by Karl, Victor
Rico’s mind was racing once again, which now seemed to be every waking moment of every day and maybe during sleep. Right now, he was speculating on the impact of what he just learned as he sat in the airlines waiting lounge. Using his aircard, he had just finished checking the latest sport stories online and then went over to the business section, where he caught sight of the lead headline that said ‘Future World?’ He quickly clicked on the headline link, and started reading the story and was immediately shocked to his core. It was a short article and quoted a different story as a source, but it clearly mentioned Efficio and Bill being behind the brief Internet sensation that drove more than 300,000 people to view a video during a 5-day span. Rico could see his hands shaking as he typed in Efficio into a Google search and found a slew of links all with Martin Schiner as the author. Picking one, he opened up the link saw the front of the Summit office building with employees standing around the Camry. Using the telephoto lens, Martin was able to show in some detail the hood modifications. In the article, he provided whatever public information about Efficio was available, a short bio on Bill and myself and reported that the Camry in the picture was an actual working prototype of a solar driven vehicle that would work in low light and manmade light situations. The last thing he mentioned was that he had been unable to contact Efficio for any statement. The good thing was that the article did not have any real specific information or details.
Future World?
Recently a video surfaced on YouTube that created much interest. This video, posted by an unknown source and mysteriously removed 5 days later, caught my attention. In those 5 days, the video went viral garnering over 330,000 hits and many positive comments. So what was the content of this video that had such a widespread impact? The video narrated by a William Bates, a senior executive at Efficio, discussed what appears to be a revolutionary new source of clean renewable energy not tied to the confines of current technology and included a simple demonstration. If I understood it correctly, the source of energy was an organism that generated electricity in the presence of a light source. Caught on camera is Michael Carter, reported to be another senior executive at Efficio.
In an effort to determine if this is just another Internet myth or fraud I unleashed my investigative talents and discovered Efficio. While observing Efficio’s Summit, New Jersey headquarters, I caught on camera, a car that drove up with modifications covering the hood and roof. As this car went by, I did not hear any engine noise. You the reader can make your own conclusions. The car pulled up in front of the building, and what appeared to be a group of Efficio employees, excitedly surrounded the vehicle. A presentation to the employees by Michael Carter, one of the founding owners followed.
Was I able to debunk this video? I have to say I could not find a smoking gun on this one and actually saw some substance that there might be more of a story coming your way in the future.
Just as I was grabbing my phone, it rang. Seeing it was Jeremy, I answered and said “hello.” “Rico,” Jeremy said as he laughed lightly. “I guess anonymity is not an option anymore” he joked. “I think that is quite the understatement and by the way its 4 am there, don’t you ever sleep” I said? “I ‘m at the airport and had just finished reading about it.” “My recommendation is that you do not respond in any way at this time. Today is Wednesday, so wait to see how the story travels and how much life it has. If it dies down great, if not prepare a news conference for Monday sometime at a neutral location. At that time provide as little or as much information as you want, but at least you should have it all scripted out” Jeremy finished. “Good idea Jer, by the way I am heading out there to talk to Bill and we can figure it out then.” Jeremy smugly said, “I already knew that and Bill is setting up a meeting for this afternoon when you arrive.”
After a quick call to Julius to let him know what was happening I boarded the plane and for the bulk of the ride, I jotted down all kinds of scenarios and thoughts. If the story continued to build, I wanted to hold a press conference and introduce Efficio as a company and allow the reporters to see firsthand some of the prototypes. The main reason was to generate interest for financing needed to move the company to the next level. Like Bill, he was also feeling the pressure. We just don’t know what will come out of the woodwork when people realize we have a ‘game changing’ solution. For the last hour of the flight, Rico worked on a wholly different plan. This plan would help to ensure that no person, entity or country could derail Bill and his ultimate goal for Efficio.
As Rico exited the secured area of the airport into the waiting area, he saw Steve. As a joke, Steve was holding a sign with ‘Mr. Carter’ emblazed on the front, and to make it even funnier he had on a tie and was wearing a white dress shirt. As I approached him he nodded to me and said “good afternoon sir may I help you with your bag?” If I had more than my backpack, I would have handed him a bag. “That’s funny Steve” I said and meant it. I gave him a pat on the back and said thanks for picking me up. As we were walking Steve said, “Bill is the one that wanted me to give you a laugh, since he did not think you would be laughing when you saw how much press our company was getting.” “I know” I said. As soon as we landed, I had checked my emails and saw that the main number was ringing non-stop and Ty and another Clavis employee were staffing the two doors into the building. I heard that they were dealing with the press as well as the curious. Steve looked a little guilty as we walked out to the short-term parking since he was driving my Camaro. He stammered a little when he asked me if I wanted to drive, but seeing that he got a kick out of driving the car I feigned being tired and said go ahead, you drive, even though I would have preferred to be behind the wheel.
