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Nate held up a hand. “If we do this right, we won’t need to worry about new logos or anything else. We’ll sell this, make piles of money, and move onto our next idea. Right?”
“Four musketeers forever,” Zane said, putting his hand out in the middle of them.
“When did we start calling ourselves that?” Todd asked.
“Never,” Nate said.
“The four horsemen?” Alisa said, wrinkling her nose. “Is that any better?”
“I think those are from the apocalypse. We definitely don’t want that,” Todd said.
“How about no name,” said Nate. “But we can still do a hands-in.”
“That’s lame,” Zane said. But he still kept his hand in the middle. Nate joined him and so did Alisa. They all shared the same goofy grin. Todd was last, shaking his head like he thought the whole thing too silly.
“We’ll come up with a name after we do this,” Todd says.
“Ready?” Nate asked as they had all their hands in. “On three. One, two, three—go team!”
The four of them laughed and hugged. Todd explained to the guy they’d hired to man the booth how things needed to work while they did the presentation. With only four of them, they’d all be up on the stage, but still needed someone with all their printed materials to answer questions and more. Nate wandered over to look at the presentation area.
The stage wasn’t particularly high—you could step onto it without stairs, though they had a small staircase on either side. There were rows of folding chairs and already some people sitting and waiting, while others stood at the back. Nate had hoped they’d have spotlights trained on the stage. Those kinds of lights would block out the audience a lot of times, so you couldn’t see anything past the light. He could pretend that he was just talking to an empty room. But no such luck. This wasn’t a low-budget conference, but they didn’t have a huge setup with all the bells and whistles. The presentations would all be small start-ups like theirs. No need for glory or fame. Or spotlights.
He could do this. He just needed to stand there and not look too awkward. Looking around the room, he felt confident and secure. These were his kind of people. No one would be watching him anyway. They’d be dazzled by the app.
A hand grabbed his arm. “We’ve got a problem,” Alisa said, a phone up to her ear. Her face was a mask of worry.
“What is it?” Nate said.
She hung up the phone. “Come on. We need the guys for this.”
They stood a few feet away from their booth and Nate studied the graphics Alisa had made, perfect for the company and name. It was eye-catching, and a steady stream of people stopped. He was glad Todd thought to hire someone to man the booth so they didn’t have to stay tethered to it.
“What’s going on?” Zane asked
“Our power couple? Backed out. They broke up and so they aren’t coming.”
Nate felt a surge of something hit his bloodstream. Panic. Fear.
Breathe. Slow down. You’re not anxious; you’re excited.
Closing his eyes, he spun the ring on his first finger with his thumb, thinking about the grocery list he made that morning.
“Nate. Nate.” Zane’s voice pulled him back.
When he opened his eyes, the other three were looking at him with the same expression. “Guys, it’s fine. I’m just calming myself down. Let’s talk plans. What other options do we have? We could use their video interview, right?”
“Yeah, but now that they’ve broken up…” Zane trailed off.
“There are a few other couples still together, but I doubt we could get them here in the next twenty minutes,” Alisa said. “Plus, without prep, it wouldn’t work.”
“We could just talk about the couples,” Todd said. “The ones who have found success.”
Alisa shook her head. “We want story. If we’re just telling other people’s stories off-the-cuff like that, it won’t come off the same way.”
“We may have to scrap story,” Zane said. “We don’t have time to craft a new narrative. Just let me talk. This is my thing. You know I’m good on my feet and under pressure. I could charm the pants off a—” He stopped when Alisa smacked him.
Nate played over options in his mind. Zane was the obvious choice and probably their only one. He thrived in moments like this. His smile and good looks were disarming. They were losing the heart of the app, though, and the story aspect that they’d worked so hard for. What they had was amazing. Zane could rock a presentation, but would it work as well as what they had planned? Judging by Alisa’s face, no.
