Other People's Money podcast
Which is why she was hoping that the venture capitalist would just leave her alone. He wasn’t a paying customer, he wasn’t a fellow artist — he wanted to buy her, and he was thirty years too late.Link, Escape Pod podcast feed“You know, I pitched you guys in 1999. On Sand Hill Road. One of the founding partners. Kleiner, I think. The guy ate a salad all through my slide-deck. When I was done, he wiped his mouth, looked over my shoulder, and told me he didn’t think I’d scale. That was it. He didn’t even pick up my business card. When I looked back as I was going out the door, I saw his sweep it into the trash with the wrapper from his sandwich.”
The VC — young, with the waxy, sweaty look of someone who ate a lot of GM yogurt to try to patch his biochemistry — shook his head. “That wasn’t us. We’re a franchise — based here in LA. I just opened up the Inglewood branch. But I can see how that would have soured you on us. Did you ever get your VC?”
See also: Other People's Money: My Forbes story on the future of work
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Being a huge sci-fi fan, I had never actually read any of Cory's fiction because I was sure it was going to be something like half a story and half "how will this and that be on the future" crap, which is exactly what happened. Nowadays I think only Gibson could pull that one of, even though he actually didn't go to the future on the last novel, which was even better. Shame though, 'cause I really like Cory's posts. Anyone knows if he has a good story that doesn't rely on Google, web 2.0 and whatnot?
thanks!
Great story! I appreciate the mind-bending and perspective-shifting that I must do to wrap my head around your work, Cory.
One problem, though - the link's busted. There's an extra " at the end of the link string.
Thanks, Lautaylo! Just fixed the link.
@ Hoke: Off the top of my head, Cory's "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (Now Is The Best Time of Your Life)" is more about mechas, cyborgs, transhumanism, the (unnecessary) clash between cultural and ecological conservation, post-apocalypse... and Romeo & Juliet-style teenage love. Can you really make a compelling case for why you don't read an author because of net extrapolation on the basis of a single story written precisely for a Business 2.0 theme? Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophesy there.
@ License: I didn't mean to be rude, I actually come to this site for Cory's posts, and I tried reading other stories before this one, of course. Also I'm not saying they are bad or anything, for he is a good writer. It's just not in my alley, and even though writers I love like Clifford Simak and Edmund Cooper sometimes tries predictions, they are much more story-oriented, and not the other way around. I don't know if I can make myself clear on this, but I also don't like when art is self-explanatory. What I mean is that these stories all have some sort of message, or meaning or agenda. And I usually agree with Cory on most things, but I prefer some degree of ambiguity on literature, so that the story doesn't end on itself. When someone is trying to make a case of something, you read it, and, despite if you agree or not, it's over, not open to interpretation or literary debate -- except by the "I agree" and "I disagree" party.
Anyway, I didn't mean to be a jerk... I just thought it was really bad, which shouldn't offend anyone, least of whom himself.
cheers