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A modern version of David v. Goliath

by Lorenz Constantin Schuwerack

Chapter 1: One day in the life of a Wall Street trader

A loud and shrill sound broke the silence of the night. It was still dark outside and the

only people on the streets of New York were the street cleaners who quietly swept

through the remains from the previous day.

James rolled over and turned his alarm off. He sighed and stared at the ceiling of his

spacious apartment. He had been living here for almost five years now and it still looked

like a hotel room in a luxury business hotel, maybe the Hilton. It was not that there was

something missing, he had all the essential furniture. And yet one could not help but

notice that this place was hardly used. There were no pictures up on the wall and not a

single personal item was lying around. The only piece of furniture that seemed to be in

use was an overflowing garbage can in the corner that was filled with empty Chinese

take-out cartons. James was hardly ever home; he left early in the morning and never

got home until late in the night.

James stepped out of bed and got ready for work. He was 28 years old and an aspiring

Wall Street trader, who worked Stanley & Smith, an investment bank, which operated in

over 20 countries and had more than 1,000 offices and 50,000 employees. James was of

the hard working and ambitious type, after he graduated from MIT in Computer Science,

he had started working right away and had not taken a single day off ever since. He had

the highest expectations of himself and was never satisfied with his work.

At 6 am sharp he arrived at the massive glass building right in the city center Stanley &

Smith had their headquarters. He took the elevator up to the 15th floor, walked past all

the big and spacious, but at this time still deserted, offices of the senior traders and sat

down at his cubicle. He hated his cubicle. It was a constant reminder that he had not yet

achieved anything in this firm. Despite all his efforts and quite impressive results, his

superiors still refused to notice his talents and grant him the promotion James so

desperately sought.

While James worked through his email inbox and typed one trading order after the other

into the system, his thoughts wandered. He hated these tiring and repetitive processes;

they were so simple and ineffective. He could be doing something else right now, he

wanted to educate himself further and actually do something that was useful. Stanley &

Smith however, had over 200 associates just like James, alone in this office working on

small orders and going through newspapers trying to find risks and potential deals.

And so the day went by. At the end of the day James had not moved one inch and had not

taken his eyes off his computer screen. That was probably the reason why he needed

these thick glasses. It had been another monotonous day where nothing had happened

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and there was no progress in sight. Frustrated by his situation, James left the office at 11

pm and called up his old friend Spencer and asked him to come out for a few drinks. In

High School James had many friends; one could have even described him as popular. But

now? Because of his work, he hardly had anyone left. He simply did not have the time to

meet up with people. Spencer was one of the very few ones who understood James.

Spencer was an entirely different type of person. Even though Spencer also worked at a

large trading company and had to work long hours too, he had managed to stay outgoing

and not become depressed like James had. If people saw them sitting next to each other

in a bar, they always assumed that they must have just met. No one could imagine these

two being friends. James had lost a lot of weight since he started working at Stanley &

Smith and was now skinny. His immense glasses covered most of his face and his slightly

oversized suit did not exactly improve his appearance.

Spencer on the other hand, wore a bright blue, flawlessly fitted suit with an orange tie

that perfectly captured his personality. He was loud and self-confident. When he

laughed, the people at the other end of the room turned around to look at him. Spencer

was also quite popular with girls. He had no problem walking up to a random girl and

introducing himself. He always tried to get James to talk to some girls too but James was

lacking the confidence and usually just stayed behind and watched Spencer becoming

the center of everyone’s attention. James admired Spencer’s ability to be so confident

and to be able to entertain an entire room full of people.

It would be a mistake, however, to underestimate Spencer’s intelligence. He had a

degree in Business Management and Marketing from Northwestern, one of the most

respected schools in the country and the broadest general knowledge of anyone James

had ever met. The only thing Spencer did not have was endurance and the inner

strength to fight through tough times. Before he ended up with Business Management

and Marketing, he had started and withdrawn from four different degree programs.

And it did not get any better once Spencer started working. He had changed jobs six

times already, which was why he was still at the same level as James, even though he

had just turned 37. Spencer admired James for his ability to sit still and keep on fighting,

no matter how difficult and frustrating it got.

Their differences and the common frustration about their jobs made them friends. In a

way they understood each other’s problems and it was nice to have someone to talk to.

This night was no different. They sat down by the bar and sipped their drinks in silence.

They did not need to speak to express their feelings. They both knew what the other was

thinking. After what felt like an hour of silence, James said: “This sucks!”

A puzzled Spencer replied: “What? Your drink? You finally realised that a Pina Colada

isn’t a man’s drink?”

“I’m talking about my work, you dumbass! I didn’t bust my ass in school to type in

numbers.” “Bust your ass?” laughed Spencer, “come on, sure you worked hard but you

still had time to tutor me, get black out drunk and throw up all over Millie’s parents

house, so it wasn’t that bad!”. James retaliated with a punch in Spencer’s direction but

missed. “I’m serious!” yelled Spencer, “a zombie could take my place and no one would

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even notice. I feel like a robot whose been designed to just do one stupid task, literally a

computer could do this shit.”

Spencer only laughed but added in a more serious note: “Everybody has a bad day every

once in a while, doesn’t mean you should quit your job.”

“That’s a bit rich coming from the guy who quit his past five jobs, each only after a few

weeks!” James fired back; he was in a bad mood now and wanted to blow off some

steam.

That hurt, his inability to fight through something had always annoyed Spencer, and he

wanted to end the topic. It was boring; they had talked about this a hundred times. “Well

if you’re really such a genius, why don’t you just go ahead and do it then? Turn it into a

computer program!” Spencer said, hoping that this would conclude this discussion.

James did not reply at first and it was quiet for a while until Spencer gave in and said

“There is nothing you can really do right now. If there is anyone who should know that it

is you. You are the one who always told me to hold on and to just keep going for a little

bit longer and that some day it will pay off.”

But James was still not ready to give up the topic just yet. “I am tired of waiting. I have

been waiting to even get noticed for five years now and I am still not trusted with

anything other than skimming through newspapers and looking for anything that could

be of relevance. And once I find something of value I have to report it to my superiors

who then take over.”, said James, “And I mean it’s not only annoying for me but it’s also

incredibly inefficient and must be so expensive for our companies to employ 200

associates.” After even more awkward silence James asked: “Do you really think it could

work?”

“Why do you always have to speak in riddles?” Spencer replied, “As so often, I have no

clue what you are on about.”

“The computer program you mentioned earlier of course!” James explained.

“And how the hell would I know? After all it was you who brought it up in the first place

and you are the one with the Computer Science degree!” Spencer said, “but what exactly

would you want to change? What is it that frustrates you the most?”

“I don’t know, probably this endless reading about retiring CEOs or board members who

embezzled money from their companies.” replied James.

“So you want something that goes through the news for you?” suggested Spencer

carefully.

James thought carefully, his head was spinning with ideas and possibilities on how to

put this great idea into motion. Another few minutes of silence passed. “Dude you’re

right! This could work!”. Filled with excitement he jumped up from his chair and turned

towards the door. “Spencer, I will email you tomorrow. I need to think about this,” he

declared as he left the bar, leaving a staggered Spencer all to himself.

