It's 1988 in the headquarters of Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, California.

Sandy Learner sits outside the office of Venture Capitalist Don Valentine.

Don is ostensibly Sandy's partner in Cisco Systems, the computer router company Sandy co-founded

with her husband, Len Bozak, four years ago.

But Don's been ducking Sandy's calls all day, and she has a bone to pick with him.

So she's driven over from the Cisco office just a few miles away, and is now waiting for

him to see her.

Don's assistant has warned her that he's booked up with appointments, but Sandy is willing

to wait as long as it takes.

Finally, the door to the office opens, and Don sticks his head out.

Now come on in Sandy, I'm expecting a call, but I have a few minutes.

Sandy pops up and hurries into Don's office.

She's not going to waste a precious second.

Well Don, imagine my surprise today when I arrived at the office and learned that you fired

our CFO.

I assume John would have told you.

John Mortgage is Cisco's CEO and a close ally of Don.

Sandy's face crinkles and disgust at the mere mention of his name.

No John didn't say a word, but I know it was you who made the decision.

When our CFO was great, we don't need a new one.

When I invested Sandy, one of the things I said I would do was bring in new executives.

I thought you meant additional executives, not pushing out the ones we already had.

...