Chapter 2

2.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "I have the connections. I have the plan. I just need someone who can turn it all into code."

At the time, I was a senior tech lead at Google, making over four hundred thousand a year in salary and stock options.

I looked at him, and for some reason, I heard myself say, "I'll do it."

He froze for a second, then broke into the most genuine smile I had ever seen.

"Really? Babe, you'd quit your job to do this with me?"

"Yes."

And just like that, we started.

I quit my job. He used his severance pay.

That was the beginning of the company.

Julian was in charge of chasing VCs, networking, and posting motivational bullshit on LinkedIn.

And I was in charge of the entire tech stack.

All of it.

I built the server architecture.

I designed the database schema.

I wrote every single line of the front-end and back-end code.

I was the one who optimized the core algorithm during countless sleepless nights.

The day we launched our first version, Julian posted on LinkedIn.

"Day 127 of the startup grind. The product is finally live. A tribute to the man who never gives up."

The picture was of his back as he sat in front of a computer, a cup of coffee on the desk.

When I saw that post, I was in the middle of fixing a critical bug that had just crashed the live server.

It was two in the morning. My trash can was overflowing with empty coffee cups, and my contact lenses were so dry they felt like they were about to fall out.

I gave a bitter laugh. I didn't "like" the post.

That was only the beginning.

The day we signed our first major client, Julian took them to a Michelin-star restaurant to celebrate. He didn't invite me.

The day we secured our seed funding, Julian tweeted: "Grateful for our investors' trust and for my amazing team."

The picture was of him and a VC in a Patagonia vest.

Team? At that point, the entire engineering department was just me.