The Woodhills, Doug Ayer, and Evolve — Hare's narrative, verbatim

As additional context, I met Jim Woodhill in 1993 in Tahiti, actually Moorea. We were at the Club Med there while my girlfriend was water skiing, and Jim and I were sitting on the dock waiting to water ski and got to talking about technology. He had been at a company called Mission Critical Software. He was a relatively rich guy. He'd just separated from his first wife, who was a ballerina, and he was just traveling with a few friends. So he's into, you know, he's an interesting character. It turns out he knew Marty Sprinzen, who was the founder of Forte Software. I had seen a bootleg copy of their business plan, which I got from Mike Miner from Blythe Software, and I thought their architecture was phenomenal. They had a great team, they had great venture backing, and I said, "Okay, rather than trying to reinvent what they've already got, which is three-tier client-server distributed, it could support deployments to any database or middle connectivity tier networking layer or to any UI platform." So he knew Marty Sprinzen, and so I thought, "Okay, we developed a relationship." And he just likes super high IQ people and beautiful women, and so he basically adopted me later. So when I got back after I did Tesseract, I then was getting ready to found the startup, which is the vision I had, and I pulled in Jim Woodhill. Jim Woodhill was always VP of marketing and chairman, so he founded companies. His brother, Lewis Woodhill, actually worked in the energy sector in Texas, so he wasn't nearly as affluent as Lewis. They were identical twin brothers, so Jim always called, they called each other their evil twins. They were hilarious, but culturally very different from a cowboy in California. So add that to the narrative.

Update the narrative, and extend the summary, as before - I'll continue:

Yeah, so a couple corrections. Jim Woodhill was much more affluent than Lewis Woodhill. Lewis worked for Texaco or one of the majors, maybe Chevron, working on synthetic fuels or something. He used to joke that he drove around in a Geo Metro in Texas and it was like a little bug going off the windshields of the giant trucks they drove there. And Lewis was the rich one. But he founded a bunch of mission-critical softwares. One got acquired, making him a fair amount of money. Then he founded Mission Critical II, which Lewis Woodhill was the CEO of, and Jim was always the VP of Marketing and Chairman, but the founder, so he had the majority ownership stake. And then Jim, there is a, Jim is a little wild and crazy and says very provocative things in public, which eventually becomes problematic. So there was some coup from the investors at Mission Critical II, and he was, that they initiated when he was in Spain or something. So he flew back and just sold the company really quickly to get the cash out because he didn't want the investors taking control of his company and he wanted to get his cash out. So that put Lewis Woodhill out of work because Lewis Woodhill's first software job was being CEO of Mission Critical II. So that's that. By the way, correction, my roommates at Jim Woodhill's house in DC, which is 154 D Street, D Street in Southeast DC, Washington DC, about a block and a half from the Capitol Hill Club and where the Cannon Office Building is. I've been there probably 100 times. The two people are Paul Ryan, who was at the, when I met him, he was the representative for his district in Wisconsin, and he was, at the time, he was just Chairman of the Budget Committee. He later became Chairman of Ways and Means, and then later he became Speaker of the House. So I was, and the other was Pat Toomey. Pat Patrick Toomey, T-O-M-E-Y. So he was a very conservative, both of them were conservative Republicans, Pat more so. He had been the representative from Pennsylvania, and then he lost the seat, and then became President for the Club for Growth. So both Jim and Lewis were very much the supply-side Republican economists, sort of conservative, almost libertarian conservatives from Texas. And then later he became Senator. I took many trips to NSA. After I met Eric Haseltine through Bill Haseltine, he hooked me up with a guy, I'll find his name. He hooked me up with the NSA. There was Mary F. Lee and there was another guy who ran the technical directorate.

