Second Chances [The Dudley Story]

Ding Dong!

Dudley arrived at the rented garage that Larry Page and Sergey Brin were using to kickstart their idea. Things weren't going well for them as the lack of investors and interest in their idea left them with barely any capital.

Their need was to scale the search engine. However, the search engine market was already dominated by the likes of Yahoo!, Lycos, and a few others. Furthermore, their idea was too different and unconventional.

No money, no infrastructure either. And because the two were still pursuing their PhDs, they didn't have much energy to go around begging for investments.

And just then, the angel called Dudley Dursley arrived at the door of the garage. Of course, he had already spoken with the two men on the phone about a possible meeting. He arrived in a common business suit, while Harry Potter behind him stood in old money fashion, white pants, blue shirt with a beige cardigan, sleeves folded, a pair of shades on his eyes. While a large, certainly rented Rolls Royce stood behind them on the road.

"Mr. Dursley?"

The door opened and two ordinary men with a look of nerdiness, dark circles under their eyes appeared. They sized up Dudley from head to toe, and then Harry behind. While the two weren't old themselves, they didn't expect Dudley to look that young.

"That's me, owner of D&D Capital. The bloke behind me is my childhood bud, Harry Potter." Dudley handed the two his business card just to clear away any doubts. "So?"

The two men stopped staring at the business card and invited Dudley and Harry into the garage. The place was filled with things, from computer hardware to files of paper, and the walls were covered with whiteboards and sticky notes.

Dudley looked at it all and failed to see any faces on Larry and Sergey. Instead, he saw dollar signs. Google was going to be his long-term investment, one that he had no plans on selling for as long as he'd live. Heck, with his knowledge, he was confident enough to boost the company by a few hundred billion more.

Soon, Dudley sat down at an ordinary-looking, small square table with the two founders in front of him. Harry didn't sit and walked around, looking at things and making snarky comments.

"Ignore him, he was born with a golden spoon. Old money types. He has no interest in tech, just partying and girls." Dudley threw his cousin under the bus and started to lay down the trap. "So, can I look at the plan?"

"Of course!" Larry grabbed a file quickly and placed it in front of Dudley. "It's called BackRub right now, but we're changing it to Google starting next year. Our officemate suggested it, and we kinda liked it. In any case, our main goal right now is to scale things up and upgrade the hardware to make the searches faster…"

Dudley listened to the two founders silently while flipping pages. As he read the material, the Google that was before him was a mere shadow of the future behemoth. For now, the two men were focused on making it a successful search engine. But it was the backbone that'd support everything else.

They have no idea how massive the smartphone sector will be in the future. As long as I play my cards right, I can have Google be the default search engine on every smart device.

"Scalability is great and all, but how are you planning to make money from it? What's the plan for monetizing your search engine?" Dudley asked, wanting to turn Google into a money-making machine a little earlier than his known life.

Clank!

"Come on, Dud! We're getting late for the yacht party," Harry nagged from the side as he played with a paperweight. "What's so good about this place?"

"These two, and their ideas," Dudley replied, pointing at Larry and Sergey. "Let me deal with this, Harry."

Sergey took a deep breath and spoke. "We are currently looking for monetization methods. But with all our time focused on scalability, it'll take a bit of time."

"Hmm, one can eat and read a book at the same time," Dudley mumbled and started to write on empty papers on the file he was given. "I get the gist of what you're making, so let me pitch in an idea. Making money is one thing I'm good at, so do consider it."

Dudley wrote down and drew some diagrams and examples on the page. It was all based on his future knowledge of how the internet was going to slowly develop. Google was already the first to do it, but it was going to be even quicker.

"How about allowing businesses to bid on keywords and show text-based ads next to relevant search results? Let's say someone searched for Health Insurance, then an ad for health insurance appears in search results with a small text beside it declaring it's an 'ad'. If someone wants to buy books, Amazon shows up as an ad. Using a pay-per-click system would make it affordable and appealing for businesses."

He held himself back from using words like metadata and other things that were popular in the future. Those things were too advanced to be uttered that early, even if those concepts existed.

"As the internet keeps growing and getting faster, I reckon we could expand this ad program to more websites in the future—maybe even add picture ads and, who knows, videos that play on a loop someday." Dudley finished explaining and looked at their faces. "What do you think? Is it possible?"

The two founders looked at each other's faces alternatively.

