Net Dreams

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He's been working at the search directory Infoseek for the past couple months. His project is 'a side-bet venture, with the potential to fundamentally change the way that search engines interact with people,' and then, in case that's not emphatic enough, he adds, 'I'm contributing to something that has historical implications.'

I suspect a psychological adjustment going onónobody wants to admit to having made a mistake, so you find a compensating factor. But Scott is so earnest. Maybe I just don't want to admit I was wrong in predicting the demise of his idealism. I ask him what his project is.

'I can't tell you. It's a secret even within Infoseek.'

Michael Zilly and I confer briefly by e-mail and phone, and one day he gives me a full update. Since I last saw him, he hooked up with the Fillmore-party no-show, Henry Silva Jr., who turned out to be not an investor but rather an investment scout who takes a finder's fee. The rest unfolded like dime-store noir. Silva Jr. put Zilly on a plane to Washington to meet Mark Conegan, who turned out to be what is called a 'Beltway bandit,' lending money at short-term high (but legal) rates to government contractors low on cash who are awaiting congressional appropriation funding.

Conegan proposed to give Zilly up-front money to manufacture the SupraNova ifóand only ifóConegan could manage simultaneously to prearrange a bulk buy of SupraNovas on the back end. This was money Zilly trustedówhen everyone was in for a cut. Zilly and Conegan shook hands on $500,000. But Conegan didn't come through with the advance sale, and so his cash never showed.

Now that his mood has recovered, Zilly can say, 'What's up? I had an excellent winter licking myópsychic/financialówounds, chasing chicks, and snowboarding. I had a monumental seasonó40 daysóand picked up some decent moves.'

One catalyst for optimism is a job offer from a man named Paul Jain to join his startup. Jain, I happen to know, has been indicted on 27 counts of financial fraud with his last company, Media Vision Technology. The Media Vision fiasco was the big event campaigners used to push California's Proposition 211, making it easier for stockholders to sue.

I can't help but warn Michael Zilly that his old dope-growing hobby and his startup flameout were, on the grand scale of things, merely cute adventures that he could put behind him, chalk up to youth. But to get in deep with Paul Jain was, in my opinion, to risk not being able to turn back.

All of this makes it just that much more edgy for Zilly. He takes the job.

I'm having drinks at the Stanford Park with a group of all-around guys in the 25-to-35 demographic. Over by the bar I see Ben Chiu.

'You're out making friends,' I say.

He has a big, happy grin on his lightly freckled face, a sparkle in his eye, a boldness in his posture. There's more to this than finally making friends.

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