Chapter 72: Fish brain

Damian arrived at the advisory firm’s office fifteen minutes early.

He had three customer interviews scheduled for the morning, another two in the afternoon, and a technical review with Maya afterward. Oliver had arranged the meetings with Brightpath customers who had agreed to speak under the confidentiality terms both sides had signed.

Damian had expected the interviews to be awkward.

He was a university student considering buying a software company from a man nearly twice his age. He didn’t have a long résumé of successful acquisitions to show anyone, and he wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

All he had was money, a willingness to learn, and enough sense to ask questions before spending it.

He hoped that would be enough.

Maya was waiting in the conference room when he arrived.

"You’re early," she said.

"Trying to look professional."

"Does it hurt?"

"Terribly."

She smiled and slid a folder across the table.

"I’ve organized the customer profiles. The first is a cleaning company with twelve employees. The second runs a small maintenance service. The third is a contractor who canceled his Brightpath subscription four months ago."

"Why did he cancel?"

"We don’t know yet. His cancellation record says he moved to another platform, but it doesn’t explain why."

Damian opened the folder.

"Perfect. Let’s find out."

The first customer was a woman named Janet Morris, who ran a commercial cleaning business with twelve employees and several recurring contracts.

She joined the meeting through a video call, wearing a blue blouse and glasses that kept slipping down her nose.

"Before we start," Damian said, "I want to make one thing clear. I’m considering purchasing Brightpath, but I haven’t made a decision. I’m trying to understand what works, what doesn’t, and what the company would need if I took over."

Janet nodded.

"That’s fair."

"How long have you been using the software?"

"Almost four years."

"And why did you choose it?"

"Price, mostly. I was using a combination of spreadsheets, calendar reminders, and handwritten invoices. It was a mess. Brightpath gave me one place to manage appointments, customer details, and payments."

"Has it saved you time?"

"Definitely. When we started getting more contracts, I couldn’t keep everything organized myself. Brightpath helped."

Damian made a note.

"What do you dislike about it?"

Janet laughed.

"Do you have an hour?"

"Take your time."

"The reporting is poor. I can see what we’ve invoiced, but getting a clear picture of which contracts are most profitable takes extra work. It also doesn’t connect properly with the accounting software we use. My assistant exports information and enters some of it again manually."

"How often does that happen?"

"Every week."

Damian glanced at Maya, who was taking notes.

"Have you considered switching?"

"Several times. But moving all our customer records and recurring appointments would be a headache. We also know how Brightpath works. The problems are annoying, but we understand them."

That answer interested him.

Janet wasn’t staying because she loved every part of the product. She was staying because the software solved enough problems to make switching inconvenient.

That could be a strength.

It could also be a warning.

"If another company offered better reporting and accounting integration, would you switch?"

"If the price was reasonable and I trusted the company, yes."

"Even after four years with Brightpath?"

"Of course. I’m running a business, Damian. Loyalty is nice, but I still have employees to pay."

He smiled.

"Fair answer."

After the call ended, Damian reviewed his notes.

Strengths: Reliable scheduling, useful customer records, affordable pricing.

Weaknesses: Reporting, accounting integration, manual data entry.

Retention risk: Customers may stay out of habit until a competitor offers a clear improvement.

Maya looked over his shoulder.

"She gave you a good picture of the product."

"She also gave me a reason not to get too excited about the customer retention numbers."

"Explain."

"Some of these customers aren’t necessarily satisfied. They just haven’t found a good enough reason to leave."

Maya nodded.

"That’s an important distinction."

Damian saved the notes.

"Let’s see what the next one says."

The second interview was with Peter Walsh, who operated a small property maintenance company.

He had been using Brightpath for just over two years and sounded considerably happier than Janet.

"It does what I need," Peter said. "I manage recurring jobs, assign appointments, and send invoices. I don’t need anything fancy."

"Have you experienced any major problems?"

"Not really. Customer support can take a while to respond, but they usually sort things out."

"How long is a while?"

