his bank account.
Kevin’s own venture, which had morphed into a palotl-based social gaming application that ran on top of Fishbowl and other networks, was also starting to earn some revenue, although it was a long way short of profitability. He was the more enthusiastic about an IPO. He told Andrei that he agreed that the market was hot and said that Andrei should go ahead. Ben seemed unconcerned either way. He was getting towards the end of his PhD in psychotherapy and had started his clinical training, and spoke with detachment about Fishbowl. Listening to him, Andrei had a sudden, painful recollection of the night Ben had come over and told him he was leaving. Ben didn’t give a direct answer about whether he thought Andrei should do the IPO. He seemed more interested in understanding what it meant to Andrei, whether he was ready for it, whether he was doing it for the right reasons.
The ongoing conversation about the IPO between Andrei, Chris and Bob Leib continued over the next few months. Every week or two Leib would produce some new snippet of market information that supported his contention that now was the time for the IPO, Andrei would hesitate, while Chris told him that they were already under the scrutiny of Wall Street and it wouldn’t be so different anyway. Leib and Chris grew closer as they pushed for the IPO. To add to the financial rationale, Leib argued that Andrei had an obligation to go public, that this incredible thing that he had built had become established so deeply within the infrastructure of people’s lives that they had a right to own a part of it, just like they had a right to own their own house.
Andrei looked at Leib sceptically when he heard that one. It was the first time he had seen this apparently sentimental, philosophical side to the venture capitalist, and reminded himself, as he found himself increasingly having to do, that LRB and its partners had a 6 per cent stake in Fishbowl and stood to make a return of 1,000 per cent from a successful float, not an insignificant portion of which would accrue to Robert Leib personally. Leib’s wealth hadn’t been accumulated through sentimentality. Besides, when the feeding frenzy of the float was over, the vast bulk of the stock, as Robert Leib knew better than anyone, would be in the hands of investment funds, institutions and wealthy individuals like Leib himself. At best, only a tiny portion of Fishbowl’s users would own stock, and Andrei didn’t think that would make any kind of a difference at all.
Perhaps Leib sensed Andrei’s scepticism. ‘Look,’ he said the next time they spoke, ‘there’s also the question of what this means for you personally, Andrei. Being CEO of a publicly quoted corporation is not the same as being CEO of a private concern – especially if you’re the CEO of one of the most valuable corporations in the world. There’s a certain prestige that goes with that. A certain status. You’re putting yourself forward for public scrutiny, that’s true, but in return, that buys you a platform – the right to be listened to in a way that you’ll never be listened to now. Andrei, you have a vision for the world. You should have that platform. Your vision deserves it.’
Sandy, now an anthropology fellow at Stanford, thought he should get on with it. At some point, she said, there was going to be an IPO. Everyone said the timing was good. May as well bite the bullet. She grew increasingly impatient as the issue dragged on and they had a number of terse conversations. In part, these were an outlet for other frustrations that she hadn’t voiced.
Sandy had been with Andrei for eight years, since before he had founded Fishbowl. She had been living with him in the condo for almost half that time. There had been moments when she had been on the verge of walking out, and she didn’t think that Andrei was even aware of it. Friends were asking why she put up with him – those who didn’t ask assumed it was for his money. Sometimes, Sandy didn’t know herself. Andrei had always kept her away from any limelight that Fishbowl might have thrown, which was OK with her, but she felt that she had put so much into supporting him as he built Fishbowl from the very beginning, and she didn’t know if he recognized that. He took