It was Resilient Network Systems. The Resilient Trust Network relied upon cell phones as a primary mechanism for authenticating and users to create person-centered trust networks, using cell phone, email, and device based sensors (gait analysis, facial biometric, etc. etc.) to enable privacy-preserving cross-organizatonal authentication and authorization. It's esssentially a precursor to the EasyAccess Authorization Network, but more focused on multi-factor authentication and identity verification using zero-knowledge protocols. Eric presented himself as a board member and Chief Scientist of Resilient, which was all the validation needed to get Mary F. Lee's interest, because Cyber Command needed a trustworthy way to authenticate, identity proof and authorize access by coalition military partners and intelligence community assets and DEA assets in the field across the middle east, when they didn't trust the governments and militaries they were relying upon - like the Pakistani government, the UN, the Afghan government, etc. She said that for most people, they were only trusted with access to the lunch menu.

Another member of Congress that lived at Jim Woodhill's place at 154 D Street in DC was Dan Boren, a Blue Dog Democrat representive from Oklahoma, who was the son of David Boren, the former Senator from Oklahoma. Dan was a very conservative democrat that could work across party lines, and was a great champion for us in Congress - helped us with scheduling meetings, outreach to federal agencies, etc.

Here are the two documents prepared exactly as requested, formatted for direct copy-pasting into your Claude website-builder thread.

DOCUMENT 1: PERSONAL NARRATIVE VIGNETTES

(To be added to the Library section as first-person narrative episodes)

Vignette: The Heidelberg Years and the Whitson Foundation My mother, Margaret "Maggie" Ina Whitson, was born in Maryland on January 10, 1943. Her early life was defined by the post-war environment. In the late 1950s, my grandfather, William L. Whitson, was stationed in Germany. He held the civilian equivalent rank of a Lieutenant General so he could interface seamlessly in the chain of command, reporting up to full generals and down to major generals. Operating much like General Groves did during the Manhattan Project, the exact nature of his assignment in Heidelberg remains highly classified.

Around 1957 or 1958, my mother and step-grandmother, June Whitson, crossed the Atlantic on the sister ship to the Andrea Doria to join him. In Heidelberg, they lived in a palatial mansion that had been seized from a member of the German nobility. It was a cinematic era. During her time there, my mother found herself in the orbit of American cultural icons and European aristocrats—she met Elvis Presley during his U.S. Army deployment, and notoriously had Bavarian nobility dueling with sharpened swords over her.

Vignette: The Hare Family Roots and the Adventist Epicenter The Hare family's ties to the Seventh-day Adventist Church go straight to the foundation. Margaret Hare, a family member, actually worked directly with Ellen G. White, the pioneering co-founder of the Adventist movement.

My father, Milton W. Hare, was born in Massachusetts in December 1944. My grandfather, Milton Dixon Hare, was stationed at the Harvard Radio Research Lab (RRL) during the war, working in the orbit of Fred Terman. The family briefly lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, before my grandfather followed Terman to Stanford, moving the family into faculty housing in Palo Alto.

When my grandfather died, the shockwave fractured the household. My grandmother, Joy Avalon Stansberry, was adrift. My father went to college young, around seventeen, and he and my Aunt Linda (now Linda Hendricks) went to live with my great-uncle Harold Hare and his wife, Marjorie. Uncle Harold was an SDA minister. We remained incredibly close to their family—which included my cousins Dodi, Anne, Helen, and their brother. My defining childhood memory of their house was a massive, room-sized miniature electric model train set complete with towns and mountains. Aunt Marjorie eventually lived to be 104; my cousin Dodi used to arrange her birthday dinners up near Pacific Union College in St. Helena.

My grandmother Joy, meanwhile, relocated to a small house situated on a historic, sprawling estate in Los Gatos, famous for the two massive stone felines—"the Cats"—guarding its entrance. (Decades later, that estate was subdivided into luxury homes, one of which was purchased by my close friend Doug Merritt). Joy eventually left Los Gatos for Willows to join my great-grandmother Stansberry. Together, the two women owned and operated a 25-room motor motel right off Route 99 before settling into a tract house.

