A boardroom table you could land a plane on, and a firm across the country that leaned in.

I pitched the internet to Merrill Lynch in Princeton. Dan Tully slapped his hand on the table. Nobody would ever trade stocks on the internet. It was a fad.

Two weeks later, on Montgomery Street in San Francisco, I showed Charles Schwab the same thing. They leaned in and signed a contract with us. That contract is a big part of what made my company successful.

Same pitch. Same product. Two of the most powerful firms in finance. One saw a fad. The other saw the future.

Today people say nobody will ever let software spend their money. They are wrong for the same reason.

1995: Same Pitch, Two Firms.