Picking up right where we left off last week, the gang was
at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference receiving an apology by one of the
representatives and getting the information that they were moved to the finals
of the conference. It’s always good to have a lawyer to insure that any damages
that were not going to affect the outcome of the contest or influence investors
to perceive Pied Piper negatively. “You’ll
have to pay for any legal advice, but entering into a bad … agreement can be a
lot more expensive (and stressful) than a lawyer’s fees.” (108) The people
at Hooli did a great job at standing out from the crowd and even made use of the
common saying that “Size Matters.” That may have been ill advised, but it was
well received. It was after the Nucleus presentation that many of the members
of the Pied Piper team got nervous. Gilfoyle and Dinesh try jumping ship and
joining Kerpy and the CEO told them that Kerpy was about to go broke and he
asked if Pied Piper might be hiring. Jared gets it in his head that Pied Piper
needs to “pivot” their priorities and maybe figure out what the business could
do instead of what they’ve already been doing. “The goal is to balance their needs and priorities as effectively as
possible,” (63) Jared proceeds to survey strangers, looking and sounding
more deranged each time, and eventually gets detained by police when he
appeared to be interested in kidnapping a child. Erlich tries to get inside
Gavin’s head by interrupting an interview by saying that some made up stories
had no base in truth, but if they were it would be pretty damning for Hooli.
The physical toll of the presentation is nearly killing Richard, but when the
group gets together they end up brainstorming about some nonsense and Richard
is inspired to change the program. “…when
creativity is the top priority—during new-product brainstorming, for
instance—free-rein management would probably work best.” (261) After feverishly working all night, Richard
pulls it off and Pied Piper is better than ever. They blow the competition away
at the conference.
