So one of the interesting things about Thinking Machines was how it got funded, which was: I wanted to start this company, I had money from DARPA, but I needed commercial money to start the company. So my co-founder, Sheryl Handler, knew this guy named Bill Paley down in New York. I didn't really know who he was. I later discovered he's the guy that sort of invented the idea of a network and... but at the time I had no idea who this guy was. So I went down to meet him, to explain to him this idea of making a parallel computer, to get money from him. And I showed up kind of late and I showed up in blue jeans and a T-shirt and I went to this address on Park Avenue and was rather sceptically shown upstairs by the butler. And the door opened, and all of a sudden I saw all these Monets and Matisses and Degas's and you know... all those things are now a wing of the Met, but they were all hanging up and it was all this familiar stuff. I mean, I recognised the paintings, but I had seen them as posters in dormitories. These were, like, the actual paintings, right? When you opened it up, it was the Picasso of the boy leading the horse was, like, right in front of the elevator when it opened up. And next to it was like the Renoir Strawberries, and then Degas's, the women with the water and the jars and there was a Degas dancer, bronze dancer, and it was just overwhelming when you walked in. And as soon as I walked in, I was like, oh, I should have done my homework here. I had no idea what I was talking about.

So then I met Bill Paley and he was a little surprised to see me dressed as I was. And we sat down and we had dinner together, and I told him all about parallel computing and he didn't ask many questions. And then at the end he says... he said, 'Kid', he says, 'Why don't you just stop right there? I don't understand a word you're saying.' He said, 'But I'm actually a really good judge of people.' He said, 'Do you want some money to do this thing?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'How much do you need?' And I said, 'I need $7.5 million', I think it was. And he said, 'Okay, I'll give you half of it.' And that was my fundraising. And then I said, 'Well, will you be on the board?' And he looked a little surprised, and then he said, 'Yes, sure.'