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CHAPTER5
Luke
* * *
The meetingwith the new angel investors was slated to start at six, with a pre-dinner meeting where John and I would do our pitch for Astra Investments and answer any questions the investors had.
Adam Pierce of Seneca Investments was born to wealth and knew how to use it to make more. When he showed an interest in Astra Investments because of our plans to mine the asteroid belt, I knew we were kindred spirits. Like me, Adam wanted to do something with his wealth other than just making more money for its own sake. Money made money doing nothing more than sitting in a basic index fund, but both of us wanted to do something that would last beyond us.
“I know it sounds corny,” I said when he asked me for my motivation. “I want to leave something for humanity when I’m gone. When I have the benefit of so much wealth that I did nothing to earn, I feel like I should give part of it back in some way. Mining the asteroid belt sounds like a wacky idea, but it’s a literal goldmine of minerals that’s free — so far — for the taking, if we can get there and back.”
“That’s the kicker,” Adam said and raised his glass of beer to me. “Getting there and back. That’s expensive.”
“We have to make it cheaper,” I replied. “Get costs down so that it’s profitable. Get a rocket system in place, like the rail system used to be. We used the railway to open up the country and get access to the land and resources in the West, so I figure this is more of the same. It’s costly to start, but the long-term benefits will far outweigh the initial costs once we get it in place.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Adam said, and we toasted each other and drank down our beers. “What do you think of the two investors coming here tonight? What’s your take on them and their interest?”
Adam shrugged. “My research guy says that Elena Marakova has a lot of her family’s rubles that she wants out of Russia and into the USA. She’s thinking long-term as well. High up-front cost, steady profits after that. Not a quick fix, in other words.”
“Strange to see a woman in the space industry,” I said and wondered about her. “She’s one of the few.”
“She is an astrophysicist, educated in the UK. Her family has money, and she wants to invest in the space race. That’s good enough for me.”
“Are we sure it’s clean money?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t want dirty Russian money involved.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “Their fortune came from the shipping industry,” he said. “Besides, is there any clean Russian money?”
I laughed ruefully. “Good point. As long as it’s legit, that’s all I care about in the end.”
“It’s legit,” Adam replied. “I know your views on that.”
Our other angel investor hopeful was Jack Tate, who had a fortune to invest and was currently working with a hedge fund. An older man in his late forties, Jack had been in the Air Force, but had joined a hedge fund as an advisor after retiring as a fighter pilot. He wanted to do something with his money and planned to move it into space-based ventures.
“I’m sick of taking over businesses and dismantling them for parts,” he said when I asked why he wanted out of the hedge fund. “I want to build, not destroy.”
“That’s great. I’m looking for visionaries who know that space is the future.” I held up my glass of scotch. “That’s why I called it Astra. To the stars. Or in Astra’s case, the asteroids.”
“We were made for each other,” Jack said and held up his glass. “Here’s to a joint venture between me and Astra. May we make a real difference. On to the asteroids!”
At that moment, Elena Marakova walked in, and she was a stunner as far as women went. Not as beautiful as Alexa, but still, I knew that most men’s heads would turn when she walked into the hotel bar where we were holding the get together before the dinner and evening meeting. She looked in her thirties and had dark hair and eyes. A Sophia Loren look-alike, she was very tall and very built, dressed like she was in central casting in the movie the House of Gucci.
“Wow,” Jack said, his eyes bugging out. “I saw her photo on the company website, but she was wearing safety glasses, a lab coat and had her hair back. She’s quite the beauty.”
Jack was single, and I had the sense that he was really attracted to her. I smiled to myself and watched him for the first hour while we introduced ourselves and talked about the weather, the latest news, and then, of course, the latest sports scores. Surprisingly, Elena kept up with us, citing statistics of her favorite soccer team and hockey team. She drank quite heavily as well, keeping up with Jack drink for drink, but barely showed it.
It looked like a match made in heaven. Elena had a strong Russian accent, but excellent English, and was obviously very intelligent. You don’t become an astrophysicist trained in the UK without being a brain.
I thought about Alexa and how she was also a big brain but in a different field. She was also beautiful, but in a completely different way from Elena. Elena had a hard edge to her, which I assumed was from being a woman in a man’s world, having to compete with men who were either business types or scientists. Whatever the case, Jack was certainly taken with her.
When we went for dinner, Jack sat beside Elena and kept her busy talking about her family and the business. Adam and I spoke about our own families.
Dinner was enjoyable, and we talked very little of business. Most of the time was spent talking sports, and golf, which I didn’t play.
“You don’t golf?” Adam asked, smiling. “You really must. It’s the way people connect in business. You and I should go out and do nine holes some time. You’ll enjoy it. Very relaxing.”
“Do you golf?” I asked Jack, who could barely tear his eyes away from Elena.
“Me?” he asked. “Of course, I do. I make sure to lose to whoever I’m golfing with. It has nothing to do with my skill, I’ll have you know.”
We all laughed at that.
“I never golfed, but I’m willing to try, if that’s what ensures I’ll get investors,” I said and turned to Adam. “Where’s a good golf club to join? I’ll do it Monday.”
Adam proceeded to tell me all about the club he belonged to, and I promised to join and that he and I would have a round of golf in the coming weeks.
“As a new father, I’m sure you’ll be glad to get away,” Adam said. “All those diapers and bottles. Been there, done that, got the kid almost in college to show for it.” He grinned.
Once dinner was over, we moved to a separate room set up like a boardroom, and we ran through plans for Astra-Seneca joint venture. We went over the development of technology that would be critical for the trip to the asteroid belt and mining of the ore. Both Elena and Jack seemed really interested and had good questions and smart comments to make about the future of the industry.
“It’s necessary, because we’re facing a shortage of rare minerals on earth,” Elena said. “Rare minerals we need for computer and new technology to combat global warming.”
Jack agreed. I listened to Jack’s impassioned talk about lithium batteries and praseodymium and terbium oxide, which were used in magnets and solar batteries, as well as LED and lasers.
These were my people, I realized. They saw the future for what it was — a threat to the advances we had made with technology, and the urgent need to develop space travel so we could continue to grow and develop alternate energies.
The four of us really were super nerds. John would have loved to be there, listening to the discussion about the future of technology. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend due to a last-minute bout of food poisoning.
I was glad that Adam was so willing to sit in on the meeting with me.
We finished the night out and went our separate ways, with Elena and Jack leaving separately, and Adam went to his apartment, and I went to ours. I felt it had been a successful evening, and worth the effort. Investors wanted to know you as a person and not just the numbers on a spreadsheet. In the end, business was a human thing and very social, so it helped if you had people who you felt were kindred spirits to join you in a risky and very costly venture. Money was primary, of course, and if the venture wasn’t going to make any, no one would want to invest.
But these were experts who were thinking long-term.
The long term said that Astra-Seneca join venture would be a winner.
I hoped so.
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