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Chapter 2: Coding is easy

James could not sleep, his thoughts kept wondering back to the idea he and Spencer had

just come up with. The next morning he rushed into work, arriving even earlier than

usual. Since he was a very efficient worker and always finished his assignments ahead of

time, he had a lot of time in the office on his hands. By five o’clock he had finished all his

duties and started jotting down ideas for the software. He wanted to create a program

that could go through the entire worldwide web, and look for news relevant to the stock

market. Things like weather catastrophes or scandals in publicly traded companies,

anything that could have an impact on stock prices. The first issue would be to get API

keys or RSS Feeds to all the major websites. He would then need to write a function that

could combine all these keys and feeds into one task. The most difficult part would

however be to find all the necessary keywords that would have to be included in the

code. Further these keywords would have to be sorted into at least two different

categories, positive and negative ones. The code would then have to read something like:

x = //RSS Feed NY Times

function shouldBuy(x) {

keywords = ['contract', 'new']

if x has keywords

return true

else false

}

This would enable the user quickly to determine if for instance the NY Times had

anything positive to report on a specific company, the closing of a new contract for

example. At University he had always been a big fan of Python, since it was the easiest

code to read and could at the same time cover nearly any purpose.

James had already decided that if this were to work he would call it “SJSR”, the Spencer

and James Stress Relief Software.

Over the next few weeks he spent all of his spare time in the office as well as at home on

SJSR and so did Spencer. They had set out a clear plan on who would take care of which

tasks and whilst James would start looking at the coding itself, Spencer took an online

course in software & web designing so that he could be responsible for the appearance

of the software. Once the Software was created Spencer would also create a business

model and develop a plan on how SJSR could be implemented into everyday businesses.

The development of the software put their friendship to a tough test. Continuous

setbacks only added to their daily stress level resulting in rising tensions between the

two of them. Typical to his nature, every setback had made Spencer question the

possibility of their endeavor and if it was really worth it continuing. At first James had

managed to stay calm and to motivate Spencer to keep going, but after Spencer’s fifth

complaint and suggestion of quitting, James could not hold it in any longer. Spencer had

once again just rushed through everything and the system had given him another error;

it was the third time this week. Usually it was nothing major but rather a missing

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semicolon or Spencer would often times forget that in computer science 0 was the first

number and not 1.

“If you would just take this seriously for once and actually focus on what you are doing,

you wouldn’t be in this position every goddamn day!” James shouted at Spencer.

“I am! I am trying! This thing is just bullshit, who on earth counts the zero as a number?

It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh come on Spenc, again? We’ve talked about this a million times, it really isn’t that

difficult! I thought you were smarter than that! We changed from C++ to Python, for

Christ sake, because you could never remember the semi-colons to terminate

statements; now you can’t get the indentation consistent“

Spencer did not reply for a moment, then got up and rushed out of the room. For the

next two weeks the two of them gave each other the silent treatment.

To further intensify James’ annoyance, his co-workers at Stanley & Smith had started

making fun of him. Sometimes James expressed his feelings in a rather awkward way, if

something with SJSR was not working the way he wanted it to, he would slap on the

table of make noises of frustration. Since James often worked on SJSR during office

hours, his co-workers were present for these kinds of outbursts.

So when after nine months of hard work, a lot of ripped out hair and 1000 cups of coffee,

they finally finished the software, James was sure that he would remember this day

forever. Spencer had come over to his apartment to run a final few tests and had brought

a bottle of Champaign to celebrate. It was one of the best days James ever had. After such

an intense time with so much frustration and only very little sleep, it felt amazing to

finally achieve something. They went out that night and James had never felt so

confident; he went up to so many random people and just talked to everyone. By the end

of the night he felt as though he knew every single person in the room.

Chapter 3: The big pitch

The two of them had spent a lot of time considering what to do with SJSR, once it was

finished. They had thought of starting their own company but quickly decided that they

could not keep pulling all-nighter after all-nighter, to come up with the necessary

manpower that was needed to get such a trading company going. So after careful

evaluation they decided to present SJSR to Stanley & Smith. . Neither James nor Spencer

really cared about making a huge amount of money from their software. Their only goal

was to make sure that their software would develop and be put to use.

In exchange for their hard work and dedication to their job they wanted finally to be

recognized and work in a position where they could choose which projects to take on.

So they were willing to offer it to Stanley & Smith for a small monetary compensation as

well as two senior positions in the company. They were certain that James’ superiors

would recognize the value of SJSR and would finally see the potential the two had.

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James had made an appointment with three senior members of the board for a Monday

morning. Spencer and James showed up an hour early, filled with excitement, anxious to

see the board’s reaction and ready to be praised for their genius software.

When the three executives finally showed up, their disinterest was written all over their

faces. They had meetings like this on a regular basis. Every once in a while they had to

listen to some just out of school trader who thought he re-invented the wheel. Pretty

much every time the pitch had been a disappointment. So their enthusiasm for

employees’ bringing forward ideas was, to say the least, rather limited.

“Ladies and Gentleman!” James began; they had practiced this pitch about a hundred

times, “did you know that you could safe a tremendous amount of money?”. There was

no reaction from the board members.

“Stanley & Smith currently employs 203 associates that do nothing but read the news

and take care of very basic analysis and calculations. Each one of them earns roughly

$80,000 per annum. That means each year this company pays around $16,240,000 for

basic tasks that pretty much anyone could handle and you don’t necessarily need highly

trained traders for. What if we told you that we found a way to put these people to real

use and make them actually worth their money?” continued Spencer.

“Just assume that all these basic tasks wouldn’t have to be dealt with anymore. Imagine

all the assignments associates could then take on!” James tried to tease their minds.

He paused, trying to create some sort of tension.

“We have developed software that can do everything an associate has to do. Of course

the user still has the final decision making power but he doesn’t have to open up all the

financial sections of newspapers around the world and go through them one by one,

which would generate him a huge amount of spare time to handle more important

issues.”

There was an awkward silence. At this point Spencer and James had expected the

executives to start praising them, maybe even a little clapping and a standing ovation.

But none of them said a word. As a matter of fact they did not even show any facial

expressions.

James started another attempt to get some sort of feedback “And of course we are

willing to share our software, which we by the way call SJSR, with you in exchange for a

small monetary compensation and some more senior positions in the company”.

Now one of the board members showed some reaction. However, it was not the kind of

response the two had been expecting. One of them burst out laughing and said: “So you

think you can just invent some stupid little computer tool and we would make you guys

Vice Presidents? The two founding partners of this company were some of the smartest

bankers of all time and some of the best traders and IT specialists in the world are

leading it today, do you honestly believe that two no-names like you two are smarter

than all of us and can change a system that has been working like this for decades and

generated a lot of money. Money that by the way also pays for your wage.”

“Thank you for this very entertaining, yet wasted, morning.” Added another executive.

“Now go back to work and stop wasting your time on stupid ideas like this.”

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That night James got as drunk as he had ever been before.

Chapter 4: Farewells and new beginnings

The next morning James called in sick and in fact was nowhere to be seen for the

remainder of the week. On Sunday morning James decided that he was done pitying

himself and that it was time to get back up again. He was determined not to let the first

obstacle they encountered ruin what they had worked so hard for.

