It was the end of the week and Penny was almost happy. She would get to see Jenny today. In a meeting, with other company employees. Today was the day she got to meet the team that Jenny assembled to run the company while Penny was busy in the lab, inventing, tinkering and reverse engineering sci-fi tech. To get ready for the meeting, Penny was busy putting together a presentation for all her patented inventions and already finished products. It would be a great help for the marketing representative if he knew what he had to work with and promote and get ready for the market. There was also the agreement for Valentina Santiago’s company to use her patents for a percent of the profits. All said and done, it was going to be long and tedious day.
Penny stopped her scooter in front of the Small Business Development Center, where Jenny arranged for everyone to meet and folded it before hooking it to her backpack. She entered the center and asked at reception in which room was her meeting. She was walked to the room by a staff member and when she entered, she was greeted by a room full of professionally dressed people and Jenny standing by the wall on her left side. She came to Penny, then turned to face the people in the room.
-Let me introduce to you the CEO of the company Penelope Roslyn Ankster. Penny, these are the people I told you about. The one on the left is going to be your CFO, Mortimer Malone. Next to him is the CMO, Patricia Roland. You can call her P.R. since that are her initials and part of her job.-Jenny giggled a little at her own joke. Patricia didn’t mind thought. She has come to terms with the nickname long ago and even embraced it.-Next we have the CSO, Sarah Montgomery. And last, but not least, The Lawyer, Lawrence Gershom. He is from a long line of corporate shark people. I am kidding. But seriously, he is from a family of lawyers and if he wants to be part of the family business he has to start from the bottom, a small company and work his way up. Some family law, tradition or some thing or another, so I snatched him up.-
-Nice to meet you everyone. You may call me Penny, Boss, CEO or even chief if you have to. I am now going to play for you a presentation with all the products I have developed after deciding to start working for myself.-
Penny put her backpack on a chair and took out a projector, followed by her laptop and a bunch of folders with printouts of her works. She distributed the folders after which she connected the projector to an outlet and her laptop and started her presentation. The first thing to appear on the screen was a clear liquid in a glass container with a white, rope like, item right next to it.
-While studying for a new PhD in chemistry the Idea for this compound came to me. In reaction to air it quickly solidifies into an imitation of spider silk. I have several variants to the formula, from ones that dissolve after an hour, to ones that can withstand bullets and more. The substance is pliable and flexible, but very strong. It can be used for many things, one of which is 3D printing of clothes. If you look at the document on page 2, you will see that a colleague of mine is using it in the manufacture of bullet resistant suits for the military.-
-Let me get this straight. You made and patented Spider-Man’s web fluid? In the real world? Why aren’t you rolling in money right now? Better yet, why are you not on the news with other scientists discussing the possible applications of this substance?-
-Obviously because I haven’t announced it to any scientific paper or magazine. I made it, patented it and went back to work. I don’t have time for fame. I have other work to do. Now, moving on…-
The next thing to appear on the projected screen was a magnification of a graphene atomic structure and Penny followed by explaining her discoveries in the manufacturing and stacking of the material, which allowed her to manufacture a strong, bullet resistant material at the same price as the production of regular glass. The next things to follow were all the improvements in robotics components.
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-… and that all happened before my next breakthrough in material sciences. With a little more R&D I can improve the components by several generations. Which leads to room temperature superconductors. I made that discovery when I was testing the theories of some leaders in the field of why some materials have higher superconductive temperature than others. I have been integrating it in all my other works to increase power efficiency and generally make my work easier. Off course that didn’t solve all my power issues, so I was forced to come up with a better battery, which is our next slide…-
What Penny showed them next was the picture of a battery and next to it was its energy density, charging time and predicted number of recharges. It had a fuel density of 150 MJ/kg, almost the same as hydrogen fuel cells, but was much cheaper to produce and had less energy loss, because the energy didn’t have to be converted.
-Let us guess, you solved the problem with energy density, but didn’t announce it because…?-
-I was busy designing a toy robot to sell to a toy company. My money for research was running out, and so I had to improvise a solution.-
-Wait! Are you telling us that there are toys out there with the most sophisticated batteries on the planet? And no one knows about it. No offence meant, but are you clinically insane?-
-No way. I just have a terrible business sense. That is why I asked Jenny to assemble a team to run the company, while I continue to make things that interest me. Now, on to the next item on the list!-
Penny continued to present more of her patents one after the other. There was the improved with superconductor electric motor, used to construct an improved electric jet. Then there was the medical scanner she needed for her robot toys, followed by the acoustic levitator she used for her hover board and scooter. After each items appearance on the wall there were visible reactions in her audience. There were gaping mouths, groans of disapproval and shaking of heads. The technology on that wall could revolutionize several industries, but it was rotting in obscurity because their CEO bad at business and obsessed with research.
-You are writing research papers on all your projects and summiting them to every scientific magazine, paper and show there is. Then we are holding a press conference and announcing the hover board and scooter, after which we start full scale marketing and production.-
-We don’t have a production facility or the money for one. According to these finances, the toy company is barely afloat.-
-I am still waiting for some money from Santiago Tech Innovations for the bullet resistant suits they are selling to the army. I really don’t want to take a business loan from the bank, but if I have to I will do it. Just wait a little for the robot toys to start selling and the money from STI to come in. If they don’t come in in one more month, I will take a loan and construct a production facility. Until then, let us work on the marketing of my products.-
-There is a toy expo in a couple of weeks, and I hear there are various skateboard tournaments and events almost every month. If we present the hover board on one of these events, we would increase the interest in them with minimum effort. You also wrote that you had samples sent to professional skaters for evaluation, was there a response?-
-I have to check my mail and contact some of them, but I think there should be some responses and interest.-
-Alright then, let’s plan what we will do and how we will do it.-
And for the next few hours they planned their marketing strategy and how to implement it. They discussed how to improve some of the designs to better suit the consumers. What could be improved technically and what should be downgraded for consumer products. After the very productive session, all of them disbanded and went home to think about all the new ideas proposed during the meeting.
Penny got home and folded her scooter, then put it in its charging station. The meeting with the new employees went well in her opinion, but now it was time to see what kinds of people they were.
-A.I.C.A. run a deep background check on all my new employees. Exclude Jenny from the list. I want to sort the results from heavy to light infractions if they have any and then followed by achievements and then school records and so on. While you are at it, check their browser and search history and their porn and hidden folders. I need to know that I am leaving my company to the right people. Meanwhile I will work on my secret project and a design for the production facility.-