Page 11 of Baby for My Billionaire Rival

“Okay, you identify your customer base and then what? Anyone.”

I throw two fingers in the air. What the hell?

“Simmons.”

“Find, pick, and develop distribution avenues.”

“Say more.”

I twist my pen in my hand, capping it and uncapping it as I speak. It’s hard for me to look people in the eye when I’m talking business. I need more practice, but with all eyes on me, I feel bashful. “For instance, my product is in the food and beverage industry. So, if I was starting from square one, I’d need to identify the stores that I wanted to be in as well as the stores I was capable of being in. And develop e-commerce, of course.”

“Don’t be shy, Simmons,” Fig says, a glint in her eye. “Your word is more valuable than you’re giving yourself credit for.”

Caroline’s hand shoots up in the air.

“Gladstone.”

“Question.”

“Go ahead.”

“So, forgive me for sounding sort of ignorant. I think a lot of us in this room can say we are privileged not to have to build a business from the ground up,” she says, glancing around the room.

Dammit, I hate being lumped into a category with her, but she’s right…

“But let’s say you’re starting from scratch. Manufacturing or something like that.”

Fig wanders toward the front of the lecture hall’s well, eyes narrowing.

“If you’re looking to get into mass production, looking to work on business contracts rather than…” Caroline turns and gestures to me. “Getting a product on the shelf of a grocery store, well, how do you even begin? When capital is limited and therefore time is too?”

Fig gets a curious smile on her face. Oh no. Two weeks with this professor and I already know what that means. “I’ll open the floor to your peers. Does anyone have an answer to Caroline’s question?”

Right off the bat, many do. I can see floods of heads bowed down, scribbling notes as people rattle off their thoughts on the most effective strategies. I try to tune it out, shutting my eyes.

“Woah, woah, woah, Simmons! Are you asleep up there? This not interesting enough for a Monday morning?!”

Everyone in the hall looks at me. I scan the faces of my peers. Aw, fuck it, they’re not buying my clean-cut look. Why am I even pretending? I run my hand through my hair, splitting up the pomaded pieces so that it has a bit more movement. “Forgive me, professor. I wasn’t sleeping, I was just…”

Her eyebrows rise.Do it, Simmons. Do it.

“I think that there’s an ethical problem with choosing consumers like that,” I say.

The room is silent. I chew on my lower lip.

“What I mean is…” I clear my throat. “To say that corporations deserve access to things that consumers can’t access feels…” This is not the place to get on my corporate greed soapbox although I’ve been on it many times before. “It’s not ethical. I’ll leave it at that.”

Caroline grips the back of her chair and stares me down. “Most average consumers don’t need six thousand napkins at a time, Simmons.”

People chuckle, but I roll my eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Then tell me what you meant,” Caroline says.

I lean forward on my desk, folding my hands in front of me. “What I’m saying is that putting barriers in front of products based on order sizes and types that are meant to favor corporations over the individual is exactly why so many people are saying that capitalism is the problem.”

“You’re in a business school, we’re not here to worry about capitalism being a problem,” someone mutters.

“Hey, relax, this is between Simmons and Gladstone,” Fig announces. “Go on, you two.”

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