The Social Code

by Sadie Hayes

  Adam took a deep breath. He was conscious of how much he was talking and worried that Lisa would lose interest. But she was still looking at him intently.

  “Anyway, within a few days the niceness stopped and The Family started to ignore Amelia and me. They weren’t mean; they just ignored us. They didn’t buy us new clothes, didn’t offer to help with anything. We found out later that the father, Michael Dawson, was an insurance salesman with a serious online gambling problem. He had lost a lot of money. They had taken us in because it was a huge tax break that essentially offset his gambling debts.”

  Lisa leaned forward and held his hands. “I’m sorry.”

  “They didn’t actually want us. That first Christmas, the Dawsons bought a used computer. The kids were thrilled but quickly started fighting over it, and so the parents made a schedule that dictated who got to use the computer and when. Naturally, Amelia and I weren’t included.” Adam felt the bitterness behind his voice and wondered if Lisa could sense it. “Anyway, that enthusiasm lasted for about a month before they got bored and bought an Xbox instead. So, Amelia started using the computer. She loved it. She got totally addicted. She’d come home from school and stay up all night in front of it. No one knew what she was doing, and no one really cared as long as she stayed out of the way.”

  Adam exhaled, steeling himself for the next part of the story.

  “Two years later, the oldest Dawson son got in a big fight with his parents for bombing the SAT. They were screaming at each other in the kitchen, Mrs. Dawson crying that he’d never get into college. They didn’t have much money and had pinned all their hopes on their kids. Finally, Mr. Dawson dragged his son to the computer and told him to pull up his score. He thought his son was lying so he wouldn’t have to go to college. Amelia was at the computer and they told her to log off. Jacob pulled up the score report and, sure enough, he’d gotten a 1280 out of 2400. They were still screaming at each other and Amelia was standing there, wanting it to stop—she always hated yelling—so she said, quietly, that she could change it, if they wanted.”

  “She could change it? But SAT scores are, like, impossible to access.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s what everyone thought. Mr. Dawson laughed in her face. But the son knew that Amelia was really smart and was always on the computer and he said they should give her a shot. So Amelia hacked into the Web site right then and there and showed them. She changed his score to an 1850.”

  “That’s incredible!” Lisa’s eyes were wide. “Did he end up going to college?”

  “Yeah. The guidance counselor flipped, she was so excited. His grades still sucked, but he got into Indiana State and left the next year.”

  “Wow,” Lisa said. “All because of Amelia.”

  “My sister is like a superhero; she can see the matrix. Firewalls, password locks … every type of security setting is just another puzzle for her to solve.”

  “The Dawsons must have been ecstatic.”

  “After that, they started paying a lot more attention to Amelia. Amelia was so sweet and innocent—she just wanted to help and be noticed and feel appreciated, you know? One day Mr. Dawson asked her if she could hack into his company’s system and increase his sales figures, said he was afraid he was going to lose his job and just needed a little boost. He said he didn’t have to be the top salesperson or anything, just needed a higher figure. But he was paid on commission, so he was essentially asking Amelia to help him embezzle money. Then a few months later, he directed Amelia to the bank and had her move money out of the company’s bank account into another account. He made up some story about holding accounts for future sales or something.”

  “Mr. Dawson sounds like a total sketchball. Amelia went along with everything?”

  “I love my sister, but she’s naïve. She only ever sees the good in people. So she helped Mr. Dawson and spent months stealing money for him. Amelia didn’t think much about it until a year later when she read an article in the newspaper about a ‘mystery hacker.’ The Indiana state attorney general was obsessively tracking some mastermind thief who stole money from the State Insurance Bureau. When Amelia realized that she was the mastermind, she freaked out. She came to me, unsure about what to do. I told her just to stop, to tell Mr. Dawson that they changed the security codes and she couldn’t hack in anymore. But being Amelia, she insisted on telling the authorities the truth.”

  “Oh my God. What happened?”

  “Well, she called the police and told them everything. And the next week, they arrested Michael Dawson and he was sentenced to six years in white-collar prison. They gave Amelia the lightest sentence possible, but she spent three months in a juvenile detention center. That was the only time we’ve ever been separated.”

  Adam paused.

  “Obviously, we couldn’t live with the Dawsons anymore. Part of the deal Amelia struck involved our being placed in another foster home. So I was moved to Michigan and lived there until Amelia could join me. The authorities were really good about keeping our whereabouts a secret from the Dawsons. But at the beginning of this summer, right after we started working at the incubator, we got a phone call from Jacob, the older son. They found us, I guess because of the Doreye Web site. Mr. Dawson is about to be released from prison on good behavior, and they’re saying we ‘owe’ them for ruining The Family. I’ve been getting e-mails and phone calls all summer trying to blackmail us into embezzling money for them again.”

  “But how can they blackmail you? What have they got against you?” Lisa asked.

  “I don’t know,” Adam lied, looking down at his hands. “But these people are crazy. They’ll do anything.”

  “Adam, you have to go to the police.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not? You haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “But everything is going so well right now; I don’t want to screw things up by getting involved in some investigation. Can you imagine how bad the press would be for Doreye? I just need them to go away, and I don’t know how to make them stop calling.”

