Charles J. Conde

## Description

*"Charles is one of the last tech innovators trying to change the world in an economy where a handful of corporations control the internet, all technology, and media. Forced to sell his dream company for pennies on the dollar to one of the mega conglomerates, Charles struggles with the new world order in which there is no net neutrality, privacy, or open source resources. Outspoken and blunt, Charles fails at his personal attempts to fight this unfair system. Along the way, though, he gains some like-minded allies in the illegal tech underground whose efforts focus primarily on bypassing the new regulations. It is through them that he finds out about the rise of a cognizant supercomputer, and the most passionate, earnest, and beautiful individual who is trying to protect it from destruction. Conflicted, he must now decide if he wants to embrace the safety of the tech underground lifestyle, or protect the object of his unspoken affection and find a new way to help her disrupt the system."*

**From the Hungry Samurai Website**

*"Charles J. Conde started his first technology startup at age 20 during his third year of engineering school at Georgia Tech. Two years later, Dishcast’s extensive legal department found enough technical reasons to force the startup sale at less than 2% of its estimated value.*

*Three years later, more savvy about legal technicalities, Conde had built a new successful startup at a much larger scale. This time, the LTCM conglomerate did not have to worry about finding technicalities; instead, they just convinced politicians to pass a new regulation that forced a sale to them saying that “the technology was too disruptive to be in the hands of a small company.” This time, the forced sale was for 4% of the estimated price.*

*Five years later, Conde had developed and launched a whole new startup, which among other things became a popular alternative to the Dishcast conglomerate owned social networks because of its elegant interface technology (of which Conde is very*
proud of) and its efforts to promote freedom of expression. Then, quite unpredictably, this startup was forced to sell. This time by the combined efforts of Dishcast, LTCM and government regulators. Luckily, users can still experience its elegant interface since it now runs all of the conglomerate networks, just none of the freedom of expression that it was meant to have.

*Hungry Samurai is Conde's latest startup effort, and the one he is the proudest of due to the invaluable contribution of Cianna Pyke, whose technological, commercial, and financial expertise has singlehandedly made this enterprise both possible and highly successful."*

## Timeline

* Age 20 - First tech start up and 3rd year at Georgia Tech
* Age 22 - Dishcast force's first start up sale
* Age 25 - has new start up and is forced to sell by LTCM
* Age 30 - New startup alternate to Dishcast - forced to sell
* Somewhere in July - Meets Emily L Pearlhouse
* 20 July - His company gets sold
* 3 August - Joined Twitter
* 7 August - Makes a point that supports the AntiAI movement.
* 7 August - He manifests his dislike for the Corps power against startup companies.
* 13 August- Shows admiration for Emily's video Could we all just be nice
* 14 August- Returns from a fundraiser
* 16 August - Has a conversation with Emily about the Gala in June and about her video