Startup Page 22

  Mack was a bit taken aback by Jason’s vehemence, but he tried not to show it. As much as he hated Isabel right now, he was still sensitive about other people criticizing her. Even if things had gone badly, it was still a reflection on him that he had been with her. At the same time, he didn’t want Jason to be able to tell that it bothered him. “Right,” he said. “But how do we do that?”

  “Well…there’s a way of framing this. Having a ‘source’ call up Katya and tell her the ‘real deal’ about what happened. You know, that an employee who is a little…unstable went a little crazy at an event the other night, and we’re all worried about her and we’re going to try to get her some help.”

  “I knew there was a reason I hired you,” Mack said. “That is fucking genius.”

  Jason smiled. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”

  “I probably don’t want to know about your other rodeos, do I.”

  “Let’s just say that I am familiar with the dark arts of media manipulation. The key is making reporters think that they’re getting a scoop or, like, the real story. It’s just a game to them.”

  “They’re the worst,” Mack said. “It’s not a fucking game to me! This”—he gestured to the entire office—“is not a game. It’s like people don’t understand that.”

  “There are always going to be people who don’t understand,” Jason said. “Fuck those people. We don’t need those people. Those people have nothing else in their lives worth living for, so they just exist to tear people like us down. It’s bullshit.”

  Mack smiled a sincere smile for what felt like the first time that day. Thank God at least Jason understood him. “You’re right,” he said. “This is bullshit. I know it’s bullshit. You know it’s bullshit. So wait. Who’s going to call Katya back?”

  “I’ll handle it,” Jason said. “I can even do it from your office, if you want.”

  “I mean, sure,” Mack said. “Want to do it now?”

  “Yeah, let’s get ’er done. What’s her number?” Mack gave it to him and he dialed. He set the phone down on the desk and put it on speaker. “Hello, Katya?”

  “Hello, yes, this is Katya. Who’s calling?”

  “Yes, hi. This is Jason Schneider from TakeOff. I understand you had some questions about an event we had the other night?”

  “Yes, I did, and—”

  Jason interrupted her. “Okay. I’m happy to talk to you, but everything I say has to be attributed to a source at TakeOff. I don’t want my name anywhere near the story. Is that understood?”

  There was a pause. “Can I ask why?”

  “When you hear what I have to say, you’ll understand why it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to put my name in the story.”

  “I’d really prefer to speak on the record.”

  Jason rolled his eyes at Mack as if to say, Can you believe this shit? “It’s unfortunately not a negotiation. Either you agree to my terms or I hang up the phone.”

  There was silence from the other end of the line, then: “Okay.”

  Nice, Mack mouthed, and he high-fived Jason silently.

  “Great,” Jason said. “So listen. Things got a little wonky the other night, but let me give you some background. The event was a good-bye drinks thing for one of our core employees, okay? And Mack got up to speak, you know, to toast this employee, and—”

  “Who was it?” Katya said. Jason glanced at Mack, who raised his eyebrows. Did it matter if she knew it was drinks for Casper Kim? Probably not—the news that he’d left was going to be out there soon enough. And telling her might make her feel like they had given her a useful crumb of information.

  “I’ll tell you off the record, okay? Like, you can’t publish his name in the piece—it’s not fair to drag him into this story.”

  “Okay, fine,” Katya said.

  “It was for Casper Kim, our head of product, who’s leaving.”

  “Why is he leaving?” she asked. Jason glanced at Mack, who shook his head.

  “I’m unfortunately not able to comment on confidential personnel matters,” Jason said.

  “Can you tell me where he’s going?” she asked.

  “Unfortunately, no,” Jason said. There was silence. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, so Mack got up in front of everyone to toast Casper, and then there was this…outburst by one of our employees. I’ll get to who it was in a moment, but first I want to make something clear: this particular employee has been a problem for us for a while.”

  “A problem?” Katya said. “Can you be more specific?”

