Page 1 of The Mogul: Leonard

1

Leonard

I walk into the conference room, and every head turns toward the door I slam behind me.

“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine this morning!” Patrisha, or Trish, as we all call her, jokes about my not-so-nice attitude.

“The air conditioning has been broken since Friday, and nobody has come to fix it!” I complain as I sit down at the table for the meeting.

Joel, the CTO of Walton Tech, Benjamin, the financial advisor, and Oliver, the head of the developers, are already comfortable in their chairs next to Trish, head of finance at my company.

“It’s the weekend. What did you expect?” Benjamin chuckles.

“That someone does their job and comes to fix this thing, so other people don’t die coming to work.” I open my laptop and start to go through the agenda for this meeting.

Trish rolls her eyes and smiles. If the people in this room weren’t my most trusted friends and employees, I would have fired her on the spot for rolling her eyes at me. But every single one of them has been with me since I founded this company, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

“It’s the weekend. They assume nobody is here to complain,” she reasons, arching her perfectly manicured black eyebrow at me. She is always the one with no qualms about calling me out for my shitty attitude that sometimes slips through the mask of the emotionless tycoon.

Today, I’m not in the mood for any objections. “Well, they assume wrong. It’s June first, and it’s almost seventy-three degrees outside at nine in the morning. It will be hell in this room with the floor-to-ceiling windows facing south.” Downtown Los Angeles is not known for being one of the coolest places on earth.

“Then let’s get started and speed up this meeting so we don’t cook in here all day!” Joel chimes in, and everyone except Oliver smiles.

I want this meeting to go smoothly, too, but I’m not sure about the short part. The truth is that the air conditioning has nothing to do with my mood. We are here today to discuss whether the acquisition of HD Security is a good thing for this company or not. Walton Tech is the worldwide leader in cybersecurity; HD Security is an up-and-coming startup that handles security hardware. We handle the software; they handle the hardware. It’s as simple as that.

But nothing is simple when it comes to acquiring a company. First of all, they are a startup, and we need to be sure it’s not just a fluke. Most of the time, they have a shiny facade, but if you dig deeper, you discover it’s just that: a facade. Full of debts with no solid plan to grow into a reliable company.

Walton Tech is my most treasured jewel. It’s the first company I founded when I dropped out of college and the one I love with all my heart. I have founded fifteen other companies since this one, but none compare with the work, effort, and sentimental value I put into this company.

“Are you sure you want to rush through something so important?” I arch an eyebrow toward him while my mouth curves into a smile.

I trust Joel with my life. I know he is as invested in this project as much as I am, and I know he is teasing me.

“I already told you. I’m on board with this acquisition. It’s the best thing we’ve done since you funded this company two decades ago. There is nothing to discuss. We should just go for it!”

His enthusiasm is what made me choose him twenty years ago. He’s never lost the optimistic attitude of the guy who’s barely a couple of years older than me but has the vision of a seasoned CTO in this industry. We grew up with this company, and he knows the ins and outs of it as much as I do. If he’s this attracted to this merger, it means he’s already seen at least half a dozen new ways to grow Walton Tech to new heights.

Benjamin and Trish chuckle, used to his overexcitement, but Oliver is gloomier than usual. What got into his pants today?

“‘Just go for it’ is not exactly what I call a winning strategy for an acquisition,” I chuckle, and most of my tension slips away.

I have the best people working with me. I need to keep my mind on these steps, and everything will be fine. As it always is. I started from nothing and built an empire with the help of these people. I shouldn’t be nervous about what is coming next. We are a great team, and it shows.

Some people call me arrogant, but I’m not. I’m just aware of our potential, and I take advantage of every single skill we have.

“Think about all the new potential markets we can reach. They have impressive new technology they’re developing. I was already looking into it because I believe this is where we’re heading in the next few years, but I haven’t seen anything this advanced,” he explains.

“So why aren’t any of our other competitors interested in it?” Oliver asks, annoyed.

His tone doesn’t faze Joel but I give him a stern look, and he has the decency to look down. I don’t know why he is so pissed off today, but he doesn’t need to be rude. I’m a piece of work, I admit it, but he was plain mean, and I don’t like it.

“Because they play it safe with the technology they have. They’re making money from it and trying to milk the market the safest way they know how,” Joel explains.

“Maybe because it isn’t safe to change,” Oliver scoffs.

“He’s not completely wrong.” I play the devil’s advocate and support Oliver’s concerns, even if I do want to throw him out of the room until he calms down a bit.

“Yes and no. HD Security has a new approach that fixes most of the issues other companies have with the new hard disks,” Joel insists.

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