an unsexy premise that is now an hbo hit. "silicon valley" pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies. behind the show, people that brought us some of the greatest satire in entertainment history. mike judge and alec berg. joining me today, silicon valley creator mike judge and executive producer alec berg. thank you for joining us. i am a big fan and i have seen every episode. you have written, produced, and directed several different episodes. what is different about season two? alec: the biggest thing we have had to deal with was the loss of christopher evan welch. was the cornerstone of season one. that was a huge, huge hole to fill and writing-wise a challenge to figure out what to do. emily: he was terrific and i understand he is being replaced by a woman. mike: not necessarily replaced. she becomes the lead partner, this new character that was not in season one. it is not necessarily a 1-1, you cannot replace them with anybody. we had to write around that. the second season is the story about what happens to a company. it is them going to the next level. emily: everybody wants t

a most unsexy, un-hollywood premise that is now an hbo hit.he show is named after the world it lampoons. "silicon valley" pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies. behind the show, two people who have brought us some of the greatest satire in entertainment history. mike judge of "office space" and "beavis and butthead," and alec berg, writer on "seinfeld." joining me today, silicon valley creator mike judge and executive producer alec berg. thank you so much for joining us. both.xcited to have you i am a big fan and i have seen every episode. you have written, produced, and directed several different episodes. what is different about season two? mike: alec? alec: the biggest thing we have had to deal with was the loss of christopher evan welch, who played peter gregory. he was the cornerstone of season one, and he was the guy that richard ended up going with financing-wise. that was a huge, huge hole to fill and writing-wise a challenge to figure out what to do. emily: he was terrific and i understand he is being replaced by a woman. mike: not necessar

[laughter] emily: unsexy. unglamorous. unfunny. alec: it could not be more relevant.ou look at the speed at which tech is moving and the role that it plays in our life. mike: hollywood is always very puzzled. when the internet exploded big of a movie called "the net," trying to make it sexy and intriguing. it was ridiculous. it is the challenge that can lead you to do more interesting stuff that has not been done in television. it seems like a good time to take a look at the people were getting rich off of it and building the things that we use everyday. emily: when you ask doctors about grays anatomy, they say that it is nothing like that. what do you want engineers to say about "silicon valley?" mike: i like it when they say -- we have a lot of people saying that we have gotten it right for the most part. alec: we try to get the technical details right. we do a lot of research and have a lot of consultants that ask a lot of questions. it is mostly the personality types. mike was an engineer and my father was a biologist. i feel like i know those personalities so it

a most unsexy, un-hollywood premise that is now an hbo hit.is named after the world it lampoons. "silicon valley" pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies. behind the show, two people who have brought us some of the greatest satire in entertainment history. mike judge of "office space" and "beavis and butthead," and alec berg, writer on "seinfeld."

an unsexy premise that is now an hbo hit. "silicon valley" pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies.d the show, people that brought us some of the greatest satire in entertainment history. j

is an opportunity for businesses like ours to make life a lot easier for businesses in these very unsexyorners of the world that happened to be fairly lucrative. emily: and the software is available for free, right, to all of these businesses? so how do you make money? how do you get a $4.5 billion valuation? parker: the micro levels, we connect all of these systems. we give the hub away for free, but we make money on all of the spokes. remit money and lots of different places. big picture, the way i think about valuations like this there are only three systems of record. there is a system of record for their financial like quickbooks, intuit, oracle, and customer information, like salesforce, or for employee information, and there is sort of a giant hole in the universe for any company with less than a thousand employees on this third leg of the stool so we have a decent shot of occupying that space and being the place, the system that businesses use for this, and that is a very big and very important and i think very lucrative thing long-term if we can get there. emily coleman would yo

is a company for businesses like ours to make life a lot easier for these companies in these very unsexy corners of the world that happen to be successful. emily: zenefits software is free, so how do you make money? parker: basically, the micro levels we connect of these different systems and we give the hub away for free but make money on the different spokes. health insurance is the most lucrative part, but we make money and lots of different places. big picture, the way i think about valuations like this listen, businesses only have kind of three systems of record. a system of record for their financial information, things like quickbooks and oracle. for customer information for businesses like salesforce. there is sort of a giant hole in the universe for any company with less than 1000 employees. we think that we have a decent shot at occupying that space and being the system that businesses use for this. that is a big and important and lucrative company long-term if we can get there. emily: would you ever take $3 million off the table and by a ferrari? parker: no, i am more of a toy

abnn unsexy would premise that is now an hbo hit.fun at the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of a startup. behind the show, people that brought us some of the greatest satire in entertainment history. mike judge of office space and beavis and butthead fame and

they're supposed to do the unsexy work of going to an archive and spending lots of quiet time looking up for an -- looking up boring documents. unfortunately, far too many historians abandoned objectivity and failed to place bush's actions into historical context. i'm speaking about historians who were saying in 2005-2006, that the bush and mr. asian was one of the worst in history -- bush administration was one of the worst in history. i'm not saying that he is the best by any stretch. there are a number of issues that need to be put into the equation when assessing a presidency. at the very least, my scholarly comrades had the obligation to wait until the presidency was over before declaring that it was the worst over. i would argue that now, it is still very early to make sweeping judgments about any presidency. just as a reminder after harry truman's departure from the white house, he was still a very unpopular figure, and certainly and scholarly circles eisenhower was considered a rank mediocrity. nonetheless, this narrative which also suggests that vice president cheney was pull

they're supposed to do the unsexy work of going to an archive and spending lots of quiet time looking -- looking up boring documents. unfortunately, far too many historians abandoned objectivity and seemed unwilling to place bush's actions into historical context. i'm speaking about historians who were saying in 2005-2006 that the bush administration was one of the worst in history. i'm not saying that he is the best by any stretch. hurricane katrina, the economic collapse, the war in iraq -- there are a number of issues that need to be put into the equation when assessing a presidency. at the very least, my scholarly comrades had the obligation to wait until the presidency was over before declaring that it was the worst over. i would argue that now, it is still very early to make sweeping judgments about any presidency. just as a reminder, after harry truman's departure from the white house, he was still a very unpopular figure, and certainly in scholarly circles, eisenhower was considered a rank mediocrity. nonetheless, this narrative, which also suggests that vice president cheney