“Come on man, we can still do this! It doesn’t mean shit that a few old sods have no

appreciation for what we have accomplished,” explained James on the phone to Spencer,

“we are not giving up now! Not after all we’ve been through”

“James, you know I admire your ability to always remain positive and to never back

down but you have to recognize a lost battle. And this is one of them, there is simply

nothing we can do.”

“Screw you Spenc, there is always something we can do! Sell it to someone else, start our

own company or whatever but there is something! Hell if you’re not gonna help me on

this, I’ll set up my own company by myself! Of course it would be nice to have you with

me but I don’t need you and if you’re not willing to go through with this, I will!”

“Alright calm your horses my friend, no need to get all angry about it. Of course I’ll help

you and support you in any way I can, I just don’t see a way to do it right now. Are you

serious about starting your own business? You realize how risky that is, right?”

“Of course I know that, but if that’s what it takes to see our software go through, I am

prepared to do it. I’ve been working with Stanley & Smith for almost five years now,

making shit tons of money that I never had the chance to spend, I assume your bank

account doesn’t look too bad either. If we combine our assets, maybe take out a little

loan from the bank, we can do this! I mean we wouldn’t need much. We could start by

using my apartment as our office, invest in a good security software for our computers

so no one can spy on us, and the rest would be just marketing. We’ll have to present SJSR

to many many companies but eventually one company will go for it. And once the first

big fish is on the hook, others will follow as soon as they hear of the money our software

can make them. If it goes well, we could rent an actual office space, hire IT specialists

that help develop our software further.” argued James with the same passion he had

when he first thought of developing SJSR.

“Yes, and if it goes wrong we’ll be out of our jobs with our money down the drain and

we’ll be worse of then we are now.” answered Spencer pessimistically.

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“But we won’t, we won’t fail. Of course there is always a risk but I am willing to take it. I

have to try it. I will never be able to go back to the office and motivate myself, if I haven’t

at least tried to make something out of our software.” James seemed desperate now; one

could see that he would not rest until he got what he wanted.

They continued to discuss their options all night but by the morning they still had found

no other way than to quit their jobs and set up their own company. So by the time James

got to the office the next morning, he was ready to hand in his resignation. Since there

were thousands of young graduates just waiting to get a job at Stanley & Smith, his

superiors agreed to James working until the end of the month, after which he would be

replaced and thus no longer needed. Spencer managed to secure a very similar deal, so

by the beginning of the next month, the two of them were unemployed and sat in James

living room, rearranging tables and setting up a number of computers.

Chapter 5: Early stages

It was a peculiar sight, two grown men sitting in their boxers, staring at multiple

desktops, anxiously hammering on their keypads with headsets on their ears and a

dozen of empty Red Bull cans lying around them. If an outsider was to stumble in, he

would probably suspect to have found a terror cell or two failed teenagers who never

managed to leave the world of gaming and World of Warcraft, yet certainly not two

highly educated business man, running a company that provides IT solutions to big

trading companies.

James and Spencer had decided that they would sell licenses of their software to big

companies and would provide updates on a regular basis. SJSR was to be a closed

software, so that all administrative rights remained with Spencer and James and

customers were only able to use the software but not to alter it. They introduced a tool

that allowed for bugs to be reported straight to the two of them so they could fix them.

So far they had no luck, any company they called hung up, once they realized that they

were supposed to buy something. Spencer and James never even made it past the

assistants, so they started disguising themselves as potential clients. Sometimes Spencer

made a joke out of it and pretended to be an Arabic sheikh and changed his accent while

putting a towel around his head. James and Spencer needed these laughs every once in a

while to distract them from all the disappointments they were facing.

They used the time they spent waiting in automated voicemails and waiting queues to

experiment with the software. They tried every possible combination of commands and

tried to imagine every way in which the software could be used, to find and then

eliminate any bugs hidden in the software.

It was not until two months later, when they would reach their first achievement.

Spencer had just done a marvelous impression of a Russian oligarch who was looking to

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invest 20 million dollars, when a poor young assistant at the front desk feverishly put

him through to her CEO.

To Spencer’s surprise he was not interrupted shortly after he started his sales pitch, the

woman on the other end of the line listened to his entire proposal. Once he had finished

she only replied:

“Tell me something about yourself and how it is you got to this software”

So Spencer began, he kept his explanations very brief since he was confused as to what

the CEO wanted to hear.

“A friend of mine and I used to work for big trading companies when we discovered that

there is a great deal of work that can be taken over by computers, so we decided to

create our own business, coded a software and are now in the process of selling it to

companies who will be able to make a lot of money from it.”

“And how is the selling part going for you? As I have never heard of SJSR, I have the

suspicion that it is not going too well just yet? Let me guess, right now you are sitting in

your Apartment, wearing nothing but your pyjamas.” frowned the woman.

“We are still in the process of expanding,” mumbled Spencer, trying to avoid the

question.

The woman laughed, “Spoken like a true diplomat, are you sure you’re in the right

business?” she asked, “but I admire entrepreneurship, I started my company from

nothing so I know what it feels like. Come to my office on Friday morning at 9 o’clock

sharp and we can talk more about your software.”

A stunned Spencer hung up the phone. “I think I might have just found us our first client”

Back in their finest suits, James and Spencer showed up an hour early to meet their first

potential client. Obviously they had done an extensive background check on AllTrade,

the company they were about to meet. It was a small company that had specialized on

finding good deals for the small investor; people looking to make investments that

Stanley & Smith would not have even looked at. Their office was out in the suburbs and

could not have been more different to what James and Spencer were used to from their

previous employers. Within the next ten blocks there was not a single skyscraper to be

seen and especially not one that looked anything like the glass palace that Stanley &

Smith resided in. It was a simple red brick building in the middle of a lower middle class

residential area. Once the two of them entered they were led through a cramped and

disorganized office into a conference room. They noticed that they were the only ones in

the building wearing suits; the only item of formal clothing that could rarely be spotted

was a white shirt lurking out of a sweatshirt.

Spencer had just managed to sit down when a woman stepped in. Both of them knew

straight away that she must be the CEO, they had never seen such a charismatic person.

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She had an aura around her that portrayed dominance through intelligence and yet she

did not seem arrogant at all but rather a person one could go to with all the problems in

the world.

“It is a pleasure to meet you gentlemen, Laura Weinsteyn” were her first words whilst a

bright smile appeared on her face.

Spencer and James quickly introduced themselves before she invited them to take a seat.

“From what I understood on the phone you two have come up with software that makes

reading the financial times unnecessary?” she dived right in and wasted no time on small

talk.

James took the lead: “In a way yes, that is exactly what we did. If I may start with telling

you how we came to the idea of such a tool?”

Laura just nodded.

“Well we were both traders on Wall Street and as associates about 80percent of our

daily routine was taken over by going through all the big financial newspapers, looking

for potential risks or opportunities, summarizing them and if we considered the value of

the risk or opportunity over $10,000, pass it on to our supervisor, otherwise make the

investment ourselves. However, that rarely happened. So most of the time we would just

spend all day browsing through newspapers and company announcements,

summarizing opportunities and risks. At my office there were 200 associates, all with

the same job, which must have cost my former employer a lot of money and to be quite

blunt it was not the most exciting job in the world and not what I went to college for.“

James had set off.

