BLACKMAILING: The real estate agent tried to trick me
I was thrilled. Microsoft bought my software startup for more than $200,000,000 and offered to keep me in charge.
Initially, we were 3 geeks who chose to quit their second year at Stanford and work on an idea I had. The theory was easy to understand: Many travelers waste a lot of time googling the best destinations, most sought-after attractions, hours of operations, prices, how busy it is, etc. I created software that combined data from multiple sources that allowed me to display all of the above in real-time. Together, the 3 of us worked to perfect the application, and 6 months ago, we were happy with the final version. I presented the program to 3 representatives of Microsoft, and they liked it, even though these days the company’s general direction was different. My 2 friends elected to take $50,000,000 each and leave, while my share as the main guy was about $100,000,000.
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I, Evan, grew up in a small apartment in New York. My father was a factory worker, and Mom supplanted his salary as a part-time worker at Walmart. The total income could barely cover all our expenses during good times, and we got into debt each time Dad or Mom became sick. I couldn’t remember ever getting NEW presents. On my birthdays and holidays, I usually got used stuff: A sweater that was too small for my cousin, a fire truck toy that nobody else wanted, etc.
As a child, I vowed to become successful and not be poor. I invested all my energy in studying and rarely went out to play with classmates or the few friends I had. I loved to read, mostly biographies of famous people. In the beginning, I focused on political and military figures, but later, I became fascinated with the lives of inventors. Edison and Ford were high on my list until I began reading about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. My dream was to be just like them: Conquer the world with an invention that an average person can use.
With straight-A scores, I got accepted to Stanford on a full scholarship. I met Aaron and Jay in our freshman year. By then, the idea of a total travel package had already existed in my mind, although I just started thinking about ways to create it. One evening, I sat with my friends and talked about it. After an hour of explaining and persuading, they agreed it was a good idea. For 6 months we searched for resources and crossed the results, and the fruits of our work began showing. However, doing this big project took too much of our time. I was the first to suggest we quit the university. The other two were less convinced it was a good idea: After all, our software was not ready yet, and even if it was, there was no guarantee people would use or buy it. Only in our 2nd year we agreed it was time to sink or swim. Jay’s parents threatened to disown him if he quit school, and only after a lengthy speech, I was successful in convincing them to let him leave school on a trial basis for a year.
For an additional 2.5 years, we gathered the necessary tools and combined them all together. We checked our program against other available travel apps and there was no comparison. Ours was by far the fastest, most detailed, and importantly- the most reliable.