The Technical Advisor for Silicon Valley on HBO

McManus co-founded Yard Sale, which launched two iPhone marketplaces, Yard Sale and Phobo, before the company was sold in 2015. HBO contacted Greylock for names of technology people to advise the show, and McManus and his co-founder were recommended. After an interview that felt like his first day on the job, McManus sold most of his belongings and moved to Los Angeles to start work.

The writers had researched startups and generally understood how they worked, so McManus’s role was more like a lifeguard than a comedy writer. He filled in technical dialogue and reviewed technical details, often explaining them in just a couple of lines. He said the technology served the characters and story, and that technical specifics were less important than motivations and emotions.

McManus said Pied Piper’s middle-out compression had a plausible technical basis, drawing on machine learning, but its mix of lossless compression, streaming, and performance would be a major scientific breakthrough. The writers needed setbacks for a company whose technology seemed almost unbeatable. McManus also contributed startup experience to late-season episodes about a beta launch, uncertain early traction, and growth hacking sliding toward fraud.

McManus pushed for Pied Piper to move from its own servers to AWS, which he felt better matched startup practice at the time. He also wrote or reviewed background details such as Post-it notes, scrum boards, whiteboards, and code. For one episode, he created a simple compression program as an Easter egg; viewers paused the scene, copied the code, and compiled it.

McManus said technical advising is rarely a job someone applies for directly. Possible routes include building startup experience, becoming an expert in a technical field, or working at an agency that connects production companies with advisers. He praised Mr. Robot for combining technical accuracy with the plot, and said working on the show helped him feel ready to return to startups.