A Plan Comes Together

By December '06 quite a bit of scheming had been done. One of my subordinates had mentioned interest in joining my venture and with some wrangling I was able to make him redundant so he could get a package as well. For the sake of anonymity we'll refer to him as "Chakka" and more will be spoken of him later.

Later is now. Chakka had been a marvel of technical expertise at the former company. I'll not lie that I hadn't reveled at the idea of bringing him on board as I also knew him to be a hard worker and quite dedicated when properly motivated. What I forgot to mention to him was that I was envisioning inviting him to join me primarily as an employee with special benefits and some ownership in the company because he had the faith to join me so early. He had the impression we'd be equal partners which we would have been had we been putting up the money together. As it is, I'm not asking him for any money. Truth to tell I think he is still a little bent out of shape about this but when the revenues start rolling in I am hoping all will be forgiven. He's a good guy with a good heart so I expect he'll be gracious in our success and not bitter.

Just to be sure I checked with a number of different sources and my logic isn't crazy. When deciding who gets what in a new business the money is usually 50% of the equation. Connecting money to an idea is actually quite difficult and this was pretty much my job. I had single handedly connected money to my idea, not because of my idea so much as because of who I know, so I had money and I had an idea. Thats worth 50% in the business world. I needed technical expertise - I also have this in my personal portfolio. Problem is, I am not going to have time to exploit my own technical expertise and why should I when Chakka is better than I am at what we do? It would take me a year to get my products up to his standards and he was ready to hit the ground running. So, in the business world, the technical component of the company - what gets the product out the door, this is worth 20%. Yes I could do it myself so giving Chakka 20% wasn't exactly necessary but at the same time, he is my friend and its not all at once. Its incentive based so that he has to make a 5 year effort to really cash it in.

If Chakka backs out, all is not lost. I have been scheming with a company in India to produce the bulk of our products. Even with their help, I am still planning more automation than we had ever envisioned at Megalocomm. So Chakka and I began meetings and brought in a friend which I'll refer to as "The Wookie" who works in our industry but was very interested in our venture. Currently he doesn't have any designs on the company but if things really take off it would be worthwhile to get him on board as a shareholder because this dude is sharp and he can really make things happen when it comes to managing data such as ours. Actually The Wookie recently moved to the Denver area, which is perfect because my wife and I have been planning to move up there for years and the plan is finally starting to materialize, so at least the Wookie and I will be in proximity, even if Chakka is in Portland.

So throughout December things are going pretty well. My Brother in law (the aforementioned money) has offered to look at our business plan and being independently wealthy scoffed at how much I needed to get things going. He said it would be a pleasure not only to back us financially but to offer his expert business advice as well - which means a lot. This guy is whispered about in business circles, he is big time. On December 31st I vacationed through my last day with Megalocomm, quietly driving across a snow-blasted landscape in Nebraska trying to get to a Poi Dog Pondering concert in Chicago that night with my wife and newborn son. We had even lined up babysitting. Of course if you know anything about Nebraska on Dec. 31st of 2006 you know we never made it. The snow was feet deep and even in my trusty X-terra we were only making about 15 mph. This of course was quite impressive as most of the other cars on the road were completely stranded. We ended up in a fancy hotel in Omaha. Nice place. I toasted the new year and my new company.