Saturday afternoon was supposed to be simple.
Football.
Food.
A few hours of doing absolutely nothing productive.
At least, that was Ethan’s plan.
"I’m telling you," Ethan said as they walked toward the stadium, "today is the day."
Damian looked at him.
"You’ve said that every Saturday for the past two months."
"And today I mean it."
"You’ve never scored."
"Statistics can change."
"They usually need evidence."
Ethan placed a hand against his chest.
"Why don’t you believe in me?"
"Because I’ve watched you play."
"That sounds personal."
Damian laughed.
They entered the stadium with the crowd already building around them.
For a while, everything was normal.
They argued about the teams.
Ethan complained about the referee before the match had even started.
Damian bought them drinks, and Ethan immediately pointed at him.
"You paid."
"So?"
"You actually paid without checking your account."
Damian looked at him.
"I’m allowed to buy a drink."
"I know. I’m just documenting history."
"Please find a hobby."
"This is my hobby."
The match started.
For the next hour, business disappeared from Damian’s mind.
Then his phone vibrated.
He ignored it.
A minute later, it vibrated again.
Ethan who got subbed off noticed.
"You can check it."
"It’s probably nothing."
"You say that like your phone gets classified information."
Damian glanced at the screen.
Sarah Mitchell.
He opened the message.
Hi Damian. Daniel wanted me to let you know the pilot results came in.
Damian sat a little straighter.
Another message appeared.
Can you come by the office Monday afternoon? There’s something we’d like to discuss.
He stared at the screen.
"What is it?" Ethan asked.
"Westbridge."
Ethan nodded.
"Everything okay?"
"Seems like it."
Damian put the phone away.
But his attention wasn’t completely on the match anymore.
Monday afternoon, Damian arrived at Westbridge Solutions.
The office looked exactly as he remembered.
Modest.
Busy.
A few desks had been rearranged since his last visit, and there were more people working than before.
Sarah noticed him near reception.
"You made it."
"You said it sounded important."
"It is."
She smiled.
"Come on."
Damian followed her toward Daniel’s office.
Daniel stood when they entered.
"Damian."
"Daniel."
They shook hands.
Claire was already sitting at the table.
Damian looked at her.
"You too?"
Claire shrugged.
"I was already here."
Daniel gestured toward the chairs.
"Sit."
Damian did.
Daniel opened his laptop.
"The student pilot is going better than expected."
Damian leaned forward.
"How much better?"
Daniel turned the screen toward him.
The first set of results showed the numbers from the fifty participating students.
Completion rates were higher than expected.
More importantly, a significant number of students had continued using the software after completing the initial guided challenges.
Damian scanned the figures.
"How many continued after the first week?"
"Thirty-eight."
Damian looked up.
"Thirty-eight?"
Sarah nodded.
"And that’s not the most interesting part."
She pulled another document toward him.
"Several students asked whether they could continue using the platform after the pilot ended."
Damian leaned back.
"That wasn’t supposed to happen this quickly."
"No," Daniel said. "It wasn’t."
Claire smiled.
"Remember when we were arguing about whether the onboarding needed to be shorter?"
Damian looked at her.
"You were wrong."
"I was partially wrong."
"Still wrong."
Claire shook her head.
"You really enjoy that."
"A little."
Daniel laughed.
Then his expression became more serious.
"This is what matters. We weren’t trying to prove that fifty students could click through a few screens."
He pointed toward the results.
"We wanted to know whether people would actually find the product useful."
Damian nodded.
"And they did."
"They did."
Daniel closed the laptop.
"And because of that, something else happened."
He opened another file.
"We received a formal inquiry from the other university."
Damian looked at him.
"They want to run their own pilot."
"Yes."
"How many students?"
"Two hundred initially."
Damian’s eyebrows lifted.
"Two hundred?"
Claire nodded.
"Different scale."
"Definitely."
Daniel leaned back.
"They’re willing to cover some implementation costs as well."
Damian looked at the numbers again.
This wasn’t just interest anymore.
There was actual money attached to it.
A second university.
A larger pilot.
Potential recurring customers.
Westbridge wasn’t some theoretical investment anymore.
It was starting to move.
Daniel looked at Damian.
"You were right about one thing."
Damian waited.
"We needed to stop thinking only about how to build the product and start thinking about how people actually experience it."
Damian nodded.
"I still think there’s a lot to fix."
"There is."
Daniel smiled.
"But that’s a good problem to have."
After the meeting, Damian stepped outside the building.
Claire followed a moment later.
"You look surprised."
"I am."
"Why?"
"I knew the pilot could work."
"You didn’t expect it to work this well."
"Exactly."
Claire folded her arms.
"So you’re admitting you don’t know everything?"
Damian looked at her.
"Don’t push it."
She laughed.
They stood outside for a moment.
Cars passed along the street.
The city moved around them.
Claire glanced at him.
"You know what’s funny?"
"What?"
"When you first met us, you were just some student pointing out flaws in our assumptions."
"I was right."
"You’re ruining the story."
Damian smiled.
Claire continued.
"Now you’re sitting in meetings talking about expansion."
"I’m still a student."
"I know."
She looked at him for a second longer than necessary.
There was something different about him lately.
Not just the clothes.
Not just the confidence.
He seemed less hesitant.
More certain of where he belonged.
Claire wasn’t sure when she’d started noticing it.
She didn’t particularly want to think about why she had.
So she changed the subject.
"Anyway, Daniel wants your opinion on the second pilot."
"I’ll give it."
"Of course you will."
She smiled.
"I’ll send you the details."
"Thanks."
Claire walked back toward the building.
Damian watched her go before pulling out his phone.
A message from Daniel had already arrived.
Good meeting. I’ll send the financial projections tonight.
Damian locked his phone.
That evening, he sat at his desk.
The apartment was quiet.
He opened the financial documents Daniel had sent.
Revenue projections.
Customer acquisition estimates.
Operating costs.
Expansion requirements.
Damian read through everything slowly.
He didn’t understand every detail.
That was something he had learned early.
Having money didn’t automatically make him an expert.
If anything, having more money made ignorance more expensive.
He opened another document and started researching some of the terms he didn’t understand.
An hour passed.
Then another.
His phone buzzed.
Ethan:
Bro.
Damian smiled.
Damian:
What?
Ethan:
You coming tomorrow?
Damian:
To class?
Ethan:
Obviously.
Damian:
Yes.
Ethan:
Good. I have information.
Damian:
What information?
Ethan:
I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Damian stared at the message.
Damian:
You could just tell me now.
Ethan:
Nope.
Damian laughed.
He put the phone down.
Then his attention returned to the documents.
Westbridge was growing.
That was good.
But Damian knew better than to assume the trend would continue forever.
One successful pilot didn’t guarantee anything.
Two hundred students didn’t guarantee anything either.
Still...
He looked at the figures again.
His original investment had been a gamble.
Now, for the first time, he could see something coming back from it beyond a number on a screen.
People were actually using something he had invested in.
That mattered.
His phone vibrated again.
This time, it wasn’t Ethan.
It was Sarah.
One more thing.
Damian opened the message.
Daniel says we may need to expand the advisory group if the second pilot goes ahead.
Damian smiled.
He leaned back in his chair.
A few months ago, he had been worried about whether he could afford a replacement laptop.
Now he was sitting in his apartment reviewing expansion plans for a growing company.
The thought was almost funny.
Almost.
He opened the financial report again.
There was still a lot he didn’t understand.
So he kept reading.