I had done it in five years.
The media started calling me the “Tech Titan in Stilettos.”
I hated the nickname, the implication that my gender was somehow noteworthy, but I used it.
If they wanted to focus on my shoes, fine. They could focus on my shoes while I quietly acquired their companies.
Marcus Chen’s AI company went public that spring.
The initial public offering valued the company at fifty billion dollars.
My five million dollar investment was now worth four billion.
He called me from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, his voice thick with emotion.
“You believed in me when no one else did,” he said.
“You proved me right,” I said. “Now go change the world.”
Three more of my companies went public that year.
Each one was a massive success.
The financial press started asking how I did it, what my secret was.
I never told them the truth.
That I invested in people who had been told they were not enough.
People who had something to prove.
People like me.
Then, in early summer, I received an invitation in the mail.
Heavy cream cardstock, embossed with gold lettering.
You are cordially invited to the wedding of Julian Sterling and Victoria Ashford.
The Plaza Hotel, Manhattan.