Майкл Ридпат - Fatal Error

‘I want to start an internet company.’

‘You and a thousand other people.’

‘It’s where the money is.’

‘Funny money. It’s not real money. No one’s made any real money out of the Internet yet.’

‘I will,’ said Guy, a quiet smile on his face.

‘Oh, yes?’ I smiled myself, at the idea of Guy as a thrusting entrepreneur.

‘Yes. You can too, if you like.’

‘Me?’ Then the penny dropped. ‘Guy, I might work for a merchant bank, but I don’t have much money. And what I do have, I’m not going to throw into cyberspace.’

‘No, I don’t mean that. I mean I’d like you to join me.’

‘Join you?’ I laughed. But I saw he was serious. ‘Guy, starting a business, even an internet business, is a big deal. You need financing, you need to employ people, you have to work. You have to get up before noon.’

‘I can get up before noon,’ said Guy. ‘In fact, I’ve been working on this during every waking moment for the last month. I’m going to do it. And I’m going to make it work.’

I felt a little guilty. Perhaps I had been a touch patronizing. There was no way in hell I was going to work with Guy, but I thought it polite to let him have his say.

‘OK. Tell me about it.’

‘I’ll give you the elevator pitch.’

‘The elevator pitch?’

‘Yeah. You have to be able to tell your story in the time it takes to ride an elevator with a venture capitalist. You don’t have more than thirty seconds to catch these guys’ attention.’

‘Fine. Give me the elevator pitch,’ I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

Guy ignored it, if he even noticed. ‘The company is called ninetyminutes.com. It will be the brand for soccer on the web. We’ll start out with the best football website on the Internet. As we become well known, we’ll sell sports clothing off the site, including our own brand. Football is big business and sports clothing is a thirty-billion-dollar market worldwide. We’ll be to soccer what amazon.com is to books.’

He watched me, a smile of supreme confidence spreading across his face.

‘ The brand. You mean the number-one brand?’

‘The only brand.’

I composed myself, pretending to take him seriously. ‘That will make it quite a big company.’

‘A very big company. An awesome company.’

‘I see,’ I said, maintaining my composure. ‘That will also take some money.’

‘Fifty million bucks to start. More later.’

‘Hmm.’

‘That’s why I need you,’ said Guy.

That was too much. I burst out laughing. ‘You’d be lucky to get five hundred quid out of me.’

‘No, stupid. I want you to help me raise the money.’

‘You’re the one with the rich friends.’

Guy’s enthusiasm dropped a notch. ‘I’ll try them, of course,’ he said. ‘But I’m not sure how many of them I can count on. Most of them have already financed me in one way or another.’

‘Oh, I see. And they didn’t get much of a return?’

‘Not much.’

We both knew what Guy meant. He had led an expensive lifestyle for quite a while with dwindling support from his father and little from his own earnings. He had borrowed from everyone he knew. The lenders had never really expected their money back. You spent money on Guy, you didn’t invest in him.

‘So why me?’

‘I want someone who understands finance. Someone who’s solid. Someone I trust. Someone I’ve known for a long time and who knows me. You.’

I watched him. He was sincere. And I was flattered. I couldn’t help it, I was flattered. Ever since school I had wanted Guy to count me as one of his friends and I had never been sure that he did. Now he said he needed me. Only me.

Then I pulled myself together. ‘You want me to give up a secure job in one of the City’s foremost banks for this? You’ve got to be crazy.’

Guy smiled. ‘You hate your job, you told me so yourself. And it’s not secure. Everyone gets fired these days. How do you know it won’t be you next time they reorganize everything?’

I didn’t answer, but shifted in my chair. He had hit a nerve. I glanced at him. He knew it.

‘So who else is involved? You know sod all about computers.’

‘I know a bit now. But Owen’s over here with me. He’ll help.’

‘Owen?’ I remembered Guy’s brother. Whatever his faults, I couldn’t deny his proficiency with computers.

‘Yeah. He’s spent the last six years in Silicon Valley. He joined a start-up that went bust, and then became a freelance programmer. He’s worked on half a dozen different internet ventures. He knows his stuff.’

‘All right. But what about the soccer angle? I know you’re a Chelsea fan, but you’re hardly an expert. And marketing? And you mentioned your own brand of clothing. Who’s going to design it? Where will it be manufactured?’

‘I’ll get the people. That’s my role. I’ll get the people. Good people.’

‘Who?’

‘I’ll find them. Don’t forget, I’m starting with you.’

Flattery again. I had to admit Guy’s confidence was impressive. But my mind had been trained to spot the holes in the most thorough of plans and this idea was full of them. ‘What about the competition? There have to be some soccer websites out there already. And what about the TV companies? The cable companies?’

‘We’ll be faster than they are. While they’re still drawing up their marketing budgets or whatever, we’ll be up and running and grabbing eyeballs.’

I laughed. ‘ “Grabbing eyeballs”? Sounds painful. What is this, gouge.com?’

‘Sorry. I’ve been reading too many e-business books.’

‘You have. And the fifty million bucks? Where will you get that? Do you even need fifty million?’

‘Fifty million was just a guess. That’s why I need you. To tell me how much we need and where we can get it from.’

‘I’m not sure I can do that,’ I said.

‘Sure you can.’

He looked at me steadily. He meant it. Guy really thought that I could find him the money to put this thing together.

‘You know what’s really good about this idea?’ he said.

‘What?’

‘The Americans can’t do it. It’s soccer. The Americans are incapable of understanding soccer. They can dominate everything else on the Internet, but they can’t dominate this. If there is ever going to be a global soccer brand on the Internet, it’s got to come from Europe.’

‘That’s true, I suppose.’

‘Admit it. It’s a good idea, isn’t it?’

‘I suppose it is,’ I agreed. And it was. I couldn’t deny the Internet was growing exponentially. And football was a huge source of entertainment for people throughout the world. But I couldn’t quite see Guy as the man to take advantage of that.

‘Look, you’re dead right,’ Guy went on. ‘For this to work, someone is going to have to persuade a lot of talented people to take big risks for no guaranteed return. And I’m not just talking about employees. We’ll need all kinds of partners: technology, marketing, content, merchandising, financial. That’s where I come in. I can persuade people to do things they don’t really want to do.’

‘Can you?’ I asked.

‘Can’t I?’

I drained my pint. I could feel myself getting sucked in, and I wanted to escape before it was too late. ‘I’ve got to go.’

‘Look at it this way, if it works, we’ll make millions. If it fails, we’ll have a lot of fun.’

‘Goodbye, Guy.’

He pulled a brown A4 envelope out of a shoulder bag and thrust it into my hands. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’

I left him at the table and fought my way through the crowd of drinkers towards Tower Hill station. I looked for a litter-bin to toss the envelope into, but there weren’t any around, so I stuffed it into my briefcase.