IP: PayPal perqs?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Wharton <wharton () shasta Stanford EDU>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 15:03:46 -0800
To: dave () farber net
Cc: wharton () shasta Stanford EDU
Subject: PayPal perqs?

Dave--

Here's an amusing little sidebar to the PayPal IPO story.  Post to the
IP list if you wish.

===

There's this funky little restaurant in downtown Palo Alto known as "The
Creamery", an authentic 1950s-style soda-fountain and burger joint.
(Official name: The Penninsula Fountain and Grill.)  I'm sure you've
been there.

On the menu they list half a page of hamburger combination plates, with
fries, chili, etc., most in the $5.00 to $7.00 range.  At the bottom
they list a "Bubbly Burger" that sells for $150.75.  The price looks
like a typo, until you read the footnote: The "Bubbly Burger" is served
with a free bottle of chilled Dom Perignon champagne!  :-)

(That's actually something of a bargain: the retail price for 'Dom' can
be $120 or more per bottle.)

I always took this to be a gag, until now.  While stopping in for lunch
there today, I saw a couple of large tables had been pushed together to
provide seating for 14 earnest-looking young men, most in crisp white
tee shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes, all munching on burgers and fries.
In itself, not that uncommon a sight in Silicon Valley...

Then I noticed their tee shirts had various PayPal slogans on the backs,
and several were wearing hooded warm-up jackets bearing PayPal logos.
The PayPal IPO, you may recall, had been planned for last week, but was
postponed by some sort of litigation threat and rescheduled for today.

It slowly dawned on me that, rather than having Cokes and shakes with
their burgers, the men at the PayPal tables were drinking tall glasses
of champagne, and several bottles of Dom Perignon were scattered around
the tables.  (I counted at least six or eight.)  Bubbly burgers for all!

I stopped to chat briefly; Yes, these were PayPoint employees; Yes, the
IPO had gone through, and they were out celebrating.  ("A significant
milestone", as one lad described it.)  And how better to celebrate --
and how typically Silicon Valley! -- than for these newly-minted young
entrepreneurs to grab a quick burger at their favorite greasy spoon???

Friday-afternoon beer busts are a tradition in The Valley, but I was
quite amused to think that -- just for this once -- these folks had
replaced the pitchers of beer with bottles of the best French bubbly!

  --John Wharton





------ End of Forwarded Message

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/