Silicon Valley (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Signaling Risk - full transcript

DINESH: Fucking sketchy
neighborhood, man.

You see that guy? That's Chuy Ramirez.

And he's gonna do our new logo.

That's the artist you were talking about?
You said he had paintings in galleries.

His works hang in the
gallery of the streets.

I'll be back in a flash.

Whoa, no. What?

Okay.

Man, we're just going
to sit here like this?

Oh, shit. Look at this guy.

He's a scary individual.



Whoa. Um...

GILFOYLE: Hey, buddy.
Do you have any drugs?

Please, let it up. Let it up.

If you don't let it go, I can't roll it up.

Just... Please, just... You fucking prick!

Ow!

I'm gonna beat you in your face!

ERLICH: Chuy Ramirez?

Erlich Bachman. We spoke on the phone.

- What's up, man?
- Pleasure to meet you.

- All right.
- Ah...

This is great. Look at this.

This is what we need, you know what I mean?
Something raw.

We already have kind of a shitty name,
Pied Piper,



but the last thing we want
is two lowercase P's in a square

like those motherfuckers
across the freeway would make.

This is what we want.

So you gonna give me stock options or what?

- What?
- Yeah. You know Dave Choe?

He did all the murals over at Facebook.

He got a stock option deal,
ended up making, like, $100 million.

I want a deal like that.

You know, I don't really speak
all that Wall Street bullshit.

You know what I'm saying?

We're just, like, five guys hanging out
in a house, trying to make cool shit.

Well, you told me you own 10% of it.

So you must know something about it, right?

You could just give me some of your points.

Hey, I'm not an accountant, you know?

I don't even know what that means,
a lot of those words.

You fucking prick!

(GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING)

(DOORS LOCK)

Oh, you fucker.

Let me in. Please, please. I'll break this.
I don't care. I don't care.

- I'll break this...
- I can't hear you.

- (CAR HORN HONKING)
- Oh, God.

I can't hear you.

(HONKS HORN INTERMITTENTLY)

Yeah, but you don't want
stock in our company.

If I could go back in time,
I wouldn't have taken the stock.

- I would've taken cash only. I'm telling you...
- (HONKING CONTINUES)

- Who's that dude?
- Uh, nobody. He's a coder.

You got a Latino working for you?

That's cool, yo.
Not a lot of Latinos working in tech.

Yeah. Yeah, he's Latino.

Yeah. And he's one of
the best coders we have.

He kind of adds a Latin
flair to the company.

I told you, we do things differently.

Yeah. You know what?

I could do a cash deal
for a Latino company.

I think we should get out of here, though,

because I just painted over some dude's
shit and people get shot behind that.

So I'll catch you on the flip. Peace!

Uh, okay. Peace, Chuy.

Oh, God. This is very real.

Hey, Dinesh! Get in the fucking car.

- There may be a drive-by about to happen.
- DINESH: What?

(LATINO HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING)

You promised this guy $10,000
without any approval?

- Are you high?
- A little bit, yeah.

But that's irrelevant.

A cool company needs a cool logo.

You think those guys over at Nucleus

are hiring a convicted felon
to paint a mural on their garage?

For $10,000? No.

Look, I took a run at a burn down chart.

Ugh. Jesus fucking Christ.

It's not pretty.

The way things are going,
we're not gonna finish for five months.

And even with everyone on reduced salaries,
we'll exhaust all our funding in four.

And that's without wasting
$10,000 on artwork.

"Wasting"? I got a great deal.

You know, he wanted stock options
until he saw Dinesh?

DINESH: Hold on, what?

Don't be offended, but
for some weird reason,

Chuy took a look at you
and thought you were a Mexican.

(LAUGHS)

Why would I be offended by that?

What?

Why would I be offended
by him thinking I'm Mexican?

He's Mexican, right?

Yeah, he is, but you're not.
You're Pakistani.

So?

