The Lost Prince

Launch of a product

Eric worked his ass off all semester, amazed that for his system for a school project could be used in all its glorious details. The best part was when his professor challenged the suitability of his code to make everything function until Eric offered to show him it operating that night at the restaurant.

"Wait, this is an operational system?" Profession Chun asked him quickly after class one day.

Eric nodded as he looked at him. "I am willing to admit that this solution may not be the most elegant and will likely be changed in the next few weeks. But I assure you it is running a restaurant right now flawlessly, while making $100,000 in sales nightly." he said as every simulation showed flawless execution in his coding system.

"Mr. Knight, have you considered what your career will be like if you are already doing this kind of work BEFORE you have even become an official coder?" Chun asked him as they walked from the classroom.

Eric smiled as they walked. "Actually no, I haven't considered it. Right now I am figuring out who I am and what exactly it is I do want to do. By the time I figure that out, I should have a few degrees I can use to find whatever that passion ends up being. For now, I am doing what I need to in order to set myself up for success in the future."

Professor William Chun nodded as he held the door open for Eric to walk through. "Well, I must say that it will be interesting to see your journey than." he said before they parted ways and Eric went straight to the restaurant.

Sunday finally rolled around which was the one day Eric took off all work and reset himself for the coming week. He had realized that since he had turned 18, he was sleeping less and less every night. It wasn't concerning him much as he always had energy when he needed it, but knew that 2 hours a day wasn't anywhere near enough despite what it allowed him to do. His school work seemed far easier than he thought it would be, as it seemed he was retaining the information far better than he had been able to before. When lunchtime came up, Hellen called him to the back yard where she, Dimitry and someone else were already sitting, the grill warming up with charcoal.

"Eric, this is Donald Donahue, he will be the attorney representing us." she said as he shook hands with the man.

"Nice to meet you." Eric said as the attorney pulled out a manilla envelope and handed it to him.

While Eric opened it, he explained what it was. "So this is the legal agreement I drafted for the decision as it was relayed to me by Ms. Starr here. It details that percentages, roles and covenants of the new company you will be creating together." he said as Eric began reading. "Before signing, I should advise you to contact another attorney to review it." he said while Eric kept reading each page.

"Do you have a pen?" Eric asked before he made it past the fourth page as the attorney pulled one from his briefcase and crossed out a section before writing something else. "Mr. Drummond, I appreciate you attempting to look out for my interests, however you will find although not an attorney, I am capable of holding my own." he said as he kept going making only minor changes to the agreement before he slid it and the papers back to the attorney without signing. "I suggest you review the changes needed and advise Ms. Starr on your opinions. As if we sign this agreement, we will be partners and you will be representing my interests as well moving forward."

Donald Drummond read the changes to the four sections he had made vague in order to benefit Hellen just a little in the contract, his revisions restoring perfect balance between them as far as the contract was concerned. "Hellen, I don't know where you found this young man, but I would be happy to represent both your Companies as the partnerships wouldn't create a conflict. I will make the changes to this tomorrow and have it ready by noon." he said filing it away in his briefcase.

"He caught the sneak clauses, didn't he?" Hellen asked her friend who nodded.

"Every one of the ambiguous parts he corrected to restore perfect equality under the contract. If he can catch those, it will make my job much easier." he chuckled as Eric nodded.

"2 years of advanced business law in high school, college level course taken as an elective." Eric said with a smile as education had been the one perk of the Orphanage. He could take all the courses he wanted paid by the Foster System, including summer classes.

"Mr. Knight, I assure you there won't be any further tests from me. That was my only concern with your age, you wouldn't do die diligence. The worst clients are those that make impulse decisions, you just showed you won't." Donald said making Eric laugh.

For two months Eric perfected the system, implementing upgrades to the coding as he learned more that improved the efficiency of the overall system. Hellen had shown she was more than capable herself as she assisted with it, making the user interface more friendly and adding the financial systems as well as she had completed her computer science degree, despite admitting she wasn't as skilled as he was.

Their first demonstration was for 5 different restaurants, one looking to deploy the system across nine restaurants that he owned. They were all amazed that not only was it working, their entire order prepared without the waitress once coming up to ask them what they wanted as they had exclusively used the kiosk right there at the table.

"OK, so you have shown that it works great at a single restaurant. How about at a chain like mine, what makes your system better for multiple locations?" one of them asked as Eric approached.

"How about we let our Lead Programmer answer that?" she said repeating the question to him as he pulled out his tablet and logged out of the restaurant system.

"Wait, if you are the Lead Programmer for Apex Tech Solutions, why were you just logged into the restaurants main dashboard?" the same man asked.

