She brushed some of the sticky notes off the glass and hit a few keys. Her LinkedIn page came up. Tapshaw scrolled down and pointed to a message.
“I got this ping. It’s from an investment group looking to fully fund my next round. I mean the whole twenty-five million, Travis. They want to Zoom-meet and then start doing due diligence. They said if things go well, they could have a term sheet to me in two weeks and the money days after agreement on the deal points and the lawyers papering it all.”
“That’s great.” He looked at her. “So why the long face?”
“I’ve been beating the bushes trying to get this round filled for a while. It’s been tougher than I thought. You heard me on with the Taiwanese VC group the other night. They were interested, but said the process would take about six months, and our cash flow is tight. I’ve heard that same song over and over. And I reached out to them. I’ve done the same with all the other potential investors for this round. I’ve run out of friends and family and angel sources. This round is with the pros. But then these guys ping me and say it could all be done in a little over two weeks? I don’t know. It just seems weird. What do you think?”
“It does seem off. What’s the name of the investment group?”
She hit another key and a second screen came up. She pointed to it.
“Mayflower Enterprises. Ever heard of them? I’ve done some digging on them but there’s not much. Some guy named—”
Devine didn’t hear her because he was looking at the name of the gent who had pinged her with the proposal.
Yep, old Christian F. Chilton. That is no coincidence. He clearly knows who I am and that Jill is my roommate.
He pulled his gaze away. “Look, don’t do anything with these guys right now, okay? Just executive-lag it for a bit.”
She said doubtfully, “Okay, but twenty-five million is twenty-five million, Travis.”
“Just play it cool and that might become fifty mil or even more.”
“Wait a minute, I don’t want to sell the company. I want to build it. It’s my baby.”
“I’m not asking you to sell anything. Just trust me, Jill. And go get some dinner.”
He left her there and rode out into the night on his motorcycle for his appointment with Brad Cowl.