allowing me more time to deal with strategic planning and financing decisions.”

Compared to Peter’s thin profile, Reid is taller and always smiling. His curly hair and glasses make him feel very approachable. He made a short speech: “Thank you Peter, I have not officially started yet, so it will be a few weeks before everyone will see me in the office all day. I have already met some of you. In the next few days, I will find time to come over and try to get to know everyone.”

I had never met Reed Hoffman before, and later I learned that he and Peter Thiel are old friends at Stanford University, which means he is someone Peter can trust. Although many people in the room were surprised by this, I understand why Peter Thiel wanted Reed Hoffman to hold such a position. With a full-time manager, Confiniti’s internal growth will benefit, and considering Peter Thiel’s financial background and his laissez-faire management style, it is logical that he hopes to get some assistance in the company’s operations .

Since my office is close to the company’s reception area, I have witnessed how much time Peter Thiel spends ensuring the company’s financing is successful. After the holiday party, investors visited our company in an endless stream. There was even a Japanese investor who was bumped on the head by an engineer-controlled remote control plane and was unhindered.

Such investor “parade” lasted for several weeks before Peter Thiel closed the company’s second round of financing. This is a full month after the expected date of cessation of financing, but given that we now have $23 million in cash in the bank, this delay seems very worthwhile. Goldman Sachs, IdeaLab Capital, and the investment department of a startup company incubator provided the funding. 5 Although Steve Guo’s company eventually retreated because it was unable to establish an investment consortium, from within Confiniti, there are such a group of investors with a high reputation lining up to send us funds. It can be seen that we have done quite well. However, a few months later, the actions of one of our investors will force us to draw another conclusion.

First frustrated propaganda

In the days after the party, we raced against time to implement the “Scotty Promotions.” David Sachs, Luke Nosek, and I thought of a publicity stunt, planning to let “Scotty” use the PayPal application on a handheld computer at an upcoming press conference to send random selections from the Internet The recipient distributes $1 million. We believe that the media will publish this news one after another. In the next few weeks, many netizens across the United States will be eagerly looking forward to an email from “Scotty” telling them that there is a cash on the PayPal website. Waiting to be received. I will use the online direct mail campaign to distribute notices from “Scotty” so that we can use the new spokesperson to drive tens of thousands of people to visit our website.

The event was held about a week later and we booked the luxurious Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco. Our public relations agency started calling the media to attract their attention. The press release drafted by David Sachs and I used many fashionable new words popular in Internet companies:

PayPal.com invited James Doohan, the famous actor of Scotty in “Star Trek”, as the company’s official spokesperson.

“My entire career has been sending people to aliens.” James Doohan quipped, “But this is the first time I send money via radio waves!”

After describing the cutting-edge technology of PayPal.com, James Doohan also emphasized its simplicity and ease of use…Scotty explored the frontiers of space, while James Doohan and PayPal.com announced the wireless communication between individuals Xinjiang domain of payment. 6

This trick is a gimmick and seems foolproof. We are a promising Internet company with celebrity endorsements. We have planned an eye-catching product display and prepared enough equipment for this grand display. The media will definitely be interested in this, and there seems to be nothing wrong. However, this confidence only lasted until “Scotty” landed in Palo Alto by plane.

James Doohan looked very energetic-of course based on his age. When David Sachs proposed to let Doohan be the spokesperson of PayPal in a brainstorming session, no one had ever thought that he was already in his 80s.

Although James Doohan is very happy to accept the new role of corporate image spokesperson, but he knows little about the Internet, handheld computers, encryption and PayPal. When he arrived at our office and Jennifer tried to explain to him the services provided by our company, this problem became more and more obvious. He was very friendly and handed out Scotty refrigerator magnets with his autograph to our staff. It was then that we realized that we might encounter problems. Within 24 hours, this person will face a large number of curious reporters at a major press conference, and use a handheld computer to send $1 million to randomly selected users around the world, but he doesn’t even know. What can PayPal do.

Ironically, none of this actually matters.

The next day, in the luxurious rooms of the St. Francis Hotel we booked, there were only a few reporters, and the number of Confiniti staff was even four times that of them. Moreover, none of the five or six reporters present at the scene wrote articles to report on the incident after eating the appetizers. In the end, James Doohan and Peter Teal still routinely sent 1 million US dollars through the handheld computer, and Peter Teal also used this opportunity to give impromptu speeches to cheer up the employees.

But these encouraging words, and the upscale hotel decoration, can’t hide the truth-the “Scotty Promotions” we designed completely failed. For a startup that fully believes that it has the potential to change the world, failure is not a welcome experience.

Although PayPal has the potential to comprehensively reform the global financial system, before we can convey a simple and clear message to everyone, telling them how to use it in daily life, whether it is our future vision or the stars from “Star Trek” No spokesperson can help us win the kind of public attention we want.

Together with my frustrated colleagues, I walked slowly out of the red-brown hotel lobby and went outside to feel the cold outdoor air in San Francisco. This is just a small setback, but after hearing Peter’s speech, I realized for the first time that our road to “ruling the world” will be very long.