It was supposed to be an event organized by Silicon Valley, bringing together old and new Internet companies. But it wasn't being held in Silicon Valley; it was taking place at a technology exhibition center in downtown Los Angeles.
The event would last three days. Each day, it would start at two in the afternoon and end at five.
According to the schedule, a charity dinner would also be held at the hotel at seven that evening, after the three-day event wrapped up. Word was that the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California would be attending as well.
The first day of the summit.
Big Blue IBM, software giant Microsoft, computer manufacturing giants HP and Dell, portal pioneer Yahoo, AOL, and other companies had all sent representatives at the vice-president level or above to attend the first day of the summit.
More than 750 Internet companies of all sizes had exhibits that day. In addition, there were over 3,000 investors like Zucker, who had been invited to attend. The technology exhibition center was packed with people.
Before long, Zucker arrived at the exhibition area of an Internet company.
"Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon! Welcome to the bitju exhibit!"
"As you can see, our company is a professional Internet equipment provider. Okay? Our name might not carry as much weight as Cisco's, but our equipment is absolutely world-class. We're confident we'll be the next Cisco. No, to be precise, we'll surpass Cisco."
A middle-aged white man in a blue suit loudly introduced his company.
When he finished, the crowd watching gave him polite applause, whether they agreed with him or not.
"All right, next I'll show you our company's latest technological achievement: America's next-generation server equipment."
The middle-aged white man spent the next few minutes lavishly praising his company's equipment.
No—more accurately, he was talking out of his ass!
"Holy crap!"
"Did this guy escape from a mental hospital?"
"Even I can tell he's just trying to swindle people, and I'm no expert! He's claiming his servers are more advanced than the very best servers in 2020. How is that even possible?"
"What a shameless con man!"
Zucker began ranting furiously to himself, convinced that hardly anyone would believe the man.
But what happened next left him dumbfounded!
Once the middle-aged white man had finished speaking, more than a dozen investment firms and individual investors in the crowd said on the spot that they were interested in discussing things privately.
For a moment, Zucker was at a loss for words.
He wondered whether those dozen-odd investors were genuinely interested in the equipment or whether bitju had hired them to act as shills.
Whatever the case, Zucker wasn't interested in the slightest.
Sure, I'm no Internet expert, so I can't tell which companies or projects are worth investing in. But I'm a time traveler. I'll only invest in companies I've heard of in the future. How could I not make money that way?
That was Zucker's investment principle.
The Internet of the 1990s was crazy, whether you were a company founder or an individual investor. Especially in the late 1990s. Could you believe that someone with no permanent office, no registered capital, and no proprietary technology could walk away with hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars just by presenting a business proposal and talking a good game?
It happened!
And it happened a lot!
Without all that, the Internet Bubble of the early twenty-first century might have come a little later!
There were too many con artists!
And even more companies that were completely unreliable!
That was right: the most immediate impression the first day of the event left on Zucker was that the place was crawling with frauds.
As for the Internet companies that were already showing signs of becoming dominant, Zucker had wanted to buy a stake in them. But they told him, "Sorry, we don't currently need to raise funds."
Bullshit!
How could they not need funding? Of all the Internet companies around today, how many could actually turn a profit, apart from a dozen or so? They were all losing money! They were all burning through cash and expanding like crazy!
Put simply, they didn't think Zucker's few million dollars were worth taking!
"You're going to regret this!"
Zucker couldn't help cursing them in his head. Damn it, just wait until the Internet Bubble hits. Then you'll see what I do to you!
As the first day of the event was drawing to a close, Zucker unexpectedly spotted a company that filled him with delight.
—Amazon.
Its full name was Amazon Internet Commerce Company.
The representative Amazon had sent to the summit was none other than its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos himself.
"Mr. Bezos, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zucker Wald. I own a Hollywood company, and I'm also an investor," Zucker introduced himself.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Wald."
The two shook hands.
The Jeff Bezos of today wasn't yet the iconic Bald Bezos he would become later.
Looking back over Jeff Bezos's life, he had been both unlucky and fortunate.
His parents divorced when he was only five years old. But his stepfather treated him like his own son, giving him a happy childhood. Throughout his school years, he served as class president and graduation speaker, showing an early aptitude for business management. He graduated with excellent grades from Princeton University, one of the finest universities in America and the world.
As an adult, he was no ordinary man, either.
He had worked at a high-tech company and a Wall Street trust company, managing computer systems responsible for assets worth $250 billion. At twenty-five, he became the youngest vice president in the history of that bank's trust company.
This guy was totally cheating!
From 1990 to 1995, Bezos and others had built the world's most advanced and successful hedge fund management company. In 1992, he became the youngest senior vice president in the company's history.
So although Amazon had only recently been founded and was nowhere near as large as it would be in the future, Bezos really didn't need the money!
"Damn rich people!"
Well, Zucker had chatted with Bezos for quite a while, but Bezos still hadn't accepted his investment.
As he put it, "I didn't come to the summit today because I need funding. I just came to take a look around."
Damn rich people!
Bald Bezos was too damn shrewd!
It was infuriating to have a massive prize right in front of him and be unable to take a bite.
Weren't time travelers supposed to have it easy? Weren't people supposed to bow before me and call themselves my underlings?
One star!
On the second day of the summit, Zucker still couldn't find a single company worth investing in.
They were either con artists, lunatics, or delusional people.
In short, none of them were getting a single cent from Zhu Koukou!
At the end of the third and final day of the event, Zucker still hadn't managed to make an investment. He looked thoroughly dispirited.
All right, at that moment, Zucker could only lament that he hadn't studied enough!
He was a time traveler, sure, but in his previous life, he'd been just an ordinary person. He'd spent every day worrying about making ends meet and occasionally read the news. He only knew the names of the big companies. How could he possibly know about all those other American Internet companies?
Looking rather downcast, Zucker followed the crowd in an orderly fashion as they left the exhibition center.
"Hey, guys, these past three days have been amazing!"
"Absolutely. I think it's time we made some changes!"
"Wiesger, Wadi, I'm sure that by this time next year, once our ICQ is out, we'll be as successful and as famous as Microsoft, Netscape, and Cisco!"
A young man of Middle Eastern descent said this to the other two.
ICQ?
Holy crap!
Zucker instantly snapped to attention!
Wasn't that the chat software ICQ that would take the world by storm?
*** Second update of the day! Today's second chapter came a little late. Minister had something to take care of. Sorry, sorry!
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