Peter Gregory, having solved his fear of college students by investing in a sesame seed farm in Bangladesh, receives a letter. He opens it. It’s a cease-and-desist from Hooli. He chuckles softly, then pulls out a flip phone and dials Richard.
Enter Ron LaFlamme, Hooli’s terrifyingly smooth attorney. He informs Richard that because he developed the algorithm on a Hooli laptop (even partially), Hooli owns it. Richard is crushed. But a loophole emerges: The algorithm wasn’t written for Hooli; it was written during a “non-compete” period. The legal battle begins, freezing Pied Piper’s funding. index of silicon valley season 1
Now, everyone wants in. But Richard has a problem: He’s been secretly giving 10% of his equity to Big Head (his best friend) for moral support. And Erlich has been promising pieces of the company to everyone who so much as brings him a latte. Peter Gregory, having solved his fear of college
Peter Gregory advises Richard to enter TechCrunch Disrupt, a startup competition. Winning provides validation and leverage against Hooli. The problem: Pied Piper has no front end, no UI, no business model. It’s just a compression tool. He chuckles softly, then pulls out a flip
To protect himself, Richard signs a “poison pill” clause in the new term sheet from Raviga: If any single founder leaves, sells, or transfers a significant share without board approval, the entire company becomes worthless.