Net Dreams

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He's found that he really likes working here, in the warm corporate bosom of a treacherous industry. 'The people are whip-smart. They get the job done. The company has its act together.'

Despite their apparent bedrock stability, management still creates an atmosphere of transience. To have lasted here three years is a long time. Workers come here to get a seal of approval, to be properly trained in sales or management.

That's what Zilly wants. The way the Mafia launders money, Zilly will use this company to launder his rÈsumÈ. It's sort of like getting your Stanford M.B.A. after doing your undergrad at Foothill College. 'After a year or two here, I can get hired anywhere,' he says. 'Anywhere in the world.'

I go to see Ben, catching him when the negotiations are complete and the merger documents halfway signed. He has sold KillerApp to CNET for 'somewhere north of 50.' As in $50 million. And the portion of the company he owned prior to the sale? Also somewhere north of 50. As in 50 percent. He is stressed and giddy at the same time, goofy, apologetic, sweet, buying me a Pepsi from the vending machine.

Four nights later, it's official. Ben's cut of CNET's half-million shares is more than $23 million.

The next day, I call him one last time. 'I didn't know what hit me,' Ben says. He was walking on air. Yet the day he found out about the merger, he didn't do anything special to celebrate. He didn't have anybody to celebrate with. 'There was nobody waiting in the wings for me, to give me congratulations,' he tells me. His parents were more relieved than overjoyed.

But Ben, he's overjoyed. His thoughts jump from memory to observation to not-fully-considered conclusion. He is trying to get used to his new situation. 'When I got here,' he tells me, 'I didn't know a soul. Every venture capitalist on Sand Hill Road turned me down when I went for money.' He tries again. 'It's so easy to lose faith,' he says. Nothing he says seems enough. This is the closest he gets: 'The entrepreneur's life is not balanced.'

Po Bronson (www.pobronson.com) is a Wired contributing editor. Adapted from The Nudist on the Late Shift (Random House). Some names and some details of the characters

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