Chapter 8

The last week of October confirmed that Andrew was a millionaire. There was a signing meeting scheduled for 4.30 on Tuesday afternoon. Leslie had given him a copy of the deal on the Sunday night having given Julian his earlier in the day. They had licensed the AIMS software to Siemens for £10m, half payable in pounds and the other half in Deutschemarks, DM 21.5m. They also received a royalty of DM15 for every copy of the program they sold for five years. Siemens had exclusive rights for Germany and Austria. The standard phrase is that ‘it was beyond his wildest dreams’, well for Andrew that was not the case. He had been dreaming big for years to make a difference. What was beyond anything he had dreamt was the amount and the timing. The trust was getting £7m, it was real and it was now. The responsibility loomed large for all three of them. They met at 4.00 in advance of the signing.

“It is a little hard to believe, isn’t it?” Julian asked.

“Yeah, it is. The trust has all that money now. We should sit down as part of this whole process and get the money invested. I would like to spend time at each of the upcoming breaks working on the trust and mapping out how we start running it. I think it would be a mistake to try and do anything now. We should sit with Creighton, Mhairi and your two dads and get an 18 month investment strategy and then just monitor it. I think that it is better to do less until Leslie graduates than try and do too much while we are all at university.”

Leslie nodded.

“We have a lot to do and until it can become a full time job I think we will just waste the money. We have been given this once in a lifetime unbelievable opportunity and we should make sure we make the most of it.”

The three of them were agreed. The signing seemed anti-climactic after all the work getting to that point. Drummond himself came in to congratulate them and to congratulate Mhairi. Closing this deal led directly to her being made a partner before she was 30. She had done well by them but they had benefited many times from her counsel.

Andrew’s issue was he didn’t know what to do about his parents, and especially getting his father to sign the licencing agreement. Technically he didn’t need to get him to sign it as Leslie was still a director of his company, even if she no longer had any shares. But it just didn’t seem right, feel right, to hide everything from them. So although his parents were not there Andrew knew he was going to have to at least partially explain.

Julian senior, Brian Campbell, Creighton Davies and Mhairi Connelly were there at the signing, all seven of them in the conference room. Leslie explained what they planned to do until at least she was out of university. Julian was a year behind her and Andrew was two years after him. Leslie was the key though, she had the business acumen and instinct to run the trust, Julian and Andrew were happy to be trustees. Brian commended them on their approach.

“I don’t know why I am surprised. The three of you have done an amazing job to get the Company to this point. Get the money invested into stocks, bonds and property and then do a quarterly review, otherwise concentrate on your degrees. There is a lot to do and get in place before you start granting research money to applicants.”

When Andrew got home he was full of good intentions to tell his parents. But their instinct to self-sabotage was unparalleled. Andrew could not once remember them telling Rowan to be quiet or to leave the room. Andrew wanted 30 minutes alone with his parents and he couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. His parents didn’t know he had £150,000 in cash and investments and they were not going to hear about another £500,000 of cash. Andrew had roughly seven months to survive until he was legally an adult and didn’t have to worry about this. It seemed unreal but it was the life he had, the relationship he had, with his parents. It was not good and Andrew knew it was not normal.

Julian, Leslie and Andrew sat in Julian’s flat the following Saturday and thought about the future.

“There are two things I would like us to think about today before we start to think about the Trust. First is are we going to try and market AIMS in countries other than in Germany, or should we try and licence it. The government of North Rhine-Westphalia is letting us advertise that they are a customer of AIMS. Siemens will also let us know who any new customers are. Do we think we can make additional sales with what we have? If we do, then we need to hire other language people like Dieter to translate the program. And related to that is do we sell the program to someone else and let them do this. It works at present given the limited computing power available but if machines keep improving at the current rate then it will be superseded pretty quickly. You know my philosophy with software. Get the money now before someone else builds something better.

“That is the first thing, but the second is more important for us as a group. Since the Germans sprang back into our lives in the summer, our focus has been gone. We all have started to use Saturdays for other things and even when we are all here, we spend a lot of time just chatting talking about gigs and listening to the latest LPs. Do we have another program in us, or have our lives changed so much and we have been so successful that we don’t want to do it anymore?”

Julian spoke next.

“I had been thinking the same thing about our focus. We have enjoyed the summer and I for one am pleased that the three of us have matured and evolved as a group. The program after AIMS is going to be tough, even just coming up with the idea. The first issue is one with which I have some thoughts but let’s hear from the MD first.”