"Depends on the issue. If it’s something simple, maybe a day. If it’s complicated, I’ve waited longer."

Damian wrote that down.

"What would make you consider switching?"

Peter thought about it.

"Honestly? If the software stopped working properly or the price went up too much. I don’t have time to learn another system unless I have to."

"Would better features make a difference?"

"Some would. But I don’t want twenty new features if they make the ones I use harder to find."

Damian looked up.

"That’s interesting. Why?"

"Because I use this thing while I’m working. I’m not sitting in an office studying software all day. I need to open it, check the schedule, and get on with my job."

Maya smiled slightly.

"We’ve heard similar complaints about larger platforms."

"Then somebody should build a better one," Peter said. "I’m not paying extra for a dashboard that looks impressive but takes me ten minutes to find a customer’s appointment."

Damian laughed.

"I’ll keep that in mind."

After the call, he leaned back.

Peter’s priorities were different from Janet’s.

Janet wanted better reporting because her business had grown beyond the software’s current capabilities. Peter wanted simplicity because the existing product fit the way he worked.

Trying to satisfy both customers without making the software complicated would require careful product decisions.

It wasn’t impossible.

But it wouldn’t happen by throwing developers at the problem and hoping for the best.

Damian added another note.

Product strategy: Improve functionality without sacrificing simplicity.

Then he underlined it.

The third interview was the one he had been waiting for.

Marcus Hill had canceled his Brightpath subscription four months earlier and moved to a competing platform.

He joined the video call from what looked like a small office. Shelves behind him held folders, tools, and a collection of cardboard boxes.

Damian introduced himself and explained the purpose of the meeting.

Marcus listened, then nodded.

"I don’t mind talking about it. I liked Brightpath when I first started using it."

"What changed?"

"My business grew. I started with three people and a few regular customers. Back then, Brightpath was perfect. Then I hired more staff, picked up larger contracts, and needed better reporting."

"Did you contact support?"

"Several times. They were polite, and I don’t think they were ignoring me. But the features I needed weren’t available."

"What did you move to?"

Marcus named a larger competitor.

Damian recognized it from his research. The platform offered more integrations and detailed reports, though its reviews frequently mentioned a steep learning curve.

"Has the new software solved your problems?"

"Mostly. It’s more powerful, but it takes longer to use. My employees complained at first, and the subscription costs more."

"Would you return to Brightpath if they added the features you wanted?"

Marcus shrugged.

"Maybe. I’d need to see how well they worked. I wouldn’t move all my data again just because they announced a new feature."

That was reasonable.

"How long did it take to migrate?"

"About three weeks to get everything working properly. We had to check customer records, recurring appointments, and invoices. I had two people helping me, and it still took longer than expected."

Damian wrote that down.

Customer migration wasn’t just a technical task. It cost time, interrupted normal work, and created opportunities for mistakes.

That explained why established customers could tolerate a frustrating product for years.

It also meant that a competitor who made switching easier could threaten Brightpath’s customer base.

"Would you mind if we contacted you again after we’ve reviewed the product?" Damian asked.

"That’s fine."

"Thank you for your time."

After the call ended, Damian sat quietly for a moment.

Maya closed her notebook.

"Well?"

Damian looked at the three sets of notes.

"Brightpath has a decent product. The problem is that it’s built for a business that no longer exists."

"Meaning?"

"It works for small companies with simple needs. But some of its customers grow beyond it, and Brightpath hasn’t kept up."

"Can that be fixed?"

"Probably. The question is whether we can fix it without ruining what already works."

Maya nodded.

"That’s what the technical review needs to answer."

Damian gathered the folders.

"And whether the cost of fixing it leaves us with a business worth owning."

By lunchtime, Damian had spoken to two more customers.

One had canceled because his business had closed. The other still used Brightpath but complained about slow support and the lack of automated reminders.

Neither interview produced a dramatic revelation.

Together, though, they painted a clearer picture.

