The Last Network - Chapter 26
Harder, Better
Paolo put his phone down. That could have gone worse. Rabbit could have asked him to invent real teleportation. Instead, he asked to make Peared an overnight success in the US. That would not be easy. In fact, he wasn’t sure if Peared was going to be a success here period. They were at a disadvantage in America. They didn’t have all the tools in their box. Em’s launch campaign had failed. Customer protections existed. The tech press still hated them. Everyone was looking for the next boogieman. They needed to creep up on that country, not storm the gates.
He had tried arguing this with Rabbit. Peared was growing like crazy in Asia and South America. After briefly crossing into profitability, Paolo needed to staff up and Peared had gone back in the red. Meanwhile in LA, Sonny was having trouble keeping the service online. He was spinning up new servers left and right. His developers were rewriting code that didn’t scale. It was all hands on deck, yet that mad man needed more.
As much as Paolo liked to think he didn’t need Kendra, this was one of those times when she was invaluable. He went upstairs and was waved into her office by Kendra’s Chief of Staff. The room was sparse, even by Valley standards. Kendra was nowhere to be seen. He paused, his feet deep in white shag carpeting, his eyes looking at an empty glass desk. Behind it was a high-backed white leather chair facing out the window. Kendra was nowhere to be seen.
“Paolo, what’s the matter?” A voice called out from the chair, followed by the sound of nails on a glass touch screen.
“What makes you think there’s a problem?”
“You used to come by just to say hello. Now you never do. Although it wouldn’t kill you to.” Kendra spun the chair around. She was dressed in all black, her blonde hair pulled back.
“Sorry Kendra. It’s Rabbit.”
“Of course, it’s Rabbit. Pull up a stump and tell me what the problem is?”
Paolo grabbed one of the three smooth tree trunks from the side of her office, placed it in front of her desk and took a seat. “He needs us to own America ASAP.”
“Does he now?” she asked.
“That’s the latest directive.”
“He’s feeling the heat. Peter Thorn is coming for him, which means he’s coming for us too.”
Paolo drummed his hands on the wood between his legs. “Fuck.”
“Yup, fuck.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We do what we always do, figure out how to make money. If you make money, all your other problems are secondary or solvable.”
“You know my first rule Kendra.”
She spun her chair in slow rotations and recited his mantra. “Find your hits and ride them into the ground.”
“America is not a hit. It’s not even a deep cut on the album.”
“No, and it’s not a place I want us fighting for right now. We are at a severe disadvantage there.” Her fingers grabbed the glass desk and brought her chair to a sudden halt. “What do you want to do?”
“I’d like to keep blowing out the markets that are working. Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, India, etc. There’s over two billion people right there. Last month we had eighty million of them. This month we have a hundred million. In another month I’ll have 130. Right now, we need to hold the wheel steady while we press the gas harder.”
“Was this the first time Rabbit asked to own America?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” She leaned back. “That gives us time. Remember, we don’t get in dick measuring contests. We don’t do it with our clients and we don’t do it on behalf of our clients. Do this, squeeze what’s working harder. Test more aggressive tactics. Get some really deep hooks into people. If someone is coming for Peared, I want us to have a wide moat around our markets. As for America, I’ll give you a couple of our major account strategists to help. Who do you like working with?”
“The Sams.”
“Guy Sam is free. Girl Sam is on Netflix, but I can pull her. They are going to work with you on a proposal for Rabbit. They’ll cost out what it would require to break through in the US. We can’t use FriendZone rules, so it will cost more. It will be a such big number that Rabbit won’t have second thoughts, he’ll have third thoughts. In the meantime, squeeze margins. Plow everything into growth. I want to create a short-term cash crunch so that he feels poor and backs off the US.”
“Why are we acting against our client?” Paolo asked.
“Because he’s thinking with the wrong organ. No one fucks Peter Thorn. Work with the Sams on something painful, but that could succeed. I think Rabbit will back down once he cools off, but if he doesn’t, whatever we sell him on needs to have a chance of working. Did he define owning America?”
“No.”
“Good. That’s more room to maneuver. Draw up cases for one, ten, and twenty-five million users. How’s everything else, Paolo?”
“Everything else? There’s nothing else Kendra. You know that.”
“Find something else. Stop spending your weekends climbing rocks. You’re a good-looking guy. Get out there and meet someone. The job won’t save you. Like I said earlier, come by sometime just to say hi.”
“Thanks.”