bullet Breaking News! Ex-Rivals Richard Hendricks and Gavin Belson Join Forces

By: C.J. Cantwell

Belson and Hendricks expect to launch a Pied Piper product soon

Moments ago, an excited Richard Hendricks spoke to me over the phone regarding his newest – and perhaps most controversial – business move: partnering with previous rival and tech giant Gavin Belson. In a Code/Rag exclusive, we spoke about comebacks, innovation, and making the world a better place through middle-out compression algorithms.

Hendricks and Belson are working on “truly groundbreaking tech. It’s going to break everything,” Hendricks told me breathlessly, moments after leaving a meeting with Belson himself. He went on to say, “Pied Piper will change the face of the internet as we know it, and that’s all thanks to Gavin Belson. I couldn’t be more honored to work with anybody in the Valley, not Zuckerberg, or Sergey and Larry, or even Steve Jobs, if he were still alive.”

It would seem Belson, who left his position at Hooli to focus on spiritual wellness and family, just can’t stay away from the game. “He’s got a lot left to give,” Hendricks told me emphatically. “Hooli was his first success, but it won’t be his last. His legacy is just beginning. Silicon Valley better brace itself, because this tech is going to blow everyone’s minds.” Hendricks paused, clearly swept up in excitement. “Not literally,” he added, “but definitely figuratively.”

Hendricks’s company Pied Piper has been relatively quiet since PiperChat – the briefly popular video chat platform – split off and dissipated into the tech ether. Not one to sit on his laurels, Hendricks told me he’s been working separately on new uses for his world-changing middle out algorithm. I pressed him for details of his and Belson’s new project, but the tight-lipped techie simply said, “We’re working on technology that will put Jack Barker out of a job.”

One can only imagine what these two tech titans have dreamt up. If their history indicates anything, Hendricks is right: the Valley better brace itself. And Action Jack better update his résumé.