“So Spencer and I decided that it was time to do something about this and developed

software that skims through all the relevant newspapers and company statements that

are relevant to your investments, looks for key words, analyses them and compares the

results to your database. Once it is done with this process it will off you some

suggestions on what to sell and what to buy. We are currently also in the process of

developing our software further so it can even calculate how much you should invest or

sell. That will however still take a while since we need the help of IT experts for that,

which we at the moment just cannot afford.” he continued.

“Very impressive indeed”, replied Laura, “and how exactly is it that your software knows

which phrases correspond to selling or buying?”

James hesitated; he knew that this was their weak spot, since it revealed that their

software was not entirely accurate and that his answer would also reveal the basic

principle of their program, therefore opening up the possibility of Laura stealing their

idea. He looked at her face, trying to figure out if the was about to trick him. However, he

could not find the smallest trace of dishonesty. So he went ahead:

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“It uses experience. We collected a huge database of thousands of phrases used in

newspapers and formulated trends that followed these phrases. So for instance when a

newspaper uses the words ‘competent, CEO, retired’ and a few more such words the

software will look at previous examples of what happened when a good CEO retired and

will based on that give you advice on what to do. This process will only take a few

seconds, after which it will give you a spreadsheet with its summary. So what used to

take hours of research, can now be done within a matter of seconds. The process is

triggered manually and the search can be narrowed down. So if one ran a search in the

morning and would now like to run another search in the afternoon, one can simply

change the search parameters to, for instance, the last six hours.” James elaborated,

hoping that he had been able to convince Laura.

If he did, she did not give him a hint what she was thinking but rather asked: “And you

guarantee that this works?”

James hesitated once again and was unsure how to reply when Spencer stepped in: “No

we cannot guarantee that every single suggestion will be correct. But that is why we

have decided that the software does not take the corresponding actions itself but rather

let a trader make the final check and see if the suggestions make sense. This will

nevertheless safe a tremendous amount of time. From our experience we can say that

there is only a 3percent chance the software suggests an alternative move than what we

would have done.”

“I see” was Laura’s only response, again keeping up her poker face. “So how much would

you charge for this software?”

James had regained control and replied: “We will ask for 40percent of the total wage

that all employees who have the task our software will take over, earned. So for

instance if you employed ten traders who look through news and summarize them, each

making $60,000, we would ask for $240,000 per annum, which includes all maintenance

and regular updates.”

“A fair way to calculate” was once again all that Laura said.

After a short pause she continued: “I cannot give you an answer just yet but I promise I

will let you know by the end of next week. Let me just say that I admire your

determination and entrepreneurship. This country needs smart young people like you!”

Even though Spencer and James had not really expected to be hired on the spot, they

were still a bit disappointed that they would have to wait another week to find out if

they finally had their first client.

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Chapter 6: From rags to riches

When on Tuesday morning the telephone rang, James was expecting a phone call from

his mother.

“Yes mommy, I did get your text and yes I have been improving my diet, eating more

vegetables and stuff. No need to remind me how important that is every day.” Said

James.

James was surprised when he heard a voice at the other end of the line laughing that

wasn’t his mother’s.

“Good Morning, this is Laura Weinsteyn calling for James and Spencer about SJSR.”

“Good Morning Laura, this is James. How may I help you? We weren’t really expecting to

hear from you until Friday.” He had a bad feeling, not only because he was highly

embarrassed but also because if she called so much earlier it must mean that her

partners did not like SJSR and were not willing to even consider entering into a contract

with them.

“Well I hope you don’t mind me calling but I have good news! I talked to my partners

and they all agreed that should your software really work, it would be incredibly helpful

to us. However, since we cannot be sure that your software really works we would like

to ask if you would be willing to a trial period of three months and unless we are

dissatisfied, we would like to continue working with you. Would you be willing to agree

to this?”

James was stunned and it took him a while to gather his thoughts and reply. Whilst

trying to sound calm he said:

“That would most certainly work for us, when would you like the trial period to start?”

“Well, if you could come to our office again on Thursday, we could draw up a contract

and start using SJSR in about two weeks. That is if you eat your vegetables of course” she

laughed.

When James and Spencer had started looking for clients, James could not wait until they

found their first client but now that it was finally happening, James started to worry. He

realized that this was the moment. The moment they had worked so hard for. But should

their software fail, it would be next to impossible to get another client.

Two weeks later James and Spencer set up SJSR on AllTrade’s network and for the next

three months they spend their entire time answering questions from Laura’s employees

and fixing minor bugs.

13

As usual, Spencer got bored quickly. He started showing up later and later to James’ flat,

which they still used as their office. His lunch breaks got longer every day and even

when he was in the office, James could hear the soundtrack to Tetris through Spencer’s

headphones. James got really fed up with Spencer’s behavior and it did not take him

very long to confront him.

“Dude, you need to get your shit together! This is the decisive phase of our company, if

we fuck up now and don’t deliver, we may never get another client!”

“Well excuse me” Spencer looked up from his desktop on which he clearly was playing

Tetris again, “I just think that we could do so much better”.

James was confused: “What are you talking about? We have someone paying for our

software and are making some money again. What on earth could be do better?”

“I get that and stuff. It’s just that I often wonder if we should have just waited a little

longer and maybe caught a bigger fish.”

“I still don’t follow”

“You know, Laura is nice and her company is cool and stuff, but we are now wasting all

our time just fixing our software and explaining the same process to the same

dumbasses over and over again. It’s like Laura and her tiny shitty company has the

monopoly on us. But that’s not what I signed up for. I thought we were going to supply

IT solutions to the best companies in the country. I thought we were going to be back in

a nice office building by now and would have people working for us. I did this entire

project because I thought we would become the CEOs and could just lay back whilst

other people make money for us.”

“Now it’s still me who has to get up early and bust his ass”

James was fuming. “You are the laziest peace of shit I have ever met. We have two more

weeks left in our trial period, don’t even know if our software really helps companies

increase their productivity and you’re already thinking of laying back, jetting of to

Hawaii, open up a diving shop and chill by the beach all day?”

“What the hell is wrong with you? And what’s all this with AllTrade not being good

enough for us? We are lucky that Laura was kind enough to give two breakaways like us

a chance! If we do well now, we will profit from it later! I know it!”

“No, you don’t! You don’t know shit! For all you know, we could be stuck with AllTrade

for the rest of our lives! I can’t do this for much longer! Something has to change or I’m

out!”

James felt like he had just been hit in the face. He was dumbstruck and did not say

another word but little tears started running down his face.

14

For the next two weeks, the atmosphere was frosty. None of them spoke much until

Laura called and asked to see the two of them in her office. It was the end of the trial

period so this meeting would tell them how well their software worked and if they still

had a job tomorrow.

James felt tense when he sat down in Laura’s office and waited for her to talk business.

He felt that there was an awful lot of small talk today and he could bet that Laura was

dragging the meeting out on purpose to torture him. His eyes kept wondering of to the

clock on the wall, asking himself how long he would have to wait before he could bring

up SJSR without being rude. Spencer also seemed anxious but he at least managed to

play it cool and keep the conversation going, whereas James had stopped participating.

James was just about the crack when Laura finally said:

“Alright, I’m sure you’re eager to hear what we as a company think about SJSR.” she

smiled in James’s direction, convincing him even more that she had dragged out the

meeting on purpose, “I am very happy to tell you that your software worked smoothly

and that we are very grateful for all the time you invested in explaining SJSR to us and

fixing any bugs in a very timely manner.”