  Jason sighed. “I can, but off the record. I just need to emphasize, again, how this cannot be coming from me. This is highly confidential information that is actually illegal for me to be sharing with you.”

  “I get it,” Katya said. “And I appreciate your candor.”

  “Okay. So it was Isabel Taylor, who has been an Engagement Ninja here for a couple years now. Her performance had been under review—she was showing up late for work or not at all, her work hadn’t been up to par, et cetera. We finally decided to layer her with one of her direct reports, which I think is what sent her over the edge.”

  “Layer her?” Katya said.

  “It just means that like…instead of firing someone, you hire or promote someone over them.”

  “Ah. I see. Got it.”

  “Right. So she seemed unhappy about that, but instead of dealing with it in a productive manner, she chose to lash out at Mack in a public setting. Which of course is highly inappropriate.”

  “What did she say, exactly?”

  “I don’t really remember every word she said. Something to the effect of ‘Mack sucks and I’m outta here.’”

  “Hm,” Katya said. Jason looked at Mack. What did that “hm” mean? “So she didn’t say anything about, like, sexting or anything like that.”

  Shit. How the fuck did Katya know about this? Mack waved his hands frantically and mouthed, No. Jason smiled and held up his hands and mouthed, I got this.

  “No, nothing like that,” Jason said.

  “Okay, I see,” Katya said. “Does she still work at TakeOff?”

  Jason glanced at Mack. “We’re currently discussing her employment status.”

  “Got it,” Katya said. “So none of this has anything to do with the fact that Isabel and Mack had a relationship, is what you’re saying.”

  What the hell. How did Katya even have an inkling about what had happened between him and Isabel? And how was Jason going to get them out of this?

  “Katya, can you excuse me for just one moment? Thanks.” Jason put the phone on mute before she could even respond. To Mack, he said, “Dude. How the fuck does she know about that? I thought you said no one knew.”

  “I have no fucking idea,” Mack said. “Unless…I mean, it’s possible she’s been talking to Isabel. But how would she even know to go talk to Isabel? And why would Isabel talk to her? It makes no sense.”

  Jason shook his head. “Well, I think we just deny at this point, right? Or…do you want to say that you had a consensual relationship, it ended amicably, you don’t know where this is coming from? Et cetera.”

  “Maybe that’s a better way to go,” Mack said. “Makes Isabel seem jealous, right?”

  Jason shrugged. “I think it just puts us in charge of the narrative a little more. I’m going to get back on the phone with her before she starts getting suspicious that she’s been on hold too long.” He unmuted the call. “Katya? Hey, sorry about that. Yeah, so, listen—Mack and Isabel had a brief, adult, consensual relationship that ended amicably. That’s all I can say about that.”

  “I see,” Katya said. There was something in her tone of voice that Mack didn’t like. It was a tone that said I know you’re lying. “All right. Is there anything else you’d like to add about what happened or about Isabel?”

  Mack shook his head. Jason said, “No. If there are specific things that end up in your piece that you think Mack or someone else at TakeOff should respond to, I’d a
ppreciate it if you gave us a call back.”

  “Yes, of course,” Katya said. “I appreciate your time.”

  “Thanks.” Jason hung up. Mack was having trouble reading his face. He certainly didn’t look as confident as he had before the call.

  “What do you think?” Mack said.

  “I think…I think that we just continue to deny, deny, deny. Look…at the end of the day, people are going to believe what they want to believe, but I think that our story is a more convincing one. Who’s Isabel Taylor? She’s nobody. You…you’re Mack McAllister. It’s just, like, not even a question!”

  Mack smiled. He needed this affirmation. For a long time, he had felt invincible, and maybe this was, actually, a good way for him to check himself. It was so important to stay humble, to remember that everything he had worked so hard for could be gone so quickly, that he was only in control of what he could be in control of. How did you know what the light looked like if you never saw the darkness?

  “Hey, by the way…” Jason said. “Any word from Gramercy?”

