The Last Network - Chapter 27
Without America
Rabbit weighed the situation. This was a moment where he had to decide if he should listen to the voice inside him or to his people. The voice told him to own America. His people all said to stick to what’s working. Don’t fuck up a good thing.
Without America they would do well for a while, but then get eaten alive.
First, Peared would be left out of the conversation. Whenever anyone talked about Consumer Teleportation, a category that he had invented, they would mention Thorn and the Valley’s babies and not his. If they did get mentioned, it would be as an early company that never caught on. It wouldn’t matter how big Peared was, how fast it was growing overseas. If Peared was not on the lips of Americans, then it didn’t exist.
He could get past that if it wasn’t for the second factor, the network effect. Slowly but surely those cooler, more buzzed about companies would start to creep into his markets. It would start with the expats in America. Thirteen percent of the US population was born outside the country. That’s forty million people. They set trends for people back home. If expats aren’t using Peared, they’ll be using its new competitors, Together and Rizon. That means friends and family back home will start using them too. Slowly but surely, he’ll lose India, Colombia, the Philippines, and so on. At some point, they’ll lose critical mass and then the bottom will fall out. Look at Orkut, Friendster, and hi5. All gone and replaced by the Valley’s baby FriendZone.
There was nowhere on earth he could hide from the libertarian spazzfucks. If they got a toehold, they’d drain him slowly and watch him fade into oblivion. His instincts said make them bleed early and they’ll run. While the Valley had all the money in the world, they didn’t throw good after bad. If he took Together and Rizon out, the VCs would move on and find an easier market to attack.
They could go privatize zucchini for all he cared; Rabbit just wanted them off his lawn.
Fucking Together. Thorn’s startup was really sticking the needle in his eye. First, they hired Frank, then they took their name from his tagline. Bastards. Today, he had heard they were forming the Teleportation Industry Alliance. Over a hundred million people were traveling together with Peared. Did Rabbit get invited as a founding member? Nope, and he shouldn’t expect to, either. Ever. At least he knew what he was getting from Thorn. They were going to co-opt him, then crush him.
Frank was kind enough to forward a couple articles this morning. Thorn Capital had announced an $80 million investment in a new teleportation startup called Together. Kleiner, the grandparent of the Valley had led a $120 million round into another one called Rizon. Both were valued at over $500 million and neither had shipped a product yet.
He didn’t get it. Do insiders really command that sort of premium? Was Rabbit really that toxic? It was a miscalculation on their part. If they were stupid in that way, then they could be stupid in plenty of other ways.
In the end, he was going to trust his gut.
Kendra and Paolo had drawn up a couple scenarios for owning the US. It was clear they were trying to scare him off the idea, but they were protecting their revenue streams. If he sold to the Valley, they got shit. If he plowed everything overseas into the US, they’d suffer too. For them, the right play was to get as big and rich as possible overseas and then move on once Peared started to stall out. That was the problem with the gunslinger lifestyle. Have gun, will travel, but most of all live to see another day.
Rabbit wasn’t in this to see another day. He was in this to show everyone just what he was capable of. It had started all the way back in Menonaqua with his father. That led him to LA, Frank Meyers, and ultimately proving the city of Angels wrong, but now the fucks from up north wanted in on the action.
He’d have to prove them wrong too.