For some reason James was reminded of the breakup talk he had with his ex-girlfriend,

something along the lines of: it’s not you, you did everything right, it’s my fault.

“We can also report that since using SJSR, our traders have been able to process about

7% more transactions, which is a really good result! Congratulations.”

James relaxed this was a good result! But he was still not completely convinced, he tried

reading Laura’s facial expressions, was she truly satisfied with their work or was she

still about to drop the bomb on them?

Laura simply kept smiling and looking at James, “Come on, smile now! This is a great

success for your company!” she said.

Now James smiled like a 5 year old on Christmas morning, 7% increase in productivity

was an incredible result and Laura seemed to know it. There was no way Laura could

say no now, after she had praised them so much. He looked over at Spencer expecting to

see the same kind of enthusiasm and hoping that this would motivate him to get things

going again. But whatever it was that Spencer was thinking, he was very good at hiding

it, James could not read his partner’s facial expressions.

James noticed that it was probably his turn to say something: “That is wonderful news

Laura, thank you for your kind words and we are very happy to hear that SJSR is able to

help you!”

Laura simply nodded and smiled at him. “May I take from this that we can keep working

together?” asked James carefully.

15

“Of course you can, we would be very happy to.”

When they left the building James was still in the highest of spirits and had not stopped

smiling.

“Spenc you see? Just like I told you, be patient and good things will come to you!”

“Good things?” Spencer asked, “you call 7percent good? 7percent for all the hard work

and long hours? This is one of the biggest disappointments in my life!”

Once more James was shocked and did not know what to say, how could anyone not

think that this was not a big win?

“It was probably the company’s fault though, I mean how can we expect a bunch of

under qualified traders wearing sweatpants to achieve something?” Spencer continued

“We should have waited and chosen a bigger fish, not this AllTrade no one has ever

heard of”

“Oh not this again” said James “I can’t believe you still have one bad word to say about

Laura and her company after they gave us a chance and provided us with a success

today!”

“There is no success” bellowed Spencer “there is only failure! We should have never

done this shit. Such a waste of time. We had good jobs, well paid and promising careers.”

“Don’t bullshit me, you hated your job just as much as I did mine.”

“Whatever man, we should quit this thing. Maybe sell it to your dear Laura and hope

she’ll give us a few bucks for it, but I’m sure as hell not gonna keep wasting my time. If

you want to keep working on this thing, go ahead but I’m out.” Without giving James the

chance to reply, Spencer hailed a cab and drove off, leaving a crying James behind.

All this work, all the hours they had spent together. They had both given up everything

for this moment and now Spencer was too blind to see it.

The next morning James was hoping that Spencer had come to his senses over night and

that any minute he would walk through the door, maybe even with a little apology. The

door never moved. It took James another week to actually accept that Spencer would not

be working with him anymore.

Even after that James kept calling Spencer, trying to convince him to come back but with

no luck. So for the next year James spent all his time and energy in keeping SJSR alive.

Things with AllTrade were going well but there was still a lot to be done about the

software and if SJSR was ever to expand, there would need to be a continuous stream of

16

updates and improvements. Especially when AllTrade decided to exchange all their

computers from Windows to iOS, James barely managed to keep his head over water and

get more than two hours of sleep a night.

James also tried to get new clients on board, hoping that this would convince Spencer

that the software was worth the work, but similarly to their first days he had no luck in

finding companies that would even take his call. It was not until Laura ordered him into

her office again, that things would start to look up.

“James I have to thank you for all the work you have done. I can imagine that keeping the

software running was quite the challenge on your own. But thanks to SJSR we now have

the resources to move into a nicer office building and hire some extra staff. Now don’t

you worry. We will of course keep using SJSR in our new office, if you agree to keep

working with us?” Laura asked.

“That is wonderful news! I am so happy for you. Congratulations, you deserve it! Do you

already know where your new office will be? And of course I’ll keep working with you.

You are my favourite client”

“We are your only client” reminded him Laura with a huge grin on her face. “And yes, we

already have a place downtown. And in case you were wondering, our philosophy will

not change just because our address does. AllTrade will always look after the smaller

man trying to boost up his salary a little bit. We will not become like these stuck up

wannabe big shots in their Armani suits, who think they are too good to look at

investments under $10.000.”

James laughed, “You do that! And show these big wheels that one does not need to be a

Harvard alumni to do a few simple trades!”

Laura smiled, “I’m glad to hear we’re on the same page. There is also something I wanted

to ask you: Do you still work out of your living room?”

“Yes, I do” replied James, “ Why?”

“Well, we do have a spare office suite in our building. It has its own entrance and stuff, so

I was wondering if instead of asking for a raise, which I am sure you were going to do

now you know we are doing so well, you would move into our building rent free.”

“Hell yes! I’ve been meaning to find some place for ages but just never had the time to

find something I could afford and didn’t just look like a front for a Cannabis plantation.”

Time seemed to be flying and it felt like only yesterday that Laura had asked him, when

James stood in his new office with his name on the door.

17

Chapter 7: New address, new opportunities

There had been a lot of talk about AllTrade since their move into the new office. Every

major investment bank was trying to understand how a little company that no one had

every heard of before could suddenly afford to hire new people and move from the

outskirts of New York to the city center. However, it did not take long before the word

spread that a tiny one-man operation had supplied AllTrade with software and that

everything had changed after that.

James had barely managed to get used to his new commute every morning when the

phone would not stop ringing. At first it were only smaller investment banks hoping to

make the same jump that AllTrade had made but by the time James had to hire a

secretary, even the big leagues were making enquiries.

Within two months James had secured three further contracts, allowing him to hire an

IT specialist who took care of the day-to-day queries and problems the companies

reported. This allowed him to focus on the contact to clients. He was moving around the

city a lot, meeting companies who had made inquiries, showing them what SJSR could do

and ensuring that they could trust his little start-up.

Him and Spencer had met up once for drinks during this period. James had once again

asked Spencer to come back but with no luck. Nevertheless, they were on speaking

terms again and even though their friendship had suffered, James felt like he could still

rely on Spencer as a friend when it came to it.

James was a little bit worried about his former colleague, when he had asked him what

he was doing all day, Spencer had skipped the topic and quickly steered the

conversation to the latest football results. James figured that Spencer must be too

ashamed to admit that he was doing nothing productive at the moment.

Chapter 8: The rollercoaster of success

To whom it may concern,

It has been brought to our attention that your company is providing software under

the name of SJSR to a multiplicity of investment banks in exchange for a monetary

fee.

After conducting extensive research and counseling with our lawyers, we have found

that this conduct is illegal, since the software is rightful property of Stanley & Smith.

A variety of our employees witnessed that Mr. James Fullerton created the software

during employment with Stanley & Smith, using company equipment, during his

working hours and within the scope of his employment. We therefore consider SJSR

protected by copyright under the doctrine of “works made for hire”, see §101 of the

Copyright Law of the United States of America.

