While Nick was busy wrestling with the big fish from SpaceX and DJI, Tyler was grinding away on his own projects.
The main mission was building the company's skeleton. Tyler had spent the last few days bouncing between Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, and against all odds, the kid had actually managed to poach some serious talent.
First up was the new HR Director, Taylor Jacobs. At thirty-six, Taylor had been a fixture at a tech firm in Miami with a stable job and a solid paycheck. But a messy divorce had absolutely leveled his life. While he won custody of his daughter, he'd paid a high price emotionally and financially, losing nearly everything else in the process.
The betrayal and the subsequent office gossip had left him depressed and desperate for a fresh start. He wanted a new environment, not just for his own sanity, but to protect his daughter from the fallout.
Originally from Denver, he'd planned to head back West to find work. But Tyler was relentless. Through sheer persistence, he'd convinced the thirty-six-year-old to pack up his daughter and move to Tampa instead.
When Taylor arrived and realized the "company" currently consisted of four guys and didn't even have a finished office, he had half a mind to throttle Tyler.
Luckily, Tyler was quick on his feet. Once they hit Tampa, he didn't breathe a word about work. Instead, he spent the first few days helping Taylor find a great apartment and getting his daughter settled into a top-tier school.
By the time they actually sat down to talk business, Taylor felt he owed it to the kid to stay and listen. He'd expected to just drift through a mid-level job, but meeting Nick changed everything.
Everything Tyler had described sounded like a pipe dream until Nick opened the "vault." Taylor was floored. This tiny team actually owned its own core technology—cutting-edge stuff that was already being integrated by the military and industry titans like SpaceX and DJI.
When he saw the SpaceX contract—14.3 percent equity—he nearly fell out of his chair. That stake was worth over 1.4 billion dollars on paper. He couldn't wrap his head around how a few twenty-somethings had pried such a massive piece of the pie from a giant like Elon Musk's inner circle.
He couldn't see the military contract due to security clearances, but based on the 150 million dollar wire transfer, he could guess the scale. Then there was DJI, the king of drones, practically begging for a collaboration.
"What we're lacking right now isn't money; it's time and talent," Nick said, looking him in the eye. "I need you to hit the ground running and build this corporate structure from scratch in record time."
"The engineering department is the priority. We have three massive contracts active, which means we need the manpower to back them up."
The pressure was immense, but Taylor felt a spark he hadn't felt in years. There was nothing more exhilarating than building a "monument" from the ground up.
He nodded firmly. "I'm in. I'll get to work immediately. But I need to know when the office will be ready—it's hard to sell a vision to new hires when you're meeting in a basement."
Tyler grinned. "The building is being renovated and furnished as we speak. It'll be ready in about ten days. For now, run your interviews wherever you want—hotels, Starbucks, high-end cafes. The company card is yours; just keep the receipts."
Taylor turned back to Nick. "Any specific profiles you're looking for?"
Nick thought for a moment. "I know it's tough to poach senior execs right away, so don't stress that. As long as they have character, drive, and a sense of responsibility, I'm happy with fresh grads. I actually prefer them. Experience can be taught; integrity can't. We need a stable, loyal team."
"Also, remember that our tech is sensitive. Screen everyone carefully. If you're unsure about someone's background, flag them, and we'll have our contacts in the 'relevant departments' do a deeper background check."
"Got it," Taylor said. "And the compensation package?"
Nick smiled. "Top-tier. For the engineers, I want us matching Silicon Valley salaries. Work out the specifics with Tyler, and I'll sign off on it."
Nick then turned to Tyler. "When does Giovani Malone start? We need Finance up and running yesterday."
"I followed up yesterday. She'll be here Monday at the latest," Tyler replied.
Giovani was the CFO Tyler had scouted. At thirty-one, she'd hit a glass ceiling at her previous firm because she'd taken maternity leave for her second child. She was currently looking for a comeback and was hungry to prove herself. Nick had interviewed her and knew immediately she was the right choice.
"Good," Nick said, finally looking satisfied. "I'll leave the hiring to you two. The Miami Fourth of July bid is coming up fast, and we need the technical optimization plan ready. DJI is waiting."
The core system was solid, but it needed to be tuned for a massive scale. To support a record-breaking drone swarm, the program had to handle a staggering amount of real-time data and edge computing.
They also had to harden the security. The core source code couldn't be exposed during the DJI collaboration. Nick planned to rewrite the shell of the program and re-encrypt the entire package. That way, even if there was an accidental leak during the show, the military's secrets stayed buried.
He wasn't too worried, though. He'd used a kernel encryption method that didn't even exist yet in the public sector. Without the structural key, it would take the world's fastest supercomputer ten thousand years to crack it.