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9
venture games

FROM THE BEGINNING, CEO EILEEN RICHARDSON’S MOST important mission was getting venture funding. Eventually, she would be in good shape to secure it. By the spring of 2000, the market was at an all-time high, and many venture firms were drooling over Napster’s unbelievable statistics—more than 10 million users. But before Richardson could get what she thought was the right firm and the right terms, she would have to battle John Fanning more fiercely than she had at any time since the two met in October 1999.

Ahead of that first meeting, employees warned Richardson that Fanning was a big problem who had hustled his nephew Shawn and was out for only himself. Ali Aydar, her first hire, told Richardson in all seriousness that his mother would kill him if she found out he was working for another John Fanning company, since Aydar had been taken advantage of so badly at Chess.net. But as the time neared for Fanning to fly out and

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