21st Century
Call me Ismaël. As I am writing the first chapter of this book, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are on fire. Today, the world entered into the 21st century.
I was born in France, and my father is from Algeria, but today, after two years in the United States, I feel like an American. This morning, I was supposed to take an 11:45AM flight to New York and meet with customers in Manhattan’s Financial District. At this moment, I do not even know if some of them are still alive. Needless to say, I immediately cancelled my trip to New York.
I am sitting on my balcony in South Beach, San Francisco, CA. On the building in front of mine, workers are finishing the roof of a renovated mall, as if nothing happened. The show must go on, I guess.
Last week, I secured $10M in funding for my company, Intalio, Inc. The deal was supposed to close next week. I spent the last twelve months trying to raise this new round of financing from institutional investors. After what happened, the world economy might enter into a recession much more significant than the one initiated by the dot-com burst that I witnessed over the last two years. This might compromise the funding of my company. One should really understand that until a deal is closed, anything can happen and make it collapse. Today, I learnt this lesson, and I am preparing myself for the worse to happen.
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