[124] Venture Spirit 2
With the cup of coffee in front of her, Rachel studied my expression carefully.
I looked around the office avoiding her eyes. He is the head of the US corporation and, befitting the protagonist of Miracle, which handles the largest amount of money, his luxuriousness has reached its peak.
I didn’t like it, but I decided to acknowledge and accept the culture here. It is also ambiguous how far the line between economy and poverty is.
“Howard. Be honest. Why did you come to America?”
“You saw it. I’m here to warn against over-optimism about dot-com companies.”
“Is that really all there is?”
She observes me with a hawk’s eye so she doesn’t miss what I’m doing, but now she’s a bit persistent. Are there other reasons?
“I think there is something I want to say, but what is it? Tell me honestly.”
The moment she flinched, she laughed heartily.
“this this. i can’t get it haha.”
“A suggestion? please? Or are you asking?”
“It’s a suggestion.”
“Tell me comfortably.”
“Shall we go to LA?”
This time I flinched.
How did you know? That I’m thinking of going to California.
“what? Are you in LA too?”
“It’s similar, but it’s not. I was thinking of San Francisco.”
“San Francisco? where?”
“Stanford University.”
“It’s a good university.”
Rachel nodded. It is clear that I am mistaken that I am preparing to study abroad.
“It’s a school that has produced a lot of great business geniuses like you, so it suits me.”
A place where young billionaires who will pour out one after another take a leave of absence from school and prepare to start a business.
The place where the founders of GAP, Nike, Victoria’s Secret, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, Dolby, and Sun Microsystems have already been produced.
Can I study here? The guys who took a leave of absence are trying to meet the guys who think they’re going to do it.
I’m more curious about LA than that.
“But what about LA? Because of the movie?”
“huh. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ premieres next month. Because we are always invited. Since the foundation of DreamWorks, as you said, we have invested in every film. It’s almost like a partnership.”
“If that’s all you’d be reluctant to do?”
boring.
Isn’t it a movie that I watched a few times at the cinema when it was released and after that I play it whenever I have a chance on TV? I think I’ve seen it more than twenty times.
Rachel smiled slightly and shook her head.
“Dreamworks sent me a signal.”
“signal?”
“huh. When they found out that Miracle’s funds were in Korea, they asked if they would bet on Asian distribution rights.”
“Do you want to invest?”
“That’s right.”
When Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen formed DreamWorks in 1994, there were plenty of opportunities, but they didn’t show interest.
After all, each film exists in its own independent form. In my case, there is no reason to pour money into a film production company, as I only need to select and invest in movies that only make money.
Spielberg doesn’t always hit home runs.
But things are different now.
Asian distribution rights are a great weapon for the father. It can become a dinosaur in the Korean movie version just with the name value of being a partner of DreamWorks.
I think it would make a pretty good gift.
“Are there any conditions?”
“DreamWorks started with $1 billion, and the first proposal is to hand over a 25% stake and Asian distribution rights with $500 million.”
“Did you answer?”
“No positive review. I just did this.”
Negotiations have not even begun. If Miracle shows interest, DreamWorks will also start reviewing and arguing. It is obvious that they are trying to check whether they have the ability to operate distribution in Asia smoothly and effectively.
“Spielberg’s name is worth it… There’s no way there aren’t any Asian companies that we’ve negotiated with so far.”
“It was a lot. Japan Korea Hong Kong. Even China.”
Rachel gave a light smile.
“Another thing DreamWorks wants is communication.”
I was able to understand what she was trying to say more quickly because I didn’t use the word conversation.
“They would have said cost instead of production cost, and they only talked about rationalization of cost-efficiency management because of profit rate.”
“okay. That’s right. He lamented that he thought he would die of boredom.”
She clapped her hands and laughed again.
“Spending unnecessary money on a leading actor and partying and reveling every day would seem like an inefficient waste in their eyes. You’re saying you don’t know the basics of entertainment. Although it is not easy to understand that people at the bottom get energy by being faithful to their instinctive desires.”
When I nodded, her eyes twinkled.
“how is it? Are you interested?”
“I’m not interested, but there are people who will make you drool profusely.”
“who?”
“He is my father.”
“ah…! Are you a filmmaker?”
“yes. Let’s do this. I will accept the first offer from DreamWorks. Instead, it will be my father who will sit at the negotiating table, not me. If my father says he is not interested or confident about distribution in Asia, I will do it.”
“okay. Then let’s schedule a meeting.”
Rachel immediately pulled out her cell phone and started talking somewhere, and I called my dad and told him to fly to LA right away.
My father seemed more excited than just meeting with the masters than Dreamworks.
When the two of us ended the phone call, I asked Rachel for a secret favor.
“This trip to LA is a special time for my family to spend together in a foreign country for the first time. Can you arrange an unforgettable memory? Because the cost doesn’t matter.”
she smiled brightly.
