William continued as Rosaline listened with rapt attention.
“While registering, I suggested we name both Albert and me as co-founders and equal partners. But his parents made it a 70-30 split as it was primarily my idea and I had done all the preliminary work.
I still don’t think it’s fair, but they never budged. They also added a rule that we can’t withdraw the funds from the company until we both reach legal age.
In the next 6-7 years that followed we had developed 3 different games, and 5 software. We had also incorporated ads for 2 different products we genuinely liked into the game, which turned out to be quite profitable.
Uncle Grey handled all the legal proceedings, and for everything we developed, he negotiated so that we generate profits over the years based on how popular everything became rather than a 1-time sale of the copyright.
Because we still have the copyright, we still keep on making some money when some related merchandise is developed. Keeping the copyright was also Aunt Aria’s idea.
Basically, we ended up making a lot of money. And I got the majority of it being the larger shareholder.
When Albert reached 16, I was about 18 and a half, aunt Aria suggested we invest our money somewhere for 5 years since we won’t be using it as we were both already very busy with our studies and I had to do several projects and start my thesis early.
She said since we still wanted to do business, we should have business acumen and learn about proper investments and how the business market worked. This was to give us practical lessons and to set proper expectations. It was also her who asked us both to work for a few years to understand work culture better.
Since I’m older, I got to do 3 years of uninterrupted work. But Albert ended up doing studies plus a part-time job/internship to have proper work experience.
We both withdrew all our funds to invest 5 years ago. I happened to cross paths with the lady who sold the house. She had just printed the – on sale – pamphlet and was on her way to an advertising company when I bumped into her.
I saw the picture and the approximate cost she had printed on the back of one of the pamphlets and asked her about it. We closed the deal the next day.
I ended up doing a lot of freelancing work to make some money so I could invest it since I spent most of my company funds on buying this house. But I seem to be quite bad at it, I lost like half of what I made and then stopped. So, in hindsight, I think I lucked out.”
Rosaline listened quietly as he narrated his story.
‘He seems extremely focused and intelligent. He and Albert seem to have a similar rapport as me and Tessa. He also seems rather close with his parents, more so than his own.”
“You seem to admire Aunt Aria a lot.”