Actually, the very fact that you think
this would be offensive to me is offensive.

You're the one being racist.

No. I'm not the one who
called you a Mexican.

Called me a Mexican? You're doing it again.

I'm bending over backwards
to not be racist right now.

All right. Well, what did he say
when you told him I wasn't Mexican?

I didn't.

And why not?

Because I wanted him
to paint our garage for cheap.

I genuinely don't know
how to respond to that.

You know, I'm not gonna take the bait here.

I am not a racist, all right?

I watch a lot of black porn. I mean, a lot.

One question.

In this porn, is the man black,
or the woman black, or are they both?

Is one of those racist,
and the others aren't?

I'll hack his browser history.
We'll get to the bottom of this.

DINESH: Yep.

Hold on. That's unnecessary.

Hold on.

Richard?

Can you explain this to me?

- (MUFFLED MUSIC PLAYING)
- Hmm?

What?

I just got a text from
my friend at TechCrunch.

Pied Piper just got into
this year's Startup Battlefield?

Oh, really? Oh, that's so cool.

No. No, it isn't. We're
already seeded, Richard.

Why would we enter a start-up competition
at a tech conference?

I sent in the application a few months ago
and I totally forgot about it.

Relax, I will withdraw.

Relax?

This house is chaos.

I gave up a great job and stock options
at Hooli to come here

because I thought Pied
Piper could be viable,

but it never will be
unless we make some changes.

We need to operate like a business
or we're not going to...

(MUFFLED MUSIC PLAYING
OVER HEADPHONES)

Richard?

Richard?

Thanks for coming in, Nelson.

Mr. Belson is very excited
to meet with you.

I thought he was in Jackson Hole this week.

Yes, he is. We're going to
call him up on the TeleHuman.

It's amazing.

It's holographic 3D teleconferencing
technology that we've acquired.

It's going to feel as if Gavin
is right here in the room with you.

- (COMPUTER CHIMING)
- Oh, it's him!

It's him!

Hello, Nelson. Thanks for meeting with me.

Whoa. Hi. That's cool.

Am I a hologram over there, too?

What? No, of course not.

Question. Do you still
talk to Richard Hendricks?

Uh...

Yeah. I mean,
not about Nucleus or anything...

Why would he enter Pied Piper
in TechCrunch Disrupt?

I know a lot of big players have come out
of it, Dropbox, Yammer, what have you.

But Peter Gregory's already funding him.

Why would he let Richard do this?
It makes no sense.

I don't know.
I didn't even know Richard got in.

Is Peter Gregory toying with me?

Is he trying to make Richard seem folksy?

Like some aw-shucks boy-genius

entering an even/man's competition?
(GLITCHING)

Mr. Belson?

- Can you hear me?
- Hello?

- Can you hear me?
- Yeah, it's just... It's sort of fading.

- (GLITCHING) Hello?
- Hello.

Hello?

- I'm hearing you. It's just the image is...
- Nelson, shut up for a second-.

If you can hear me, make a gesture.

Is that... Do you... I hear you. Is this...

I have no idea what you're saying, Nelson.

Nelson. Nelson. Can you help me, please?

(BEEPING)

Okay, I think what happened was
when you set it up, you forgot to...

I didn't set it up.
I paid one of you people to set it up.

GAVIN: Just fix it.

TECHNICIAN: Uh... Okay.

Here's the thing, it's not working.

TECHNICIAN: Um...

TECHNICIAN: The audio's still working.
You could just use that.

GAVIN: "The audio is working"? Excuse me?

I paid 20 million fucking dollars
to acquire this company.

Fuck you, "the audio is working"!

Audio worked 100 fucking years ago!

You fucking piece of shit... (GLITCHING)

(COMPUTER BEEPS)

- it appears we've lost him.
- Yeah.

- Why don't we just try Hooli-Chat instead?
- Yeah.

(CLEARING THROAT)

Ah, that's better. Sorry.

