The Chegg Story PT 2: The Hacker
A guy name Greg Soroka, who was Chegg's first Product Manager was kind enough to pick me up from SFO. I arrived at 10PM, a bit tired, full of hope- thinking to myself is this really happening? Greg, I would come to learn was a habitually late to everything. It was December 15th 2006 and I came to a harsh realization that California weather did not warrant short sleeve shirts year round. To my surprise, I saw a black Honda Civic roll up and a twenty something pop up with a smile and cigarette freshly lit hanging from his mouth greeting me for the first time "Hi, im Greg, are you Ousama."
I threw my suite case, my life belongings in a tattered 1980s Samsonite I stole from the family basement, and jumped in. The ride from 101 South to our familiar Great America parkway exit with filled with awkward moments, ones you would expect when meeting your host for the first time. As we strolled down 101 at 11:30PM I starred out my window at the buildings lining the freeways in awe of companies I had always admired but never seen. It was almost as if a factory of start ups and companies was neatly arranged alongside perfectly manicured palm trees. We finally exited towards Great America Parkway. Greg asked me if I was hungry and recommended I try a "Double, Double, Animal Style with Animal Style Fries." As in Rome do as the Romans I thought, "Sure, sounds good to me."
We pulled through the drive through, with food in hand Greg reaches over and says "Welcome to Silicon Valley...Now let's get to work." A few minutes later we pulled up into a mushroom shaped building on Old Ironsides Dr, the building completely vacant other than a few inoperable cars sitting out front. Greg switched the lights on, pulled out his macbook and started back up where he left off before picking me up from the airport.
That night we debated about new products, how to attract more users and what the coolest internet companies were up to. It was like a fraternity, literally...cans of mountain Dew lined desks, pizza boxes littered the floor, and the smell of dirty laundry aired the room. We worked that night until 5AM, I remember because I was exhausted and coming down with a cold.
We locked up the office and headed out to Greg's apartment where I was given VIP access to his couch, which also served as my bed for the next few weeks. I guess this was my first taste of what it meant to be a hacker, it was more about being open to any situation, rapidly adapting yourself to your surroundings and making things work for the better..