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tionship with Lord and with Frankel, the wunderkind who later unleashed Gnutella. Using instant messages, the young men would discuss coding a little, cars and women more often. A year later, when Napster was in its darkest hour, Lord was at his grandmother’s house when he got nearly simultaneous instant messages from Shawn and Frankel. His grandmother didn’t understand how both had traced him to her house. Lord patiently explained that messaging systems were based on log-ons, not physical location. Then she asked who his correspondents were. “Well,” he said, “they’re both my friends. This one has always done what he liked, building tools for listening to music on the Internet. And he just sold his company for $100 million. And my other friend—he also did what he wanted, building tools for listening to music on the Internet. And he’s being sued for the gross national product of Europe.” Noting that his grandmother seemed concerned, Lord explained some more. “See, this is what the Internet is all about. When I was in college, the worst thing that could happen is you could throw up in your dorm room and get kicked out. Now, with the Internet, you can be up $100 million or down billions.”

One day near the end of 1999, after the recording industry had indeed filed suit, Bales called New York investor Jason Grosfeld. Napster was raising its second round of financing, Bales said. Since Grosfeld had nearly invested when the company was back in Hull, Bales wanted to know if he still wanted in. If so, now was the time. Grosfeld was intrigued but skeptical, given the history and his dealings with Fanning. During the call, Grosfeld realized that Bales and Richardson didn’t know how close he had come to being the lead backer of Napster that summer and what had gone wrong. He guessed that Shawn and Parker had kept quiet about the early financing quest so as not to spook the new managers. Grosfeld said he would consider coming out to San Mateo for a meeting if Bales gave him the capitalization table, the list of who owned what share of the company. A basic document, the cap table is essential for funders because it makes no sense to invest without knowing how much of the company you’re getting. Yet in all his dealings with the first incarnation of Napster,

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