Startup.com Page #3

Someone requests

a building plan on-Line.

It gets uploaded to our server.

They give us $50

and they've got it on CD rom.

Having said that,

that's not the business we're into.

No, but it is a business,

and part of what we can do.

Stuff doesn't change.

Like tom goes into this story...

about digital cameras

In the basement of

someplace in Springfield.

It's got nothing to f***ing do

with our business.

And it's like I could talk

about some retail business...

in Virginia that I think...

It doesn't matter

that it's like neat...

or it occurred to him

when he was in Springfield.

It makes us look unfocused,

and he does it again and again.

What the f***!

F***!

Swear to god, the business

will fail if he does that.

Tom, Kaleil. We need to have a

strategy discussion immediately.

I don't care if I miss

the first data meeting

And you miss the rest of the day,

Because we're giving different

messages to different people,

And we can't do that.

We can't have a meeting

with strong capital

Where we give one message...

and you walk in the room

and say, "I disagree, I disagree.

This is the other way

we're gonna do it".

It's really, really

painful for me...

to, to try to make this

successful...

when I feel like I have

to fight at each juncture...

every single day

on the same issues, man!

Please call me

as soon as you can on my cellular.

I just want to kind of

open it up to discussion.

Maybe I feel more strongly

about it than... Than other folks.

And maybe... You know, maybe

there's, uh... - When I sat there,

I wasn't thinking, "oh, here's a

V.C. That we want to impress".

I was thinking,

"here's someone who's on our team,

"Who's funded us,

"Who wants to have

a discussion about our strategy,

And we should play devil's

advocate in both directions and..."

We should all trust...

that any one of us will represent

a vision of the business...

that will be seconded, and

"thirded," and fourth and fifth...

by other people on the team

even if we don't really know.

Even if the part

that we're seconding is,

"We're exploring that.

That's something we're debating".

Even if it's like,

"we're really excited about this".

Even if "this"

might change later.

Then we'll all change at once

And have a unified

story while we're changing.

But because we're...

The act of

the contradicting each other...

is so much bigger...

than actually what the substance

of the conversation is,

'Cause that's

what they're looking for.

They're looking for it from day

one. - I would agree. But again,

We were in our confrontation

and debate space.

We should never be

in that space in front of anybody.

- He's the lead investor in this company.

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