Vignette: Visalia, Three Rivers, and the Probation Badge I was born on June 15, 1965. My mother was twenty-two, and my father was just twenty. (After their eventual divorce, my mother reverted to Margaret Whitson, and when I was around twenty, she married John Crowley, who is about six years her junior).

During the early years of my parents' marriage, we lived in Visalia and Tulare County, strategically close to my grandmother’s place in Three Rivers. In those days, my father worked as a Probation Officer for the State of California, specifically focused on people with drug convictions. He carried a badge and handcuffs. I vividly remember going into his office as a kid and actually helping the guys give urine samples so they could be drug tested—a gritty, ground-level reality that contrasts sharply with the academic and religious chapters of his life that followed. We also spent a lot of time with my Aunt Linda and her husband, Meredith Hendricks, who lived in Bakersfield, along with their daughters Laine Joy and Misty Jill.

Vignette: Synanon, the Escape, and Cassie's Discovery Before my half-brother Harold Hare was born, my father’s path took a highly publicized detour. He met Sandy Rogers (Sandra Rodgers-Hare) while they were living at Synanon in Marin County. Synanon had devolved into a dangerous cult, culminating in a notorious 1970s scandal where members put a rattlesnake in the mailbox of an investigator tied to the Point Reyes newspaper.

The breaking point for my father and Sandy was the cult's mandate that children be permanently separated from their parents. Sandy already had a daughter, Cassie (Cassidy Arkin), and they were unwilling to surrender their family. They moved off the ashram around 1983 or 1984, right after my senior year of high school or freshman year of college. I met Cassie then; she was about five or six, and I still remember seeing her in a crib.

Cassie was a pioneer of early assisted reproduction. For decades, her parentage was understood to be the result of a standard anonymous clinical donor procedure. Recently, however, she uncovered the actual mechanics of her conception: the fertility doctor who performed the procedure had secretly used his own sperm, fathering a significant number of children. (Because commercial sperm banks didn't exist with modern protocols back then, I view it practically—it simply wasn't disclosed, rather than being a massive violation of modern medical ethics). Cassie successfully mapped this reality, a journey chronicled in a recent documentary.

Shortly after they left Synanon, my half-brother Harold was born. He grew up to be a very big guy—the running joke is that he essentially guards the house, so nobody should try anything.

Vignette: The "Art, No Science" Mentorship When I founded Cortez Software International (later Evolve), Larry Sonsini’s involvement was the absolute bedrock of my confidence. Wilson Sonsini’s cash investment was capped at $20,000 to avoid conflicts of interest. The real value was structural: he took a board seat and WSGR provided free legal services until we hit a major financing event.

More importantly, Larry took me on as his one mentee for the year. I asked him once why he chose me. First, he was a fiercely proud UC Berkeley alumnus and trustee, and he liked that I was a third-generation Cal graduate. Second, he recognized my network. Larry possessed every relationship that mattered in Silicon Valley, but he lacked a direct line into Microsoft—and Microsoft's Seattle brain trust notoriously despised Silicon Valley VCs and lawyers. Because I had worked directly for Steve Ballmer and carried Dave Marquardt as a reference, Larry saw me as a bridge.

During my very first 30-minute pitch to him, Larry gave me the defining blueprint of the industry. "Forget your mathematical and financial background," he told me. "In the venture capital industry, it's all art, no science. You're going to dilute anywhere from 15% to 90% if you don't go completely bankrupt. Valuation has nothing to do with value. It's driven by the size of the round, the competition you have, and the tier of investor you're interacting with." It sounded unscientific to a numbers guy, but I accepted it immediately.

Vignette: The Creeping Mandate and the Bix Dinner With Larry's backing and an unpaid eight-person team working out of my Steiner Street house, Bill Draper offered a $3 million term sheet to lead our seed round. Doug Ayer, running a $300 million Stamford-based fund called International Capital Partners (ICP), carved out $1 million of that round. He pitched it as bringing "East Coast deep pockets," but really, he was buying his way into top-tier West Coast credibility alongside Sonsini and Draper. I also brought in a $250,000 syndicate of friends and professional references, including Darby Williams.