  He looked down at his shaking hands. Lisa reached out and clasped them hard between hers. “I know you’ll do the right thing, Adam. And I’m really glad you told me. Maybe it’ll be better now that you’ve gotten it off your chest. It’s hard keeping secrets.”

  He looked up at her beautiful smile and warm eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “It is.” He smiled, then leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers in a deep kiss. He started to pull her toward the bed, but she stopped him, glancing at the clock on her radio alarm. “I’ve got to get to a lunch on campus.”

  “That’s okay,” Adam said, twirling one of her curls on his finger and smiling at her. “We’ll pick this up again later. Thanks for being here for me.”

  “Of course. I know you’ll figure things out.”

  Adam gave her one last kiss, and then crept out of the room and down the back staircase, feeling like an enormous weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

  29

  Tea for Two

  Amelia was pacing back and forth in the office, biting her fingernails. This was not good, not good at all.

  She had just read the article posted on TechCrunch and was freaking out about how Adam would react to the last paragraph. She hadn’t talked to him yet today, and he still wasn’t in the office. He must have read it, and now he was avoiding her.

  She was furious. How could they have written such a thing? Neither she nor Roger had said anything to imply Adam wasn’t up for the job. It was total fiction, and it would hurt Adam deeply. Didn’t they have any respect for his feelings? Didn’t it occur to them how writing something like that would affect her relationship with Adam?

  This was just one more reason why she hadn’t wanted to get involved in a start-up.

  “Is everything okay?”

  Amelia jumped. Sundeep was standing in the doorway. He must have seen her pacing.

  “No!” she couldn’t help exclaiming. “No, it’s not okay at all! The
TechCrunch article—I just—” She couldn’t find the words.

  “I know, it was awesome! They practically called you the new star of Silicon Valley. I feel like I should be collecting your autograph.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “Did you read what they said about Adam? They said Roger’s probably going to kick him out. I never said that!”

  “Aw, it wasn’t that bad.” He stepped forward and touched her arm. “Want to have some tea?”

  She stood there for a second and sighed deeply. Then she conceded. “Yeah, okay.”

  She sat at the table in the incubator kitchen while Sundeep took out two mugs. “Earl Grey? English breakfast? Peppermint?”

  “Peppermint,” she said. “With two packs of sugar.”

  He prepared the tea and brought it to her, along with a plate of sugar cookies.

  “Thanks.” She smiled up at him sheepishly.

  “It’s nothing.”

  They sat in silence, sipping their tea.

  “You’re really close to Adam, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Amelia said, breaking off a piece of cookie. “We’re twins. We’ve always been together. And without our parents, we were kind of all we ever had.”

  “No wonder.”

  “No wonder what?”

  “That you feel so protective of him. You’re really lucky to have him.”

  In all her life, she didn’t remember anyone ever telling her she was lucky. “You’re right,” she said, smiling. “I am really lucky.”

  She took a small bite of the cookie. “Do you have siblings?” she asked, sipping her tea.

  “An older sister. She’s back in India, married and having babies. Do you want to see?”

  He pulled out his iPhone and showed her photos of his nieces and nephews. “This is Sonal and her brother Raj. She’s just like her mother: totally bossy. But Raj keeps up with her.”

  Amelia giggled at their expressions. “They are so cute! Look at his cheeks!”

  “Right? Look at this one: Sonal made him play dress-up.” He showed her a picture of a little curly-haired Indian boy in an oversized dress and pearl necklace, glaring angrily at the camera.

  Sundeep smiled at the iPhone, and then up at Amelia. “Anyway, I’m a very proud uncle, if you couldn’t tell.”

  “Do you visit India often?”

  Suddenly, Sundeep’s face darkened.

  “I should get back to work,” he said, clearing his throat.

  “What’s wrong?” Amelia asked.

  He stood up from the table. “Nothing. I just remembered that I have a lot to do today.”

  Amelia watched in confusion as Sundeep carried his mug over to the sink.

  “Sundeep, I’m sorry if I—”

  “There’s no apology necessary,” Sundeep said. He offered up an awkward smile. “Congratulations again on your wonderful article.”

  30

  PowerPoint and Shoot

  T.J. arrived at his father’s office thirty minutes early, dressed in a suit and tie. He knew it wasn’t necessary, but he wanted to demonstrate that he was serious—and should be taken seriously.

  He had been up until four o’clock in the morning working on the pitch deck, checking the numbers and making sure that all of the diagrams were properly aligned and up to date. He had put a lot of time into it, but the hours had flown by. Whenever he was working in Excel or PowerPoint, he felt like a machine, and he loved it. He knew so many keyboard shortcuts, and he loved how with five little keystrokes he could launch a major data analysis or create a perfectly aligned org chart.

  It was nerdy, he admitted, but there was something gratifying about seeing your ideas communicated in a neat, efficient form that could be presented to investors.

  One of his father’s assistants, Marie, directed him to the bench outside his father’s office, and he flipped through his pitch deck, reviewing his notes.

