It was a Monday morning drenched in fog, but Jason Nash was already dressed for war.
He wasn't at PulseCast HQ.
He was walking into the Sandstone Building, the heart of venture capital on the West Coast—where glass walls hid billion-dollar deals and unshakable egos.
He had a meeting with Titan Edge Partners, one of the few VCs not yet aligned with Valkyrie Capital.
And he wasn't there to ask for money.
He was there to steal their loyalty.
---
Inside the marble boardroom, five senior partners waited.
They expected a pitch. A round. A negotiation.
Jason gave them none of it.
"I'm not raising," he said calmly. "I'm offering a seat at the next table before it's full."
They exchanged glances. The managing partner, gray-bearded and sharp-eyed, narrowed his gaze. "We don't make impulse bets, Mr. Nash."
Jason stepped to the whiteboard and pulled out a marker. "Then don't think of it as a bet. Think of it as an equation."
He scrawled three vertical columns:
DATA → INFLUENCE → BEHAVIOR
"PulseCast isn't a social app. It's a behavioral engine. We know what people want before they say it, and we show it to them in ways that make them feel seen, not tracked. That's why we're killing engagement metrics across every sector—from creators to commerce."
He underlined the last word.
"Commerce," he repeated. "We're launching PulseShop in sixty days. Imagine TikTok, Amazon, and Shopify had a baby—and gave it charisma."
---
There was silence in the room. A silence filled with calculation.
The managing partner finally spoke.
"And what do you want from us?"
Jason smiled. "Not cash. Access."
He slid a black folder across the table.
Inside: a list of twelve mid-sized startups in Titan Edge's portfolio—all with infrastructure PulseCast could absorb, rebrand, and hypercharge.
"You've got firewood," Jason said. "I've got the match."
---
That afternoon, Jason walked out of the Sandstone Building with no check in hand—but something far more dangerous:
Alignment.
Titan Edge Partners would now quietly reroute their resources to boost PulseCast's expansion—and act as double agents in rooms where Valkyrie Capital held sway.
Jason returned to the car where Naomi waited.
"Well?" she asked, handing him a coffee.
Jason took a long sip before answering.
"They thought they were getting a founder," he said. "I gave them a revolution."
---
But across town, inside a dark-paneled conference room, Valkyrie Capital's CEO was already reading a confidential transcript of Jason's meeting.
"He's maneuvering like a politician," one analyst said. "Not a founder."
The CEO closed the folder and tapped his fingers on the polished oak table.
"Then it's time to treat him like a threat to national stability."