He had not been very forthcoming in the phone call:
"Why don't you come over to my house? I have a business proposal that might interest you, something where I need someone with your skill set."
"My skill set?" I asked doubtfully.
"Yes, your skill set. Trained lawyer, inhouse experience, sales experience, board experience, negotiations, department lead experience, multicultural teams, some project management.... that sort of thing." I was mildly impressed. We did not know each other that well, he had done his homework.
"Will there be anybody else that I know?" I asked, just to say something and win some time to think.
"Yeah, one more person, not sure if you know him. Sven Treptow, figures guy, accounting, financial management, financial directorships, etc. He also lives here."
"Medium tall? Strong guy, blonde longish hair?" I asked. I thought I had met him before, maybe a school meeting, or at one of the numerous events the town organized on the town square.
"Yep, that's the guy. Even though, strong? He is not bulky, but fit, yes, he is fit. Sinewy rather than built. But yeah, he works out, I think. You know him then?"
"Not really, saw him a couple of times, probably around town somewhere, I forgot in which context".
"Ah, right, I'll introduce you to each other", he said, "would next Thursday 1.30 suit you?" I quickly checked my agenda and said:
"That looks good, yes, 1.30 your house, next Thursday. Can you give me a hint what it is about? You, me and a finance guy, that sounds like a core team for something new."
"I'd rather not, over the phone and all. But I promise, you will be interested."
"Ok, ok," I grumbled, "I'll wait until Thursday. You really make it sound as if it was the new Google or something"
"You wait and see. I'll see you Thursday."
"See you Thursday, ok".
I hung up, slightly baffled, but definitely curious.
"Yeah, sure, Sven Treptow, he is married with that bubbly readhead with a shrill voice and massive knockers". The best wife of them all obviously knew as always who everyone was in our town. "Come on, don't pretend you can't remember her," I was absolutely clueless, "from the school play where we helped make the stage decorations?"
I vaguely remembered the evening, I now seemed to remember that indeed Sven had been there. I could not remember the knockers on his wife, though. Strange. He was not the tallest, but boy could he lift stuff. That's probably why I remembered him as small, but stocky, even if he was maybe just strong. He had helped a lot during shoving stuff around, lifting it and handling all kinds of things that night. "They have a medium-sized house on the other side of the church and the mall. He has a big car, looks expensive, something foreign. Two kids at the school, boy and girl, about 8 and 12. He is a bookkeeper or something like that, and she is a homemaker." Right, there I had it all.
The caller was a friend, Andrew, not the innermost circle, we knew him and his wife from tennis, the different charity events in our town, we had sat next to them at a dinner invitation at a mutual friend's house etc. We had been several times over at their home, a garden party for their favourite charity, a farewell party for friends in common which they hosted, they had been at ours for similar reasons. The way you know people in a midsize town in the outskirts of a metropolis.
I knew that Andrew was an engineer and project manager, he had several times started up businesses, had managed them until they started to grow fat and had then sold them off, rumours had it he had sold them well. He and his wife tried not to show off, they were certainly not bling-bling, rather old money-style, but one could see that they were more than just well off.
Their house was bigger than the others in their street, they had a big overflow pool in the garden with antique statues from Italy and Greece, their cars were big and their three children had attended prestigious universities.
So, yes, I was definitely interested in what he had in mind, specially when he wanted to discuss with a finance and a legal guy that both had operational experience. Sounded tempting, to say the least.
I was approx. 15 years Andrew's junior. We were well off, nice house and all, pool in the garden, our kids went to good schools on the coast, but we were more in the league with Sven and his wife than with Andrew.