  * * *

  Sales Strategy

  • Direct traffic to www.Doreye.com via social-mobile marketing

  – Group coupons, target savvy college students as early adopters

  – Partnerships with major device manufacturers for integration

  • Begin a subscription service with ARPU @ $7.00-$9.50 per month (across different tiers, including premium*)

  – Customer acquisition cost b/w $25-$35

  – Lifetime Revenue per user over $300 (@ 4%-6% monthly churn)

  • Partner with iOS (Apple) and Android (Google)

  • Year 1: Focus on core U.S. market

  • Year 2: Expand to select countries in EMEA and China

  • Year 3: Expand to remaining EMEA and Asia

  • Year 4: Rest of World

  *Premium service includes 24-hour customer service and “super functionality”

  * * *

  * * *

  The “Pain Point”

  • The average American interacts with 16 devices per day (2011 “State of Electronics” by Nielsen)

  • Splitting attention across devices wastes up to 10 minutes per day (61 hours, or 2.5 days per year!)

  – This will increase, not decrease, over time

  • Using difference devices requires learning different “languages” in order to function.

  – This leads to intellectual fatigue and confusion

  – This is a significant barrier to device acquisition

  The world is becoming more, not less, complicated

  * * *

  T.J. especially liked the last slide. He thought his name above “President & CEO” just felt … right. He knew his father would ask how he intended to fill in all the “TBD” slots, and he was prepared: There were several promising candidates for the COO and CFO roles in his fraternity alumni pool. And he felt confident that, via Amelia’s network in the computer science department, they could recruit talented engineers, especially after the nod from TechCrunch.

  T.J. heard Marie’s voice on speakerphone in Ted’s office. “Jay Resnick on line one for you. Can you take it?”

  “Sure thing, patch him through,” Ted said. “Jay! How are you, buddy?”

  T.J. couldn’t help but listen in.

  “Yeah, it’s been a tough couple of months, but we’ll recover. The Aleister Corporation hasn’t said no officially, they just want to wait until the press dies down and the investigation is settled. I have confidence we’ll be back at the deal by quarter two of next year.… Of course I know who found the problem. No, if we charged her for hacking they’d discover everything. As it is, they only know about the database.… Of course I’m going to take her down; I can’t let this go. Listen, can you keep your mouth shut?… Okay, good. She’s got a new company, thinks she’s going to be a hotshot Silicon Valley Zuckerberg type. Frankly, she probably could; she’s smart as hell. But I’m going to buy the company and destroy it. Won’t ruin my rep, I’m doing it through a shell company.… No, I’m putting T.J. in as CEO.… Who cares? It’ll give him something to do and me a channel to work through. You want in? Guarantee you’ll lose your money.… Haha, yeah, okay. Gotta run. See you on the course Saturday?… Great.”

  T.J.’s jaw dropped. Had his father really just said what he thought he’d said? He was looking to buy Doreye just to bring it down? And he was putting T.J. in as CEO because he thought he’d be a perfect puppet for its destruction? Didn’t he care that T.J.’s reputation would be ruined if he was at the helm when Doreye went down? Didn’t he care that Doreye was a good product that could make a lot of money and help a lot of people?

  But T.J. didn’t have time to dwell on it. His father was calling him into the office.

  “Morning, son. You’re looking sharp. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for me.”

  T.J. forced a smile and began walking Ted through the presentation. He covered the basics on the slides but didn’t go into any of the details as he had planned. What was the point? At the end of the presentation, Ted patted him on the shoulder.

  “T.J., this is excellent. I think you’ve
got what it takes to be CEO, and after I buy Doreye, it’s the first move I’m making.”

  “That’s great, Dad. Really exciting.”

  “I want us to work closely together on this, but I don’t want the public to perceive any sort of conflict of interest, you know? I’m worried people might get the wrong idea if they see the investor’s son running the business. So I’ve set up a shell company, Proximate Investments, which will be the investor of record, so that my name stays out of it. But rest assured, you’ll still have me for anything you need.”

  T.J. nodded blankly at his father. He couldn’t believe how easily his father was lying to his face.

  31

  Deal or No Deal

  “Is it true?” Adam stormed into Roger’s office. “Are you going to kick me out?”

  “Of course it isn’t true,” Roger said. “It’s journalism, Adam. They needed something juicy to finish off their piece. Rule number one in press relations: Don’t take anything personally.”

  “But why didn’t you bring me to the meeting? I’m the head of business development!”

  “You weren’t here, Adam, and the meeting came on immediately. And, frankly, as the head of business development, you ought to recognize that Amelia is our star, and her image and her story will draw people to the product.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that a brilliant female engineer on need-based scholarship at Stanford is a fantastic Cinderella story. You can’t pay for that kind of PR. People will latch on to her journey and will want to use the product to support her.”

  “But I’m a need-based scholarship kid at Stanford, too. Why can’t I be the face? Amelia doesn’t want it.”

  Roger looked over the top of his glasses at Adam disapprovingly. “One: That attitude will never make you the face of anything. Being the face can never be the goal. Two: Prove yourself first.”