Still, I Will Live As The Son-In-Law Of A Conglomerate [EN]: Chapter 21

21. 6th. California Dreamin’ (3)

“Sungmin, are you going on a picnic? Even though the West Coast is warmer than the East Coast, it’s still January. What are you lugging around in this weather?”

“You’re right, Master. You’re not planning a picnic in this weather, are you?”

“Your lips will turn blue. Why eat outside?”

After a light breakfast at the hotel buffet, I was heading into the Stanford University campus with the two of them, carrying food packed from a restaurant near the university.

“Then where are we going to eat?”

“Lunchtime is coming up soon. Wouldn’t it be nice to eat together and talk?”

Upon hearing my words, Seon Haecheol exclaimed, his mouth wide open.

“Oho… that sounds good.”

“That would be great. Business discussions often go smoother over a meal. It won’t be a burden on the students either.”

Only then did Seon Haecheol and Park Taejin change their expressions and nod.

“Right? And we should eat the most American food while we’re in America, hehe.”

After about 20 minutes, we loaded the food into the car and headed straight to the building where the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University was located. It was almost lunchtime, so the students would probably be starting to think about what to eat.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“I’m John Davidson Lee from Standard Capital. I’m here to have lunch with people who have promising business ideas.”

After handing over my business card and holding up the large plastic bag I had placed on the floor, the female employee nodded.

“You’ve come to the right place. No other university has as good output as ours.”

“So… are there any graduate students researching the internet?”

I couldn’t say their names outright.

They hadn’t even started a company yet and were still in the research phase. If I asked for them specifically, I might arouse suspicion from Seon Haecheol and Park Taejin.

“Just a moment.”

The female employee, who was flipping through documents, stopped turning the pages as if she had found something and showed it to me.

“This is a list of graduate students researching the internet.”

“Thank you. Hyung [older brother/male friend], hold this for a second.”

After handing the bag to Park Taejin, I slowly ran my finger down the paper. I stopped at a name starting with ‘J’ and checked the location of his lab.

“Thank you. Enjoy your lunch.”

At the uniquely Korean greeting, the female employee gave an awkward smile and waved her hand lightly.

***

Grumble.

“Has it already gotten this late? David, what do you want to eat?”

He took his hands off the computer keyboard and turned to the man sitting behind him, patting his stomach. Unusually, this man appeared to be Asian, possibly of Chinese descent.

“Let’s just get pizza, Jerry. We need to save time to refine the homepage.”

“Okay. Should we order a combination pizza?”

Knock knock.

Just as Jerry picked up the phone and was about to dial, he heard a knock.

“Who is it?”

He put down the phone and opened the door.

“Who are… ?”

He stopped speaking as he tried to identify the person. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a large plastic bag at eye level, and a delicious smell wafted from inside.

The man holding the bag high lowered it and smiled brightly.

“I’m here to see Jerry Yang and David Filo. Are they here?”

“I’m Jerry Yang, but…”

Unlike the bewildered Jerry, the man facing him grinned.

“How about pizza? If you haven’t had lunch, would you like to eat with us?”

***

We went into the lab and ate the food we had brought with Jerry Yang and his friend, David Filo. It took less than 20 minutes for the five burly men to devour two pizzas and all the side dishes.

“Hoo, that was good. I was going to eat pizza anyway, so the timing was perfect.”

“I thought it would be a shame to come to America and not eat American pizza. And what better way to cleanse the palate than with Coca-Cola?”

“Both are the most American foods, haha.”

As I recall, the man who came to find them also loosened the atmosphere by drinking pizza and Coke when negotiating the investment. It was a wise decision because if you immediately took them to a fancy restaurant, they might think their value was high and the negotiations could become difficult.

“Actually, I didn’t just come to eat pizza with you.”

“Ah! …What brings you here?”

I chuckled as I watched Jerry Yang, who was drinking Coca-Cola to cleanse his palate, ask me why I had come only after hearing my words. These dimwits!

“I came to talk about the internet. I asked at the office, and they told me about you. They said you have the most vision.”

Even if it was a lie, who cares? As long as the result is good, everybody’s happy.

In the meantime, the eyes of the two men, who had heard that I had come with a recommendation from the department, were sparkling.

“You seem to be very interested in the internet?”

“Of course. What could be more wonderful than navigating the sea of information?”

“That’s right. The infrastructure is poor, so the search speed is slow, but eventually, a world will come where the internet is indispensable.”

“Jerry is right. The internet, which quickly finds the information you need, will rapidly change the world.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, even though I didn’t show it, because of the solemn expressions on their faces.

“Won’t people be using the internet on the streets in the future?”

As soon as I said it casually, the two men were surprised.

“The internet on the streets?”

“…Ubiquitous?”

“Why are you so surprised? If technology advances further than it is now, I think we’ll be able to use the internet on our cell phones.”

Unlike my nonchalant attitude, Jerry Yang shook his head.

“Don’t joke, Johnny. How much more does technology have to advance to do that?”

“Jerry is right. It’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s also going to cost a lot of money. Is it even possible?”

The two didn’t know it, but the vast amount of money that IT companies would suck up and the money that speculators would provide would be the foundation for technological innovation, ahead of the New Millennium.

There would be companies like WorldCom that would go bankrupt by manipulating accounting books, but Wall Street, which would plunder the world and burst its pockets, and the US government, which needed to grow the economy, would set up a lavish feast, so all they had to do was wait.

“That’s right. It may be possible when we’re old and gray, haha.”

Old and gray, my foot. Smartphones will be completed when gray hair starts to grow sparsely.

What could I do even if the outside and the inside were different? I had to change the future only as much as it was advantageous to me, so I had to let it flow only this much.

