a billion dollars, and left each of its researchers a multimillionaire.
Andrei Koss was twenty-seven years old. It was not quite seven years since he had founded Fishbowl. His two co-founders had moved on from the company. He was known to the outside world as a brilliant, visionary, somewhat introspective tech leader who appeared at selected conferences, occasionally gave an interview, and had an intense manner in private conversation that some people saw as passionate and others as arrogant. His company, Fishbowl, was a big beast of the internet jungle, one that was setting the pace in the world of social media and hadn’t been scared to introduce the controversial Farming approach, which was fast becoming the standard on the net for high-value products and services.
People thought they knew what the company was about. But no one, including two of Fishbowl’s own board members, was ready for what it was about to unleash now.
35
ROBERT LEIB GLANCED at Pete Muller, who looked back at him with a frown of disbelief. Andrei had started the board meeting by saying there was a project he wanted to tell them about. Then he had proceeded to describe a project that had been running, apparently, for years, and which had cost … which had cost a sum that must have included a mistake with a decimal place. Or two.
Apart from Andrei and Chris, Muller and Leib were the only ones at the board meeting. One of the seats had never been filled and a second had been vacant since Kevin Embley had left the company almost two years earlier.
‘When did you say you started this project?’ demanded Leib.
‘Three years ago,’ said Andrei.
‘Was that after we joined the board?’ demanded Muller.
‘Around that time.’
‘I don’t know what’s worse,’ said Leib. ‘If you started after we joined, or took my money without even telling me it was already happening. Chris, I assume from the fact that you haven’t said anything that you knew about this?’
Chris nodded.
‘And you were happy that Pete and I were told nothing about this?’
‘It was a software development project,’ said Chris. ‘Fishbowl has hundreds of development projects running. I can’t recall you ever having wanted the details before.’
‘I don’t think it has hundreds that cost … what did you say, Andrei?’ said Muller. ‘Five hundred and fourteen million dollars? Is that what you said?’
‘Cheap,’ said Chris.
Muller ignored him. ‘Is that what you said it cost, Andrei?’
‘It’s complete now,’ said Andrei. ‘I expected that we might end up spending even more, but the team we pulled together exceeded expectations.’
‘And what team was this?’ demanded Leib.
‘Linguists, artificial intelligence experts, graphics experts, programmers. For artificial intelligence and linguistics we drew on the most advanced academic labs in the world. MIT, Stanford, Imperial College, Cambridge—’
‘It was a who’s who,’ said Chris. ‘Plus we got seven of the nine top programmers in the Valley.’
‘How?’ said Muller
‘Why do you think this cost five hundred million?’
‘And what exactly did you achieve?’ demanded Leib, who was trying to balance the anger he could feel boiling away in him with the knowledge that if Andrei Koss spent half a billion dollars on a project then there was a good chance that something rather useful had come out of it.
‘I think that’s what Andrei was trying to tell you.’
Andrei nodded. ‘The Manhattan Project—’
‘The what?’ said Muller.
Andrei shrugged. ‘We had an office on Manhattan Avenue.’
‘We’re changing the world,’ said Chris. ‘Oppenheimer did it with a bomb. We’re doing it with something infinitely more powerful.’
‘I’ve never met an internet entrepreneur who didn’t think he was changing the world,’ retorted Muller.
Chris grinned. ‘Listen to this, Pete, and tell us if we’re wrong.’
Muller exchanged another glance with Leib.
They listened as Andrei took them through a summary of the Manhattan Project. Leib was expressionless throughout. Muller sat with his arms folded, a frown lingering on his face.
When Andrei was finished, there was a moment of awestruck silence.
‘You were right,’ said Leib eventually. ‘If you really have managed to do this, you’ll change the world. Question is, what’s it going to look like once it’s changed?’
‘Buckle up!’ said Chris. ‘We’re about to find out.’
‘And as far as the business is concerned …?’
‘Can you imagine how hard it will be to replicate this? The days of advertising in any of the ways we know it today are gone. This is the future, gentlemen, and we’re the first ones to arrive.’
‘And we can use it for other things,’ said Andrei. ‘It’s not just for advertising. There’s a whole range of applications.’
‘Sure,’ said Muller,