Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (8 page)

“
It’s why I believe the
Accelerator is so important. You are essentially betting your life
trying to hit a grand slam. If you don’t hit a grand
slam,
you’re
going to fail. Most people are trying not to fail. They’re bunting
for singles. When they reach base on the
bunt,
they give themselves
high-fives
and
re-name it a home run. It’s not true of everyone, but it’s true of
the vast majority of people I’ve come across in
government.

“
I’ve implemented monthly
demos for every member of the Accelerator. I know that the
four-week sprints are
challenging,
but they allow me
to consistently monitor
progress
. I intend to purchase technology
from all the Accelerator’s companies. I know you’ll move heaven and
earth to make the improvements.”

Nobody ever went to a US
government job fearing that the government would run out of
money.
Every day,
employees of small startups were
cognizant
that
today,
could be their last day.
This meant
that successful
startups had to focus on things that mattered. Quickly.

Slowly, the General’s demeanor had
returned to normal. “Maybe by looking at the problem from a
different angle, you’ll get a new perspective. Why don’t you meet
with Gamification and see if you can apply your AI to their
software use cases? I think there are a couple of scenarios where
you could help them.”

“
Alright,
” said Josh. His heart was now
beating more like a marathon runner than a sprinter.

“
You guys are not
head-to-head
competitors. You go
about cybersecurity
from
complimentary
angles. Talk
to Samantha Powers and set something up. They
have great
stuff,
but
Gamification
doesn’t specialize in
AI. However, I do
think they’re close to revenue. And, I
believe I can
push some
your
way…if
everything goes well.”

“
Yes sir,” said Josh,
finally able to take
in
a deep breath. “I’ll schedule it as soon as
possible. I love revenue.”

Josh left the room.

Josh felt as though he’d
just been in the lion’s den He’d survived. Not only had he
survived, but
he actually
felt
re-energized, in spite of the
one hour of sleep last night.
He couldn’t explain it, but the
General was inspiring.
If only his father were like that.

When Josh made the decision to drop
out of MIT, Jared Adler was filled with rage.

The elder Adler was the
billionaire founder of the hedge fund, Adler Capital, located in
Greenwich, Connecticut. He warned Josh that he was no Mark
Zuckerberg. Why couldn’t
he
get his undergraduate degree from one of the most
prestigious universities in the country—especially for computer
science majors?
Once Josh
graduated with his CS degree, he could do all the startups he
wanted.

Josh was relieved to have a break from
dealing with his dad. But, even though Jared Adler had always been
a non-supportive, workaholic parent, Josh hated to disappoint him.
He surely didn’t want to let the General down.

5:35 p.m. (EDT), Monday, July 27, 2020
- Columbia, MD

Suite 601, General
Shields’ Office, Defense Innovations Accelerator

Lin Liu trailed Shields
into his office.
“That took
a lot less time than I
scheduled
. You don’t have your
board meeting with Samantha until 6:30. Do you want me to
attend?”

The General didn’t respond.

“
Sir, are you
ok?”

“
Yes,
thanks for your
conc
ern. I’m just
exhausted
. You don’t need to
stay for the meeting. Go home and enjoy your night.” After Lin
had
departed
, General Shields locked the door to his office. He entered
his personal
bathroom
and again
locked
the door. Shields looked at
himself in the mirror and wept.

The main reason that the
General chose CyberAI
was
that
he
completely believed in Josh. He was also impressed by the
experience
of
Josh’s CTO, Vish Kumar. Kumar’s previous cybersecurity startup
had
sold
for north of $300M.

But, there had also been
an intensely personal reason for his selection. Josh Adler reminded
him of his son. Though Charlie’s murder occurred over five years
ago, Shield’s had to admit that he was not over it. He splashed
water on his
face,
walked
to his
bar,
and poured a drink. Then another. His
pain slipped quietly into the shadows.

Josh and Charlie’s personalities were
so much alike. Can do. Confident. Bold ideas. The General missed
Charlie in a way metaphors couldn’t even articulate.

It was my fault he
died
, thought the General.
Why did I glorify the military
?
Charlie could’ve done anything in
life
.
Why did I
force him to follow in my footsteps
?

Shields was only internalizing what
his wife said aloud when they fought. Thursday evening’s argument
with Lisa echoed through his mind.

“
Wasn’t it enough that
I’ve given my life to be a General’s wife—decades and decades of
moving all over the
country
and never feeling at home? Then, I
had
to
sacrifice
my
son? For what?” she demanded.

Charlie’s public beheading
live over the Internet ran on a loop inside Shield’s head. It
enraged the General. After five years, the US had yet to bring the
killers to justice. He had watched the video 1000’s of times,
searching for clues. If POTUS and CIA
weren’t
going to do their jobs—he
would.

The General poured another
shot.

