S01.E03: Articles Of Incorporation

[Tara Ariano]

Richard must negotiate when he discovers the name "Pied Piper" is already registered to a sprinkler company; Erlich tries to come up with a new company name; Peter Gregory becomes elusive.

[Edna Crandall]

I dug this episode, even had a couple solid laughs. (Erlich getting stuck in traffic after timing his trip, how quickly a Canadian can get a visa) hope it continues getting funnier each week. At this point we're kind of watching it to get a DVR buffer on mad men after GoT.

[lucindabelle]

This show just makes me so happy. I hate Ehrlich but he is funny. And I loved that the eccentric billionaire was eccentric like a fox.

[radishcake]

It really IS a terrible name. The commercial for Nexus was hilarious. I also loved that Peter is such a good caricature of what we think of as the crazy entrepreneurs.

[Edna Crandall]

It is a terrible name, but I will give it being made of real words that people know how to spell. Some of the business names I see at work are just ugh. If you have to spell/explain you name to everyone it's not an effective brand.

[chocolatine]

I also loved that Peter is such a good caricature of what we think of as the crazy entrepreneurs.

 

I was wondering about that - he's a venture capitalist but apparently also a whiz at futures. Is it common for VC people to be all-around stock market experts? And for the two entrepreneurs to need $15M right that minute - isn't it part of VC due diligence to review their companies' financials on a regular basis, so that surprises like that don't happen? And if they do happen, that's a major screw-up on the part of the founders and I would have expected Peter to give them a stern talking-to.

Love Dinesh and the Canadian satanist. Both actors were on Burning Love and did a great job on that show as well. I laughed out loud at the "Justin Bieber is the Hitler of music" convo. Had they put that in the promos instead of "snack dick", more people would watch this show.

Edited April 22, 2014 by chocolatine

[EricJ]

Well, I think this plotline was to display how Peter is a genuine out-of-the-box-genius, whose brain makes connections that others' don't, in contrast with the Hooli guy, who talks about changing the world (but has no actual mechanism for doing so) and Ehrlich, who tries to force that kind of leap, but just winds up getting super-high.

If Peter's keeping you waiting, it's because his brain doesn't prioritize things normally. If Gavin Belson is keeping you waiting, it's a power play.

[radishcake]

If Peter's keeping you waiting, it's because his brain doesn't prioritize things normally. If Gavin Belson is keeping you waiting, it's a power play.

Very good point!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

What I love about this show is that the most absurd things are totally realistic. Even though I don't work in tech or Silicon Valley, I still appreciate the true to life aspects that they depict - the insanity of a google-esque workplace, insanely high property values that force grown men to be roommates, the hierarchy within the employees with the bullying programmers, realizing that having your own company requires a lot of things that most people don't know how to do on their own, etc.

 

This week I liked the storyline with someone else already having the same businses name. I work in a small industry where this happens all the time (people using the same names, not the negotiation part) so it always drives me crazy when people who don't understand trademark law get their panties in a bunch out of ignorance. Prime examples: (1) people who sided with One Direction when it came out that a small band in California had already been using the name and (2) the people who said the owner of Blue Ivy boutique should just be glad that she was getting publicity from Beyonce and Jay-Z applying to trademark the name Blue Ivy in just about every category possible.

 

Gabe once again proved that he is good at business. The first thing you do when you choose a business name is check to see if anyone else is already using it. That's before you file any kind of paperwork, print business cards, make shirts, etc. You can check the trademark registry but you also need to just google the crap out of it and see if there's anything similar (words reversed, alternate spellings, that kind of thing). I see so many people who completely skip this step and then have the nerve to be outraged and upset that someone else had THE GALL to use this name before they did. It's called due diligence and you didn't bother with it, so you can't really be mad that someone else came up with the same name before you did.

 

I liked that Richard's solution was the simplest and most forthright: drive down to Gilroy and talk to this guy. But I also liked that later when the farmer showed up at his house, he took a few steps forward on the asshole scale (per Ehrlich's instructions) and refused to pay the higher price. But I do think that if he had used his previous tactic and just talked to the guy when he asked for $250K and said that he was not an internet billionaire who could afford that kind of money for the name, that he was just starting out and couldn't even cash his "big" check or afford to move out of a house he shares with five dudes, the farmer probably would have responded more cooperatively.

 

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this show, but at this point I'm in for the whole season!

[VioletHues]

Two moments that absolutely killed me in this episode (in a good way.) The first was when Ehrlich was shrooming and trying to come up with names and ended up with all those SV icons floating around him. So absurd and so freaking funny. The second was when the farmer showed up and one by one the guys started saying their own names to him to remind him of their humanity. Freaking gold. I'm so in for this show.

[DanMSchro]

This show is definitely better than the critical coverage let on.

 

And yes, Pied Piper is a horrible name. Who even uses the word pied anymore besides poets? If the name made sense in terms of how his algorithm compressed the files by making a patchwork of other files or something (I don't know how files work, just words) then the name would make sense, although it'd still be esoteric.

[iamdog]

Two moments that absolutely killed me in this episode (in a good way.) The first was when Ehrlich was shrooming and trying to come up with names and ended up with all those SV icons floating around him. So absurd and so freaking funny. The second was when the farmer showed up and one by one the guys started saying their own names to him to remind him of their humanity. Freaking gold. I'm so in for this show.

 

 

The whole 'say your name so your attacker has to recognise you as a person' thing was hilarious!

Edited April 27, 2014 by iamdog

[larapu2000]

The second was when the farmer showed up and one by one the guys started saying their own names to him to remind him of their humanity.

 

I had to pause the DVR, I was laughing so hard.  I also had to pause it when the Pied Piper guy said something about shitting (can't remember the line), and Richard said, "people say that?  People think you do that?  DO you do that??"

 

I think this was the best episode ever.  Donald is his real name!