  Gramercy. No, there had not been any word from Gramercy, not since they’d sent him the term sheet. Should he be worried? He didn’t think he should be worried, but then again…Jason knew as well as he did how much runway they still had left, and it wasn’t a ton. Mack was visualizing their cash on hand getting depleted in front of his eyes, the numbers turning into gibberish, like that weird numbers display in Union Square that didn’t make any sense. “Yeah, just waiting on lawyers. You know.”

  Jason seemed satisfied with this response. “All right, man. I have a coffee with a potential product guy at the Ace. Friend of a friend.” He fist-bumped Mack. “We got this. Don’t forget that.” Jason started to leave the office.

  “Hey, I just thought of something,” Mack said. “Sabrina.”

  “Sabrina?” Jason said. “What about her? We’ll figure out exactly what her role is, don’t worry.”

  “No. I mean, her husband works at TechScene,” Mack said. “Remember?”

  “Oh,” Jason said. “Right. Of course. It’s probably time we had a chat with her about this, don’t you think?”

  “I do,” Mack said. “I really, really do.”

  23

  To Smell the Truth

  HE’S LYING, KATYA typed to Dan on Slack. he is a lying liar.

  Just try to keep him on the phone, Dan typed back. As soon as Jason called, she ran into a meeting room for privacy, and now she was sitting in front of her computer with her phone on speaker, taking notes in a Google Doc in one window and Slacking Dan in another. Dan seemed a little disappointed that it was Jason, not Mack, who had called back, but Katya could tell that she was on speaker and told Dan, I think Mack is probably listening to the call, so I’m going to behave accordingly.

  She had already asked Jason specifically about what happened the other night at the drinks for Casper Kim, and he had deflected. Or not exactly deflected but given her a very subjective version of events. He was calling what Isabel had said an “outburst” by an employee who was a “problem,” which had almost made her laugh out loud. Isabel was the problem? That was an interesting way to frame it. And now he was trying to tell her that Isabel was upset not because she had been on the receiving end of harassment from her boss, but because she wasn’t doing a good job and they had “layered” her. Katya didn’t know what this meant, but she figured there was no harm in asking. “Layer her?” she said.

  “It just means that like…instead of firing someone, you hire or promote someone over them.”

  Classy move, she thought. She typed to Dan on Slack: they’re acting like Isabel is just pissed bc she got layered.

  Weird, Dan typed back.

  She asked them what, specifically, Isabel had said the other night. She was trying to get them to reveal the contents of Isabel’s speech in some kind of meaningful way, but then again, their denials about what had happened were useful as well. She wasn’t exactly sure yet how she was going to play this with Isabel. Should she reveal that she had this recording? She wanted to tell her Jason’s version of events, because it deviated so wildly from what seemed to have actually happened that maybe Isabel would get so angry that she would say something incendiary. It would all make for a better story in the end.

  As they were talking, she wondered: Was it possible that this was what Jason and Mack actually believed? Could it be that their version of events, which was so clearly at odds with reality—she had the tape! what more could you ask for!—had become their truth? But how delusional would you have to be to construct this version of truth?

  And if this was their version of this truth, then how could she possibly believe anything else they were saying? She decided to try to catch them in as many lies and half-truths as possible—not to challenge them directly as they were speaking, but collect them all like a nice Christmas stocking of lies.

  “So what did she say, exactly?” she asked. To Dan, she typed: asking him exactly what Isabel said. They still don’t know i have the recording.

  Good idea, he typed back. Get him to make as many dumb statements as you can. Do they think we’re idiots? Katya typed back: .

  “I don’t really remember every word she said,” Jason said. “Something to the effect of ‘Mack sucks and I’m outta here.’”

  Katya had to suppress a laugh. Mack sucks and I’m outta here? Who was he kidding with this? She wrote this down in her Google Doc and next to it wrote: TOTAL BULLSHIT. To Jason, all she said was “Hm.” It was a “hm” that was meant to telegraph I know you’re full of shit, and I’m going to give you one more chance to suddenly remember something, but really, I think you’re full of shit. She let the “hm” hang in the air for a few more long, awkward moments. Still, no one said anything. When you were interviewing someone, you were supposed to get comfortable with pauses, because most people weren’t, and they’d just do your job for you by filling up the pause. Jason wasn’t taking the bait, though. So finally, she said: “So she didn’t say anything about, like, sexting or anything like that?”

