The Moonlighter

Straight out as a Graduate of a Degree College, Maahir is interested in his own startup. He has a keen interest in developing an AI-based application and desperately looking for partners. On a professional forum, he meets a 40-year-old Sachdev. Sachdev is a Director in a startup and helps people who need guidance. Mahir wanted to meet Sachdev directly and set up a meeting in a mid-size bar at 9 pm. Maahir desperately wanted to know about Sachdev on how he became a successful director of this startup which is achieving big-time success.

Sachdev initially told how successful he is while having drinks and shrimp. After several drinks, Maahir can see a disappointment in Sachdev's face and that is when he felt it would be an interesting talk from here on. Sachdev said, the startup was his own for initial two years and the other directors were his employees. I paid them salaries for nearly two years from my own pocket and just when the company started growing their 3 crucial employees started blackmailing him to give stakes or will leave the company. I said them to leave at their own risk and I will find someone else. The other 3 employees were Sateesh, Jaspinder, and Malcolm. By the time they were blackmailing they already have a backup plan if Sachdev refused to give stakes. They found the contact of the Client and had a direct talk with them saying they were the real pillars of the company and deserve better. Since they were not treated well they wanted to start up a new company and asked the Client to join them. They also offered less price compared to Sachdev. Could not ignore their appeal Client had to accept it because of their talent. The client was a very good friend of Sachdev so, they approached him and told him everything for which Sachdev got infuriated. The client did not want to lose them and Sachdev company both, so they came up with a deal to give them stakes as well as reduce the price for the current deal otherwise will have to end the deal and go along with the other team.

Sachdev did not have an option other than accepting the deal with the Client and that is how he got only 30% of the profits from the Company. The debt he had to run the Company for the initial two years still exists and he is paying them. At nearly 11 pm the bartender said we are closing and told us to pay the bill and leave. Maahir was about to take out his credit card and pay the bill, but Sachdev said I know you young guys face issues while paying your ends. So, how can I let you pay for this? He paid the bill and they both bid adios for the day.

After listening to the story of Sachdev, Maahir felt he was also doing the same mistake and it would cost similarly. He wanted to bypass the issue and started thinking overnight about it. The next day he strategically implemented a new project plan and he went with it for nearly days which is more than his actual dream project. 

Somehow, he came up with a Project and started showing it as a demo to Investors. Most of the investors could not understand the Project and said they would get back to him. Maahir has already started implementing the Project on his own but due to a lack of resources and manpower, he has limitations. He aggressively started looking for Investors as well as looking for Manpower who can work for stakes of a Company with no pay. All he could get are a bunch of rookies looking for a break. He trained them, and some of them were working very well but after a few months, they started leaving because the Project resolution appeared dim and was reaching nowhere. Maahir needed at least 5 years of research to complete his Project. Everyone hired was not working for more than 3 or 4 months, and using that kind of experience the MNCs were hiring them for good pay. They were all indebted to Maahir for getting a good job however no one expressed it openly to him. 

Maahir was getting frustrated and he was all out of funds. Now to continue his basic needs he would need a job. So using his experience he started working as an Architect for a big MNC with very good pay. He was so occupied with work that his dream job was halted for nearly 2 years. Then, he had sufficient money to last for another 3 years. He quit the job and resumed his startup Project. He developed people skills and brains in the MNC very well with which he got more ambitious and started recruiting Interns more optimistically from IIT and used them in his Research. This helped him in the Project Quality however within 2 months the IITians realized the Project will lead nowhere and it would be an utter waste of time to proceed further and they quit due to the very least stipend. 

In the course, he found a wealthy investor who is ready to invest a crore of rupees for his project. They come to an agreement the Investment would happen in installments and that too based on the requirement he would need to raise an Invoice and if approved by their Financial Advisors then only the money will be reimbursed. Also, the research material patents would be shared between both companies to which Maahir hesitantly agreed.

Maahir talked to the previous IIT employees to work for him back again and he would pay a monthly salary. They agreed to work if allowed to study time as well for which Maahir again hesitantly agreed.

After 3 years all money allocated for the Project has been exhausted and Maahir raised more invoices which the Delta Company rejected he was invited to the Company Board meeting. In the meeting, they wanted a demo of the current situation of the Project. Maahir prepared the demo and showed them why they were dissatisfied with the Project and asked Maahir why is this research leading nowhere. Maahir responded with negligence that is how research goes. I need more money and resources to complete it. The company was disappointed and they wanted no more association with Maahir and the company. The only good thing about the Project is that Maahir developed 6 to 7 new patents and it belongs to the Company. So, they wanted to bid on the patents in an auction. The technology was so new that nobody was aware of the use of these patents. Only one anonymous company came forward and bought all those patents for the very low price of 2 crores. The Delta company was happy with the deal as they were able to recover their money.

After a few months, there was news all over the world about the AI technology used to find the lumps in the human body and how they can be treated using AI-based Radiation methods in a simpler manner. The Company's name was HumanAI and it holds several patents for finding lumps in X-Ray and treating people. And the CEO of the company is Maahir and there were no directors, no employees in the Company. Everyone was appalled to find he alone did it all by himself. There was a news conference announced by him for which some of his employees and associates from Delta were available there. 

The Delta guy asked, "how come he is so selfish that he did not include any other Company or associate and took complete credit?". Maahir's response was "I made it all alone, well I did use some people to complete my project however they were all paid very well and still getting paid". A former employee asked, "you have used a Decoy company to research and use all the research in your actual HealthCare Project". For which Maahir responded, "you were paid very well in my decoy company. Why did you leave within 6 months for better pay? You got good pay and left. Now you blame me for no credit, you could have stayed with me. You knew something like this would happen, but you never believed your instinct and you went with reality. You are very good at your work, but the money has been paid to your work so now you can sit and enjoy your current perks with the kind of experience I gave you." Nobody could respond to that and Maahir continued with his speech. This research is very important to mankind that I want most of the patents to be available to every major health sector so most of the patents which are needed will be available for free. Only some will be used for commercial purposes. The media was so impressed with the speech and his broadness towards mankind that they published him as one of the selfless men due to his contributions to health research and at the same time, Forbes published him as a wealthy person of the year.

-------Another way to succeed.