Pineapple on Canvas: The Odd Adventures of a Toy in the City

The one where Maher changes the name of his Venture Fund

It gonna be good. Real good! For the first time in a while, Maher smiled at the conference room table where he was giving a pitch, feeling the confidence and optimism that had escaped him for a while.

It was such a funny twist, and it was all because of that little yellow orb. When Papple had hit a roadblock with the learning apps, Maher had taken it upon himself to reach out to the two start-ups that Papple had enjoyed to see why they weren't producing further lessons.

He heard the same story from both companies; they were still looking for funding for their education focused apps, and that people just didn't understand and accept the benefits of machine learning yet. They needed to educate the market on why their apps were different, and they didn't know how. So while the developers were geniuses at their jobs, it was clear they were in dire need of someone to coordinate the business side of things.

At first, Maher had to admit that his intentions were only to obtain new learning materials for Papple, but after seeing the potential these companies had, he soon became very excited about the whole industry. After numerous due diligence meetings, he began to get much more involved with the companies than he had originally intended.

Thanks to the little pineapple, this whole foray had changed the course of Maher's fund. The original focus of his venture capital fund had been renewable energy, which, at the time, was a growing and promising industry. However, Maher found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get excited about those companies and that had been a constant source of anxiety for him.

Seeing the progress in Papple's learning, and getting to understand the machine learning educational app industry had been a thrilling process for Maher. He woke up everyday looking forward to learning more--the involved brainstorming meetings with these types of start-up companies made his blood flow and so he knew he had to change the focus of his fund.

Shifting his focus back to the meeting, Maher looked at the men sitting in front of him.

"I'm not here to sell you anything," Maher said, barely believing the words that had just left his mouth. "I just want you to know that we intend to be the premier venture capital fund for machine learning educational apps and that we will be seeing between twenty five to thirty percent returns. So all I'm telling you to do is to watch us."

The men in the black Zegna suits stared at the young man with the wavy reddish brown hair silently. Not even a nod was given to indicate they had heard a word that Maher had said.

Maher continued, gaining momentum as he spoke. "I know that the concept of machine learning and neural networks is new at this time, but I can guarantee you that it will grow. We all know that the market for education is non-stop and that private tutoring is more effective than textbooks alone, so why not merge the two together?"

"What do you mean?" black suit number one asked.

"What I mean is that there is a huge opportunity to develop interactive applications that can help parents teach their children, at their own specialized pace and level. We can harness the power of machine learning to make learning fun, and accessible and have it tailored to each child's need as if they had their own private tutor. Plus it would be at a fraction of the cost."

"Are you saying that real teachers are obsolete?" smirked black suit number two.

"No, I don't disagree that nothing can replace our human educators, but let me show you the potential for this supplementary market," Maher said. With that he pulled out his iPad and opened up one of Papple's favorite apps, which focused on teaching English and grammar to beginners, and handed it to them.

For the next few minutes, the Zegna suits were oblivious to his presence. Instead, they were intently clicking on the iPad. After about ten more minutes, Maher finally interrupted them.

"Now, see, while the applications would primarily target children, let's not forget that there is a huge adult market out there as well," he said. "Let's talk numbers. Did you know that currently, more people globally have access to a cellular phone than they do to basic necessities, such as a toilet? Furthermore, did you know that in most third world countries, the best paid jobs are in the tourism industries? And can you guess what language they need to learn?"

The Zegna suits nodded in silence, their heads bobbing up and down in unison, quickly digesting the very desirable numbers Maher had just given to them.

Before they could reply, Maher delivered his closing speech. "This is going to be big," he said, "I've bet my own money on it. I'll keep in touch, but I want you to remember to look for these companies in the press over the next few months."

With that, Maher took back his iPad and excused himself from the meeting after leaving informational packages for the three black suits.

As he was leaving the room, black suit number three asked, "So you don't want us to give you money now?"

"Not now," Maher replied. "I want you to watch my performance so that when you give me a cheque, it's going to be worth both your time and my time."

"Even if I offered you let's say five hundred thousand dollars right now?" asked black suit number one, winking at black suit number two and three.

Maher smiled, taking the joke in stride. "You're going to want to give me much more than that. I'll have my secretary set something up for end of next quarter. Goodbye, gentlemen."

And with that, Maher exited the meeting, three pamphlets lighter and headed off to the second of the twenty meetings he had set up for the day.