***

In addition, I exchanged stories with them about the future information society, such as the Internet of Things, and received almost crazy looks from Park Taejin and Seon Haecheol.

It doesn’t matter. It will be realized in just two turns, and this is the place where I have to connect with promising IT prospects to make the investment a success.

I had to endure that kind of gaze because the investment would be successful only if a consensus was formed with these IT dreamers.

Now that it’s enough, I need to show them that these two people are not just graduate students, but promising seedlings.

“Do you happen to have your own website?”

I know that Yahoo was started around this time. I remember that it was made in a format similar to a phone book, but I wonder…

“We do have a website that we made, but… would you like to see it?”

“Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web…”

As I read the name of the website after seeing the screen that Jerry showed me, I clenched my fist to hold back the scream that was about to burst out. I only knew that it was created in January 1994, but I didn’t know the exact date, so I was very lucky.

“There are few registered sites or data right now, but if you enter the information you want here with the keyboard and press the enter button, you can find the closest information. Like this.”

Jerry Yang, who entered the search keyword by tapping on the computer keyboard, pressed the enter button, and the screen changed and the search results came out.

“Ooh! That’s amazing!”

Seon Haecheol, who saw it, even applauded and cheered…

“Amazing. It’s much faster and cleaner than domestic PC communication.”

Park Taejin also nodded and praised it.

Still, it was crude compared to 2020, when I died, and it was a prototype that was only about a month old, but it was very innovative compared to the various PC communications that were popular in Korea.

“Uncle, Hyung. What should we do?”

“What do you mean? Of course, we have to invest! What do you think, Taejin-ah?”

Unlike Seon Haecheol, who was very excited, Park Taejin had an unpleasant expression.

“We have to invest. But… I don’t know how to make a profit with this.”

“Taejin-ah, you have to close your eyes and invest in times like this. Even if Pixar doesn’t, the internet will definitely take off. If information retrieval becomes active, profits will naturally come out. It’s the same as land grabbing. Don’t you think so?”

Seon Haecheol winked at Jerry and David, and the two hurriedly nodded.

“Y-yes! First of all, it is important to increase the scale. Right, David?”

“You bet? If the data piles up and the number of users increases, it’ll be a hit.”

The two seemed quite anxious as they raised their voices.

Park Taejin, who had been crossing his arms and bowing his head for a while, nodded heavily.

“I understand, Hyung. How much should we invest?”

“Let’s ask Johnny. How much do you want to invest?”

“I have ten million dollars left, so… all in. How about it?”

Jerry and David stared at me with blank expressions.

“J-Johnny!”

“T-that’s too much…”

Unlike the flustered them, I called their names calmly.

“Jerry, David.”

“”Yes, Johnny.””

The two men, their faces full of worry, looked at me.

“Are you scared?”

“To be honest, I’m worried. We might lose our homepage.”

“That’s right. We appreciate the investment, but we’re scared, as Jerry said.”

I clicked my tongue inwardly at their confession. Yahoo will grow because you guys are there, so why would I kick you out?

I looked at the two and calmly said one word.

“Is your dream only five million dollars?”

“Johnny?”

“Use me to raise your value. Increase the value of your dreams. There’s Sequoia Capital in Silicon Valley, isn’t there?”

I urged them on even more because I knew the future, and their eyes widened.

“Sequoia Capital?”

“That’s…”

They must have been surprised.

Sequoia Capital, which has grown with the history of Silicon Valley.

Compared to the current Standard Capital, it is ahead in terms of name value and size, but it is definitely not behind.

“Didn’t you think about funding there? If so, I’m a little disappointed.”

In comparison, Standard Capital is a new investment company that has just put up its sign. In addition to us, they need to receive their investment to get word of mouth, increase their value, have room for additional funding, and increase their value.

We have to ignite their fighting spirit. If they settle for only five million dollars, the Yahoo coin will not explode.

***

“Four million dollars in the first round, and three million dollars each in the second and third rounds. Standard Capital’s 36 percent stake will be delegated to you two in half, and you will be granted the right to maintain your current stake through future additional investments. Instead, we will conduct periodic audits. Any objections?”

“No.”

Seon Haecheol, who received a clean A4 sheet of paper on the spot, immediately wrote a summary contract and received the signatures of the two.

The highest value of a stock is the voting right. The key to this contract was to help defend the management rights by giving my voting rights to the two until the company grew.

“I’ll decorate the details and visit you again, so check with the school’s legal counseling center or another law firm.”

No matter where you go to ask, there will be no such generous contract. The shareholding rate may be a flaw, but there is only me and Standard Capital on this planet who are crazy enough to bet 10 million dollars on a homepage that is in its infancy and even share the voting rights.

The two, who had finished signing, were looking at each other with bewildered faces. It was strange that they had received 10 million dollars in investment for a homepage that had barely escaped the level of an internet phone book, and the corners of their mouths were twitching.

“Jerry, David. Have you thought about a company name?”

“Ah… that’s…”

“I haven’t thought about starting a company with this yet…”

I sighed lightly when I saw the two hesitating at my question.

“How about ‘Yahoo!’?”

“‘Yahoo!’?”

I laughed when I saw the two looking bewildered. I wanted to tell them that they came up with the name, but I knew it would sound crazy, so I opened my mouth with a serious face.

“Yes. There’s an animal called ‘Yahoo’ in ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ right?”

“An animal that looks like a horse but speaks like a person?”

I nodded at Jerry Yang’s answer.

“You guys have created a special homepage like that animal. So the name has to be special too, right?”

“Yahoo, Yahoo… That’s a good name.”

“I’m okay with it too. It’s cheerful and nice.”

Jerry Yang and David Filo also agreed, so everything was ready.

‘Yahoo!’, how gorgeous will it bloom?