6:15 p.m. (EDT), Monday, July 27, 2020
- Columbia, MD

Suite 201, Gamification
Systems’ Offices,
Defense Innovations
Accelerator

Samantha printed the
most
up-to-date
financials for her 6:30 board meeting with
General Shields. She swiveled in her desk
chair
and grabbed the statements
from
the laser
printer on her silver-mirrored credenza.

The most important report
in a small startup was the statement of cash flows.
This financial summary detailed money
coming in, and
money going out. There was
not good news in the report. All the money at Gamification Systems
was going out.

Gamification Systems had
yet to make a sale. After nine months, there was no revenue.
Samantha took no salary. She lived off savings. Even so—with nine
employees—Gamification was burning $115,000 a month. There was
about $275,000 cash in the bank. With that burn rate, the
company
could
operate for less than two and
one-half
months.
While the lack of revenue was not
uncommon, especially for an enterprise software company like
Gamification Systems, it was nonetheless very nerve-wracking for
Samantha.

Additionally, like Josh,
Samantha was coming to the end of the first year period with the
Accelerator.
Worst case, this gave
the CEO
three months. Then, not only would
Samantha be out of
money, but she
would
also need to lease new office
space—and pay rent. Additionally, she would lose the ability to use
the Accelerator’s two SCIFs. Access to SCIFs came in handy
for
certain
DoD contracts that required clearances.

SCIFs came in all types of
configurations, ranging from multi-story office
complexes
to portions of
planes, ships, and buildings. One of the SCIFs was across the
hallway from Samantha, on the second-floor. A much larger SCIF
occupied the
sixth-floor
, down the
hall
from
General Shields’ office.

There were a number DoD
regulations regarding doors, walls, windows, and the like, that
went into certifying
a
SCIF.
SCIFs were also required to meet
sophisticated specifications from
a classified
project code named,
TEMPEST. Complying with TEMPEST ensured that no electromagnetic
radiation could escape and be gathered by spies. Personal cell
phones and other electronic gadgets, including laptops, were
generally
not
allowed inside
a SCIF.

Samantha also printed
a
nother
financial statement—the balance sheet. Gamification’s
balance sheet
recorded the VC deal. Nine months ago, General Shields and
the Accelerator’s
investment committee
voted to contribute $1M.

In return, Defense
Innovations Accelerator received equity totaling 18%.
Other terms of the deal included Samantha
assigning 20% of the stock to an employee option pool.
From this pool, Samantha offered Becca three
percent. Becca’s options vested, one percent per year. It
was options
like
these that made multi-millionaires of former Microsoft
secretaries.
Samantha collated and stapled
two copies of the financial statements.

All of Gamification
Systems’ employees worked in glass offices. From her desk, Samantha
could see Becca sitting in the
office
next to her. She watched Ali and
Saul banging out
code
on their laptops.
At least,
she hoped they were banging
out code.

Samantha always mentioned
the
transparent
workspaces
in
her new employee orientation: “Our offices are representative of
the type of company culture we want to create at Gamification
Systems; honest, open, and elegant. Walls don’t exist in
this
company
. Communication is the key to our success. My door is always
open. If it’s not open, at least you can look in and see
why.”

Today, however, she
regretted her glass office. She picked up a mirror and reapplied
her
lipstick
. Looking at her face she thought,
I’ve aged five years in nine months
.
That’s worse than dog
years
. Samantha worked 18 hour
days.

Even though she was
incredibly tired, in the last few months, she did more tossing
and
turning than sleeping.
I
f she wasn’t worried about making payroll
or finding investors, she was
thinking
about the upcoming demo with
Gecko Insurance.
This was
the gritty nature of startups that the media
typically glossed over when they cherry-picked their favorite
entrepreneurial success stories.

Becca wrapped her knuckle
on the open glass door. She stuck her torso into Samantha’s office.
“Sam,
you
look beautiful.”

“
Ugh.
You’re just being
sweet.
I
look
haggard. But thanks. Are you trying to win employee of the
month or something?”

Becca smiled. “Hey, we’re
all going to get a bite to eat at 7:30. We can
nosh on
some wings and catch
a little of the Nats’ game. Do you want to join us?” ‘Nats’ was the
area nickname for the Washington Nationals baseball
team.

“
Oh, thanks for asking.
But I’ve got my board meeting tonight. Maybe Friday?”

“
I forget. Yeah, that
sounds excellent. Good luck tonight, you’ll do great.”

Becca was Samantha’s
favorite employee. She spotted Becca’s talent
when they worked together at a government systems
integrator. Becca was
hardworking and
bright. She reminded Samantha of a younger version of
herself.

The CEO looked over the financial
statements one last time.

Another term of the
deal
gave
Defense Innovations the right to elect one board
member.
When the
financing
closed, General Shields
was appointed to serve as that member. Boards were designed to
provide strategic leadership and governance to their companies.
CEOs
usually
worked at the behest of the board.
This meant
that
the board could fire
CEOs
. Three to five members was the most
typical configuration of the
board
for a startup of 100
employees
or
less.