Work! Stogie Mingles With the Rich Guys on Sand Hill Road

My foray back into the work world has been fun, challenging and tiring.  I spent three of the past four work days (Monday being a holiday) doing partnership tax returns for a venture capital firm.  The VC firm is on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, where just about all of the VC firms are located.  Why, I don't know.  It's like a glittering ghetto for rich people.

We need rich people.  They are the ones who invest with venture capital firms.  They provide seed money to new companies with new, untried products.  If the new product takes off, the investors make money.  If  the new product is not accepted by the market place, the investors write off their investments.  A lot more of these seed-money investments are written off then ever make it big.  That's why the investors deserve their profits, when they exist, because they finance new businesses and make innovation possible.

I still have no idea on how I am to be paid -- when and how much.  However, right now I am just happy to be doing some actual, high level CPA style work.  However, sooner or later the $75 left in my checking account will be used for gas and I will need to get paid.

I will spend next week in Menlo Park again, finishing the partnership tax returns.  They won't be finalized until PricewaterhouseCoopers finishes auditing them, just in case there are any changes, but any changes will be easy to make to the tax returns.  The client uses Lacerte tax software, an excellent but very expensive program.

If I have some time next week, I will return to the site of Butterfield's nightclub (where Vince Guaraldi was playing on the night of his death) to see how it is faring.  A year ago it was sitting idle after an Indian restaurant had closed up shop.  If it has reopened, I would like to see the inside of the place.