Balance of Power Shifted (17 page)

Thank you all again, Bill said with a subdued voice
.  He started with the first slide on the screen, and proceeded to show the same presentation given to Julius and then Iris yesterday.  Bill did a great job and did not miss a beat and everyone in the room was rapt with attention.  When Bill got into the later part of the presentation and talked about practical applications and the potential impact on global economies, there were some audible gasps as the room began to understand the significance of the statements.  After about 45-minutes, Bill wrapped up his portion, which included the video of the prototype, and announced to the room that we would answer questions.  He then provided the floor to Julius and Iris, who by the way, he added, have already agreed to be employee number 3 and 4.

After about 60 seconds of silence, Steve asked the first questions. “Can you explain exactly what you want from each of us?”  I had agreed to
help facilitate these types of questions, so I responded, “we want everyone in this room to come on board in a small equity position and a generous salary because we need you.  The most important thing is that we trust you guys and for this company to work and not be subverted by those who would not benefit by it, we need people at key positions that we can trust and rely on.  Everyone in this room has already proven themselves, at a relatively young age, in the corporate world in a wide variety of disciplines.  We need that know how.  Julius will review more details in a little while about what will be offered to lure you all away from your current lives and comfort zones.”  Kristen asked the next question which dealt with security.  “Great question Kristen, and one that I want all of you to consider completely,” I replied.  “I do believe that physical security and safety as well as security of our intellectual property will have to be elevated to the highest priority.  Maybe I have watched too many movies, but I firmly believe, those who want to block us or get a piece of the action will challenge us at every step.  This could result in threats, intimidation or even worse.  I will be meeting with my old boss in a couple of days to discuss all aspects of security and will most likely engage his company to work with us at our new corporate location, to be determined, and our existing lab space back in California.”

Taylor asked the next question, which surprisingly I really had not given much thought to.  “What would the new company be potentially worth?” Taylor
prodded.  I raised my eyebrows and admitted that it was such an overwhelming concept and at such a magnitude that putting a value on the company, as a private company, was not easy.  I simply threw out a bombshell number of one trillion dollars drawing gasps from the audience.  “Let me pose a question to all of you, which is an important one for Bill and me.  If we had a corporate philosophy that relied on spreading the wealth to avoid catastrophic shifts of global power, and extending the benefits of this technology to the world’s poor at a cost to the company’s bottom line, would you support it?  In other words, our net might only be in the lower 100’s of billions versus a trillion.  Can I see a show of hands if you would support a corporate philosophy that was not based on greed but more altruistic in nature?” 

With no surprise whatsoever, everyone’s hand shot up instantly
in response to my question. “Excellent” I said.  Bill handled more questions regarding ‘how things worked’ and practical applications of the new product. We also re-enforced that we wanted to stay private, if possible.  We did not want constraints imposed by listing on the stock exchange and all the politics that went along with it.  We felt we could raise private equity quite easily or sell some early leases on the technology at a premium price.  Once the questions quieted down, we turned it over to Julius and Iris for the legal details.

Julius reiterated that they all signed the non-disclosure document and if they came on board or not
, the document was still legally binding.  Julius and Iris presented details about the incorporation process including the company name.  Next, they informed everyone about the need to protect our intellectual property including Electricus.  Iris mentioned that I would be heading a search for a local office building with expansion possibilities and setting up office staff and things like human resources and payroll.  Julius added that short-term, Mike was going to loan the company 10 million dollars to get things going. Mike offered Efficio a 1-year lease on his California building including the lab space.  Finally yet importantly, we will all pull the same base salary, which is up for discussion, but everyone in this room will receive up to 2% of the company with a scale sliding up to the 2% if you are with the company in an active role for at least 8 years and 1% after five.  Mike and Bill will equally hold the majority of shares and may elect to break them up if needed for attracting talent or money.  If we ever go public it will be clear what you 2% will be worth, not like some of the stories you have heard recently in the news.  Iris and I will be here until after dinner if you want to sign up or ask questions while we are here, however we would like you answer by the end of next week if you need more time.  On the table next to me are encrypted memory sticks that you can take with you.  They contain the presentation and video you just saw and some formal documents that you will need to fill out and sign if you are coming onboard.  The passphrase is 3 l e k T r i k u $ $ Iris read off slowly.