The TeleHuman is a great
piece of technology.

Unfortunately, the broadband
isn't that great out here in rural Wyoming.

- That presents a great business opportunity...
- (COMPUTER CHIMES)

(GLITCHING)
Nelson, make a gesture... hear me.

- Oh, for fuck's sake.
- (COMPUTER BEEPING)

Uh... l think you forgot
to update your software.

- God damn it.
- (COMPUTER BEEPING)

- BIG HEAD: Oh.
- (CELL PHONE RINGING)

(CLEARS THROAT)

Hello?

Oh, hi, Gavin.

What's that? I'm sorry, you're
kind of breaking up there.

Hello? Hello?

JARED: Okay, let's start the meeting.

I think we need to define
our corporate culture.

Our whole corporate culture
is that we don't have a corporate culture.

That is totally ridiculous, Gilfoyle.

The main reason dogs are perceived
to have a more keen sense of smell

is because their noses
are closer to the ground.

Therefore, with a little practice, I could
easily have as keen a sense of smell as a dog's.

Guys? I guess you didn't see the sign.

We're actually having a meeting here.

Congratulations.

It's sort of for management only.

Are you fucking serious right now?
Are you really kicking us out?

Well, I thought, maybe you guys could just
take your food into the living room.

So you want to have a meeting
in the room where all the food is,

while we eat our food
in the room where all the computers are?

Guys, just five minutes. Please?

Okay, you see? This is a case in point.

This is a company, and yet we have
no boundaries and no protocol.

We need to establish a clear corporate
culture or we're not gonna make it.

Take Dinesh and Gilfoyle.

They are wasting
an enormous amount of time arguing.

What if we were to separate them, right?

Divide their existing work space
into two areas.

We could put in
some kind of portable barrier...

He's talking about cubicles!

GILFOYLE: We are not doing cubicles.
No way!

No, no, no, no. Don't
think of it as a cubicle.

Just think of it as a, uh,
neutral-colored enclosure,

about yay high, around your workspace.

Okay, fine.
But do you know who uses cubicles?

Every single Fortune 500 company.

Why? Because they work.

He's trying to turn us into
corporate rock, Richard.

- JARED: No.
- We are punk rock.

Actually, you know, I think
a better analogy would be jazz.

Like we riff and improvise
around a central theme

to create one cohesive piece of music.

No, no. They teach fucking
jazz at Juilliard.

We're not jazz. We're fucking punk rock.

You see? You see?

You guys are arguing over what metaphor
to use to agree with each other.

This is the inefficiency
I'm trying to eliminate.

My suggestions could actually
help you beat me in this argument.

Do you see the irony there?

(BLOWING RASPBERRY)

- I can't argue with this.
- (CAR HORN HONKING)

CHUY: Yo, Erlich!

Uh, Chuy's here.

No. And this is the craziest one of all.

I mean, we're really about to spend $10,000

on a logo
we could generate in-house for free?

It's madness.

You want a logo? Here.

Just...

There. I just saved this company $10,000.

Are you fucking serious? Lowercase letters?

Twitter, lowercase Google, lowercase

Facebook, lowercase

Every fucking company in the Valley
has lowercase letters.

Why? Because it's safe.

But we aren't going to do that.

We're gonna go with Chuy.

Unless any of you gringos
wants to go out there

and tell a guy with three
assault convictions

that we're not gonna give him
the money we promised him.

Hmm? That's what I thought.

I mean... God.

Are you still enjoying your asparagus, sir?

I was never enjoying it.

I only eat it for the nutrients.

You may take it.

Oh, shit.

Peter, I don't want to upset you,

(WHISPERING) but Gavin Belson
just walked in.

(CHOKING)

Does he see us?

I don't know. He must
know that you're here.

If I scurry to the restroom,
do you imagine he would...

Peter!

I didn't know you came here.

Gavin.

Hello.

