LifeOfaStartUp.com Podcast : Some Inspiration
This story is from the great FractalsofChange VC Blog, which is inspiration for our podcast soon to be launched : lifeofastartup.com (actual URL ;)
"Finally I found a Rent-A-Wreck location a short bus ride from my hotel that had one car left. They warned me the car was not in great shape – “The driver’s door don’t work so you’ll wanna use the passenger door”, “You don’t wanna go too fast either. There’s a little shimmy. Don’t got no air either.” “Right, right,” I said. I was late and in a hurry. I was also in a suit which was what East Coast and mainframe people wore on sales calls in those days. The car did shimmy and shake as I tried to hurry to my appointment. I got hotter and hotter as I shimmied around in circles trying to find the right flat one-story startup-stuffed incubator which housed VisiCorp. Finally got there with five minutes to spare. There was an open spot right next to the handicapped spot at the front door. My Rent-A-Wreck didn’t quite look right among all the new BMWs and even Ferraris in front of VisiCorp but no time to hide it around back. I slid over to the passenger slide to disembark and then disaster – that door handle came off in my hand. I tried to push it back on its shaft but the shaft receded unreachably into the door. I rolled down the window and reached for the outside handle. It clattered to the pavement. Apparently the inside door handle is attached to the outside door handle. Pounding did nothing to open either door. I had no choice. Sweating profusely in my suit – I weighed 250 lbs then – I maneuvered so that first my feet came out the window, followed by my butt. My stomach got a little stuck – I tried not to think of Winnie the Pooh or to hear the people laughing around the front door – and my legs kicked in the air as I forced myself slowly out. I hit my head on the top of the window frame as I fell the last few inches to the ground. “I have an appointment with Mr. Flystra,” I said to the receptionist trying to present only my untorn pants leg. “Your name is?” she tried to ask but she couldn’t stop laughing. “You’re the guy with the…” She collapsed in laughter. “Tom Evslin. From Solutions, Inc. I’m the guy with the car, yeah.” An hour and a half later, when Flystra finally saw me, I was pretty sure he was one of the people who’d been watching me at the door. Neither of us mentioned it. I didn’t make the sale, probably more because I didn’t present him with a clear proposal than because of my unseemly arrival but I’ll never know. He told me that these capabilities would be in “the next release” and I hadn’t thought through the answer to that. At least I didn’t have to climb back into the window; I managed to insert the handle and shaft on the ground into the door frame and turn it. I then put it in the car on the seat for my exit in San Francisco."
"Finally I found a Rent-A-Wreck location a short bus ride from my hotel that had one car left. They warned me the car was not in great shape – “The driver’s door don’t work so you’ll wanna use the passenger door”, “You don’t wanna go too fast either. There’s a little shimmy. Don’t got no air either.” “Right, right,” I said. I was late and in a hurry. I was also in a suit which was what East Coast and mainframe people wore on sales calls in those days. The car did shimmy and shake as I tried to hurry to my appointment. I got hotter and hotter as I shimmied around in circles trying to find the right flat one-story startup-stuffed incubator which housed VisiCorp. Finally got there with five minutes to spare. There was an open spot right next to the handicapped spot at the front door. My Rent-A-Wreck didn’t quite look right among all the new BMWs and even Ferraris in front of VisiCorp but no time to hide it around back. I slid over to the passenger slide to disembark and then disaster – that door handle came off in my hand. I tried to push it back on its shaft but the shaft receded unreachably into the door. I rolled down the window and reached for the outside handle. It clattered to the pavement. Apparently the inside door handle is attached to the outside door handle. Pounding did nothing to open either door. I had no choice. Sweating profusely in my suit – I weighed 250 lbs then – I maneuvered so that first my feet came out the window, followed by my butt. My stomach got a little stuck – I tried not to think of Winnie the Pooh or to hear the people laughing around the front door – and my legs kicked in the air as I forced myself slowly out. I hit my head on the top of the window frame as I fell the last few inches to the ground. “I have an appointment with Mr. Flystra,” I said to the receptionist trying to present only my untorn pants leg. “Your name is?” she tried to ask but she couldn’t stop laughing. “You’re the guy with the…” She collapsed in laughter. “Tom Evslin. From Solutions, Inc. I’m the guy with the car, yeah.” An hour and a half later, when Flystra finally saw me, I was pretty sure he was one of the people who’d been watching me at the door. Neither of us mentioned it. I didn’t make the sale, probably more because I didn’t present him with a clear proposal than because of my unseemly arrival but I’ll never know. He told me that these capabilities would be in “the next release” and I hadn’t thought through the answer to that. At least I didn’t have to climb back into the window; I managed to insert the handle and shaft on the ground into the door frame and turn it. I then put it in the car on the seat for my exit in San Francisco."
posted by redbarren at 4:07 PM
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