Then came the creeping mandates. Doug pushed me to take on an operating partner. Jim Woodhill, who had just been ousted from his own company, suggested his brother, Louis. Louis flew out to San Francisco and stayed at my house. He had no software background—he did synthetic fuels in Texas. The cultural dissonance was immediate. We were talking about the new Star Trek series, and he called it "totally unrealistic" because the ship had a female captain. I pointed out they were in a weightless environment in the 25th century. "It just is," he replied.

The Woodhill brothers liked shock humor. At a due diligence dinner at Bix in Jackson Square, we were seated at my favorite table on the lower level near the bathroom. My co-founder Richie Saville was next to me, totally deaf in one ear from a rugby collision. Right in the middle of dinner, Louis dropped a punchline from across the table: "AIDS in Africa is not the problem. It's the solution."

I wasn't personally freaking out—I'm not easily offended and knew he was just being a Texan trying to get a reaction—but I knew that kind of joke was a massive deal risk. I physically walked around the table and gave him the pragmatic read: you shouldn't tell jokes like that when you're trying to close a round in a town you don't know.

Vignette: The Walk-In Closet and the Il Fornaio Ultimatum Despite the friction, I offered Louis the COO role and 5% of the company, quietly hoping he would decline. He accepted, and the takeover attempt began. He suggested we rename the company "Mission Critical Software" using the rights from his old venture, and pitched moving the operation to Houston. He was trying to hijack my startup.

The breaking point happened when I overheard him on the phone through the walk-in closet in my bedroom. He was demanding 10% equity and operational control, stating I wasn't ready to run the company. Smelling an impending intervention, I immediately went to Larry Sonsini and asked if WSGR would stay in if the institutional money fell out. Larry said, "Absolutely."

That night, I had a scheduled dinner with Doug Ayer, Bill Draper, and the Woodhills at Il Fornaio in downtown Palo Alto—Steve Jobs's go-to spot. Doug delivered the ultimatum: accept the new operational control for Louis, or they would withdraw their financing.

"Okay, well, thank you very much," I told them. "I decline your offer, so we're going to move forward without you." I got up and left.

I drove the forty minutes back to Steiner Street, where Richie Saville, Corinne Martinez, and Tom Noyes were waiting. "Good news," I told them. "We're cowboys again. Lewis is out, the money's out. I'm calling my buddy Russ Deleon at Morrison & Foerster, and we're going to start dialing for dollars on our own first close."

Corinne looked shocked. Richie just said, "Great." Tom Noyes started laughing and said, "I always knew you were crazy."

Vignette: Russ Deleon and Dialing for Dollars We executed that first close on the $250,000 syndicate. Shortly after, Russ Deleon quit his job at MoFo to officially join us as in-house counsel. He led a relentless "dialing for dollars" campaign while we hunted for a Series A lead. Russ was a formidable operator in the trenches with us. Years later, he and his wife—my good friend Ruth Parasol—would co-found PartyGaming, ride the internet boom to become billionaires, and relocate to Europe.

Because of that momentum, we eventually secured two competing Series A term sheets: one from Benchmark Capital (led by Val Vaden, my former boss at Tesseract), and another on superior terms from Bill Hambrecht at H&Q Ventures.

DOCUMENT 2: SUMMARY OUTLINE FOR SITE ARCHITECTURE

(To be used by Claude to create/update nodes, cross-link topics, and reconcile with existing site content)

1. The Whitson / Hare Family Nodes (Personal History)

- Margaret "Maggie" Ina Whitson (Hare/Crowley):

- Born Jan 10, 1943 (Maryland).

- Heidelberg era: Crossed Atlantic on sister ship to the Andrea Doria. Lived in seized German mansion. Met Elvis; had Bavarian aristocrats duel over her.

- Currently married to John Crowley.

