Back in the car, Bruce went through the Google valuation report from top to bottom, carefully this time.
After thinking it over for a few minutes, he pulled out his phone, found Matta Lincoln's number, and called.
"Bruce?"
"It's been over a week. Is that thing I asked you to handle done yet?"
They had basically grown up together, so there was no need for formalities.
"You mean the offshore company? That was taken care of a while ago. Martin told me you'd been busy with your girlfriend all week, so I didn't bother you."
Since Martin was Bruce's closest friend, it was no surprise he and Matta knew each other well. Still, Bruce had always found their friendship a little strange.
Matta was stubborn, proud, and not exactly warm unless you had something he respected. Martin, on the other hand, was almost the opposite. Quiet, awkward, not especially good with people. Other than being brilliant and unusually gifted with computers, there was nothing flashy about him at all.
One was all pride, the other was all retreat.
The fact that they got along at all was a minor miracle.
"Good. If it's done, just hold on to the documents for now. I'll come get them when I have time."
"Fine. Oh, right. Katherine passed her thesis defense. She'll be back next week. We should all get together."
"Got it. I'm going to be busy for a while, so call and remind me when the time comes."
"Yeah, yeah. If that's it, I'm hanging up."
"Go ahead."
After ending the call, Bruce stepped on the gas, and the yellow Chevrolet merged into traffic and disappeared into the city.
He did not go back to campus.
There was no real reason to anymore. He had already completed everything he needed academically, and graduating a year early would not be a problem. More importantly, time would not allow him to return to campus life anyway.
The moment Bruce stepped into LinkedIn's office, it was immediately obvious how much had changed.
It no longer felt empty.
Employees were moving around everywhere, and as they passed him, they greeted him respectfully.
"Boss."
"Morning, Boss."
Bruce nodded to each of them as he made his way through the office.
He found Martin, who was leading the newly assembled engineering team through a product upgrade, and Tim George, the company's newly hired COO, an MBA graduate from Stanford Business School. Then the three of them stepped into the small conference room enclosed by tempered glass.
"The company is still in its early stage," Bruce said. "At the moment, the senior team is basically just the three of us. So we need to talk about our priorities for the next phase. Tim, you haven't been here long, but I still want to hear your thoughts."
Tim George looked at Bruce's youthful face, full of energy and confidence, and understood immediately that this was a test.
He thought for a moment, drawing on what he had observed over the past few days, along with his own training and work experience.
"Mr. President..."
"Just call me Bruce," he said, cutting him off. "We're coworkers, and hopefully friends. If there aren't other employees around, let's keep it informal."
Bruce had read enough about later tech companies to know that for a high-growth startup, imagination mattered far more than stiff hierarchy.
Tim visibly relaxed. He was only in his mid-twenties himself, and his practical experience was still limited. Bruce's casual tone took a lot of pressure off.
"LinkedIn is a professional networking company," Tim began. "That means our core competitive advantage has to come from meeting users' needs in two areas: social connection and career development."
He paused briefly.
"On the social side, what people want is interaction. Right now we have the forum, which gives users a place to talk. But social interaction isn't just about having a place to post. It's also about circles, closeness, levels of connection. Right now, we don't have a strong feature set that helps users organize or define those different social circles."
Noticing that both Bruce and Martin were listening closely, Tim became more confident as he continued.
"Then there's the professional side. If users are signing up for LinkedIn, and especially if they're paying, they need to get something out of it. A forum alone isn't enough. We need to provide cutting-edge industry information, high-quality commentary, and insights from respected professionals or recognized names to keep users engaged."
He leaned forward slightly.
"And I think we should also build a feature that lets users showcase their skills and experience in a structured way, something that can catch the attention of hiring managers and recruiters and help them reach their career goals."
He paused again, then added:
"One more thing. I think we should eventually offer high-quality professional learning courses online, something members can use to improve their skills and career readiness. Current broadband isn't really there yet, so video delivery would be difficult, but we can start planning for it now."