"We… We were thinking about such an idea but this is… better," Larry muttered.

"Like a refined version," Sergey added.

No shit, you made it.

"Alright then, let's just get on with it and start working. Google, huh? That's a decent name. Could even end up as one of the big investments in my portfolio someday," Dudley dropped a small hint that they weren't the only ones. "So, how much investment are you after?"

"Eight? But ten will help us the most. Our servers are in need of major upgrades," Larry blurted.

"And how much equity are you planning to offer for that ten milli—"

"Dud, I'm leaving. Do whatever you want with my money, I don't care," Harry barked all of a sudden and looked around at the garage. "They don't even have a decent spot to sit. You really think they'll grow?"

"I do," Dudley replied.

"I don't," Harry said and left the garage.

Finally, Dudley looked back at the two men. "Ignore him. Generational wealthy like him grow up spoiled. So, how much equity?"

"Ten… percent?" Sergey murmured weakly, as if unsure.

Dudley laughed in his heart. Well, he could understand their minds. Until now, the only funding they'd got was a few hundred thousand dollars. They couldn't just proclaim their idea was worth billions and demand money. They had nothing much to show currently.

"Ten? You think Google is worth a hundred million?" Dudley looked around at the state of the garage, a silent gesture. "A company worth a hundred million is hiding in a garage, pretty nice origin story."

The two founders embarrassedly looked at each other, silently talking through expressions.

"What's your offer, Mr. Dursley?"

"Hmm…" Dudley relaxed back and thought about it. He already had the whole plan, though. "People say I'm reckless, but risks bring rewards. Three years ago I had nothing, and I took a loan of a million pounds from that bastard outside. Now, I'm worth a billion—risks, have paid me well."

He lied, but he knew he was going to be worth a billion by the end of the year.

Seeing the two, with their wide eyes of disbelief completely focused on him, Dudley gave his offer too good to refuse. Well, there was also silent magic involved.

"I want seventy percent equity for an investment of a hundred million dollars over two years," Dudley stated. "I won't be directly involved in your day-to-day work, but I'll send over ideas and proposals for you to consider. If you don't think they'll work, that's fine, but I'd appreciate a thoughtful explanation or at least a proper discussion about it."

At the end of the day, Dudley only had ideas and no real knowledge of tech. He could only point out fingers, not lead with that said finger. Leaving Google to Larry and Sergey for at least twenty years was the best idea.

Even if you reject me, I have the means to replicate you. Dudley thought in his head. Although it was a bigger headache, it was a totally doable venture.

"You want a controlling stake?" Larry asked sternly.

"No, I want money. The more of Google I own, the more I make. You can have control, I don't care," Dudley declared, arms folded, "As long as you consider my ideas."

Larry and Sergey looked at each other's faces, confusion in their eyes.

"Can we… talk alone for a moment?"

"Sure." Dudley stood up. "I'll be waiting in the car."

Dudley left the garage and sat down in the backseat of the comfortable car. Harry was relaxing there, reclining back and fixing his hair to his desired style.

"Did they agree?" Harry asked.

"Not yet."

"What? Did I—"

"You did fine, Harry. Besides, they'll agree," Dudley confidently claimed before loosening his tie. "Let's just say the business cards I gave them were… magically motivating."

"But… isn't that wrong?"

Dudley frowned at his cousin. "They're not mind-controlling cards, Harry. They're dipped into something like a calming draught."

"You helped them calm down?"

"No, the opposite."

####

Ice cream, pizza, and Hollywood.

After finalizing the deal with Larry and Sergey, Dudley was in the mood to enjoy. The two founders gave in to the temptations of a hundred million. Blinded by the dream of seeing their company's expansion, they sold seventy percent of their child.

"Why are we here?" Harry looked around at the massive mansions on the pretty nice-looking street.

"Real estate," Dudley replied and looked out of the window. He didn't stop, however, since the flight back to London was in a few hours. But still, he took a nice drive-by tour.

Soon enough, they saw the distant Hollywood sign on the mountainside. Harry clicked pictures with his camera, but Dudley froze and smacked his own head.

I know almost every hit movie and show that'll come out in the next two decades. I can… build a massive media empire by just knowing those names. What is wrong with me? Why didn't I think of it? No… Is this body too dumb?

"Let's go home, Harry."

We have a lot of work to do.

______________________

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