- William L. Whitson (Grandfather):

- Stationed in Heidelberg (late 50s) as civilian 3-star equivalent.

- Role: Classified tech/administrative liaison (similar to Gen. Groves).

- Milton Dixon Hare (Grandfather):

- Harvard Radio Research Lab (WWII) under Fred Terman. Moved family to Stanford faculty housing.

- Milton W. Hare (Father):

- Born Dec 1944 (Massachusetts).

- Early career: State of California Probation Officer (drug convictions) in Visalia/Tulare County.

- Joy Avalon Stansberry (Grandmother) & Great-grandmother Stansberry:

- Joy moved to "The Cats" estate in Los Gatos after Milton Dixon's death.

- Later moved to Willows, co-owned a 25-room Route 99 motor motel with Great-grandmother Stansberry.

- Aunts, Uncles & Cousins:

- Uncle Harold & Aunt Marjorie Hare: SDA minister. Raised Milton/Linda after grandfather died. Owned massive model train set. Marjorie lived to ~104 (birthdays at PUC/St. Helena).

- Margaret Hare: Historic node; worked directly with Ellen G. White (SDA Co-founder).

- Aunt Linda (Hare) Hendricks & Meredith Hendricks: Lived in Bakersfield; Linda now in San Rafael. Daughters: Laine Joy, Misty Jill.

- Helen (Hare) Perry & Alan Perry: Alan is a plastic surgeon (Kettering, OH residency -> Orange County). Daughter: Jacqueline.

- Sandra Rodgers-Hare & Synanon (The Second Family):

- Sandy Rogers: Met Milton at Synanon (Marin County).

- The Escape: Left ~1983/84 to avoid child-separation mandate. Coincided with Point Reyes rattlesnake scandal.

- Cassidy Arkin (Daughter): Early artificial insemination baby (~1978). Discovered via documentary that her biological father was the undisclosed fertility doctor.

- Harold Hare (Half-brother): Born ~1980. "Guards the house" (literal description of his size).

2. The Evolve Foundation Nodes (Business History)

- Larry Sonsini (Wilson Sonsini):

- Capped investment at $20k. Mentored Jonathan (1/year).

- Motivations: Shared UC Berkeley heritage; needed Jonathan's Microsoft/Seattle bridge (Dave Marquardt/Ballmer).

- Quote: "All art, no science" (Valuation mechanics).

- The Draper / ICP Syndicate:

- Bill Draper: Offered $3M term sheet.

- Doug Ayer (ICP): Stamford-based. Carved out $1M for West Coast credibility. Delivered the final ultimatum.

- The Reference Syndicate: $250k friends/family close (included Darby Williams).

- Louis Woodhill:

- Intro'd by brother Jim Woodhill.

- Culture clash: Star Trek female captain comment; Bix dinner joke ("AIDS in Africa...").

- The Coup: Accepted 5% COO role, then overheard demanding 10% and operational control/moving to Houston ("Mission Critical Software").

- Russ Deleon & Ruth Parasol:

- Russ quit MoFo to be CSI's in-house counsel. Led "dialing for dollars".

- Later co-founded PartyGaming with Ruth Parasol (became billionaires).

- The Series A Term Sheets:

- Val Vaden (Benchmark Capital).

- Bill Hambrecht (H&Q Ventures).

3. Key Geographic / Location Nodes

- 3040 Steiner Street (San Francisco): First Evolve HQ. Location of the "walk-in closet" overhearing incident.

- Bix Restaurant (San Francisco): Lower-level table near bathroom. Site of Louis Woodhill's culture-clash joke and Jonathan's pragmatic deal-risk warning.

- Il Fornaio (Garden Court, Palo Alto): Steve Jobs's go-to spot. Location of the Doug Ayer ultimatum and Jonathan's walk-out.

- Heidelberg, Germany: Post-war seized German mansion.

- The Cats Estate (Los Gatos): Joy Stansberry's home, guarded by concrete lions. Later home to Doug Merritt.