Maybe it was being away from the continual demands back at the home office, but I did feel somewhat more relaxed walking inside my home. Fiona after visiting last time told me never to get rid of this place. She thought the place was fantastic and the rooftop an absolute oasis during a California sunset. If I had to say so myself, Chez Rico was a nice place to hang. Once inside the bay, Bill and Jeremy met me as I stepped out of the car. Bill looked his normal harried self and Jeremy; well let’s just say I do not think Jeremy ever became frazzled. As we walked through the lab to go upstairs I saw Jeremy checking out the inventory. He knew that these barrels were very valuable and I could see his mind assessing the situation. He did not know the details on how the contents of the barrels got valuable, just that they were.
Steve caught up to us as we headed up the stairs and the four of us grabbed a beer out of the fridge and sat down around the counter, which would be today’s conference room table. “Bill, start us off regarding what we are seeing around the company, and Jeremy why don’t you review the status of security?” With that, Bill got into a fast but concise review of events that day. We were getting quite a number of phone calls and vehicles driving though the parking lot. In fact, there were several vehicles showing logos for local television stations. Ty and the security detail have handled things without incident.
Jeremy provided specific details on security back in New Jersey and detailed what the showroom site implemented. “Gentlemen,” Jeremy continued, “I would like to add the following security for this site and before I do, I just want to recommend that we move the inventory here to a more secure location in the future.” He went on to recommend bomb proofing the place in a manner of speaking. He recommended a special grade of loading dock doors that would be hard to circumvent as well as some deterrents at the roof level since it was only a two-story building and entry from the roof was possible. There were a few other items and we agreed to them all. Bill and I tried not to do a double take for the monthly cost estimates for Clavis services, but we felt this would be money well spent.
I took the floor and wanted to talk about a possible press conference. I started by saying that the amount of attention was already high for the first day of the event. My recommendation is to monitor activity and if it continues to rise as well as become more aggressiv
e, we should have a proactive press conference complete with a demo of the products. I reiterated that we could leverage the information to attract a select group of investors so that we could get into a manufacturing mode. I ended with a “well, what do you think.” There was not an immediate reaction; however, I could see that the concept was percolating with both. Bill spoke first and tentatively said, “We need to do it, and I think we are close to that point where we have to do it.” Jeremy then spoke up and said, “it’s up to you guys on how to handle this. Sometimes it is better to have things out in the open and I have to say that having more people know about Efficio may make it harder for anyone to take action against your company or employees. On the other hand,” he added in a quieter tone, “people will still come after you for a wide range of reasons and security will be our number one priority.” Jeremy asked our permission to start providing employees with security awareness training and to establish special ‘duress’ code words and phrases, which we endorsed emphatically.
When Jeremy left, Bill and I had a frank discussion on what we have gotten ourselves in too. As a couple of twenty something year olds, we should be hitting concerts, worrying about the best cars and here we are putting in duress phrases in case someone is kidnapped or even worse. We agreed that it sucked, but we also knew there was nothing to dissuade us from staying our course. With a quick fist bump to reaffirm our dedication, we started to discuss mass production. Bill’s first idea was a doozy. He wanted to approach GM about buying up the Hummer trademark name and resurrecting that line. We did a quick Google search and realized that GM had already dismantled the plants when a deal had fallen through back in 2010 when talks with a Chinese company had failed. We then looked at car companies around the globe and determined we would have to have separate discussions with each car manufacturing company interested.
“Rico” Bill asked. “Do you want to see the design drawings that Fabricated Industry Group in Jersey came up with as well as what our buddies building our Power Mats in Detroit are doing?” Bring it on Professor I said. Bill brought up a series of diagrams on the large monitor from Personalized Circuitry LLC, which showed detailed drawings of what vaguely resembled our original Power Pad design. Bill walked me through the different designs, which were similar on one level, but depending on the application, had a number of significant design changes. I was very impressed as well as glad to see that the cost per unit price was very good when built in units of 100 or more. “Look here Rico,” Bill said as he zeroed in on the connection area that went to the Power Pad. “They recommended that we change the design to this connector type since it is better suited for all weather applications. I have passed the specs over to FIG to incorporate it in the Power Pads. Their designs up on the screen do not show it yet, but the next round will.” “This is great stuff. You and Steve deserve a huge thank you. I heard you say that both companies can start shipping product within 3 weeks. Is that still true?” Bill shook his head yes smiling the entire time. I know he felt good about how things were going as I was. My last questions and the hardest to ask were how we were going to handle Electricus and how we would fill the Power Pads. We spent hours discussing options in this area and left it undetermined and to be picked up in a later conversation.
