Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96454 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96454 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I see the hesitation on his face. He wants to ask for more, but he’s not sure he can trust me. Which proves he’s smart.
You shouldn’t trust anyone in our industry. There are a lot of sharks, and they often look harmless. They often present as fun nerds who wouldn’t ever cut you. But they will, and sometimes that cut is deeper than you think.
I’m not going to do that to him. At this point I don’t even know if his AI works the way he says it does. He wouldn’t be the first dude to talk a good game with nothing to back him up.
“The truth of the matter is I’m going to have to find a job soon,” he admits.
“You need funding.” Didn’t we all, but this explains why he was so interested in having me be the one to help out. He probably knows twenty programmers who could fix his interface. But he didn’t know anyone who could navigate investor-filled waters the way I can.
The words seem to fluster him, and I feel a brief sympathy. That first move into the big bad business world can be hard. It’s obvious he’s been splashing around in the kiddie pool.
“Yeah. If I want to keep working on this, I need some funding. I’m going to be honest.”
“That’s always helpful.”
He plunges on, completely ignoring my sarcasm. It’s a point in his favor if we’re going to work together, and that’s where it seems like this thing is going. “I could use your help on the interface, but more than that I need advice on how to proceed. I’ve never done anything like this before. It requires more resources than I know how to get myself.”
“He can’t ask his nonna for a couple hundred bucks for this one.” Darnell is the only one who doesn’t seem to feel the weird tension in the room. Or he does and he’s fascinated by it. I think he might be taking notes.
“What is your endgame? And buddy, it can’t be helping people. I can’t get you funding for helping people.”
“I don’t see why not. It’s what Jensen Medical did,” Heath points out.
He fundamentally misunderstands our business. How to explain to him? “I got the funding for Jensen Medical Solutions not because it helped sick people fill out less forms and streamlined their ability to gain access to services. That was a side effect. A bug, not a feature. The feature was allowing hospitals to run more efficiently, which meant they could cut back on everything from storing paperwork to employees who dealt with that paperwork. I know it sucks, but that’s what investors will care about, so you need to show me how you plan to make money off this. You need to be able to talk to investors about why backing you will make them even more money than they already have.”
He sits back, and I can see he doesn’t like what I’ve said. I hate to disillusion him, but I’ve said nothing but the truth.
“So I can’t get funding.” He takes a steadying breath. “I’ll look for grant money.”
“That’s not what she’s saying, man.” At least Darnell is keeping up. “She’s saying you gotta be sneaky about it.”
“I wouldn’t use that word. I would say he’s got to be smart about it,” I correct.
“But my purpose is to help people,” he insists.
“Can’t you help people and make money?” I’m not sure what the problem is. And then I kind of do.
He’d said something about a nurse. When he’d walked in he’d been talking to his grandmother and said he wanted an update.
Oh, I figure out what I’m dealing with. His grandmother recently had cancer. He loves his grandma. He’s working on something close to her heart.
“I didn’t start this project thinking I would become some millionaire,” he says.
“Good, because you probably won’t, but if you want it to work, you’re going to have to find a way to focus on it. Unfortunately, that means having the money, and in order to get the money, you’re going to have to bring people in, and that means working with them.” And then I spring my trap. I don’t know why this is suddenly so important, but I want this. I want to work with him. I want to see where this thing he’s built can go and how far I can take it. “Of course, if you wanted me to, I could handle that part for you.”
Darnell whistles. “That’s some Faustian shit right there. I think you should do it.”
“What do you mean?” Heath asks.
“I think she means she’ll get you the money and deal with all the scary shark people and all you have to do is give her a tiny piece of your soul.” Darnell proves he’s probably a pretty good writer.
“I don’t care about your soul,” I admit. “But I would need a piece of whatever comes out of this. Say sixty percent.”