Chapter 8
Chapter 8 Howard Thompson
Before we could even get our hands on Olivia's travel records, the company ran into trouble first.
The non-compete talks with Howard fell apart.
He blew off the legal team and threatened to take it to arbitration.
"Ms. Sutton, Howard says the non-compete is something the company invented, and that it wasn't in the contract he signed when he joined," Frank said as he walked into my office, looking uneasy.
"Do we have the original contract?" I asked.
"Yeah," Frank replied.
Frank handed me the file.
I flipped to the last page.
Sure enough, there was no non-compete clause.
"Who reviewed this contract?" I asked.
Frank didn't answer.
"Frank, answer me," I said.
"I did. The company was brand new, and a lot of our processes were sloppy back then," he said.
"Sloppy enough to leave a non-compete out of a core engineer's contract?" I asked.
He looked uneasy.
"Ms. Sutton, back then things were different," he said.
"Enough." I closed the file. "Where's Howard?"
"Still here. Today is his last day," Frank replied.
"Send him in," I said.
Ten minutes later, Howard walked in.
He was in his late twenties, wore glasses, and clearly didn't want to be in the room.
"Ms. Sutton, there's no non-compete in my contract. You can't hold me here legally," he said.
"I know," I replied.
"So why'd you call me in?" he asked.
"Just want to ask you one thing."
"What?" he asked.
"How much is SharpGuard Technologies offering you?" I asked.
He paused.
"Two hundred sixty thousand dollars a year, plus a half percent in equity," he said.
"How much are you making at GenTech Innovations?" I asked.
"One hundred ten thousand dollars," he replied.
"That's more than double."
"Yes. So it isn't that I don't want to stay, Ms. Sutton. It's that the numbers aren't close."
"I'll pay you 300 thousand dollars a year, plus one percent equity," I said.
He froze.
"And once BioKey X1 launches, the core team splits a five percent profit pool. You're a key member, so you take at least one percent of that," I added.
"You—" he started, but couldn't finish.
"You really think SharpGuard is offering all that out of kindness? They want your data. Once they have it, how long do you think you'll last there?" I said.
He fell silent.
"I'm different. I don't need your data. I need your head," I said.
Howard pushed his glasses up.
"Ms. Sutton, can I ask you something?" he said.
"Go ahead," I replied.
"GenTech Innovations lost 6.7 million dollars last year, and nobody knows whether we'll get funding this year. You're offering all of this, so where is the money coming from?" he asked.
"Don't worry about where the money's coming from. There's only one thing you need to know."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Six months from now, GenTech Innovations will be worth ten times what SharpGuard is. So, whose team do you want to be on?" I said.
He just stood there, silent, for a whole minute.
"I'll stay," he said.
"Sign the new contract. This time, there's a non-compete clause," I said.
"All right," he replied.
After he left, Frank came in.
"Ms. Sutton, 300 thousand a year is a lot," he said.
"Is that too much?" I asked.
"Given where the company is right now," he said.
"Frank, if a key engineer takes our data and jumps ship to the competition, how much do you think we'd lose?"
He didn't answer.
"A lot more than 300 thousand dollars," I said.
He looked at me for a few seconds, then nodded.
"I get it," he said.
As the door closed, I picked up the phone.
"Mark, the situation with Howard is handled. Also, pull every staffing change at SharpGuard Technologies over the last six months," I said.
"You think they're poaching our people on purpose?" he asked.
"It's not a suspicion. It's a fact," I replied.
"Understood. I'll have a report for you tomorrow," he said.