Brightpath wasn’t secretly collapsing. Its revenue was real, and its customers used the product for practical reasons. Some were satisfied. Others were tolerating its limitations because switching was inconvenient.

The company had an opportunity to improve.

It also had a responsibility to do so before more customers decided they had waited long enough.

Damian and Maya reviewed the findings over lunch.

"If we bought it," Damian said, "I wouldn’t want to rebuild the whole product immediately."

"Why not?"

"Because we don’t know which parts are causing the most trouble. I’d rather fix the common problems first, then see how customers respond."

"That’s sensible, but you’d need to confirm the current architecture can support those changes."

"That’s what we’re paying the technical team to find out."

Maya smiled.

"You’re getting better at this."

"Please don’t say that. Every time someone tells me I’m getting better at something, the next thing I do is make a stupid mistake."

"Then I won’t say it again."

"Thank you."

She laughed.

They returned to the conference room for the technical review.

The consultant, Daniel Price, had examined the preliminary documentation Oliver provided. He was a software engineer with experience assessing small business platforms, and he’d spent the previous two days reviewing Brightpath’s system architecture, deployment process, and maintenance records.

He connected his laptop to the conference room display.

"Let me start with the good news," Daniel said. "The platform is functional, and I haven’t found evidence that it needs to be replaced from scratch."

Damian relaxed slightly.

"And the bad news?"

"The codebase is older than it should be for a product of this size. It’s manageable, but there are areas where changes could introduce problems because the automated testing is limited."

"How serious is that?"

"Serious enough that I wouldn’t recommend a major expansion before improving the testing and deployment process. Otherwise, you risk breaking features customers already depend on."

"So before we add things, we make sure we can safely maintain what we have."

"Exactly."

Daniel displayed a diagram of the system.

"The application has grown through years of small changes. Some components are well organized. Others are tightly connected, which makes them harder to modify independently. The accounting integration Janet mentioned is feasible, but we’d need to examine the target systems before estimating the work."

"Can we improve the reporting?"

"Yes. But the quality of the underlying data needs attention first. Some reports would be unreliable if we simply built new screens on top of the existing data structure."

Damian frowned.

"How much work are we talking about?"

"I can give you a preliminary range after another week of review. I don’t want to invent a precise figure from a short assessment."

Damian nodded.

He was beginning to appreciate people who admitted what they didn’t know.

"One more question," he said. "If we hired two experienced developers, would that solve the problem?"

"No."

The answer came so quickly that Damian almost laughed.

Daniel continued.

"More developers would increase capacity, but they would still need to understand the existing system. If you hire people before documenting the architecture and improving the testing process, some of their time will go toward figuring out how everything works. You need a transition plan, not just additional salaries."

Damian wrote it down.

Technical debt: quantify before purchase.

Documentation and testing: initial priorities.

Development hiring: phased, not immediate.

Maya glanced at his notes.

"You’re going to need a lot more information before you can value the company."

"I know."

"Are you disappointed?"

Damian considered the question.

A part of him was. Brightpath had looked like a straightforward acquisition when Oliver first described it. A profitable company with hundreds of paying customers, a manageable staff, and room to grow sounded like the sort of opportunity he should pursue.

Now he understood that the purchase price would be only the beginning.

He would need money for development, customer support, documentation, and perhaps new management. He’d need to retain existing customers while trying to win new ones. And he would have to do all that without knowing exactly how much the improvements would cost.

Still, he wasn’t disappointed enough to walk away.

Not yet.

"I’d rather find these problems now than after signing the agreement," he said.

Daniel nodded.

"That’s the right attitude."

Damian looked at the screen.

"All right. Let’s get the detailed review done. I want the risks documented, the major improvements ranked by priority, and a realistic estimate of what each one would cost."

"I’ll prepare that."

"And if you find something that makes the acquisition a bad idea?"

"I’ll tell you."

"Good."

The meeting ended shortly afterward.

Damian was halfway through organizing his notes when Oliver called.

"How did the customer interviews go?" the founder asked.

"Useful. People like parts of the product, but there are clear areas that need improvement."