Nice to see you.

And you as well.

How are you?

Well.

- And you?
- Not bad.

I just got back from Jackson Hole.

Have you been?

I have not.

But I hear good things.

(CLEARING THROAT)

You look well.

Are you exercising?

I have begun to do Pilates.

I hear that's good.

I like it.

Yes.

GAVIN: Well, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Nice to see you, Peter.

- Goodbye now.
- Okay.

(SNAPPING FINGERS)

You know, I almost forgot.

I saw that Pied Piper is in the
Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt.

It inspired me to call TechCrunch
and offer to be their keynote speaker.

They were quite accommodating.

Especially when I said that I'd make the
event the grand unveiling of Nucleus.

So, I will see you all at the conference.

(FORCED CHUCKLE)

This is displeasing.

I have never seen him so incensed.

What the hell were you thinking, Richard?

How could you not tell us
that you entered TechCrunch Disrupt?

I applied before I even met you guys.

I wasn't gonna say anything
because I was gonna withdraw.

- No, you're not.
- I'm not? Why not?

Because of you, Gavin Belson
is debuting Nucleus at TCD.

If you pull out, it looks like
Peter is running away from Gavin.

So like it or not, you are presenting a live
demo in front of the world in eight weeks.

A live demo of what?

I entered TCD with an early build of Pied
Piper when it was still just a music app.

No. Sorry. Executive decision.
We are not doing TechCrunch.

Okay. So let me just
tell you what's gonna happen.

Peter will pull all of his support
and pass on any further funding,

which, as you know, is the most
flaming signaling risk on Earth.

You'll burn through the rest of your runway,
no one will step in, then you'll go bust.

(SIGHING) I don't get it.

Doesn't Peter Gregory
want what's best for the company?

(SIGHING)

Look. I'm going to be straight with you.

Peter Gregory doesn't care.

- About?
- You.

Wait. Just him or both of us?

Any of you. Pied Piper.

Okay... (CHUCKLING NERVOUSLY)

Uh, well, then why did he back us?

Does he just want to piss off Gavin Belson?
He spent $200,000 just...

Yeah, that's nothing.

Peter would spend millions
just to mildly annoy Gavin.

These are billionaires, Richard.

Humiliating each other is worth more
to them than we'll make in a lifetime.

(CHUCKLING) I see.

And you conveniently
forgot to mention any of this

when you were convincing me
to turn down $10 million?

And now I'm in the middle of some
pissing contest between two billionaires.

In fairness,

Gavin only offered you the $10 million
because we started pursuing you...

Yeah, but he offered it to me, Monica!
He offered it to me.

$10 dollars and I didn't take it.

Because you came to me
when I was puking and freaking out

and told me that
Peter Gregory believed in me,

when in reality,
he didn't even give a flying fuck!

- Richard...
- Oh, my God.

I didn't turn down $10 million
because of Peter Gregory, Monica!

I turned it down because of you!

However angry he is, I
am one-tenth as angry.

Because one of the $10 million
would've been mine.

- Because I own 10%.
- I know.

- Of Pied Piper.
- I know!

- (DOOR RATTLING)
- It's push.

(SIGHING)

We didn't think we were going to get this
thing done when we had five months to do it.

Now we have two?

Granted, it's not ideal,
but we're just gonna have to...

What the good fuck?

RICHARD: What is happening?
Is that Dinesh?

ERLICH: Is that the Statue of Liberty?

And it's...

There's penetration.

Oh! Hey, neighbor.

- Ashley's getting big!
- Aw.

She looks...

- What do we do?
- I don't know. Paint over it.

No, no, no. You can't paint over it.
It's, like, the code of the streets.

- People get shot behind that.
- Oh, good.

Hey. So what do guys think, man?

Uh...

I think Erlich had a few thoughts.

So, I gotta...

I'll let you...

(SIGHING) Uh...

Here's the headline.

