Chapter 3: The House of Cards
Chapter 3: The House of Cards
Monday morning arrived. Jasper strutted into the glass-walled lobby of his tech startup, Apex Solutions, projecting the image of a titan.
He grabbed his double-shot espresso from his assistant without a word of thanks and pushed open the doors to the boardroom. He was ready to finalize the Series B funding that would officially put his net worth in the nine-figure range.
But the boardroom was empty.
Only his CFO, David, stood at the window, looking physically sick.
“Where is everyone?” Jasper barked, setting his coffee down. “The Vanguard Group was supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”
David turned around, his face pale. “They pulled out, Jasper.”
Jasper froze. “What? That’s impossible. We have a signed term sheet.”
“It’s not just Vanguard,” David said, his voice trembling. “Sequoia, BlackRock... they all called this morning. They are voiding the term sheets under the morality and key-person clauses. They’re completely liquidating their current positions. We have zero capital. None.”
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“Call them back!” Jasper slammed his fist on the table. “I am the CEO! I built this! They can’t do this to me!”
David looked at him with a mixture of pity and terror. “Jasper... the bank just called too. The lines of credit are frozen. The company accounts are locked. We are completely bankrupt.”