Bruce looked at the young executive in real surprise.
He had hired Tim mainly to manage day-to-day operations. In Bruce's mind, the company's strategic direction was still something he would steer himself.
But this conversation had given him an unexpected and very welcome surprise.
Especially the idea of online professional courses. In an era with no real video platforms yet and painfully slow broadband, that kind of thinking was genuinely ahead of its time.
Bruce started clapping.
"That was excellent, Tim. Hiring you as COO may turn out to be one of the best decisions I've made so far."
"Thank you, Boss."
Even while being praised, Tim stayed composed.
That earned him a little more respect in Bruce's eyes.
Bruce turned toward Martin.
"You heard him. We need to speed up development on contact importing and group segmentation, along with individual profile pages and company pages."
Martin nodded immediately.
"No later than Christmas. Engineering can have both features done by then."
Tim looked from one to the other and said seriously, "So you'd already been thinking along the same lines."
Bruce smiled. "Tim, Martin's going to stay focused on leading engineering. That means building out editorial, operations, finance, HR, and marketing is going to fall to you."
"Understood."
"And be careful with the CFO hire."
Bruce's tone turned more serious.
Other roles could be figured out as they went, but a finance lead was different. U.S. tax law was far too complicated to leave in inexperienced hands. Without a strong CFO, LinkedIn would get eaten alive on the tax side.
Tim understood that perfectly well and nodded.
"Also," Bruce added, "hire me a secretary."
Tim asked, "Any specific requirements?"
"Real competence. Beyond that, I'm flexible."
"Understood."
Bruce let his gaze move across both men, calm but carrying unmistakable authority.
"From today on, LinkedIn is officially in business. Today is April 15. That gives us eight months until Christmas. By the time Christmas gets here, I want us to hit six million registered users."
"Yes, Boss," both men answered at once.
Bruce nodded in satisfaction.
"All right. That's enough for now. Get back to work."
After they left, Bruce remained in the conference room for a few quiet moments, sorting through the next few days in his head. Once everything was in order, he stepped out and went to the office set aside for him.
He opened the HP laptop on his desk.
Across both lifetimes, he had never really liked Apple products, so an HP machine running Windows 2000 and Office felt like the better choice.
Looking at the old machine in front of him, he clicked his tongue.
"Too bad Microsoft's best years are already behind it. Otherwise buying the stock would've been a nice easy win."
After hitting a record market capitalization of $661.6 billion on December 30, 1999, Microsoft had come under antitrust pressure from the U.S. government, and its stock had taken a hit. Then came the Nasdaq crash, followed later by missteps around Vista, which meant the company did not recover that old peak for years. It was not until Windows 7 that things truly improved.
Even so, the fact that Microsoft remained one of the most valuable technology companies in the world after missing both the internet and mobile internet waves was impressive in its own way.
Pushing those stray thoughts aside, Bruce opened My Documents.
A row of folders appeared on the screen.
Most were system files or work files. But three stood out immediately.
One was labeled Pirates of the Caribbean.
One was labeled Fifty Shades of Grey.
And the last one was labeled The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry.
When Bruce had first accepted the reality of his rebirth and started thinking about how to build his first real pool of capital, the first thing that had come to mind was writing.
It was what he knew best.
And to explain that, it was worth talking about his previous life again.
He had always leaned toward history and language from a young age. Even though he missed out on a top-tier university because of a lopsided academic profile, he still ended up in the literature department of a major provincial university. After graduation, he worked as a trainee editor at a newspaper.
That did not last.
By then, print media was already being crushed by the internet. After going months without being paid, he had no choice but to leave if he wanted to keep eating.
Over the next two years, he bounced through several office jobs before eventually joining NetEase, where he worked as a junior editor on the finance desk.
Like a lot of broke young guys, he was also a web novel addict.
Then, in 2012, after seeing several top online writers publicly talk about massive royalty income on television, he got jealous enough to try it himself.
That was how he entered the world of online writing.