“Sure,” Sabrina and Katya said simultaneously. Isabel hopped up from the couch and went to the fridge and took out a bottle of white wine. Sabrina noticed there was little else in the refrigerator—just what looked like a takeout container, a bottle of kombucha, and another bottle of wine.
“I wish I had champagne,” she said, setting the bottle down on the counter. “It feels like we should be celebrating, in a weird way.” She took three wineglasses out of the cabinet and opened the bottle. She poured glasses for all of them and handed one each to Katya and Sabrina. “Well, cheers, ladies,” she said. “To doing our own shit.”
“To doing our own shit,” Katya and Sabrina said. The three of them clinked glasses. As Sabrina took a sip of the wine, she looked out the window. The sky was a dusky orange-red; in the distance, the Williamsburg Bridge was illuminated. And she knew—more clearly than she had ever known anything—exactly what she was going to do.
Acknowledgments
As a journalist, I found that there were moments during the writing of this book that I panicked, believing that I wasn’t allowed to be writing fiction, much less getting it published. Fortunately, I have many people in my life who are experts at encouragement, starting with my one-of-a-kind agent, Alia Hanna Habib, and her colleagues Leslie Falk and Susan Hobson at McCormick Literary, who have been Startup fans from day one. Of course, Startup would not be what it is without the enthusiasm and guidance of my wonderful editor, Reagan Arthur, and the whole team at Little, Brown: Matt Carlini, Katharine Myers, Julie Ertl, Lauren Passell, Craig Young, Pamela Brown, Jayne Yaffe Kemp, and Kaitlyn Boudah. Copyeditor Tracy Roe’s sharp eyes saved me from many mortifying mistakes and allowed email (no hyphen) to stand, and designer Lauren Harms came up with a jacket that makes me hope people judge this book by it. And Kassie Evashevski and Jason Richman at UTA are the best people in Hollywood to have in your corner.
I never would have finished if not for my two-person writing group with Kate Spencer, who was both a cheerleader and an astute reader over the year and a half I was working on Startup. I’m also grateful to Laura Dave and Alex Balk, who read early versions of the manuscript and offered invaluable comments; to genius twentysomethings Katie Heaney and Arianna Rebolini, who went above and beyond in making sure that I didn’t completely embarrass myself by saying Snapchat when I meant Instagram and vice versa; and Danielle Nussbaum, who paid me the highest compliment possible when she told me she read the manuscript in less than twenty-four hours. And huge thanks to Elizabeth Olson for being my on-call design expert and who saved us all from a potential kerning disaster.
Thanks to friends Emily Fleischaker, Marc Kushner, Chris Barley, and Chrysanthe Tenentes for giving me places to write in Santa Fe and New York, and thanks to my friends who were working on books at the same time who were always available to commiserate: Anya Yurchyshyn, Saeed Jones, Isaac Fitzgerald, Emily Gould, and Anne Helen Petersen.
Thanks to the founders and employees who generously offered their insights into startup life: Caroline McCarthy, Matt Weiler, Peter Bell, Nick Gray, Su Sanni, Ally Millar, Matt Lieber, Jason Klein, Soraya Darabi, Daniel Hoffer (who filled me in on life as a venture capitalist), and of course the incomparable Melanie Altarescu. This is a work of fiction, but their experiences and perspectives helped ensure my characters’ world felt authentic.
Countless friends have been so supportive and excited for me over the past many months. You know who you are, and you are greatly appreciated and loved. Same goes for my brilliant colleagues at BuzzFeed, many of whom have become friends during my five years there. You inspire me daily, and you manage to both keep me young and make me feel old. (In a good way.)
I’m so lucky to have a family that I not only love, but also actually like: Roberta Steinberg, Avishai Shafrir, Michael Shafrir, Alyson Luck, Sam Shafrir, Karen Vladeck, Steve Vladeck, and Maddie Vladeck. Thank you for being family and friends, and for being there always.
Before I moved to L.A., someone said to me, “You’re going to go out there and marry a screenwriter and live happily ever after.” That person was close: I married a TV writer and podcaster, and I’m so thankful to have his love, support, and creativity in my life. I love you, Matt Mira, and thank you for never letting me give up.