The rest of the day was a continuous barrage of questions and what if scenarios.  I had a small limo bus come by at 6:30 to bring everyone to a
bay restaurant on the mainland side.  Julius and Iris declined the limousine in favor of driving their car since they would leave for home right from the restaurant.  I had reserved the upper floor for the evening so the conversations could be private in a beautiful Victorian designed restaurant with a magnificent view of the sunsets over Barnegat Bay.  The food was delicious and we all had fun just hanging out together.  There was virtually no discussion about the day’s events except at the very end.  One by one, except for Kristen and Taylor who came up together, everyone wanted to be part of the team, with last one being Sean.  With Sean’s affirmative, Bill and I held up our wine glasses and in unison said, “We have an announcement to make.”  Deferring to Bill, I let him inform everyone that everyone in this room has agreed to be part of Efficio, which received enthusiastic clapping.  I raised my glass and asked everyone to raise whatever he or she were dinking and said “success to us and may we all still be good friends down the road.”  Cheers everyone responded back in kind.

The ride back was rowdy to say the least, and when we got back to the house, we continued to celebrate well into the night. 
Taylor and Kristen were the first to hit the sack and took the room Julius and Iris had been in.  Fiona was the next to cash in and asked me where bed was.  I told her which room I was staying in, which was the room that I always stayed in upstairs, since it faced the ocean and one could see the waves over the dunes.  She knew hanging out with the guys was on my agenda, so she told us not to get in too much trouble as she headed up the stairs for bed.  She was the smart one, since Bill brought out a bottle of Jagermeister, and it was downhill from there.  After a few shots of Jager, we were running along the beach pushing tackling each other into the surf.  Somehow, we found our way back to the house and I ended up sleeping under the kitchen table in soaking wet clothes and covered in sand, as were my partners in crime.

I kept feeling a nudge in my ribs until I finally opened my eyes and saw Fiona laughing as she continued to lightly prod me with her foot.  You
people were bad boys last night she said, as she held up an empty bottle of Jager and shaking her head.  Grabbing the table, I pulled myself up and onto the chair and put my head down on the table and just groaned, “Never again, I said…Jager is bad, very bad, we should ban that stuff.”  Of course, we said this same thing every time Jager made an appearance.  Seeing the sand fall out of my hair onto the table, forced me to look at the state of the kitchen, which was a wall-to-wall sand and smelly wet body.  Without a word, I walked out on the back porch and shook myself like a dog to get rid of as much sand as I could then went and used the outdoor shower to rinse off.  As the steam rose around me, I started to feel a little better however; I knew I would feel the effects of my excess for most of the day.  Grabbing a towel out of the bin, I wrapped it around and headed to my room.  As I passed through the kitchen, Fiona gave me a whistle and ran her tongue over her lips as if I was a delicious meal.  I paused for a second to ask her if she could remind the men to use the outdoor shower.

By the
time, I got back downstairs there were no longer any bodies lying in the kitchen and Fiona and Kristen were running a vacuum to clean away the piles of sand.  I grabbed an AMP from the fridge and sucked down half of it in one large gulp.  Thanks everyone for cleaning up I said, and headed into the living room and sat in the leather recliner to further my recuperation.  Fiona came in a few minutes later, sat on my lap, leaned back, and placed her head into the nape of my neck.  I missed you last night she said.  I know I said I planned to pay you a lot more attention and will.  Coming back here made understand how much I missed you and me together and I hope you feel the same.  Fiona did not say a word, but just reached around me with her free arm and pulled me more tightly into her.  I took this to mean she had similar feelings, which to be honest felt good.  Maybe this is what growing up feels like.