“Are you sure you don’t care about the cost?”
I was suddenly terrified.
* * *
When we arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, two men in uniform who were clearly drivers were waiting for us.
They guided us to the Phantom Rolls-Royce limousine waiting outside the gate and opened the door.
I was a bit surprised, but my mother and Sang-jun hyung couldn’t keep their mouths shut.
“This is a service provided by the hotel. We can use it anytime during our stay, so don’t be too surprised.”
Rachel’s explanation was even more surprising.
How much in the world did you book a room for, so that this kind of service is free?
asked urgently when my mother and older brother rode out in the same car and Rachel took one.
“Rachel. where is the hotel? I’m sure you have a suite, how much is the room rate?”
“Sixteen thousand dollars.”
“Eh… 16,000? no way…?”
“that’s right. That’s the price for one night. Ho Ho.”
shit.
You shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s already too late.
I am the third-generation conglomerate, and I am the most wealthy person in Korea in my twenties. In addition, this level of luxury is no different from everyday life for people in my family.
I guess I was a bit surprised. Rachel also hurriedly opened her mouth to prevent misunderstandings.
“It’s my first time, so I’m trying not to be surprised. I’ve never spent more than $500 on lodging.”
The surprise should end at this point, but I couldn’t stop because I was already tapping the calculator in my head.
I got three rooms, so it’s $48,000 a night. My mouth was dry and my legs were shaking, but the Rolls-Royce sprinted smoothly through downtown LA. As if there is no turning back.
The Ritz-Carlton Presidential Suite comes with two bedrooms, a private study, a private kitchen, and a rooftop infinity pool with views of the Los Angeles nightscape. A luxurious steam sauna is a must.
also. Personal butlers, trainers, therapists, wine cellars, exclusive fitness centers, and even helicopter services were provided.
The jaw-dropping extravagance made me forget about the exorbitant cost for a moment.
The father’s reaction, which arrived late that night, was not very different.
It was unexpected that he just gave me a thumbs up.
“Thanks to my son, I feel a bit like a luxurious honeymoon. You guys don’t look for us 24 hours from now.”
Father wrapped his arms around Mother’s waist and went into the room.
“How much did you earn?”
When my older brother, who shared the same room, asked with a surprised face, I answered as I opened the bedroom door.
“I think I will go bankrupt this time.”
* * *
For the first time in two days, I forgot everything and had a good time with my family. Sang-jun hyung sometimes had deep conversations with his father and confessed his worries about the future.
Rachel attended the premiere of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and confirmed a specific meeting schedule with the three masters of DreamWorks.
“Are you really okay?”
“I will never do anything to lose. Don’t worry about money, just judge whether or not it will help the plan I’ve told you about.”
“Rachel gave it to me. It’s a $500 million deal… I wonder if it’s worth it.”
“Don’t turn your dreams into money. If money can buy it, wouldn’t it be a dream? Money is just a tool to make your dreams come true. It is right to use tools and throw them away. Spend your money. haha.”
My father didn’t say anything and just stared at me for a while before finally opening his mouth.
“I thought I was the son of a ruthless chaebol chairman, but I am the father of a wise chaebol son.”
Received the gratitude of his father, who was embarrassed and grew cocky, and headed to Stanford.
I boarded the plane again from LA to San Francisco.
If you add up all the entrepreneurial companies that have been produced at this university and will be produced in the future, it is an economic power that is higher than that of a single country, Korea.
Since it is located close to Silicon Valley, people usually think that Stanford graduates or students on leave run to Silicon Valley, but in fact, the opposite is true.
As the university actively supported the startups of its graduates, a venture boom arose, and as they gathered to prepare for startups and set up companies, Silicon Valley began to form around the school.
As soon as I arrived at Stanford University, the first place I ran to was the library.
You should start tracking from here.
I started looking at the library index and searching for papers. It should be a recent paper and should be about algorithms.
I honestly thought it would be easy to find.
However, over the past three years, there have been more than a thousand papers on algorithms.
It was a result that clearly revealed where the interest of American college students is now.
Rather than relying on accurate memories, we need to bring out the vague memories that are sleeping deep in the brain.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it was an easy-to-remember name like Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo? I grumbled and continued to search through the thesis.
How many hours have passed?
I found a paper with the rather long title 「The Anatomy of a Large―Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine」.
The word Web Search Engine came into my eyes first, followed by the name of the author of the paper, 「Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page」. It’s computer engineering…….
Shit, it’s a distant memory, so I can’t come back.
Are these guys right?
Can not help it. Read it carefully and get hints.
It was dark before my eyes to read the thesis of an engineer who was sure to be jumbled with jargon, but the moment I read the first line, I unknowingly hurrahed.
The librarian put a finger to his lips and widened his eyes, but he didn’t mind.
thank you guys
They wrote the words I was looking for in the abstract of the thesis.
nice to meet. google!
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