????有一次，兩人在伯克利校園周圍轉悠了3個小時。正是在這次漫長的散步之旅中，李試圖說服他的朋友贊同一項募集75萬美元資本的計劃。“我一度表示，‘你知道的，如果你真的信任這個方案，也許我就不應該繼續留在公司了，因為這或許不是我想要的，而是你想要的。’對于他來說，這是一種不可能做出的選擇。他說，‘不，要做就一起做。我會說服你的。’他真的做到了。”

????至2011年4月，李募集到了50萬美元。他們用這筆錢成立了一個團隊，營銷他們的產品，給每位員工支付適度的薪水，還租賃了一間真正的辦公室。面向GMAT的備考產品開始起飛，他們隨后開始專注于即將于2011年8月變化的GRE考試。在新測試推出前一個月，我們開發出了全新的GRE備考產品。當年11月份，為推廣Magoosh新開發的SAT備考服務，李參加了福克斯商業頻道(Fox Business)一檔節目。他在電視上彰顯的依然是那個魅力十足，善于宣揚的自我，竭力鼓吹向高中生免費提供他們本來無從獲得的備考服務的種種好處。

????幾乎剛剛過了一個月后，在驅車趕赴妻子家人舉辦的一個家庭晚宴的途中，帕瑞克收到了李發來的電子郵件。“看完郵件后，我一句話也沒說，”他回憶說。“下車時，我告訴了妻子這個噩耗。”

????隨后幾天，兩人進行了一系列電郵交流，李堅信他的預后是相當不錯的。12月21日的診斷出來時，沒有人知道這種疾病將變得多么致命。圣誕節前兩天，李在加州大學舊金山分校醫學中心進行了淋巴結活檢。基因測試表明，他的癌癥可以用一種名為特羅凱(Tarceva)的藥物治療，這是一種更具針對性、毒性較低的治療方式。

????帕瑞克逐漸承擔起了越來越多原本屬于李的管理職責。每個星期，他都去一趟李的公寓，兩人隨后一起在伯克利校園漫步。這家公司的發展步伐還不夠大。盡管公司正在產生一些收入，但這些收入并不足以支付每位員工的工資。因此，他們還需要一起商討許多事務。

????“我們原本打算進行一次真正的首輪募資，希望籌集數百萬資本，但由于李正在退出日常事務，這項籌資計劃會變得極其艱難，因為他是Magoosh公司的代言人。我與投資者也有些交往，但遠沒有他那么熟絡。不過，這些談話大大激勵了他，因為他不再整天考慮自己的預后，他開始思考Magoosh公司的發展。”

????2月19日，好消息傳來。服用了一個多月的特羅凱，同時接受了兩周的針對性放射治療之后，他的第一次掃描顯示出了令人鼓舞的結果：肺部的腫瘤已經顯著收縮。

????然而，3月10日，李的左肺突然停止工作，他隨即被送往急診室，不得不接受旨在驅動左肺重新呼吸的支氣管鏡檢查。帕瑞克回憶說：“由于他的情況惡化，我們的溝通開始轉為每月一次的電話交談。為了更靠近醫院，他隨后搬到了舊金山。”

????到了4月中旬，除服用特羅凱以外，醫生還安排他接受更加保守的化學療法。兩個月后，接受完第三輪化療的李在Facebook頁面上寫道，這次治療“讓我的身體、精神和情感經歷了我以前從未遭遇的挑戰。疾病的不斷發作難以避免。既要做一位時刻保持警覺的病人，又要承受病魔的不斷侵襲，這種協調讓我的心智備受摧殘。”

????It was during a lengthy three-hour walk around the Berkeley campus that Lee tried to convince his friend to go along with a plan to raise $750,000. "At one point, I said, 'You know, if you really believe in this, maybe I shouldn't continue on in the company because maybe this is not what I want. It's what you want.' That was not an option for him. He said, 'No we are doing this together, and I'm going to convince you.'And he did."

????By April 2011, Lee was able to raise half a million dollars. They used the money to build a team, market their product, pay each other modest salaries, and get a real office. The GMAT prep product began to take off, and then they began focusing on the GRE, which was about to change in August 2011. Magoosh got its new GRE product out the door a month before the launch of the new test. In November, Lee was on Fox Business to promote Magoosh's new SAT prep service. He looked his usual charismatic and promotional self, talking up the benefits of offering test prep for free to high school students who otherwise might not be able to access those services.

????Little more than a month later, Parikh would get the email from his friend while in a car on his way to dinner with his wife's family. "I saw it and I didn't say anything," he remembers. "As we were getting out of the car, I told my wife."

????There would be a flurry of emails over the next few days, including Lee's belief that his prognosis was pretty good. When the diagnosis was made on December 21, no one knew how lethal the disease would become. Two days before Christmas, Lee checked into UCSF Medical Center for a lymph node biopsy. Genetic tests suggested that his cancer could be treated with a drug called Tarceva, a more targeted and less toxic treatment.

????Parikh would slowly assume more and more of Lee's duties as chief executive officer. Every week, he would walk to Lee's nearby apartment, and the two would stroll through Berkeley. The company hadn't hit its stride. It was making some money, but not enough to pay everyone's salary. So there was much to discuss.

????"We had thought about raising a true Series A round in the millions, but with him being out, that would have been exceptionally hard because he was the face of Magoosh. I had relationships with investors, but not to the degree he did. But those walks energized him because instead of thinking about ... his prognosis, he began to think about Magoosh and the progress of the company."

????On February 19, good news arrived. The results of his first scan -- after taking Tarceva for over a month and undergoing two weeks of targeted radiation -- were encouraging. It showed significant shrinkage of the tumor in his lung.

????On March 10, however, Lee was rushed to the emergency room when his left lung stopped working. He had to have an emergency broncosopy to restore breathing into his left lung. "As things got worse for him, we started doing monthly phone calls, and then he moved to San Francisco to be closer to the hospital," remembers Parikh

????By mid-April, his doctors assigned him to a more traditional regimen of chemo in addition to the Tarceva. Two months later, after a third round of chemotherapy, Lee wrote on his Facebook page that the treatment had "tested me physically, mentally and emotionally more than anything I've ever encountered.... The constant reminders of my disease are difficult to avoid. Bring a vigilant patient versus being all consumed by my disease is a balancing act that is taxing on the psyche."