By the time I landed back in Newark Airport around 3 pm Friday, things had not gone along as hoped. The article instead of fading away got legs and the office was fielding even more interview requests. I asked Taylor to get the management team together for a 4:30 meeting to discuss our options. The limo dropped me off at the office right at 4:15 and I walked into the first floor conference room bags and all. By 4:30, everyone was sitting in the room and the ‘Bill and Steve Show’, were on our video conference system. “Sorry, for the late meeting notice, but his should not take long. The big news is we are going to hold a press conference. The questions that need to be answered are when, where and what should be discussed. Bill and my own recommendation are to use the new warehouse site to highlight Electricus. With the recent installation of multiple Power Pads to run the warehouse site, we will be able to show how a building that size can operate with Electricus. Of course, we have the converted cars already there as another fine example of our product. We would also like to have it in the evening to show off how Electricus performs in low light situations and will have refreshments since we expect that it will take time for the reporters to go through the demonstration process. We will need a few of you trained to drive the cars so that people can be taken out as needed. Bill, Steve, Sean and me will answer technical questions and only Bill and I will answer questions regarding Electricus the organism. What ideas do you all have?”
Julius gave the first recommendation, which was to have the press conference an ‘invite only’ affair and target investors, car manufacturers and home construction giants. Sean and Fiona brought up the need to make glossy marketing materials for attendees to take away with them. Apparently, we did not have a marketing group yet. Fiona had been trying to come up with content for the web site, and she and Sean had been brainstorming about how to start up a marketing team and or engage a marketing agency. There were other great ideas and recommendations and we ended up determining that we would need two weeks to prepare. In closing, I asked everyone to present names of people or organizations we wanted to invite to Julius or Iris and they would handle the invitations.
Chapter 16: Showcasing Electricus
The two weeks went by quickly and even though we had reservations about the event, it was exciting Julius thought to himself. RSVPs to the event invitations had been lukewarm at best. It seems that not everyone had read or seen the articles. In some cases, it was not until they received emails with a smart looking brochure teasing them about the capabilities that affirmative responses started to come in. In all, about two thirds responded that they would be there. We expected a few ‘no shows’ to bring the number down even more. In the end, he thought we could expect 65 to 70 attendees.
Julius was excited as anyone about the press conference today, but had a meeting in two minutes to talk to Ty about a number of people who were not on the invite list that were trying to get invited. As he was printing out the confirmation list, Ty walked in. “Mr. Filamore how are you today?” Julius enjoyed his conversations with Ty since Bill and Mike had him take over developing procedures for the main office with Clavis. Ty was a consummate professional and did not mind explaining how physical security worked to a novice like himself. “Hello Ty,” Julius said, as he handed him freshly printed documents. “Here are the guests who responded that they would be here as well as a separate list of those who have declined. If anyone from the declined list shows up, capture their name and let me know they are here. I also expect a number of gatecrashers as we have discussed earlier.” “We have that covered Mr. Filamore. We have set up some temporary fencing and have a dozen security guards ready. We will also have a security guard on the shuttle bus from the main building to the event site.” Julius stood up and said, “I guess we are all set. Good luck tonight Ty and keep Mike or me in the loop on any problems.” Ty stood up and said, “see you tonight then” and hustled out of the room.
Fiona was working with Mike and was putting the final touches on an interactive video display that walked viewers through a variety of use simulations where Electricus could replace many of today’s energy choices. They also worked on the sound system and large projection system where Bill and Mike would bring the attendees through the designs used in the cars, how the Power Pads and Panels worked in a home as well as how they worked in the very building they were sitting in. The design gave them a solid understanding of what they were looking at when given access to the actual cars and building power sources. Fiona had never been so enthused in her life and was also thinking of what she would do to Mike when they got home tonight. During his walkthrough presentation, his presence and bearing belayed his age. He was very dynamic, genuine and an excellent speaker. These were things that subconsciously she had recog
nized in him, but since he was also a very humble person, were not always evident. Excitedly, she waited for the event to start.
Sean and Steve were giving the others, lessons on how to drive the cars and had been on the road acting as a high school Driver’s Ed teachers for almost 3 hours. They had mapped a course that all drivers had to follow, which allowed them to show the passengers the acceleration to speeds of up to 55 mile per hour. Their orders stated that there were no route deviations and each car had a 2-way radio for any issues. Iris was the last driver and she looked like she was having too much fun. For many of them, this was validation of why they dropped their previous lives for the current one. Bill had dropped a big one on everyone yesterday and informed the management team that everyone would all have their own Electricus company car within 2-months. Bill also said we had a choice of colors as long as it was silver.
Bill felt the need to keep wiping his hands on his pants since they were sweaty. He did not see himself as a front man and was not used to speaking in front of a crowd of strangers. He was concerned that questions may go into areas that Mike and he had agreed to be off limits. This included the origins of Electricus, reproduction of the same and conversations leading off in global geo political and economic areas. Our pat answer was to deflect by saying, “we are just a small startup at this time and have got a long way to go before we get in to discussions such as those.” Mike did not know it, but Bill was going to deflect all of those types of questions off to Mike. Bill speculated that Mike was not even aware of his communication capabilities himself. He really had a gift. Bill caught Mike’s eye and walked over and said, “I’m going over to the main building to get ready to meet and greet the guests there. As they get off the bus, coordinate them to come in here for hors devours and something to drink.” “Got it covered Bill,” Mike said, “and by the way, quit wiping your hands on your pants you’re even making me nervous,” he said. Bill thought that this was a vain attempt by Mike to joke me out of my nervousness.
