one single thing. We’ve got a bunch of projects in mind. We’ve decided, rather than doing them piecemeal over however long that would take, let’s get the funding and deliver them all right away.’
Leib’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then he glanced at Andrei, who hadn’t said a word since shaking his hand. ‘How old are you?’ he said.
‘Is that material?’ asked Andrei.
‘Is it immaterial?’ said Leib. ‘You’re the CEO of this company and you’re asking me to invest. I’d like to get some sense of how much experience you have.’
‘I’m twenty-three,’ said Andrei.
‘And according to what I’ve just heard, you own fifty-eight per cent of this company?’
Chris reached towards the slide deck in front of Leib. ‘The full share structure’s in the presentation—’
‘That’s right,’ said Andrei.
‘Well,’ said Leib, ‘the first thing I should say is, congratulations. I mean that. From what I know, from the buzz, from what you’ve just shown me, you’ve built an extraordinary business in … how long is it?’
‘Three years.’
‘Extraordinary,’ said Leib.
‘Thank you,’ said Andrei.
Leib sat back in his chair, hands behind his head. ‘Andrei, what are you trying to do with this thing? What’s the vision?’
‘Deep Connectedness, Mr Leib.’
‘I’ve heard that you use that term. What does it mean?’
‘It means giving people a way to come together wherever they are on the globe. It means creating the most efficient way for them to find others who share their interests, create a connection, share their knowledge. I want to give people the means to come out of their circle of friends, out of their neighbourhoods, out of their communities and find people they would never have found before. That’s the new world, Mr Leib. Clusters of people with shared values, shared ideas, wherever they are on our planet.’
‘Your website does a lot more than that. Why don’t you just post a list of names for people to contact?’
‘People don’t respond to that.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I tried it.’
Leib suppressed a smile. There was a sense of certainty about the 23-year-old that chimed with what Leib had read in the newspaper reports of him. He was blunt, but Leib guessed he was honest. It was obvious he didn’t have much in the way of social skills, but then when had he ever met a great programmer who did? Leib would have been worried if he’d turned out all smiley.
‘And the model of advertising you use? Controversial, isn’t it?’
Chris grinned. ‘Anything revolutionary is controversial.’
‘The way you get people to buy stuff …’
‘It’s not my role to say what forms Deep Connectedness can take,’ said Andrei. ‘It’s not my role to tell the world what it can do. My role is to help the world do what it wants to do most efficiently.’
‘Is that how you see it?’ asked Leib.
‘What other way is there to see it?’
‘Didn’t I hear there was a district attorney investigating to see if she could stop what you’re doing?’ Leib had had his staffers put together a summary of everything in the public domain about the business ahead of the meeting, and knew exactly what the Santa Clara district attorney had threatened.
‘Old news,’ said Chris. ‘She’s backed off.’
‘Sure, but my question is, how sustainable is this?’
‘That’s a judgement, Mr Leib,’ said Andrei. ‘At present that’s not quantifiable.’
‘But you’re asking me to judge.’
‘With respect, sir, that’s your job, isn’t it? Isn’t that what venture capital firms do. You weigh risk and allocate funds, correct?’
Leib smiled. ‘That’s what I do.’
‘Then I guess that’s what you’re going to need to do here.’
Chris pulled a tablet computer out of his bag. He swiped it and quickly typed a few letters, then slid the tablet across the tabletop to Leib. ‘We thought you might want to get an experience of the functionality.’
The venture capitalist glanced down at the screen and found himself looking at someone’s home page. A picture showed a slim, fortyish man on a riverbank with a fishing rod in his hands. Another showed the same man holding up what must have been at least a fifty pound salmon.
‘Who’s this?’ asked Leib.
‘Just someone,’ said Chris. ‘He’s kind of a salmon enthusiast like you are. We set up an account in your name and put your interest as salmon fishing. He’s obviously seen your profile and thinks it might be cool to talk.’
‘My profile?’ said Leib sharply.
‘The one we created. It’s all public knowledge. We just took a few facts off your profile on the LRB website.’