fu-ck and run episode 2
Ps meet with Mike Adewale the CEO.
I stood in front of the mas-sive edifice, harmattan altering my delicate skin from its dark tone to white pale, impressed by the structure of the giant office, the finest in the country.
The TMN has had its large share of job seekers; almost everyone who applied was rejected. Last year I had applied for a job there, I didn’t even get an interview.
In a minute or so I would be inside but not for a job, I would be negotiating.
I gingerly approached the entrance and met with the security man, 5 feet tall with broad shoulders he motioned for me to st©p.
“plea-se place all metals in the tray” he spoke with authority and provided a tray into which I dumped every metal on me.
He proceeded to move his wand around my b©dy trying to detect any metal. He didn’t.
He stepped aside and motioned for me to enter inside; I took a de-ep breath and br@ced myself. The inner view of the TMN was exotic, filled with busy people. For the company there sure was no dulling moment.
A very beautiful and attrac-tive secretary approached me and motioned for me to follow her; we walked past other employees and arrived at an elevator. She pushed a bu-tton and the door slid open taking the lead she entered and on cue I sli-pped in right after her, the door slid sh0t.
She pushed a bu-tton with the inscription “10”
The elevator s—t roared to life, and we started ascending.
“So who are we visiting on the tenth floor?” I said wryly.
“Mike Adewale.” c@m£ the cold reply.
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I knew Adewale, of course, by reputation. I knew he was the CEO at TMN a tech company owned by rich businessmen and had built a wonderful thing out of it. Naturally I was nervous. Naturally I was boldly anticipating the meeting: meeting this guy was quite a feat in the tech eco system.
A few minutes ago I was outside his office, and a few minutes later, I was standing before his desk, looking at his piercing grey eyes.
Adewale was six foot 4, mas-sively built, with a dark complexion, a big mouth resting un-der broad nostrils, a mouth that seemed to smile little and a pointed chin; A big man, around fifty six, thick around the middle, solid fat. He must work real ha-rd to keep himself in such good condition.
He studied me for maybe ten seconds before he got up and t—-t out his hand, the hand shake was knuckle cracking.
“Charles Michael good to see you” he said with a voice that would require ra-pt attention. I wondered how a small voice could command such a hvge empire.
“Good to meet you too” I offered myself a seat; Mike raised a brow not hiding his disgust.
Hey am not here for a job interview.
Something about the meeting with Mike seemed odd, I was in his office with him alone, no executives; we didn’t discuss much and before I knew it Mike was signing a cheque! Mike even asked me to stay and further help develop the app with. He was offering me an employment.
I accepted, but I was only planning on staying for a while.
The app was a “sms blocking app” there is quite a lot of them out there, but I added few extended functions on mine to suit the Nigerian mas-s. The idea for the app c@m£ when on a single day I received 23 messages from a single telecom company’s third p@rty sms short code numbers, it was annoying and wouldn’t st©p flooding in. out of disgust I opened my br@instorm, wrote algorithms, designed a user interface and wrote the code. The following week I placed the app on the pl@ysto-re and did a little word of mouth advert. Eventually the app took off, having two hundred thousand download on its first two weeks on the pl@ysto-re thanks to the good hearted moderator of a famous forum who moved the thre-ad about the app to the front page. Reviews about the app were really positive, many users emphasized on the feature of placing all four length numbers that began with “50”, “33”, as irrelevant users also liked that I had alre-ady placed some of the annoying short codes on ban.
I had wanted to monetize the app, but I didn’t want to spoil the user experience with ads also Nigerians wouldn’t like the idea of p@rting with their money; I had created a solution to a problem I didn’t want to create another one.
The popularity and usefulness of the app had gotten me a big deal with “TMN” or so I thought but there was something fishy magazines didn’t call for interviews and I didn’t see the news on blogs, I didn’t bother myself as that wasn’t my business.
On my first week at TMN I met victory, a h0t stunning data an-alyst; brilliant, tall and fair complexioned, I wanted to make advances at her but TMN had a strict no office r0m@nç£so I befriended victory.
I had ba-rely stayed two months at TMN when Mike Adewale called me into his office and made me an offer I just couldn’t resist.
“Charles do you know why you are here?” he had said scanning my face with piercing grey eyes.
“I’m fired?” I asked wryly. Mike managed a weak smile
“You know one day you will pay for your misbehaviors” the man was actually grinning.
Good thing I can get you to smile Mr. Adewale.
Mike Adewale was a phlegmatic the man ha-rd ly smiled.
“Tell me sincerely, do you like working for me?” the question startled me, and for a moment I stared at him. He raised his brow as if to say ‘go on boy, answer the question’
I took a de-ep breath; br@ce yourself Mike, you asked for it.
“No” I said briskly.
He seemed neither surprised nor offended by the answer, anyway it’s the truth.
“I figured as much” he stood up now and sat at the table in front of me.
He placed his right arm on my right shoulder leaned closer.
“Charles I called you here to tell you that am leaving TMN” he said looking me in the eye, grinning again. “And am not leaving without taking you”
My head sh0t up, looking at Mike Adewale with surprise.
“Did I hear you correctly?”
“Yes Charles every word”
I sat up
“You are leaving Tech Mand@t£ the biggest tech company in the country where you have been the CEO for God knows how many years and you are not leaving without me? I rushed the s£ntence. Mike Adewale nodded stood up from the table and headed back to his seat.
“Look Charles I am tired of working for a bunch of obese individuals, am thinking of starting my own tech startup” he win-ked.
“I get that point, its okay if you want to leave but I don’t un-derstand why you won’t leave unless you took me”
“I was getting to that Mr. Michael but before we proceed I would like to know your net worth”
*******************************
There was only one logical explanation for that question; I didn’t want to even think about it.
I drew a de-ep breath, br@ce yourself again Mike this one is hvge.
“One million” I said.
Mike was grinning again.
“One million, in dollar or naira?” he said
“Dollar”
“How come?”
Thanks to Google Ads-en-se, Affiliate marketing and domain fli-pping and other chains of dot businesses. Living the dot com live for so long had paid off, ha-rd work and perseverance they say is a virtue.
I quic-kly told him about my dot com endeavors.
“That’s hvge, what do you say Charles, be my p@rtner, co-foun-der.” Mike looked at me for ten seconds, satisfied with my surprised expression. Walked to his fridge and brou-ght out two whiskey glas-ses and a whiskey, he poured to the first quarter of each and handed me one.
“What do you say Charles? You and me p@rtners co-foun-ders.” He took a sip.
I chuckled, eying the glas-s. “Well Mr. Mike let’s say I can’t refuse a pacesetter.” I emptied my whiskey and Mike sm-irked.
Mike beamed. “I knew you had the fire son!”
Throu-ghout that day Mike and I discussed about our future company, what to produce, where to base, when to start, shares. Mike was willing to invest four million into the new start up for a start and so I decided to p@rt with all my millions.
I jokingly c@m£ up with a name for the startup “LOG – Love of Gadgets” and Mike liked it. I knew he was pla-ying fair, it would definitely be changed to something better.
We decided not to only base on software but also ha-rd ware, the first of its kind in the country. Subsequently, one week later Mike invited me to his house for a meeting with investors. And everything changed.