Leslie smiled at her Managing Director title.

“We have been pretty heavily focused on software development for nearly three years. To take a more relaxed attitude in the summer was overdue and the right call. I think that the answer to the second question depends on how successful we are with the follow on sales of AIMS. Let’s throw some numbers around. Germany is Europe’s biggest economy and North Rhine-Westphalia is the biggest state by economic activity, much bigger than a lot of other European countries. We got £10m for Germany and Austria. Half of that for each of France, the UK, and Italy and another half for everyone else combined. That is another £20m quick and dirty, plus the royalty amounts.”

She stopped here and they looked at each other. These numbers were getting big.

“The big question is the US. It dwarves everyone else. Maybe we could get the same again, but we run up against Andrew’s constant worry. Someone who does it better and cheaper. So we could sell the company and the worldwide rights to the program for £40m and some residual royalty amount. I don’t think we will get a buyer. Lots of governments are chaotic, can you really see the Italians spending £5m keeping track of everything? It is not going to happen. I think we approach Kyle Turner at ComputerCom tell him what we have achieved so far, both with the UK government as well as the North Rhine-Westphalia one and see if he bites. Even if we end up at half of what we want, that gives the trust more than £20m to get started.”

“I agree with that approach, we are shifting the risk of the program becoming obsolete to someone else. Let’s go with £20m for this discussion. We will have made £30m from AIMS, an absurd amount. Are we ever going to top that? Every day companies in the computer industry and businesses buying from the industry are getting more sophisticated. We were the keen kids who took advantage of a small window of opportunity. To duplicate what we have achieved I think that we would have to set up a staffed up company, there is no way that the three of us can come up with something with the potential of AIMS on our own.

“I have to tell you that Computer Science is not my passion, it is a hobby that I have enjoyed learning about and working on but I want to do something else with my life. Julian, you are doing Electrical Engineering, where is your head at on Computing?”

“Same place as yours Andrew. I enjoy coding and I hope that the two of us continue to work together on some projects. I would say that it is more than a side line and less than a passion.”

“There’s the answer Leslie. We work with Mhairi to licence AIMS to ComputerCom or whoever else and then stop building software for sale. Go back to playing around, spend the Saturdays enjoying each other’s company as much as coding. Cut it back to every other weekend maybe. We have evolved and grown.”

“You are right, and without the two of you creating the programs there is nothing to sell. If we can sell off AIMS then the trust will become my career for the foreseeable future. Okay it is agreed. I will have Mhairi reach out to Kyle and see what happens.”

Andrew retired from his first career at 17 years of age.

The previous evening he and Ara had gone on their first double date. It had been Pete’s idea and he asked if he and his date, a 5^th year called Rhonda Lennox, could double date at the movies with Andrew and Ara. Pete knew that he and Ara went out every Friday night and so that night Ara met the first of Andrew’s Edinburgh friends. They had agreed that Ara Lindsay was a student at Edinburgh University and to leave the background well alone. Met swimming, just good friends, nothing too complicated to remember.

The evening was a bundle of laughs because Rhonda and Pete thought that having someone else there would make it easier for them on a second date. Not so much. They were tongue-tied, awkward, and unsure how to react to Andrew, Ara or each other. Woody Allen could have written this it was so painful. Ara was amazing though and kept trying to put them at their ease, and would succeed for a few minutes before Pete or Rhonda screwed it up again. At the end of the meal Ara let them down gently.

“You guys need to go on some dates just the two of you and get to know each other and get more comfortable with each other. When you two can smile, hold hands, flirt and still answer questions intelligently then we will try again.”

Although the pair of them were a bit subdued they both realised it was true. Ara and Andrew went a very long way back to her flat just to walk in a different direction from the pair of them when they all left the restaurant.

“Do you think we will ever see them again?”

“I can’t tell, they seemed into each other physically but they couldn’t hold a conversation. We will see.”

When Andrew got Ara to her flat he gave her a kiss which went on much longer than normal.

“Goodnight Andrew.”

Laundry day tomorrow. Hmmm.

