WiseWire needed a million-dollar computer. We had a meeting, a pitch and no money.

WiseWire needed a DEC Alpha that cost about a million dollars. We did not have a million dollars. A colleague and I traveled from Pittsburgh to Digital Equipment Corporation’s campus on the Route 128 corridor.

Our host took us up to the third floor, a sea of bright green cubicles. We walked and walked and sat down. Five minutes in, someone walked over. “Excuse me. You’re in my cubicle.” We were on the wrong floor. The right one was all blue. The whole time I kept thinking: what a difference a big company is from life in a startup. Thank God I’m in the startup.

Then I made my pitch. A DEC Alpha running machine learning on the web would show the world what their machine could do. We got the machine.

Passion pulls. Scrappiness is how you meet it halfway.

The Wrong Floor at DEC.