Slowly everyone migrated
his or her way into the living room.  We discussed next steps, which included signing all the documents that Julius had left, and everyone felt that they could be available full time after giving a 2-week notice to their current employers.  I mentioned that I would be staying in the area as long as was necessary to get everything up and running.  Bill was going to head back to California to continue to refine Electricus and get the Hummer prototype working.  I offered to fly anyone who wanted visit the California site out there.  Steve chimed in that he really wanted to work with Bill on Electricus and leverage that Microbiology training he had.  Steve also indicated he could head out there quickly since he had no complications here in New Jersey.  It looked like everyone wanted to head back North, so the last thing I asked, was if everyone could send me an email with potential candidates for all kinds of jobs.  I wanted to start building a portfolio of potential candidates.

The last person to leave was Fiona.  She gave me the address of her townhouse since I was going to stay there
, which was closer to the action then down here.  Bill and I would stay here tonight and then I would drive him to Newark airport for a noonish flight and head over to Fiona’s place.  The rest of the night Bill and I continued to work on a business plan as well as security strategies.  I would be picking up Jeremy at the airport Tuesday afternoon and would formalize many of our ideas.  The house was a bit of a mess, but the realtor brought in a cleaning service anytime people stayed here so I was not too concerned.  I ended up crashing early as the previous night’s escapades had caught up with me.

T
he next morning we packed up our gear and were out of the house by 8 am.  We hit some typical commuter traffic on the ride to the airport, but nothing major.  I gave Bill a manly hug before he headed off through TSA security land.  I then shot over to Summit to check out Fiona’s place.

She had a nice brick end unit in a complex that looked new and was a short walk to the train station.  As I
drove through town, I realized that Summit might be a good location to set up shop.  This town was in a great area. Not too close to New York City, but with good transportation facilities.  Using the key Fiona gave me, I entered her place, which was very nice, however sparsely furnished.  She had told me she sunk everything into the townhouse as a foreclosure sale and could not afford to decorate at this time.  Fiona was at work at her firm in Basking Ridge and would not be home until around 5:45.

I spent the day browsing the office properties and collected information on a dozen potential buildings.  One listing did ride to the top of my list. 
It was a modern looking 54,000 square foot, four-story building under renovation by the building management.  It was currently unoccupied, but the ground floor would be available in 2-3 weeks and then additional floors would become available about every 2-3 months.  What made it even more attractive was a decent sized server room with a UPS system and a generator dedicated to the server room and key work areas.  The only down side was the server room was located on the second floor which was not scheduled to be available for a couple of months.  The building was on Maple Street, was in walking distance to the train station, and had adequate parking.  About the time I was wrapping up my search, I heard a key in the door and Fiona walked in carrying her Mac computer. As I was soaking in her corporate look, she gave me a “honey I’m home, what’s for dinner?”  I had to admit it was funny.  I briefly flashed to being Mr. Mom and pictured myself wearing an apron.

I got up an
d gave her a tight hug, and said, “Let me take you out to dinner tonight. I found a couple properties right here in town I thought would work well and you can tell me how work went…you know about giving your notice.”  Fiona said, “You’re on.  Especially since I really feel like a heel for giving notice today.  They were supportive of me, but I could tell it hit them hard.  Give me about 20 minutes to change and we can figure out a place to go.”

Whew, I
don’t know what has gotten into me, Fiona thought.  Seeing Mike again set fire to emotions I did not know I even had.  I have always loved him, but loved him like a best friend… with benefits.  Mom was right.  She had told me that I was missing him after he had taken off to California especially without any significant communication from him. I just did not acknowledge that is was that.  Fiona had realized that when she saw Mike come off the beach after his run, with a California tan, ripped body covered in sweat, it brought reality home that she loved Mike more than being friends.  Smiling to herself, she remembered how her heart had beat so fast when Mike had spoken the same feelings she had.  Stripping down out of her work clothes, she jumped into the steamy shower for a quick rinse off.  After drying off, she applied some makeup and threw on a pair of jeans and a comfortable blouse.  As she walked out of the room, she had a shudder of excitement about what the future was going to bring.