18

As a consequence we ask to refrain from any further distribution of the software, the

termination of all existing contracts and the immediate transfer of all profits made

from the usage of SJSR by

February the 23rd, 2016

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Pauly Shin

Head of Legal Department

Stanley & Smith

As James read the words of the letter he had just found on his desk, his knees started to

give in and by the time he had finished reading, he sunk deep into his chair and was in a

shock stare for a couple of minutes.

After his assistant had brought him some water and tried to calm him down, James

reread the letter about 5 times. He had no idea what to do. Was there something to do?

Everything they said in the letter was true. He had worked on SJSR at work, using their

equipment. But he offered it to them and they did not want it! That had to count for

something. Then again, he had met Pauly once at a Christmas party and he was a smart

man, a fully certified lawyer. He must know what he was talking about. Or was all this

just scare tactics? It was moments like these he missed Spencer the most, Spencer

always kept cool under pressure. Spencer! Of course, he was in this just as much as

James was. Even though he might not be working on SJSR anymore, he was involved in

setting up the company. James decided to give him a call.

“Hey James, long time no talk! How are you doing? Listen, if you still want me to come

back to work, you can hang up right now. There is just no way” was the first thing

Spencer said without even giving James the chance to say hello.

“Hey Spenc, I know you gave up on SJSR and I wouldn’t call if this wasn’t important but

can you come to my office please? Something came up”

Spencer and James had been friends for long enough for Spencer to recognize James’

trembling voice.

“Ehm sure, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

On hour later, James had not moved one inch, Spencer walked into the office and sat

down opposite James. Without saying a word James simply pushed the letter over to

Spencer, who immediately began to read it.

19

“This is outrageous!” Spencer shouted, “This is bullshit! Just think about my contribution

and I never worked for them! Have you called your lawyer yet?”

James shook his head.

“Why the hell not? We can fight this!”

“We?” James simply asked.

“Of course we, you silly” Spencer tried to lighten James’ mood “No matter what I think of

the software, I’m not gonna let these old sacks from SS take away what we worked so

hard for. Besides, I still have an interest in the company. Don’t forget that if they take

SJSR away from us, I don’t get my monthly cut.”

“Let’s call my old roommate from college who went to law school, he should be able to

help us. Don’t you worry James, we’ll figure this out!”

“Thank you Spenc, I really appreciate this! You wanna call him now?”

Spencer just shrugged with his shoulders and took out his phone. “Let’s hope he still has

the same number as he did in College.”

“Spencer you lazy old shit, is that you?” asked the voice on the other end of the line.

Spencer winked at James, “This is John Smith from the New York Bar examiners, we just

went through some old bar exams and noticed some plagiarism issues with yours, could

you please come by and see us immediately.”

“Nice try my friend but I still have your number saved in my phone and you are way too

much of a lazy guy to change your number.”

Spencer laughed, “Good to see you haven’t lost your wit Liam. How have you been?”

“I can’t complain man, got a family now! But I have the feeling you didn’t call to find out

which diapers I use for my kids, how can I help?”

“Still the same old Liam, never been one for small talk. But you’re right, I need your

help.” replied Spencer.

“Fire away”

Spencer quickly summarized everything that had taken place from the moment that him

and James went out for drinks that one night and came up with the idea of SJSR, up to

the letter that was still lying in front of them.

20

Liam was quiet for a little bit and then replied: “Okay so from what I understood is that

both of you worked on that project and worked on it in your workplace as well as at

home?”

“That is correct”, replied James.

“And what is it exactly that you did at Stanley & Smith, James?” Liam asked

“I was a trading associate who mostly ran numbers and searched through the news for

any risks or potential deals”, said James.

“Did you ever receive any coding or similar IT related assignments from your

supervisor?” enquired Liam further.

“No, never”

“SJSR was not a commissioned or specially ordered work?”

“I’m not really familiar with that term”

“Sorry, I should have explained. A work is considered commissioned when it has been

specially requested. So did one of our superiors ever come up to you and ask you to

design SJSR? Maybe even before or after you were an employee of Stanley & Smith?

“No, it was entirely our own idea and I only came up with it during my time of

employment. ”

“And you said your new company focuses on providing IT solutions, correct?”

James was getting more and more confused, he did not understand where this was

going. How was this helping him? Was Spencer sure that this was a good lawyer?

“Yes” he simply replied.

“Good” said Liam “They are probably claiming that all the work you did on SJSR is

copyrighted under the “works made for hire” doctrine. The general principle of

copyright is that you own all the copyright rights in a work you create. However, if you

are an employee and create something as a part of your employment, then the employer

owns all the rights. So if your supervisor gives you an assignment or you do something

that is broadly covered by your job description, it belongs to your employer.

The crucial point here though, is that the work needs to be within the scope of your

employment. If one wrote a song whilst being employed at a law firm, that would not be

within the scope of employment and thus not covered by the works made for hire

doctrine.”

21

“I don’t really follow or see how this could help us, it is a software that covers the

assignments I had to do at Stanley & Smith, so it was within the scope of my

employment” James sounded desperate.

“Well, not really. You could base your argument around the fact that you coded a

software and coding was not within the scope of your employment. To back that up you

can even say that the company that arose from this endeavor has nothing to do with

trading itself, it simply provides IT solutions. The fact that these solutions are related to

trading is irrelevant.” explained Liam.

“So does that mean that they don’t have claim and can’t do shit?” James was back on his

feet and was excited about finally sticking it to Stanley & Smith.

“That would be my interpretation of the case. However, I do have to warn you: This line

of argument is highly debatable and Stanley & Smith do have some very valid arguments

on their side, which they already pointed to. The coding argument is a little bit of a

stretch and you cannot be certain that a judge will agree with your line of arguments.

You did, at least partially, use their equipment and worked on it during your official

working hours. Even if we could argue that you also worked on it at home, they will say

that it is not unusual for their employees to have a home office and work on office

assignments from home.”

“And what about my part? I mean I never worked for Stanley & Smith, doesn’t that make

a difference too?” interjected Spencer for the first time.

“Well, when two people work on a project together, they become co-authors and unless

an agreement has been made that states differently, the co-authors are equal partners.

Should it turn out that James was within his scope of employment and SJSR is therefore

protected by “works made for hire”, there are two possibilities: Spencer and Stanley &

Smith could be joint authors, or Spencer was James’ “subcontractor” and therefore also

within James’ scope of employment and even Spencers’ work would be owned by

Stanley & Smith. But as I said, this is only if it turns out that SJSR was created within

James’ scope of employment.

“So we have a chance right?” asked James hopefully.

“There are certainly arguments in your favor. Nevertheless, my advice would be to send

a letter to Stanley & Smith, outlining your position and then suggest finding an

agreement outside of court. In my opinion, there is no certainty as to who would win a

trial and they will know that too. I’d be happy to draw up such a letter for you. ”

“Thanks Liam, you have been a great help and that would be wonderful if you could do

that for us. Please do send me a bill for your services!” said James.

22

“Of course, no problem! And I think that makes Spencer and me even, after all he is the

one who introduced me to my wife” replied Liam.

“Wait what?” asked a confused Spencer, “I did?”

“Well, kind of. After all, she is your ex. Glad I could help, bye!” said Liam quickly before

he hung up.

“He should be doubling our bill then, poor fellow.” laughed Spencer and James quickly

joined in. Even though this was not over yet, he at least knew he had a chance and felt

relieved.

