While most of my fellow college students were out partying, running up even more debt on top of their student loans, I was in my dorm room, writing code. I'd written simple games in high school, but college taught me that useful tools were a much better investment of my time. So, I started writing apps that helped me with my classes, and I found that the students around me were willing to pay for their own copy. As word spread across campus, I wrote even more of them. By my senior year, I had my own company, my own house, no debt, and a sizable pool of money just languishing in my bank account. Plus, I had bought my mom's dream house, for her and dad to enjoy his early retirement in.
I loved being my own boss, but I couldn't keep up with all of the new ideas I had, much less add the variety of enhancements that my customers were asking for. So, I hired a couple of good programmers, who were also good friends, only to find that I absolutely hated being somebody else's boss. I needed to add more programmers, but I was dreading having more staff to manage. I was also frustrated at how little time I was able to spend programming, due to the demands of running the business. At least there was plenty of room for more desks in my basement.
I was bemoaning the burdens of my success to my two employees, during a business lunch that was really just an excuse to see some sunlight on a Friday.
Mike laughed and shook his head before responding. "Just hire somebody to run it for you. Focus on your strengths and hire others to cover your weaknesses."
I had considered that, but I saw a problem. "How would that work though? With me at both the top and the bottom, won't the chain of command fail from the circular reference?"
Paul had been listening quietly, but we both stopped as we saw his face light up. "It's simple, really," he said. "Put everything in a trust."
I couldn't help but frown. "I was already thinking about doing that, but how would that help?"
"My brother is a lawyer, and he was telling me about his first client. He created two trusts for them. One held all of the client's personal wealth, while the second one held the business and all of its assets."
He paused for a moment. "Now, this is me talking, not my brother.
"Nobody needs to know who owns the trust that owns the company. You appoint a trustee to act on your behalf, and then you discreetly provide direction through them. Do it before you hire anybody else, and only the three of us will ever know that you're the real boss.
"Of course, you'll need to move the company out of your basement, or you won't fool anybody."
As I thought about Paul's suggestion, I realized it had been a legitimate business lunch after all.
* * * * *
Devin was delighted to have a second client, and I was happy with the friends-of-family discount he gave me. He pointed out the potential income from buying a bigger building than I needed and then leasing out the extra space in it. "The best part," he said, "is that we can create a separate trust for your commercial real estate holdings. Your software company will rent the space rather than own it, which will further limit what you could lose if the business runs into trouble."
The next thing I knew, I was the proud owner of an office building, and my lawyer had a long-term lease for his own space in it. It wasn't cheap, but I got a good price, because the previous owner was trying to be discreet. He didn't want certain people to know he was liquidating assets, but Devin assured me it was all legal and above board. It came with a couple of retail tenants on the ground floor, but the rest of the space was sitting empty.
The process went smoothly, and soon I had crews remodeling the third and fourth floors, while we used an old office on the second floor to start hiring. First up was an HR Manager. We got plenty of applicants, but a lot of them withdrew when they found out their first task was going to be running the hiring process for almost every position in a new company. There were still good candidates to pick from, and we all agreed that Vera was the best.
She didn't hesitate to own the position either, refusing to start the CEO search until she had sat down with Devin and got things organized. The org chart we'd roughed out was formalized, company policies were spelled out, and position descriptions were written for the c-level managers.
She started with just the CEO search. With the limited number of employees, Mike, Paul, and I were asked to join in the process. Once again, we had some candidates withdraw when they found out that all but three employees were going to be new hires. We ended up rejecting several others who were keen to skip the search process and fill certain positions with people they knew. In the end, we went with Reggie, who came across as the most competent on the business side, although his people skills were a bit rough. With the big jump I was making, I was more worried about the business succeeding than I was about the CEO stepping on a few toes while getting us there.
Vera felt that the three of them were sufficient to carry on with hiring, so we lowly programmers went back to programming. Of course, Devin kept me informed as they hired the remaining c-levels. They then sat down with each successful candidate to finalize the position descriptions for the managers that would be reporting to them.
When they were ready to hire our direct manager, who would report to the CDO, the three of us were again invited to join in on the search. With all of the manager positions filled, the glut of regular positions was posted. They asked for just one out of the three of us to join the programmer search. As much as I wanted to foist it off on Mike or Paul, I considered programmers to be my most important employees. Plus, Devin was no longer sitting in on interviews, so I volunteered.
When the dust finally started to settle, we had gone from three friends to a team of over fifty, while relocating from my spartan basement to a plush, new office space. Sadly, keeping my secret meant foregoing one of the nice corner offices, settling for a simple cubicle instead. Still, I was happy to be able to just focus on programming again. Also, while I had been nervous about how much I had risked, it paid off, and it paid off quite well.
