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“Yeah, but this isn’t just about you, Caleb. It’s about your intellectual property, your patents, and finding a place where everyone you employ, including your cofounders, get to continue being paid for developing your ideas.”
“But Melco wants me to stay on full-time for three years and split the payout accordingly.”
Chase shrugged. “That’s negotiable.”
“Not to me.” Caleb grimaced. “If that’s the deal, I might as well take on the extra investment and go public myself in eighteen months. And I don’t want to dothatbecause I’m close to burnout.”
“You’d get a shitload of money from them,” Chase observed.
“But with massive strings attached.”
“Okay.” Chase took another longer slug of coffee. “How about this scenario? We buy you out, put in a new CEO, and keep the company running.”
Caleb sat up straight. “You, as in your VC fund?”
“Yeah, we already own thirty-one percent. We buy your fifty-one percent, making us the majority shareholders and pay you everything upfront. If anyone else wants to cash out, we’ll work with them as well. Then we’ll invest massively in the business and take it through to IPO.”
“What’s the catch?” Caleb asked.
“You’d have to agree to a six-month handover process and be involved in choosing your successor.”
“And what else?”
“Nothing, if you don’t want to be involved, but you might find you want to keep at least a finger in the pie.”
“That’s not possible from here.”
“Caleb . . . I commute between Morgan Valley and Silicon Valley all the time,” Chase said. “I co-own my family ranch and manage to run my business. If that’s something you want, it certainly is doable.”
Lucy glanced at Caleb and crossed her fingers. She’d had a whole lot of wishes granted this Christmas, but she was hoping for another one.
“You trust me not to mess this up, don’t you?” Chase asked.
“Yeah.” Caleb frowned. “Absolutely.”
“If you want to leave free and clear, we can do that. If you want to retain stock and some say in the business even if you’re no longer the CEO, we can do that, too.” Chase rose to his feet. “Take your time. Think things through, talk to Lucy and your family, and get back to me with any questions you have, okay?”
He smiled at Lucy. “You make great coffee.”
“You should taste my cookies before you go. I made Christmas snickerdoodles this morning.” She pointed at the plate.
“Yeah? My kids would love those.”
“I’ll get you a to-go bag.” Lucy went ahead of him into the kitchen and hurriedly wrapped some up while Chase finished up with Caleb. “Here you are.” She presented him with the bag. “And here’s one for the road.”
“Thanks.” Chase took a bite. “That’s so good I doubt these little beauties will make it back to the ranch.”
He winked at Caleb, who was still looking stunned, tipped his Stetson to Lucy, and went down the porch steps to his rental car. With one last wave, he departed, leaving Caleb and Lucy staring after him.
“Are you okay?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah.”
“It’s a lot.” Lucy went back in and closed the door behind Caleb. “Do you want to talk about it?”
He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I wasn’t expecting Chase to make that offer.”
“He obviously thinks very highly of you and your company.”
