Re: Life - Business & Technology

Chapter 19 - Future Tech Building

Ralph and David started bidding on office buildings located in downtown Austin. Most of the bids started at $50 million, and they were able to purchase a recently vacated office space with an available occupancy of 8,000 employees.

Some of the local contractors collaborating with Future Studios decided to move into the building and paid fair rental fees in exchange. 

The building's network infrastructure and all other necessary upgrades cost $25 million, and the total cost amounted to around $100 million.

Vince renamed the office building to "Future Tech Headquarters" and asked everyone involved in his projects to move in as soon as possible. In addition, Future Tech's partners like Epic Games and other contracted companies sent some personnel to work at the Future Tech building to collaborate on specific assignments.

It took a month for most people to move, including the BitCash team from Silicon Valley. Dollar bought a house in Vince's current neighborhood, and some others opted to live in apartments around the building downtown.

Some unused office space would be utilized for the AI manufacturing system when it eventually becomes available. 

It was Christmas time, and Vince planned a big party at the office for everyone. His friends would arrive from their travels in a few days and would be able to attend the Christmas party.

Price added security personnel to man the Future Tech building. He was also heavily involved in designing and installing the new security systems while inspired by the Swiss bank security protocols and his military background. Unfortunately, the building was quite large, and Price had to recruit 100 more people for the security team.

Vince had the highest floor converted to a living space for himself to hang out and entertain guests as a bachelor pad.

The design was quite nice and modern looking, created by one of the game environment designers from Future Studios. The living space had a Cyberpunk 2077 vibe like the one Mayor Peralez lived in but bigger.

Christmas day came, and everyone enjoyed the parties thrown for each department. Then, Vince went around the building to greet his employees with a merry Christmas.

He entrusted Hudson to provide all of the employees a bonus appropriate for their position in the company that cost $20 million in total.

As a Christmas present, he recommended that all of his employees invest in Bitcoin by buying some before the value shoots up astronomically in ten years or start Bitcoin mining operations as a side gig. His employees took his words at heart, considering Vince's insight in building a successful business like Future Tech.

Vince had earned their respect a long time ago and was proud of their achievements as a company. He spent time with Leah, his friends, and their families at the newly furnished penthouse.

His mother and some other parents still couldn't believe how so much had changed for the better since Vince bought his first computer all those months ago.

They were slowly getting used to their new lifestyle and adapting to the needs of their talented children. Finally, Kyle, Jessica, Sarah, and Rick persuaded their parents to let them home school next year. 

Some seniors graduating soon who worked for Future Tech decided to attend local universities instead of leaving the state, giving them time to work at the office part-time. It was convenient enough because Austin had the best universities in Texas.

A month passed, and it was the end of January 2012. The Arena Pro League was gaining more popularity, and rankings were already shaping up with Prime Alliance on top of the leaderboards.

The BitCash team had finished developing the Bitcash Wallet and would need to start manufacturing soon.

The engineering department was close to producing the AI manufacturing suite and was only waiting for a few components to arrive in February.

Hudson kept busy and recruited more engineers to maintain and support the manufacturing department for current and upcoming projects.

He also proposed restructuring Future Technologies as a corporation, and Vince instructed him to work with David and Ralph to finish the restructuring process without a hitch.

Due to the growing popularity of Future Tech, plenty of financial stock analysts has been theorizing how valuable the company would be in the public stock market.

Vince decided not to go public until the company had no choice and needed more funding he could not provide and steered away from the idea of an IPO.

Revenue was up yet again since last month, and the business is $250 million liquid currently. 

Finally, the last of the required components arrived at the headquarters, and the engineers started building the first few AI manufacturing drones.

The drones varied in size and could manufacture all sorts of products provided raw materials were available.

Unfortunately, Future Tech could only utilize a few drones with the headquarters' current computing power as Vince didn't want to use the public cloud to power their proprietary AI.

Nevertheless, the AI drones started manufacturing Bitcash Wallets in batches, and Future Tech announced a pre-sale on the website and social media platforms.

The Bitcash wallet was an expensive piece of technology and would sell for $100 each. Customers could use the wallets at any store that accepts debit or credit cards.

It also came with an account contained within the customer sub-layer of the Bitcoin Banks located in plenty of countries worldwide.

Since installing the first one in Switzerland, Future Tech invested heavily in the Bitcoin Bank system. 

Future Tech needed more computing power to deploy more drones soon. [It would be expensive to deal with semiconductor companies. Designing and engineering new microprocessors would be costly but could also be the next business venture.] Vince pondered. 

So he called Hudson to recruit some experts in the semiconductor industry and asked him to throw money around if required.

The Bitcash wallet was selling like hotcakes, especially to War Online veterans. Wallet holders enjoyed privileges like lower transaction fees and a reward system. However, unlike buying Bitcoin, Bitcash required associating an account with the transaction.

Any violators of the user agreement can be pursued in court and would never regain access to BitCash or the Bitcoin Bank, which protected other users' and Future Tech's interests.

Future Technologies was now the biggest client in the Lewis-Jacobs portfolio, and some significant changes occurred at the law firm recently.

Ms. Kemp went through security at the headquarters and found herself meeting Vince at the penthouse living room.

"I would like to thank you for choosing our law firm when you started your business. Future Tech's success propelled my portfolio among all the partners, and Mr. Jacobs promoted me to name partner. As a result, the law firm is now called Kemp-Jacobs. I can't thank you enough, Vince." Marcia said before hugging him.

"I appreciate the kind words, but it's not a big deal. David and the entire law firm had been very accommodating. I wouldn't have found people as reliable as the ones Lewis-Jacobs recommended. Excuse me, Kemp-Jacobs.", Vince replied before Ms. Kemp looked for Leah to thank her as well.

EDITED