Page 141 of Due Diligence

Cass took a deep breath. “Well either way, my sabbatical from working has put a lot in perspective for me. The past six months have been really fascinating in terms of me trying to figure out what I want to do.”

She was using her brilliant girl voice—the polished and eloquent voice that she used when she came to my office for due diligence. Intrigued, I hoisted myself up onto my arm. “Yeah?”

Cass nodded. “I think I want to start a company. A tech company.”

It took me a few seconds and some awkward laughs to realize that she wasn’t messing with me. She was dead serious. In fact, I had never seen her say something with so much conviction in all the time I had known her.

“Cass,what?”

“I have this idea I think could change a lot of lives. Plus,” she went on, “my therapist told me this is the right time in my life to strike out on my own. I have some money left from what I intended to pay to my parents…and I think I’m going to invest it in my idea.”

“What’s the idea?” I asked as I pulled myself up into a seated position. “And should we put on clothes? I feel like this is a weird conversation to have naked.”

“You don’t want to look at my tits?” she demanded facetiously. “Just kidding. Can you get me a shirt?”

When she was wearing one of my t-shirts and had settled under the covers, Cass started again. “It’s a service that matches people with therapists,” she explained. “And before you poke holes in it, like I know you’re justdyingto do, let me tell you why it’s different. For one, it meets the untapped need for an easy way to find counseling services for people who are too anxious to do it on their own. For another, it leverages technology. I see it as a cross between a regular medical scheduling platform and a dating app.”

“A dating app?”

“Yeah. I envision it as a way of finding the right fit. So, for example, if I were a man and I were queer and…I don’t know, Asian, let’s say. And I wanted to find a therapist who was also a man, was a member of the LGBTQ community, and was of Asian descent, this service would match me with a therapist who is compatible on as many of those different layers of identity as possible.”

“So you need an algorithm,” I concluded.

“Exactly. So, I think the next step for me is to find someone who can help me build this platform, and then I can try to get some funding for it.”

I nodded. “Even before you start building the product, there’s a lot you can get done. Like first order of business, I would say a business plan and a pitch deck.”

“A pitch deck?”

“It’s just a few polished slides you can take to funders. And while you’re out shopping that, you get an engineer to build an MVP for you.”

“MVP…minimum viable product.”

“Exactly. You could also try to get a prototype,” I went on, speaking faster now. “But when it comes to tech, I think you just need a mockup of an MVP. You’re thinking about an app and a web platform, right?”

“Yes.”

“Love it. I think you should figure out the branding pretty early on too. Hell, let’s get you a domain name now—”

“Marcus…”

“And I would probably do an industry analysis too, just to make sure you know what you’re competing against. Oh! And I would love to help you with some archetyping. You did that in business school, right?”

“Marcus,” she cut in as she grabbed my shoulder.

“Yes?” I asked, realizing my heart was actually racing.

Cass stared at me, her lips slowly unfolding into a smile. Her eyes scanned my face. She let out a puff of air—as if to say,Well look at you, Marcus. You’ve still got it.“I think we should do this together.”

“You and me?”

Cass nodded emphatically. “I think we would makesucha good team. We both care about this, and if I could handpickanyone to start a tech company with me, it would be you—no question.”

Immediately, I started shaking my head. “Cass, I fucked up the last—”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Doesn’t feel that way,” I admitted.

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