"Well you will find I am wearing multiple hats. I am actually the front of house manager here at Dimitry's, a full time student in Computer Sciences, as well as Lead Programmer and coder for the entire system. So you need to understand that this interface here would be for a customer just like you, but this is information that was programmed to realistically mirror what multiple locations would be." he said flipping it for the man who could see all 5 locations information in real time in the simulation as well as an overview that could be exported easily. "Each location will have its own system that automatically reports tons central hub, ensuring that the people who need the information can quickly access it via login credentials that you will be able to control access levels to. So a*****e manager can see their data, but not the data of other locations while a regional manager would be able to see all of them but might not be able to see scheduling or payroll." he said as the man was clearly impressed.

"How well does the system actually run the kitchen?" he asked as they all looked at him.

"Follow me, you can ask the head chef directly." Eric said as he lead them into the kitchen where they saw the screens that were telling the chefs what to cook when it needed to be done for the tickets. Each item showing which ticket it is for, tracking total progress of the order for the expediter. "Hey Dimitry, they would like to know how well the system operates the kitchen?" he asked as Dimitry laughed.

"I will be the first to admit, I was skeptical it could be done so precisely." Dimitry said before 6 dishes came from 4 stations within 30 seconds for him to assemble and send. "We have been using it exclusively for two months, we can turn tables 4 times a night with 30 percent less waste than without it."

The man who had asked whistled as he saw the next order come up the same way, every item perfectly cooked as the system automatically progressed their tickets once Dimitry cleared the ticket as served. "This is truly impressive." he said as they stood there and watched the harmony as they completed 6 tickets in two minutes as they could see the perfectly controlled chaos of a chef not having to scream at everyone when they needed things. Even though they still coordinated perfectly through vocal orders, the system listening and adjusting each ticket on the fly.

"Holy s**t, is it actually adjusting in real time to the way the chefs are talking?" the lone woman asked as the men realized it as well.

"It is actually. We learned in testing that it was needed in order to ensure reliability. If a chef notices that the oven door was left open and they need to add 3 minutes to the cook time, it automatically hears the news from the responsible chef and updates the system as they all wear microphones so the system can hear them." he said as they got the mail and Dimitry saw the envelope on top was from the Michelin Guide.

He had been dreading this since the updates as he tore the letter open and began reading as they watched. The sous chef taking over the station as Dimitry walked away before he let out a yell of joy before he ran over to Hellen and lifted her in a hug before he kissed her. "We got it, the second star. 'Embracing the future of the industry, Dimitry's is hereby awarded its second star for drastic improvements to the diner experience. Waitresses to take your order for those who want, or table side kiosks to place the order yourself. Everyone can have the best experience.'" he said as the other owners were impressed by the letter as Dimitry and Hellen kissed again.

"I don't think the system needs any further backing than that. A second star just by implementing it, must be worth something." the woman said.

"It saves me over $15,000 month just in licensing fees over our old system as well as costing half the price. That doesn't include efficiency improvements of nearly 40 percent on front of house and the kitchen as well as reducing waste by nearly half as well." Dimitry explained still hugging his wife. "I don't support the system just because my wife works for the company that designed it, or because we are collaborative partners now. Those things came because I believe in the product, even though I didn't at first."

"How stable is it?"

"The first two weeks of testing were rough. That was before we added the voice recognition to adjust times according to the actual conditions. Since then we have hit every mark on the head, each dish being cooked perfectly according to what the system knows to be accurate. The best part, up until we start cooking the order, the customer can change it from the kiosk and not interfere with the cooks at all." he told them before he went back to work.

"So will it be $18,000 per location or can we negotiate that?" the man asked.

"18,000 for the primary license and first location, $5,000 per location per year." Eric said as Hellen nodded knowing the math would work out. "Plus hardware costs of course. So 9 locations would be $58,000 per year."

The man whistled as the other services he was using cost nearly triple that amount and did less work.

"$45,000 hardware per location and $60k a year? Son, that is a steal as the annual costs are less than a third of what I pay now. How can you ensure you won't be out of business in a year?" he asked.

"Sir, for the moment our staff includes myself and Ms. Starr. Is our system perfect yet, no. Not even close as there are still several systems we will be adding over the next few months. Updates that will be automatically applied to the comprehensive packages. We currently have uptime over 98 percent, the fees you pay, going straight to expanding our staffing to ensure we can respond to any outage quickly. Can we guarantee we will be open in a year, of course not. But we are just getting started and you are the first outside customers that have the opportunity to get the latest tech for a cheaper price because it was all built in house."

All of them nodded before they walked out of the kitchen, thoroughly impressed as the man who had asked most the questions stopped and looked at him and Hellen. "How long to install everything in 9 locations?" he asked as Eric smiled.

"2 weeks to install everything." he answered without hesitation. "We work with licensed contractors to hardwire and install everything, which is part of the equipment costs. They can generally do a location in a day."

"Draw up the contract and send it to us for review." he said before walking out as the others expressed the same sentiment before leaving as well.