This takes place between the winter of 2018 and the summer of 2019 where Christopher Franco Monterrosa is hired as a Fullstack Engineer to help lead engineering initiatives at BlitzIQ - a Y Combinator (W19) backed startup, that provides a customer notes workspace for B2B sales teams.
Franco has two solid technical internships under his belt at this point. He knows what a successful company and team looks like and feels like. His previous venture taught him that it's not enough to make something work but also engineer scaling into the product.
If there was a hat version of musical chairs, he was wearing every engineering hat till the last musical note. He streamlines the development pipeline, rearchitects the backend and frontend to suport scaling, and builds features on top of the rearchitecture, like a declaritive meeting template system.
This story takes place at a critical juncture, before the rearchitecture - right after the company acquires their first pilot client - Dropbox.
It begins in Berkeley, California, Christopher Franco Monterrosa has just finished a long day of work and school. He's used up every second that life has given him to stay in the UC Berkeley Moffit Undergraduate Library, but it's 12:27AM and the last BART train to get him home leaves at 12:30AM.
Life of a commuter.
We’re greeted by an empty downtown Berkeley BART station. On the left we see the main stairs that lead back up to the fare gates. On the top right we see an eletronic overhead sign displaying in red alarm clock - “Warm Springs 5 minute”
FRANCO, mounted on his trusty steed - a black/red/white 2014 Specialized Allez C2 road bike, has one foot mounted on a pedal, while the other is planted on the pavement. We catch a glimpse in the background of the words “Moffit” and “Free Speech Movement”
He's wearing an oversized teal denim jacket, with two enamel pins attached on his left breast pocket - a bear with “Go Bears” written on it, the other a face of a cat.
He puts on his bright neon green Specialized helmet.
He takes out a small rose gold smartphone.
ANGLE ON SMARTPHONE - We briefly see 12:27AM from the locked screen. He opens up his music app, taps on a song. It's taking a while to load. Meanwhile he puts the phone on his right breast pocket, with the speaker facing up towards his face.
Franco starts pedaling with the cadence of a Tour de France sprinter towards Free Speech Bikeway.
The song finally loads.
A rock song starts playing. It's legendary.
IMMIGRANT SONG - LED ZEPPELINANGLE ON FRANCO -- with the Valley of Life Sciences Building (VLSB) standing in the background, we hear gears shifting,the pressure of each pedal rotation echo’d by the FREE SPEECH BIKEWAY pavement. Franco zooms past the building, he is gausian blur in 22 speed.
ANGLE ON Franco -- he's downshifting, exiting FREE SPEECH BIKEWAY, he makes a sharp right on WEST CIRCLE to avoid the patch of earthquake mosaic pavement that only his mind's eye can see. He turns onto UNIVERSITY DRIVE towards the direction of CRESCENT LAWN.
ANGLE ON FRANCO -- he's accelerating towards CRESCENT LAWN turning left. Pedals stop rotating, he's holding his right pedal on its six. He and his trusty steed are pushing it beyond a 45 degree lean.
With 7 meters of red zoned curb cleared to work with. He counter steers.
His tires, 3 Milimeters away from receiving a red highlight from the curb, begin to increase their distance away. He makes it.
He continues down CRESCENT LAWN towards the intersection of OXFORD and CENTER ST.
ANGLE ON FRANCO -- Franco's eyes are scanning the intersection left and right, he sees his Flamme Rouge - a Red Traffic Raised Hand BLINKING.
We hear gears shifting one last time. Franco's hands slip down to the dropbars. His back is flat. This is his Tour de BART.
ANGLE ON FRANCO -- Franco is coming toward us. He's entering the intersection. We see the traffic light turning YELLOW.
We see the traffic light turn red as soon as Franco speeds past us.
ANGLE ON FRANCO - all the businesses on Center street are blurred. he's going fast. He's approaching the intersection on SHATTUCK.
He crosses SHATTUCK, towards the Berkeley BART Downtown station entrance. He dismounts haphazardly. He swings his trusty steed on his right shoulder. It's his turn to be the ride.
No one is on the escalator. He gladly accepts the midnight speed boost. He runs down the escalator as fast as humanely possible.
ANGLE ON FRANCO - He swipes his Bay Bridge Clipper against the Fare Gate clipper sensor. Barriers open. He RUNS.
We see an eletronic overhead sign flashing in red alarm clock - “Warm Springs 8 car”. Franco is running down the main stairs and runs into the nearest train car.
The train doors are open. We can see him leaning against his trusty steed, breathing heavily, laughing with relief.
ANGLE ON FRANCO - train doors open, he runs across the platform and enters the nearest empty train car with his trusty steed.
Franco looks at his ride or die
His eyes are closed, backpack hugged between his arms, left soul of his foot pressed against the back tire of his trusty steed.
It's the last train heading towards Daly City, his home.
The train is taking it's usual 10 minute stop at MacArthur BART station to wait for all trains across the bay to let passengers transfer one last time.
The train is taking it's usual 10 minute stop at MacArthur BART station to wait for all trains across the bay to let passengers transfer one last time.
The train car is empty. 10 minutes of golden silence.
Franco opens his eyes and looks out the window.
The company just landed its first big contract with a reputable tech company. He's thinking about some bugs he has to fix. Tired from the long day of school and work. He closes his eyes.
He mumbles to himself
Takes a long pause -- the silence from MacArthur station fills the void
Franco's eyes OPEN.
He takes out two things. His .4mm Pilot G-tec-C4 ultra fine print blue pen and his treasured 20.5mm X 15mm MD notebook. He opens to the most recent blank page
He removes the cap and places it ontop of the pen. Hand feels powerful enough to teraform the soul of a business venture.
CUT TO NOTEBOOK -- Franco begins drawing a box, giving it a name, it's not legible, he adds other names within the box.
He adds another box, another name, another set of names.
He draws a one directional arrow from the first box to the next.
He draws a few more boxes and begins connecting them
He continues connecting one box to another
BART ping sounds as Franco connects the last box
Franco is holding up his notebook. He makes a smile, dimples making a guest appearance.