There's a lot right with it.
A lot of good stuff in there.

But I just...
Do you think the piece is working?

I mean, maybe it's
a bit too graphic for the space?

No way. Look at it.

It comments on the whole Latino struggle
for justice in America.

But even without all the symbolism,
it's just aesthetically pleasing.

Yeah.

All right, here's the real shit, Chuy.

Uh, you know, our prize coder,

he's actually not Latino.

What?

Yeah. Point of fact is, he's Pakistani.

Homes, you lied to me.

No, no, no. You thought he was Latino,

and I thought that I would be racist
telling you you were wrong.

Come on, man. Why would you think that?

Thinking that, now that's racist.

God, I can't Win with that.

Look, Chuy, painting a guy
named Dinesh Chugtai as an Aztec warrior

just doesn't make sense.

Yeah. You know what?

I think you might be right, boss.

Great. That's... Um...

So... Perfect. So change that

and then don't have him be fucking
the literal symbol of freedom.

And then, whatever else you wanna do.

- All right.
- All right.

If I had known, we could have withdrawn your
application before any of this happened.

This is exactly why we need to have
clearer lines of communication.

I know, Jared, I know.

Listen, I'd like to institute
an organizational system called Scrum.

Scrum is designed to...

DINESH: All right, you have one hour! Go!

(SNIFFING) No.

No. Just musty.

Uh, what's going on?

Gilfoyle bet me 100 bucks

that if I touched one object in this room,
he could find it just by sniffing.

Okay. Not now, please.

No, it has to be now.
I just masturbated to heighten my focus.

I have a 15-minute refractory period.

- Ow.
- Uh, well, we have a lot of work to get done.

So maybe we should do that instead, please?

Dude, relax, okay?

We each ripped through
a full module this morning.

We're just taking a little break.

DRM is now a thing of beauty.
(CLICKING TONGUE)

- Wait. You did DRM?
- Yeah.

I did DRM.

Why did you do DRM?

I said I would do DRM,
you would do error handling.

Anything to do with "error"
sounds like your whole vibe.

DINESH: Yeah, I handle
errors like you every day.

Scrum?

- Yes, Scrum.
- Scrum. (CHUCKLES)

JARED: So from "rules based filtering,"
we go to "workflow,"

at which point that card
is moved from the "icebox"

into the "in progress" column and it stays
there until it is ready for "testing."

Okay. This increases visibility
into our team's progress.

And that, gentlemen, is Scrum.

Welcome to the next eight
weeks of our lives.

This just became a job.

Okay, so here are the cards

I'm adding under this epic
for the ingestion engine.

And there are three stories here.

How long do we think each one will take?

I don't know. Who cares?

Four hours apiece?

Yeah. Maybe for you.

Each one of those tasks
would take me three max.

Not "tasks," "stories."

I've got a story.
Why don't you choke on my balls?

Well, how about this?

Why don't you each take one story, right?

Okay.

And we'll see who's right.

You see what he's doing, right?

He's trying to get us to compete
so we work faster.

He thinks this wall of Psych 101,
MBA, mind control bullshit

is going to motivate us.

Fine. Don't compete.
Do them at whatever speed you like.

Uh, Jared.

(SIGHING) Uh...

I know these guys.

I really don't think Scrum
is gonna work for them.

Whoa... Just trust in the system.

So we're just going to work at
a nice, leisurely pace, right?

GILFOYLE: Sure.

(TYPES FASTER)

Wait, why are you typing faster?

I'm not.

Maybe my leisurely pace
is just a little faster than yours.

(WHISPERING) Cocksucker.

(CHUCKLING)

- Boo-yah.
- (DOOR OPENS)

Guys, have you been out front yet?

'Cause you might wanna come see this.

- I'm good.
- Fuck off, we're working.

Wow.

This took a lot of work.

ERLICH: I mean, I'm already smiling.

Did he really have to paint me
giving the thumbs-up?