  There was another pause. Bingo, she thought. She had revealed just enough to let them know that she actually did know more than she was letting on.

  “No, nothing like that,” Jason said. To Dan, she typed, My eyes are rolling so far back in my head that I might go blind.

  Hahaha, he wrote back. You got this.

  When she asked Jason if Isabel still worked at TakeOff, she thought his response was interesting: “We’re currently discussing her employment status.” If Mack really had nothing to hide—or nothing to fear—wouldn’t they have fired Isabel by now? It didn’t make any sense to keep someone on who was as much trouble as Isabel allegedly was. She decided to scare them a little bit more.

  “Got it. So none of this has anything to do with the fact that Isabel and Mack had a relationship, is what you’re saying.”

  Jason asked if he could put her on hold. Oh, they know they are truly fucked, she thought. Got ’em, she typed to Dan. They can’t get out of this.

  You are a fucking champ, he wrote back. I’m going to have to insist on taking you to drinks after this.

  Ugh. She didn’t really want to get drinks with Dan—hadn’t she made that clear? Hahaha, she typed. Let’s see how the rest of this conversation goes. I’m on hold now because now they know I know that Mack and Isabel were actually a thing.

  God, you’re good, he wrote.

  Jason’s voice came back on the phone. “Katya? Hey, sorry about that. Yeah, so, listen—Mack and Isabel had a brief, adult, consensual relationship that ended amicably. That’s all I can say about that.”

  “I see,” Katya said. Should she call them out more? Or was this enough? “All right. Is there anything else you’d like to add about what happened or about Isabel?” Jason said no, there wasn’t anything else he wanted to add, and that if there were specific things in her story that he or someone else at TakeOff should respond to, could she give them a call? Of course, she told them.
/>
  Well, that was interesting, Katya wrote to Dan.

  You’re off? he wrote. Want to chat IRL, talk about next steps?

  Not really, Katya thought. She knew what the next steps were: call Isabel and get her version of events, and try to get the person who had sent her the recording to tell her who he or she was. And—actually, she had another idea of who to call right now.

  Gonna make a couple more calls, she typed back to Dan.

  She texted Teddy Rosen. Got a sec to chat? she wrote. Have a qq for you.

  He responded right away: Always have time for you. What’s up?

  Calling now, she wrote.

  “Katya!” he said when he picked up the phone. “How the hell have you been? Did Victor tell you we had a good chat the other day? I like where he and Nilay are going with their new thing.” Victor has a new thing? It had been, like, three days since they’d spoken, and already he had a new thing that he had met with Teddy about? Or—and this was more troubling in retrospect—maybe he had been at work for a while on a new thing that she hadn’t known about. She racked her brain—had Victor mentioned something and she’d just forgotten about it? He had been spending a lot of time with Nilay again since they’d patched things up. She certainly didn’t want to let Teddy know that they’d gotten in a fight. Or broken up. Or…whatever had happened. She still wasn’t sure.

  “It’s cool, right?” she said. “Really proud of him.”

  “You should be,” Teddy said. “And it seems like they’ve really learned from what happened with StrollUp.”

  “Yeah, I think so,” Katya said. She was dying to get more details out of him about the new company, but she worried that if she asked any questions, it would be obvious that she was missing crucial information. But also, in what world was it possible for a person to have a company that totally failed and then, literally weeks later, get someone to contemplate giving him money for a new thing? People thought this was normal. It wasn’t normal.

  “Anyway. What’s up? You said you had a question?”

  “Yeah, I do. I’ve been looking into some stuff about TakeOff, and I know you’d said that you guys were close to a deal with them. So I wanted to get your, uh, take on a couple things. Sorry.”