Watching Season Two Of Silicon Valley; Runaway Devaluation
What happens when you have to return to the same boardrooms where you negg'd your way to success, with a completely different agenda?
"Is that a yes folder?" ... "No"
"You came in here three days ago, you were arrogant, condescending and offensive. Now you come in here and call me a pussy?"
"You were rude, vulgar and un-couth"
"You were coarse, race-less and puerile"
"Obscene, insulting and ignorant"
"You called me a shit-ridden wasteland"
"You called me a chode-gargling-fuck-toilet"
Cue the rather hopeful and presumptuous - "we're really excited to be in business with you guys"
We left the Pied Piper team just as they had found out that the Goliath in this David vs Goliath battle - Hooli had started legal action against Pied Piper. That didn't go down too well with Raviga, who as we found out last week had agreed to terms with Pied Piper as legal action doesn't do much for profits, who woulda thunk it!?
The legal action from Hooli is a cunning ploy to put Piedp Piper on the back foot while Hooli roll out their similar product 'Nexus'. As always, we won't dive too deep into this pond because you've gotta watch the show, but it's a pretty funny look at how some tech companies and large corporations in general tend to go about their business.
It also taught us that some ladies can still look lovely in beige, apparently wearing beige helps the lessen the impact when you break up with someone. I, like many other viewers and all the Pied Piper team have a crush on Raviga employee Monica, but damn :(
It was safe to say that Runaway Devaluation was a bit of a bummer of an episode as nothing really worked out for team Pied Piper. They were cut by Raviga and were put to shame as they did the rounds of the Venture Capitalists who knew exactly was going on, could it get worse?
Yeah, she breaks up with you and then she's with the rugby player...
Hooli came rolling in back into the picture with the loveable Gavin Belson happy to withdraw the legal action, if Pied Piper agreed to be taken over by Hooli. This left us with the best cliff-hanger to ever exist in any form of telly...
Luckily, we saw Dinesh and Jared step up into the spotlight for some heavy duty screen time. Thanks to Raviga backing away from Pied Piper, Dinesh is a bit short of cash as he donated $5,000 to his cousin's Kickstarter campaign for an app called 'Bro'. The writing at play as Dinesh rides a bit of a rollercoaster and Jared explores all the avenues that an app which is based around sending 'bro' to different uses, is awesome and while the Pied Piper team doesn't have the best episode, these two characters shone and constantly had me giggling to myself.
To try save his cash, Dinesh has got to sabotage his cousin's Kickstarter campaign and as you can imagine mayhem ensues. Mayhem...
Tech Start Up Learnings
The cycle of corporations is a hefty one; you hate corporations, emphatically deny their attempts to acquire you because they're a "soul-less corporation" while you try to turn your idea into a corporation ... you'll be different. And then when you're a billion dollar company, you'll see out your competitors and 'help' them. Ah, life.
There are pros and cons of having a business meeting in a Mexian restaurant.
Never write all your plans on a whiteboard infront of a room full of nerds - they just want your plans.
Ladies, you can still be sexy in beige.
When you try sabotage something because of your mistake, karma usually has its say.
Bros > hoes.
Team Pied Piper Performance Ratings
Richard: C. All he could muster in the 'save yo ass' meetings was his "excited to..." line. Had a minor slip up in eagerly agreeing to the meeting with the idea thieves and then struggled to hold his own against Belson ... and it's hard to see things getting much better.
Erlich: B-. Paid the price for his negging last episode, but did spot the idea thieves and swiftly alerted his team.
Monica: B+. Breaking the news of Raviga's decision to cut ties with Pied Piper put Monica in a weird spot as she's still a shareholder of Pied Piper but she handled it with class.
Jared: C. Got way to into an app that goes something like bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro which led to the idea thieves meeting.
Dinesh: A. He was faced with a mammoth task and failed, but I just loved him so much more after this episode. Somehow he's got to find $5,000 and convince his cousin that his app sucks.
Bertram: B+. Didn't do much all episode but did sabotage Dinesh's sabotage attempt by coming through in the clutch with $500 for the Kickstarter campaign just as it looked like Dinesh would be successful. I'm not sure if Dinesh and Bertram actually hate each other or love each other, but I love them so.
Jian-Yang: Unseen.