contract for more books in the series. Stacy liked to imagine that she might have been allowed to edit the new books if she had returned to work from maternity leave.
But she hadn’t.
As soon as Stacy and Sophie left for ballet, Ryan reached for his cell phone and dialed Todd, who, technically, Ryan wasn’t supposed to talk to. Todd was the money guy, the representative from the venture capital firm who’d promised to take their company public, and it was no secret that he and Ryan did not agree on the way to get there.
The idea that started the company had been Ryan’s. It came to him one wintery afternoon in a computer science lecture hall, presenting itself as a puzzle to be solved and would not go away. It took Ryan weeks to arrive at the solution and months more to perfect it. When it was finally ready, he showed Sean and Jeff, his roommates at the time.
Jeff was a big-data guy, a doctoral student who was excited about what Ryan’s program could become. Sean, Ryan realized much later, was more interested in the dollar signs than the solution itself. Without knowing if anything would come of the idea, the three of them incorporated and agreed to let the majority decide the new company’s direction. As MIT graduate students, they had access to university resources, so they booked server time to compile and test additional code that had become too complex for their laptops to handle. When the program was stable, they gave it away, just to see if people liked it.
And they did.
It was Sean who approached the venture capitalists for funding, flying to Seattle and presenting their start-up as his own without telling the other two. Afterward, he’d made the excuse that he didn’t expect anything to come of the trip, so why bring it up?
Only, something had come of it. And that’s when things between them began to deteriorate.
Not only was the Seattle group interested, but another firm out of San Diego had heard of their success and also wanted to invest. The amount of cash offered during the first round of funding was impressive and it was nice to be able to quit school to focus on their little company. But the second round of funding changed everything. The money came with strings this time, and oversight in the form of a slick frat boy named Todd. As the venture capitalists’ representative, he initially promised to offer advice only when asked, and on the surface, that’s what he did. In the shadows, he added oversight and layers of management that seemed extensive and unnecessary. But whenever Ryan pushed back, Todd added incentives—more options for Sean or equipment for Jeff—and because he was only one vote of three, Ryan lost the battle.
That’s where they were now: Ryan felt like the only clear head left on a ship that had gone wildly off course. He could see the iceberg coming but no one seemed to care.
As Ryan listened to the phone ring, waiting for Todd to pick up, he felt his frustration bloom. He didn’t like talking to Todd and knew this conversation wouldn’t go well.
“Ryan. Glad you reached out.” Todd’s tone was forced, overly bright and cheerful. Ryan closed his eyes and suppressed a groan. Maybe calling wasn’t a great idea. “I have a few things for you to do,” Todd continued. “We need the milestone schedule to present at the partners’ meeting this afternoon. Sean says you have all the customer data.”
“Good morning to you too, Todd.” Ryan’s voice was deliberately cool.
“Sorry, pal. I didn’t realize you were the kind of guy who needed flowers first.” Todd’s indulgent chuckle made Ryan recoil.
“The reason I’m calling,” Ryan continued, “is because I got your email this morning. I don’t know why you want me to build the slide-deck. We all have the same raw data, including you.”
“It’s Sean’s opinion that you’re the best one to present the data.” Todd changed his tone to match Ryan’s, cool and professional.
“Sean’s opinion? What do you mean ‘Sean’s opinion’? When did you talk to him?”
“We had dinner last night, in town. He flew over for the weekend to discuss a few ideas we have. I thought he would have told you that.”
“Well, he didn’t.”
“I guess he’ll bring you up to speed later.”
“I don’t need him to ‘bring me up to speed’ later. You can tell me now,” Ryan pressed.
“Fine.” Todd sighed into the phone. “There’s a small start-up out of UMD