Andrei was sitting three yards away from him. Ben was handling press relations, customer service, legal matters and just about any other outward-facing stuff from his student room at Stanford, fitting it in around his course programme, which didn’t make for the most responsive approach to a workload that was growing exponentially as the website expanded. For three consecutive weekends the infrastructure was close to breaking, despite Eric’s titanic efforts to keep the site running. Eventually he rang Chris in frustration and threatened to quit.
Chris got on a plane, came into the office and sat down with Andrei and Eric. He told Andrei that Eric didn’t feel valued by him and that Eric thought Andrei had no idea what it was taking to keep the site running.
‘Eric, that’s not true,’ said Andrei. ‘You’re a Stakhanovite.’
‘I don’t want to be a fucking Stakhanovite!’ yelled Eric. ‘I want to run a site that’s got a better than even chance of staying up! We need to do stuff to the architecture so it doesn’t suck up so much server space.’
‘I know,’ said Andrei.
‘No. We need to do it now! Not after you’ve done whatever hundred thousand projects you’ve got in mind. Now, Andrei!’
‘He’s right,’ said Chris. ‘And you don’t need to be doing that kind of stuff yourself, Andrei. You should be working on new stuff, groundbreaking stuff. You need more programmers doing this kind of thing.’ He glanced at Eric. ‘Can you excuse us for a minute?’
It was a nugatory request, because there were no partitions in the office and everyone was already listening to what they were saying anyway. But as requested, Eric got up and stalked off to sit symbolically on the edge of a desk a couple of yards away.
‘You know what?’ said Chris. ‘Let’s take a walk.’
He and Andrei went out and started walking up Ramona.
‘You asked me to join Fishbowll because you wanted my advice,’ said Chris.
Andrei nodded.
‘And I presume you want me to be honest with you.’
‘Of course I do.’
‘OK, well, I think there are a couple of things that have happened. The first is, Andrei, you’re running a business now. I don’t claim to have all that much experience in that area, but when a guy like Eric, a guy who’s been keeping this website running when I don’t know how it’s been possible to do that, given the features you keep adding … when a guy like Eric says he doesn’t feel you listen to him, you need to take notice of that.’
‘I don’t know what he’s talking about! He’s a Stakhanovite. I’ve told him he’s a Stakhanovite.’
‘That’s not what I mean. When it comes to the operational stuff, he talks to me.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Well, I shouldn’t be running your operations. Trust me – you don’t want me doing that. Basically, Andrei, you need to decide what you want to do. What’s your role? Do you want to develop the functionality, do you want sit there coding all day – and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, because your ability to do that is what’s got Fishbowll to where it is today – or do you want to lead this business? Now, I found Eric, and I found this office, but there’s a million things that need to be done. We need more people. Someone’s got to recruit them, Andrei. And the more people we recruit, the more time and ability it’s going to take to manage them. Maybe we should get a CEO, and then you can focus on the coding.’
Andrei stopped on the pavement. ‘Is that what you think? Is that what you came up here to tell me?’
‘It’s an option. Someone needs to lead this business. As a business. Not just do coding.’
Andrei folded his arms. ‘You’re right. I need to decide.’
Chris nodded.
‘I want to lead this business.’
‘That was quick.’
‘I know what I want to do,’ said Andrei.
‘You might want to think about it.’
‘No. I don’t want to just do coding. I’ve seen what’s been happening. I know we need more people. I should have done something about it. I need to step up to the plate.’ Andrei looked at him. ‘Or do you think I’m making a mistake?’
‘Not necessarily. Not if you want to do it. But if you want to be CEO, then you need a manager to manage the management stuff.’
‘Isn’t that what Eric does?’
‘Eric handles the infrastructure. I’m talking about … call it a chief operating officer. Someone who’ll do the recruitment, manage the people, all that