Chapter 9: The big clash

It did not take Stanley & Smith long to reply to Liam’s letter. James had received a call

from Pauly Shin who declared that their claims were outrageous and had no legal value

to them whatsoever. However, because of their goodwill and graciousness they would

agree to a meeting where this matter could be discussed and a favorable agreement

could be reached.

Even without any legal knowledge James could see through this front. There was no way

that Stanley & Smith would have even agreed to a meeting if Liam’s argument did not

have any value to it. Nevertheless, the thought of meeting representatives from Stanley

& Smith and negotiating about the faith of his little enterprise that had just begun to take

off, scared him out of his mind. Especially since he had no experience in negotiating and

did not believe that he would be any good at it.

The meeting had been set to two weeks later and James spent every spare minute

looking up negotiating strategies, he could not afford to come out short. He even asked

his assistants to run mock negotiations with him, where he quickly discovered that

unless some sort of miracle appeared, there was no way he would be allowed to keep his

software. It became apparent that there was a huge disparity in the bargaining power

between Stanley & Smith and him. He could simply not afford to have SJSR tied up in

court for years, not earning any money, whereas Stanley & Smith had the resources

necessary to fund such a dispute.

Additionally, Spencer had once more disappeared from the face of the earth, which

really disappointed James. It had been so nice to have Spencer back on his side and

fighting together. James felt like a teenage girl who could not get over her ex and was

desperate for his admiration and companionship.

Trying to conceal his disappointment in Spencer just disappearing and never showing

up, James drove to the meeting. As always he was about 45 minutes early and kept going

over his notes. He had written down all the possible scenarios he could think about as

23

well as his BATNA and WATNA. He knew he had done everything he could and he would

never be more prepared. Nevertheless, he did not feel ready.

He was just about to enter the conference room of Stanley & Smith when he heard some

loud noises coming from the elevator’s direction, it sounded like something shattering

and some mumbled apologies. When he looked over, he saw a version of Spencer

running towards him, he had never seen before. While he might have been wearing a

nice suit, his face looked like he had aged at least 15 years within the last 2 weeks. He

stumbled towards James, who immediately started arguing with him:

“Where the fuck have you been?? I’ve been calling you nonstop and I thought we were in

this together again!

Hey, where do you think you’re going? You think you can just leave me alone doing all

the work and I’ll still let you let you attend the negotiation? As always I’ve been busting

my ass, preparing for this meeting. And what the hell happened to your face? You look

like death himself has visited you in your dreams.”

Still, Spencer did not say a word.

“Get the hell out of the room! Now!” hissed James in a last attempt but it was too late, the

representatives from Stanley & Smith had already appeared and he did not want to

appear unorganized or that there was any trouble within the company.

Reluctantly he allowed Spencer to greet a Mr. Vein, Vice President to Stanley & Smith

and Pauly Shin, the company’s lawyer. Mr. Vein was unfamiliar to James, so he must

have only recently been appointed to the higher management level. He was young,

younger than any Vice President of Stanley & Smith James had ever met or heard of. He

could not be older than 35. Everything about him looked uncommon to Stanley & Smith.

He did not wear a tie, even though it was a strict company policy that all employees had

to wear a suit and a tie at all times. James could not quite put his finger on it, but

something about this young man did not look right, he looked too unconventional for the

company’s standards, way too modern. All the managers James had ever met from his

previous employer had been very conservative and had proudly shown their values.

This Mr. Vein did not fit in at all.

Pauly Shin on the other hand, was exactly like James had imagined him. He appeared to

be around 50 and looked like the company meant everything to him, he had probably

been working for them all his life. He of course, wore a tie that even had the company’s

logo printed onto it. He allowed Mr. Vein to introduce himself first, probably because he

was higher in the hierarchy but when it was his turn, he stressed his title and the name

of the company greatly.

In his research on negotiations James had learned that it was incredibly important to

evaluate his opponent first and try to figure out their values so one could appeal to them

later. James decided that Pauly was probably someone who took the company very

seriously and took great proud in his title and hierarchy in general. To him the word of

the management was probably law. Everyone who disagreed with the values of the

24

company was an idiot and a traitor. It did not take James long to imagine what Pauly

must think of him.

Mr. Vein on the other hand was way more difficult to judge, James could not figure out

why such a man would be appointed Vice President. James decided to also pay close

attention to the relationship between the two representatives, how would they get

along? Someone, who lives by the company’s traditional values and someone who

clearly had no regard for them.

At the beginning of the negotiation they exchanged a few pleasantries about how happy

they were to meet each other and that they were looking forward to a productive

session. James and Spencer were offered coffee and one could have thought that they

were just meeting for a friendly break. During this entire time Spencer had not said

much but rather stared at the two representatives of his former employer. James did

most of the talking.

After a while it seemed that Spencer was getting impatient, he kept moving around in his

chair until he burst out: “Okay, let’s get this over with”.

James could have died of shame for Spencer’s rudeness. He looked over to Mr. Vein,

expecting him to say something rude back. To his surprise he only nodded and said:

“You’re right, we all have more pleasant things to get to.”

James had planned to start the negotiation but was not given the chance, since Spencer

had already started talking.

“I believe we can keep this very brief” said Spencer. Already Pauly’s expression showed

disbelief and it was clear that he did not expect this to be a brief discussion. “Mr. Vein,

your legal department has sent us a letter outlining your arguments and your demands

on this matter. Our lawyer has sent you our arguments and our position. I’m sure you

and Mr. Shin will agree that both sides have brought forward very valid arguments and

that the result of a trial would be unpredictable.” Spencer continued.

Pauly looked like he was about to burst and said “No! They are not! I don’t know where

your lawyer got his degree from but there is no way any judge in this country would

follow this line of argument and would rule against such a distinguished company like

Stanley & Smith and set such a precedent where employees can steal from their

employer. And remember, you have stolen company property and used it to shovel

money into your own pocket. As I outlined in my letter, we have witness statements and

the history of your computer.”

James did not know how to react; this was not going the way he had planned at all.

Meanwhile Mr. Vein had remained very calm and said: “Mr. Shin, may I ask you to calm

down and remind you that there is no reason to alter the facts. In your brief you outlined

that the other side does have some valid arguments and the outcome of a trial cannot be

guaranteed. And as Spencer just mentioned, no one is questioning the validity of your

25

arguments. They are rather asking us to accept that there is more than one side to the

coin. So please Spencer, do continue.”

James was baffled. Did the Vice President just lecture the head of the legal department in

the middle of a meeting and take the opponents’ side? James could tell that Pauly was

just as shocked as James was – he simply nodded.

Spencer simply smiled and said: “Thank you. I was simply suggesting that it is in no

one’s interest to get this case tied up in a court for years. Both sides would be losing out.

We would not be able to generate any income from SJSR and Stanley & Smith would

keep losing ground to all their competitors who are already using our software. Thus I

suggest we try to come to an agreement today and I am sure both sides will be able to

benefit.”

Again Mr. Shin jumped in: “We are not losing ground to our competitors, Stanley & Smith

is still the finest investment bank in the nation. Also you have way more to lose, a

lawsuit would bankrupt your little operation.”

Mr. Vein pretended not to have heard Pauly’s injection and went on to say: “I absolutely

agree. We need to modernize our company in order to stay alive and you cannot afford

to have your only product placed on hold.”

