Week 3 EOC: Silicon Valley Episode 3 Rights and Wrongs

Watching Silicon Valley this week, there are a bunch of things what went wrong throughout the episode, but the boys at Pied Piper did a few things write. Throughout the industry it seems like in order to be huge in Silicon Valley you need to have an equal sized or even larger ego. The since of importance that come off characters like Gavin Belson and Erlich Bachman is astonishing, but I’m sure that is the point. Another issue that came up was that the Pied Piper name was already registered with another company, so Richard still couldn’t cash the check that Peter Gregory wrote to Pied Piper. Erlich was right when he said that a name defines a company, although he did say it needs to be something you can say as one climaxes during coitus (debatable point). When Richard goes out to make sure that the Original Pied Piper doesn’t have any issues with the new company using the same name, Richard didn’t have the agreement signed on a legal document. As the ancient Chinese proverb states, “The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory” and ”… if you contract … company …, that firm must comply or face legal consequences.” (9)  While Richard was trying to get the rights to the name, the rest of the company was brainstorming ideas for a different name. “Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren’t able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.” (261) These words from Tony Hsieh ring true in this case as solving a problem needs a creative solution. The final lesson from this episode, was not to buy anything extra, like a margarita machine, without the proper funds.