One of the ways that Andrew dealt with getting so much money was that he continued the £20 a week for his Grandma and Auntie Vi. Now it seemed a petty amount but they used the money to go and bet a few quid on the horses and then get some cheap sherry from the off-licence on the way home. He could give them £100 a week and all that would happen was they would lose more on the horses and drink even more sherry. It was a small amount of money but it was their ‘mad money’. His dad’s oldest sister, Aunt Nancy, handled it very delicately for him and there was no fuss made by either of them. The family all came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the healthiest choice for them but the two old ladies had a blast three or four times a week. It might not have improved the length of his Grandma’s life but it did improve the quality. Andrew still went and saw the pair of them every Monday and semi-regularly on a Wednesday for an hour and half or so.

November seemed to get busy right from the start and it never gave up. Andrew attended his last Remembrance ceremony at school. And because he was in charge of one of the squads of the Army section he was more focused on making sure everything went well than taking the time to clear his mind and reflect. The previous year had been the first, and indeed only, time when he had truly absorbed the meaning of the ceremony. It was not until the week before Christmas that things slowed down. As usual when things got out of control it was mostly his own fault for not being able to say no.

It had taken Andrew a while to get his two outdoor shoots developed. He worked away in Tony’s darkroom for many hours over the course of three weeks. Andrew was still new to enlarging prints and wanted to make a portfolio for June of all her fashion designs. He then had to develop all the rolls of film from the two outdoor shoots with June and Monica. He was happy to show Tony the fashion shots, and got a lot of advice about doing crisp enlargements, but he didn’t show Tony any of the afternoon shots from that day or any of the shots at the beach. Tony had asked if he could see the prints and although Andrew said no for June’s prints he phoned and checked with Monica. She had been fine since it was nothing Tony had not shot many times before. But Tony had an interesting observation.

“These are really good Andrew. Some of them could be tighter, composed slightly differently but it is nothing major. What is amazing is how Monica looks in the shots. She is.”

Tony stopped and flipped through several of the photographs.

“I was going to say incredibly hot but that is not it. I think the word is calm. She looks so serene, there is a sultry elegance to some of these shots. I think several of these could be published.”

Andrew’s first reaction was to see if Tony was taking the piss but he seemed sincere.

“Really?”

“Oh yes, you can see it the shots where she has twirled around. The shot is posed but at the same time it is not. Several of these are borderline professional.”

Andrew pushed over the separate packet of photos from the top of Arthur’s Seat. Tony flipped through them and set aside four of the five photos that Andrew liked as well.

“There are two here where you see the model’s face, Monica’s face and there is an impish exuberance to the shots. Then there is the shot where her face is in darkness, or shadow rather, and the way the light plays across her body. That is really good. And this last one is incredibly posed. The way the light shines through the top of her legs, obliterating all the detail, it is very striking yet utterly anonymous. There is no way to tell that this is Monica so you should ask her to allow you to enter it in a photo competition. There are always competitions being run in the magazines. I think this could do really well.”

Andrew had plenty to think about with Maggie but first he had to deal with June. She had been extremely thankful, several times, for the portfolio pictures and wanted to see what a real studio experience would be like. Andrew had to amend his thinking, she had lots of studio experience, it would be a studio shoot with just the two of them. Andrew had no idea how far June wanted to go in the shoot. He booked Tony’s studio from 11.00 until 3.00 after a hockey game and would see what would happen.

He knew that Tony’s studio was ideal for what June wanted to do. There was a couch which he was going to throw a large blanket over as well as a bed with a mattress. Andrew packed a sheet from home and went and splashed out on a large white blanket that could be used on the bed or the couch. Getting to and from Goldenacre was a lot easier now that he had a car and he collected June on the way to the match. She had two bags of clothes discreetly stashed outside and he helped her carry them to the car. Andrew had not told her his plan and she didn’t know that Tony had a studio so she had no idea where the shoot was happening. He parked away from the sports ground and let her head off to get changed before he made his own way to the ground for the game. St. Georges were a regular opponent and their 1^st eleven was strong. The tackle practice against him helped the team stand up to them and the game was still tied 0-0 at halftime. Andrew heard a couple of parents talking about the team’s strength in the tackle, which pleased him. The second half had a slight edge to it, nothing nasty but no quarter was given and there were some arm-numbing tackles. Heriot’s scored on a defensive breakdown and hung on to win 1-0. The teams looked exhausted and slowly walked back to the dressing room. Mrs. Martin was congratulating Andrew on a good victory when the opposition coach came over to have a quick chat.