James was absolutely confused now. He tried to find a way back into the conversation,

after all he had prepared for this meeting but Spencer was always quicker.

“I am glad to hear that we see eye to eye on this.” said Spencer. “I’d be happy to quickly

summarize everything that has happened so far and then present a few solutions I have

prepared.”

Pauly seemed to be still recovering and did not manage to say anything. Mr. Vein simply

smiled and said: “Go ahead.”

“Wonderful. So James and I invented a software under the name of SJSR, partly during

the time James was an employee at Stanley & Smith. Once we had completed most of the

work, we presented it to Stanley & Smith and offered it to them. However, our offer was

denied and we were asked to leave this idea behind. Following to this, James ended his

relationship with Stanley & Smith and we went on to create our own company. This

company has now entered into contracts with a variety of companies, offering them IT

solutions. Now that the value of SJSR has been proven, Stanley & Smith also seek to use

SJSR and ask for compensation due to the alleged illegal distribution. Is everything

correct so far?” asked Spencer. James had never seen Spencer so clear before, it felt like

he had planned every single word.

Once again Mr. Vein just nodded.

26

“Fantastic” Spencer continued, “So the way I see it we have a few options: We could go to

court and see what happens, even though we already agreed that this is not a very

beneficial solution.

A mutually beneficial solution may be to agree that Stanley & Smith will enter into a

contract with us, where we will provide them with SJSR in exchange for a reduced rate.

This way both parties will get what they want. You will get access to the software, save

some money and we will stay in business and receive some of the compensation we

deserve.”

Pauly was visibly upset by this suggestion. He was scared of another embarrassment,

however, so he remained silent.

“Well, I feel like this is going in the right direction. However, I do not think that the board

will be very happy about this agreement. I’m sure you understand that I need to give

them something that will look like a victory. No matter how much I appreciate and

understand this offer, I cannot accept this and need something better.” explained Mr.

Vein.

James thought that this would be it, there was nothing else they had to offer but once

again Spencer remained calm and said:

“Is there anything particular you have in mind? What is it you propose?”

“Well, I am not sure if you are aware of it but I my job in this company is it to modernize

it and to make sure that it always stays on top of technology. However, this has proved

to be more difficult than expected. Do you know any other companies who produce

technology for investment banks and maybe are about to release new software that

might give us a head start? If so, could you provide something similar or at least arrange

a special deal for us?” asked Mr. Vein.

“I don’t know any other companies who do such IT solutions but between you and me, I

never expected you to take us up on this offer. So I have thought long and very hard

about this and believe me when I say that this decision was not easy but I am willing to

offer you this: For the past year I have spent a lot of time working to expand James’ and

my little operation and I recently came up with another software product that will be

equally beneficial as SJSR to investment companies. This software has not been released

yet but I am willing to extend our contract for SJSR to also include this new software.”

James felt like he was about to collapse again. What on earth could Spencer be doing?

This could not be true, could it? Had Spencer really been working this entire time when

James had accused him of being lazy?

Mr. Vein smiled, “Now we’re talking. What is this software about?”

27

“I feel like it would be a bad move to tell you, since I cannot be sure what you will do

with my idea. The only thing I can tell you is that once it’s installed and properly

working, it will do just as much for your efficiency as SJSR.”

James could have hit Spencer, there was a way out and now he was ruining it. No

businessman in his right mind would agree to something if he did not know what it was.

However, James was to be surprised again.

“I understand” said Mr. Vein, “but where will be the difference between this agreement

and simply buying it from you once it comes on the market?”

Now it was Spencer’s turn to smile. “Because you will have the exclusive rights to it for

one year. This will give you a head start and us the opportunity to fix any possible bugs

you might encounter.”

“Sounds fair. Now Mr. Shin, what do you think of this?” asked Mr. Vein his colleague.

Pauly seemed surprised, he probably did not expect to be asked anything today.

Nevertheless, he quickly gathered himself and replied: “Well Sir, I do believe that we

have a strong case against SJSR and that we would be better off suing them for every

penny they made of it and claim the exclusive use of this software. I do not consider it a

win if we have to pay for something, no matter how little it is, that already belongs to us

and then get additional software we do not even know what it is and also don’t need.

This company has been doing very well without all this technology.”

“Interesting, thank you for your opinion Mr. Shin.” discarded Mr. Vein his lawyer, I have

heard your concerns and thought about them but I disagree. These two men have

proven to be of an exceptional entrepreneurial spirit and know their way around a

computer, which I cannot say for many people in this company. I was hired because this

company was falling behind. It was lacking modernization and needs restructuring if it

wants to survive the next 10 years. I believe that we have misjudged these two

gentlemen before and should not repeat this mistake. If this second software can

provide us with a little advantage over our competitors and will bring this company

forward, I think we should do it.”

Spencer seemed happy, “Am I to take this as an agreement Mr. Vein?” he asked.

“You may indeed.” Mr. Vein stood up and shook Spencer’s and then James’ hand. “I am

sure Mr. Shin will be happy to draw up the paper work, summarizing this agreement and

have it delivered to your office within the next 48 hours.”

28

Chapter 10: Happy endings

James and Spencer had just left the building, when James fell into Spencer’s arms.

“How the hell did you do that? And what is this mysterious software I’ve never even

heard about?” asked James, crying into Spencer’s shoulder.

“Well, during the last two weeks I did exactly two things. One, was to call up an old

professor of mine who teaches negotiation strategies and take an intensive course with

him. Two, was to lay out all the possible outcomes and routes this negotiation could go

down. But the most useful thing I did was to use SJSR to give me all the news on Stanley

& Smith and it did not take long to find out that they recently hired this Mr. Vein to

modernize the company. After that it came to me that it might be useful to prepare

different strategies for all the possible negotiation partners we might have to face. I have

to admit that any other Vice President would have been a lot more difficult, but this Mr.

Vein was just perfect for us. He used to be CEO of a little start-up himself, so he

obviously supports them.” explained Spencer.

“And here I was, accusing you of being lazy.” Said James quietly.

“No worry my friend, I did not exactly keep you in the loop of what I was doing.”

“But what about this software?” asked James.

Spencer smiled, “When I left the company I never said that I did not like providing IT

solutions for trading companies. I think it’s a really interesting field, I just could not be

asked to keep working on the same software over and over again. So I tried to come up

with new ones, to keep things interesting for me and about four months ago, I did.”

“That is amazing, why did you never tell me any of that?” asked James.

“I wanted to achieve something on my own, without anyone’s help. And I didn’t want to

disappoint you in case I failed.”

“And you certainly have achieved something! You just saved our company’s ass!” said a

still astonished James, “How can I ever pay you back for what you did?”

“There is no need to pay me back for anything, I have finally found something that I

really enjoy and I could imagine keep doing for a while. I don’t like working on the same

stuff over and over again, but inventing new software means I get to work on something

new every few months, which is perfect for me. And I like working with you,” Spencer

said.

“That is wonderful news Spenc! I am so happy to hear that. Does that mean you will

come back to the office and we can split up the workload again? You develop new

29

programs and I make sure the work and take care of the relationship to our consumers?”

James asked

“How could I possibly say no to such a wonderful offer?” smiled Spencer. The End