It's gratuitous.

Really? That's the gratuitous part?

- Well, and Dinesh's shaft...
- (POLICE SIREN CHIRPS)

- Oh, no.
- Uh...

ERLICH: Oh shit.

(SIGHS)

Are one of you the homeowner?

Yeah, I am.

We've had a number of complaints
about your artwork here.

Look, what you do inside the house
is your own business...

- Oh, no. We don't do that.
- Oh, no...

But that is you, is it not?
The individual on the right?

Yeah.

You're gonna need to paint over this.

Oh, I don't think the artist
would like that. He's Latino.

Hmm.

Was that racist?

Why are you asking me?

Oh...

I mean, I could've asked anybody,
but you're...

RICHARD: it doesn't matter.
I have a solution.

- We put it up.
- (GARAGE DOOR OPENS)

We don't put it down. Leave it up.

No, no, no. No, no, no! Close it!

ERLICH: No...

(SIGHS)

Look at this, left from
the previous tenant.

Unbelievable.

I can't believe
I didn't enter the garage until this point.

I mean, is that marijuanas?

We're gonna need to take those.

Or we leave them and wait to see if the
criminal returns to the scene of the crime.

What do you say, please?

Okay. So I keep the mural,
and I keep the 10 G's.

What do you get?

I just thought when I got a new garage door,
maybe you could come and paint a new logo.

Something just as artistic,
but maybe a little less challenging.

Hey! Don't look under there.
Get away from there!

That's not me.

(LAUGHING)

Um, just to be honest with you,
I really, really, really need this.

So, I'm trying to be
vulnerable in front of you.

I don't know. Is this a safe place?

Look, you can be vulnerable, ese,
but this ain't a safe place.

A plumber got stabbed just last week
right where you're standing.

What? Jesus Christ!

What... Why would you stab a plumber?

(SIGHING) All right. It was worth a try.
Thanks anyway, Chuy.

Wait.

Just go ahead and leave the mural.
I like looking at it.

And plus, I think I know what kind of logo
you white boys might like.

Uh, that's amazing. Thank you, Chuy!

- Uh, yeah. Appreciate it.
- All right, man.

- Yes, one of those, too.
- All right.

Another one down.

Did you really?

You still working on that last one?

Take your time. There's no rush, Dinesh.

Feeling pretty happy about yourself?

I'm pretty happy with ourself.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

Hello?

Hey, is Richard here?

I don't know.

- Hey.
- Hey.

Come to check up on your investment?

Listen, you were right.

I played you a little.

Maybe a lot.

I got caught up in making the deal.

All right? And I would like to say that
I was just doing my job,

but that's the excuse that the Nazis used,

so I'm not really sure
how effective that one is.

Your point being?

I'm sorry.

But I'm also not sorry.

The reason I pushed Peter to seed you is,

I think you have
an unbelievably good platform.

Way better than the rest of
his other compression plays,

which I apologize for
not telling you about.

Look, I know eight weeks
isn't a lot of time to get this ready,

but I get the feeling you're
the kind of guy that does better

when there's a fire lit under his ass.

It's a pretty big fire.

It is.

And by the way,

you're the only one of Peter's companies that
I've invested 10% of my annual salary in.

So I really hope that you can do this.

Uh, well, I don't know how.

I guess we'll find out.

I saw the logo out front.

I didn't know it was, uh...

Cool. Guys, the new logo!

Can we please both go?

You go first.

(CONTINUES TYPING)

I love it.

ERLICH: Well, it's lowercase,

but at least it isn't racist.

Is it?

It's Chuy Ramirez?

I'm impressed. He sold a mural
today for a half-million bucks.

It wasn't on a garage door, was it?

(SIGHING)

You don't think
it's too incendiary for the offices?

Gavin, you got where you are
by challenging sensibilities.

You know me well.

It is pretty raunchy, though.

(LATINO HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING)