Signaling Risk
Silicon Valley | Season 1 | Episode 5

Signaling Risk

TV-MA | 28 MIN

Written by Jessica Gao
Directed by Alex Berg

Erlich takes Dinesh and Gilfoyle on a quest to find graffiti artist Chuy Ramirez and convince him to create the Pied Piper logo. Erlich wants Chuy to give Pied Piper a cool vibe, but the artist demands stock options because a friend of his got them when he created murals for Facebook. While Erlich negotiates with Chuy in an alley, Dinesh and Gilfoyle wait with the car. Chuy spots Dinesh and says that he thinks it's cool that Pied Piper hired a Latino. Erlich doesn't correct the artist about Dinesh's true ethnicity because that seems to be the thing that made Chuy agree to work on a logo.

Erlich promised Chuy $10,000 for the logo, but Jared points out that Pied Piper is going to run out of money long before the product is ready, even without spending on the logo. Jared further freaks out when he learns that Pied Piper has been accepted to Tech Crunch Disrupt Startup Alley, a move that doesn't make sense for the company since it's already been funded. Richard explains to Jared that he put the application in long ago and forgot about it.

Big Head is in Gavin Belson's office for a meeting where the boss' underling executives are planning to beam him in via holographic technology, which turns out to be rather fraught with glitches. Gavin grills Big Head on why Richard would be taking Pied Piper to Tech Crunch Disrupt, but of course, Big Head doesn't have much info.

Jared wants Erlich and Richard to define Pied Piper's corporate culture, causing Dinesh and Gilfoyle to balk at the mention of cubicles. Jared also announces that he can also do the Pied Piper logo himself -- and save the company $10,000. He draws two lower-case Ps on a piece of paper, sending Erlich into a rage. Meanwhile, Chuy arrives to work on the logo.

Peter Gregory is having lunch at a restaurant with Monica when Gavin Belson unexpectedly walks through the door. The guys have an awkward conversation where Gavin tells Peter that he offered to give the keynote speech at Tech Crunch Disrupt, which he will also use to unveil Pied Piper's big competition, Nucleus. Richard later tells Monica he's going to pull Pied Piper out of Tech Crunch Disrupt, and she informs him that he can't because of Gavin and Peter's rivalry. Richard comes to realize that he's just a pawn between these two. Tech Crunch Disrupt is just two months away, which means that Pied Piper has to be ready much sooner than the five months that was originally planned for development.

At the hacker hostel, Chuy's Pied Piper logo -- which is painted on the Hacker Hostel's garage door -- depicts a Latino Dinesh having anal sex with the Statue of Liberty. Erlich tries to be gentle in his revision notes, but Chuy is mad and only ends up changing Dinesh to be Pakistani and putting Erlich's face on the Statue of Liberty. The police arrive and tells Erlich he has to remove the art. In an attempt to fix the problem, Richard puts up the garage door, which only reveals Erlich's pot. The police say they have to take the weed with them.

Jared institutes Scrum for the Pied Piper guys, in an effort to increase productivity and communication about projects. The tactic instantly works, as Gilfoyle and Dinesh compete to finish their tasks before the other.

Pied Piper settles on a new, lower-cased logo, while it's revealed that Chuy sold his original Pied Piper design for $500,000….to Gavin Belson, who hangs it in the Hooli offices. Monica arrives at the Hacker Hostel to apologize for her part in Richard's pawn situation, and she says she believes in the company.

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