The Beginning
It was my first experience with a Silicon Valley start up company. We were about 30 employees strong when I joined the team. We all had high hopes of building a global franchise of virtual reality entertainment centers.
     The first center was built in Mountain View, Califonia, the second in Tokyo, Japan, and the third was ordered for Sydney, Austalia
       I was hired with 50,000 shares of stock in a company that was destined to go public within three years. This was to be my big break or so I thought.

1245 Space Park Way
Mountain View, California
94043
(415) 965-8819

The Product
Sleek as a teardrop and designed with strength and quality, HORNET-1 delivers thrill after thrill of supersonic entertainment.
Settle back into HORNET-1's cockpit and crank down your flight harness. Verify your instruments, adjust your headset check your throttle...but don't get too comfortable: once the canopy closes, you'll find yourself face to face with deadly bogeys who'd be just as happy to blow you away.
     You're lined up just right with your first ground target a command and control facility. Select your weapon, a Sidewinder missile. Your heads-up display indicates you're locking on target.
     Suddenly your view is obstructed by smoke from antiaircraft fire exploding in your path! In your headset the voice of your Squadron Commander is tense as he instructs you to take immediate evasive action.
     YOU NOSE DOWN and break right jolted against your seat by G-forces. There's no time to escape as enemy flak pierces your fuel tank! Losing altitude, you search frantically for a place to land. There's a runway to the west but you may not make it. You begin to glide, concentrating hard to keep your wings level. The terrain below, pastoral farmland from 20,000 feet now rushes up as a rugged threat.

End Game
We had a major Christmas Party in 1995. Lots of toasts to our success and dreams of the future. Several months later in 1996 management announced the cash flow problems and asked that everyone go on half pay for a short time. Three months later there was no cash for salaries, but the investors were right around the corner they said. I took the summer off and returned home to the shores of Lake Superior. Upon returning Chapter 7 Bankrupcy was filed. My $13,000 in unpaid back salary was placed on a low priority creditors list. I never did receive a dime.
See San Jose Federal Bankrupcy Court Filing.
See Lawyer Letter.

I was invited by my former boss to join a new start up that he started with the former Magic Edge president. It was called Lightspeed Simulation Systems Incorporated. I joined them, but should have learned my lesson the first time. After one year they too faded away. All that remains of the company is their web site: http://www.lightspeedss.com.