A while back (I’d say about a month ago) two sketchy guys walked into  Blacker lounge and asked, “Are there any CS majors here?” One guy was about average height and was in his mid 20s and the other guy was in his 30s was much bigger and looked a bit like a thug (this guy didn’t say anything at the first meeting). I said “Depends who’s asking.”The younger guy told me that they were trying to put together a high school basketball social networking website and that they needed developers. He also referred to us (Issac and myself, the self identified CS majors) as elitists. He said that we were elitists, but that it was OK because he went to Berkeley (before dropping out a few units short of a degree) and so was also an elitist. But at the same time he kept insulting us for being elitists. He spoke fairly quickly and often didn’t make any sense. I asked for some papers to review and they told me that they had left their documents in their car. So they had nothing to show me. I’d say that these guys weren’t very professional, but that’d be elitist of me. He claimed he had just gotten back from a meeting with Fox Sports and that they had millions of funding. Throughout my interactions with him he constantly repeated the fact that he was represented by the same people as Facebook (whatever that means). I gave them my e-mail address mainly because I found them amusing and had nothing better to do.

A couple of days later (1/24/09) they sent me the following e-mail:

Hello,

This is Rodney Reyes.

You met Zach and myself yesterday on campus.

As we mentioned before, we are currently looking for people that would be able to help program our soon to be social networking website.

First let me tell you who we are.

- We are a multi-media company
- We also have a political team that works with Michael & Kellen Arno of http://www.capitollinks.net/index2.php
- We have worked on many major political campaigns
- We are represented by Orrick http://www.orrick.com/
- We have a 50 captain statewide network of the most influential college students across the nation.
- We have a who’s who list on our Board of Directors

As we last spoke the site we are developing is BasketballHigh.com

We just came back from a meeting yesterday in which Fox Sports has agreed to partner with us.

We will be launching a Pre-Registration page next week.

As for programming, it would be a mix between Maxpreps.com and Takkle.com.

If you would be able to work or connect us to someone who can work, please let me know as soon as possible.

Zach will then contact you in regards to financial payment.

This is just the springboard for many more opportunities.

Have a great weekend,

~Rodney

I responded with something like: “Ok cool. Do you have any actual details? I won’t work unless the pay is upfront.”I was a little more polite than that though, but it’s what I was thinking. I don’t care who represents you I care about what you want done and how I fit into this picture.

So anyways, a long time passes. I miss a couple of their phone calls (one from an absurdly over chipper woman) and eventually reconnected with him in February. He suggested meeting for lunch and I was up for that, hoping to get some free food out of this deal. We decide to meet a noon that Sunday. I get up early to get ready and he doesn’t call. I go out with some friends and at 1 he calls saying that he was up the night before singing a basketball player and was sorry that he was late. Worst excuse ever, if you ask me. He still wants to meet and he says he’ll leave immediately (which would mean he would get here 45 minutes later). 45 minutes later  I get a text message saying he’d be there in 45 minutes. I respond telling him that it’s midterms week and I had to do my math midterm (which was true). He calls me up and says “Look, I’m not trying to threaten you , but if you pass this up you’ll regret it for the rest of your life” and that he had lots of other people on the line who’d willingly drop out of college for this project. I tell him to call me when he gets to campus and I’d tell him if I’m available then. He never calls.

The next day he calls saying he went to go sign a basketball player (“the best high school player in the country”) instead of coming to Tech and that we should meet soon. I met him two days ago, sort of randomly as I was walking back from the C-Store. I have a meeting with the three of them (2 of the guys from the first meeting and a woman whose name I can’t remember) and they show me some documents. They have a paper with a whole bunch of domains on it that they own or plan to own. Some good domains like sororities.com or something. They even said something about making the social networking site a reality show (they want to “think outside the box”). I have no idea what they were talking about. I told them that my friends were laughing at me for talking to them. They suggested making me a “point man” or “manager” or something like that.  Crazy talk. The same day he ran into Rosenberg and gave him the same pitch. The fact that we both share so many characteristics apparently confused them.

In any case, I just got off of the phone with Zach. He asked me if I wanted to join them and I said, “I need more information” and “I do have offers from other companies.” Which are reasonable points if you ask me. He blew up in my face. He went on and on about how its people like him, without necessarily having tehcnical experience, that really make it big. He said that my decision to really go all out only for my own projects was “elitist” and that most people make it big as part of a team. He prognosticated a terrible future for me and said that’d he was going to make it big. After getting all mad, he didn’t let me respond and just hung up.

I mean I don’t think his project is totally without merit. Maybe he will make it big, but I have no way of knowing that. Why should I risk it on a project I don’t like and a project that I don’t understand? Zach is clearly not a good leader (based on my experience with him). He doesn’t know when to be silent, he acts unprofessionally, he has no time management skills (standing me up twice), he has no technical skills (by his own admission) and he over emphasizes the value of youngness and age (hire some experienced devs dude, not random college students!). I wish him the best, but I won’t be surprised if the whole thing tanks.