Stanford University sat in Palo Alto, on the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area, right next to Silicon Valley. Along with UC Berkeley across the Bay, it formed one of the great academic centers of the American West.
In just about every global ranking that mattered, Stanford stood near the top.
It also had another distinction: after Harvard, it had produced more billionaires than almost any other university in the country.
For anyone interested in computers and the industries growing around them, Stanford was a dream destination. From the day students arrived on campus, they were fed one idea again and again:
Stanford students were supposed to change the world.
That mindset shaped people in obvious ways.
At major firms on Wall Street, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford grads often started together. Three years later, plenty of the Harvard and Princeton hires were still there.
The Stanford hires usually were not.
They were either already building startups, or getting ready to.
Bruce was only nineteen, but after three years at Stanford, he had already been deeply shaped by both the school's culture and the internet boom rising all around Silicon Valley. Once academics stopped feeling like much of a challenge, he had chosen the same path as so many before him.
He went into entrepreneurship.
Unfortunately, his timing had been terrible.
Just as his startup was beginning to take shape and he was out looking for angel money, the Nasdaq crash hit.
Of course, once the current Bruce arrived, everything changed.
...
American campuses were mostly open, so Bruce could drive his Chevrolet right up to the building.
After locking the car, he slung his backpack over one shoulder and headed up to his third-floor dorm suite. The moment he opened the door, a wave of stale warm air rushed out, followed by a string of electronic clicks and beeps.
He had already expected that, thanks to the memories in his head, so none of it surprised him.
He shut the door behind him and walked through the hallway into the living room.
The place was a mess.
Aside from an old sofa shoved into one corner, more than seventy percent of the room had been taken over by four or five desks pushed together. Sitting on them were HP desktop machines, obviously far bulkier and uglier than what people would use years later. Between four of the computers sat two larger machine towers that clearly served as makeshift server units.
Cables ran everywhere in a tangle, and the towers kept up their steady electronic chatter.
Aside from the kitchen and bathroom, there were two rooms on either side of the living room. Bruce pushed open the one on the left. It was his bedroom.
He dropped off his backpack and had just turned toward the room on the right when the front door opened again.
A young man in dark casual clothes stepped inside. He was a little heavyset, with brown curly hair and the look of someone who spent far too much time around computers.
"Bruce, you're out of the hospital?"
Bruce smiled and nodded at his roommate, closest friend, business partner, and fellow computer science standout, Martin Alexander.
"Yeah."
"Man, that's great!"
Martin came right over and pulled him into a hug.
"You should've told me you were getting out today. As your best friend, I should've picked you up."
"No need. Honestly, I'd rather have a welcome-back party."
"Done. I've got it covered."
Martin stepped back, looked him over, and grinned.
"By the way, look at you. All cleaned up. What, did you get a girlfriend while I was gone?"
Bruce laughed. "Not everyone has your luck with women. Some of us don't get to date campus royalty."
Martin grinned at that, but the smile faded quickly.
Then his tone dropped.
"Bruce, I met with an angel investor earlier today. He passed on the deal. My fault, honestly. If I'd listened to you sooner, we might've raised a decent seed round before the Nasdaq crash."
Bruce patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't get discouraged, Martin. We've still got other options."
Martin shook his head, looking frustrated.
"I've already thought through every option I can think of. Between the two of us, we burned through all our scholarship money and prize money just to get those two used IBM enterprise servers. If we don't get more funding soon, the amount of data coming in is going to push us past server capacity. And once the system crashes, everything we've built goes with it."
"I already found an investor."
Bruce cut in with a smile.
Martin froze.
"What?"
"I said I already found someone willing to back us."
"Seriously?"
"When have I ever lied to you?"
Martin lit up at once.
"That's incredible. Bruce, you always figure something out. So who is it?"
"The Guo Family Trust."
Martin blinked.
"The Guo Family Trust? Is that some investment firm in the Valley? I've never heard of it."
He clearly started running through every investor and fund he could remember.
"It was only set up recently. It makes sense you haven't heard of it."
"That explains it." Martin relaxed a little, then looked at Bruce again. "Wait. Don't tell me that's..."
Bruce nodded.
"After my adoptive father passed away, the estate was transferred to me through a family trust. It's not endless money, but it's enough to keep Exce running for a year. If we can buy ourselves that much runway, it'll be a lot easier to raise from VCs later."
Martin nodded in agreement.
"Bruce... about your father. Try not to take it too hard."
It was probably the best comfort Martin could come up with.
"Thanks. I know." Bruce paused, then changed the subject. "Let's talk about something more cheerful. How's Exce been doing while I was gone?"
"Pretty well, actually. We added almost fifteen thousand new registered users this month."
Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"So we're over fifty thousand total now?"
Martin nodded eagerly.
"Fifty-two thousand, three hundred and forty."
That number did not surprise Bruce. After all, their website was still basically a dorm-room operation. If they had not added a comment section where users could share job leads and hiring information, they probably would not even have reached fifty thousand.
"Not bad."
Bruce smiled and nodded.
"Bruce, one day Exce could become as big as Yahoo. We could completely change recruiting and executive search."
"I think we can do it too," Bruce said. "But first, we need a real office. The dorm isn't enough anymore. And we need to bring in more engineers. Also, I want to rename the company."
Martin frowned.
"Rename it? Why?"
"Because Exce sounds too generic. LinkedIn fits a lot better."
"LinkedIn?"
Bruce nodded.
The site he and Martin had built was already very close in concept to what LinkedIn would later become: a professional networking platform aimed at business users.
Bruce could not remember exactly when the real LinkedIn had launched, but he knew the platform well enough from later years to remember both the product structure and the monetization model.
Martin rolled the new name around in his head for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah. LinkedIn is definitely better than Exce. Then LinkedIn it is."
Bruce glanced outside.
"It's still early, and we both have time. Why don't you go look for office space while I take care of the incorporation paperwork?"
"No problem. I'm on it."
Now that the funding problem had been solved, Martin looked full of energy again.
But just as he was about to leave, Bruce grabbed his arm.
Martin looked back, confused.
Bruce got straight to the point.
"The new company will be capitalized at two million dollars. I'm reserving twenty percent of the founder equity for you. I'll serve as CEO, and you'll be CTO. We'll hire for the other roles later. If you have any objections, now's the time to say them."
When it came to equity, it was better to settle things early.
Martin understood that.
After thinking it through carefully, he nodded.
They had built the site together, and Bruce had put in no less effort than he had. Now Bruce was also putting two million dollars into the company. Offering him twenty percent on top of that was more than fair.
"I don't have a problem with that."
"Good. Then let's get moving. We've got a lot to do."
The two of them walked out together.
Then Martin asked, "By the way, did you tell Alice you're out of the hospital yet?"
"Not yet."
"You two really decided to break up?"
Bruce slowed for a moment.
After a brief silence, he said, "Once she gets her degree, she's going back to Taiwan. I'm not going with her, and neither of us wants a long-distance relationship. There really isn't another option."
Martin patted him on the shoulder.
"Hey, don't be so down. Once we make this startup work and start making serious money, there'll be plenty of beautiful women in your future."
Bruce just smiled.
He did not say anything else.
With nearly twenty years of future knowledge in his head, money was the one thing he was never truly worried about.
But that was not something he could tell Martin.
Or anyone else.