"I expected that."

"Your customers mentioned reporting, integrations, and support response times. The technical review also found that some improvements will need more preparation than we initially thought."

Oliver sighed.

"That sounds about right."

"How long have you known about the testing and documentation issues?"

"Several years, honestly. We improved what we could, but we never had enough people to do everything. Whenever a customer needed something urgent, we’d prioritize that over internal work."

Damian understood the temptation.

A customer complaining today was difficult to ignore. A maintenance problem that might cause trouble six months later was easier to postpone.

Repeat that decision for long enough, and the postponed work became a problem of its own.

"Did you consider raising money to expand the team?" Damian asked.

"Yes. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to take on investors, and I didn’t want to grow the company just for the sake of growth."

"That’s fair."

"I also made mistakes. I spent too much time handling individual customer issues instead of building a team that could handle them without me."

Oliver sounded tired, but he wasn’t making excuses.

Damian respected that.

"Would you be willing to help document the system and train the team during a transition?"

"Yes. I’d expect that to be part of the agreement."

"We can discuss the details if we reach that stage."

"Agreed."

They ended the call on good terms.

Damian opened his spreadsheet and added the new findings.

Brightpath’s strengths were becoming clearer.

So were its weaknesses.

He entered a preliminary estimate for the likely areas of investment but marked every figure as unverified. Until Daniel completed the assessment, those numbers were only placeholders.

Then he opened the Meridian file.

Still waiting on the complete Northstar agreements.

Still waiting on the final legal opinion.

Still waiting on the technical report.

Damian stared at the two company names.

He had spent so much time worrying about which business he should buy that he’d nearly forgotten he could buy neither.

That remained an option.

A very good one, actually.

That evening, Ethan called while Damian was reviewing his notes at home.

"Important question," Ethan announced.

Damian put the phone on speaker.

"Is this about money?"

"No."

"Then I’m listening."

"Have you ever noticed that people who say they have important questions never actually have important questions?"

"You’re describing yourself."

"Anyway, I need your opinion."

"Go ahead."

"If you had to choose between buying a company with legal problems and buying a company that needs a lot of work, which would you choose?"

Damian stopped typing.

"Why?"

"Because I want to see if you’re capable of learning from your own situation."

Damian laughed.

"Neither, until I understand the problems."

"Wrong."

"Wrong?"

"You’re supposed to say the company with less risk."

"That’s not necessarily the same thing."

Ethan went quiet for a second.

Then he said, "I hate when you make sense."

"Get used to it."

"Seriously, though. What’s happening with the companies?"

Damian gave him the short version of the day’s findings.

Ethan listened without interrupting.

When Damian finished, he said, "So Brightpath isn’t as simple as you thought."

"No."

"And Meridian isn’t as safe as you hoped."

"Correct."

"And you’re still considering buying one."

"Potentially."

Ethan sighed.

"Fish brain."

Damian grinned.

"What?"

"You know you don’t have to prove anything, right? You already have money. You don’t need to buy a company just to prove you can."

The smile faded from Damian’s face.

"I know."

"Do you?"

Damian looked at the folders open on his screen.

He wanted to build something. He wanted to own businesses, make smart investments, and create a future where he didn’t have to worry about every unexpected expense.

But Ethan was right about one thing.

He didn’t need to prove anything by rushing into a purchase.

"I know," Damian repeated. "If neither deal makes sense, I’ll walk away."

"Good."

"And stop calling me fish brain."

"No."

They ended the call a few minutes later.

Damian returned to his desk and reviewed the System display.

[INVESTMENT EVALUATION IN PROGRESS.]

[NO QUALIFYING CAPITAL ALLOCATION DETECTED.]

[CURRENT BALANCE: $5,099,924.32.]

He dismissed it.

Five million dollars was a lot of money.

It was also enough to make a mistake that would take years to recover from if he spent it carelessly.

Damian closed the Brightpath folder, then Meridian’s.

Tomorrow, there would be more questions. More documents. More waiting.