“And what logistics would those be?” Ronie replied once the door had shut on Morgan who stayed after the meeting to talk to Aashvi about a missing correspondence. A potential client had been left in the dark about the availability of data for the Koichi district in Japan. Aashvi sent an email asking Clay to follow up and dismissed Morgan who gave Ronie a curt nod before exiting. 

“How did you know to fix my code? The survey, Ronie, how did you know to increase the payout of data by changing the questions? It’s brilliant.” Aashvi walked around collecting trash from the used meeting room into a bin. She never once took her eyes off Ronie. They remained seated from the meeting having felt no great need to help clean an office they still felt to be a stranger in. 

Aashvi’s question caught them off guard and they raised their eyebrows. They said, “That’s odd, it really seemed like an oversight on Morgan’s part. I figured a simple binary tree with sufficiently related questions would be enough to substantially improve the data collected while also complicating it exponentially. Why didn’t you catch that?” Aashvi stopped moving around the room and dropped the bin onto the floor. She stood erect and frowned down at Ronie.

“I’m not nearly as perfect as Morgan, or anyone else around here, would have you believe,” Aasvhi’s voice trembled and she seemed small in the now empty meeting room. The light began to wane but the two held each other in their gaze truly seeing each other for the first time. Aashvi’s dark brown eyes caught what dying light was left in the room as she sized up Ronie’s slender frame.

“No, I’m not perfect at all, but I do recognize excellence when I see it and your intervention improved our data collection process. I now wonder if we could use your talents to help with the implementation phase,” Aashvi paused speaking upon noting Ronie’s confused expression. She chuckled and then asked, “How many lines have you been able to read?” 

“275,000 thousand,” they replied without hesitation. Ronie had spent the weeks preceding the board meeting pouring over Aashvi’s old code to learn the ins and outs of the platform. Ronie was the first investor to pay such close attention to the actual code. 

Aashvi moved toward the door, then replied, “Alright, follow me.” 

Ronie stood, a bit awkwardly, and followed Aashvi from the board room into the hallway. Morgan looked up from her desk as they walked by and smiled at both of them before resuming the report she was preparing on the effectiveness of the Ukumen campaign in their application of the data obtained. Aashvi unlocked her own office and stepped inside. She invited Ronie to sit in the high-backed white chair that sat opposite of her own desk. Here, they could talk uninterrupted. 

“I hadn’t expected you to read so much in such a short amount of time but it confirms that you’re probably exactly who I need for this part of the project,” Aashvi spoke both to reassure Ronie and to build their confidence. 

“Really? And what phase is that? Customer outreach and management?” Ronie laughed a bit and Aashvi could sense a deep hurt under the ironic comment. 

“No, I value your perspective. Ignore Ros, she doesn’t know Python from Anaconda,” Ronie genuinely smiled without a hint of irony and Aashvi took that as her cue to continue, “You helped with the survey, without which we would not currently be turning a profit, so, thank you.” Aashvi smiled back at Ronie, who had turned a bright shade of pink. 

“You mentioned the implementation phase. What’s that?” Ronie asked as the smile dropped from their face. 

“The next phase. Let me guess, you’re a professional, so, I imagine you started reading everything that was already past production and you assumed it was the most relevant?” Aashvi turned off her monitor while talking and the only light in the room came from the large two corner lamps behind Ronie whose face was now obscured in shadow, the sun having recently gone completely down. 

When Ronie nodded, Aashvi didn’t see the movement and kept talking in absence of a perceived reply, “You were right to do so, at least for the board meeting. You came into that meeting armed to the teeth with an understanding of how we’d make money. Let me ask you: We have been collecting such beautiful data waiting for buyers: What might we do with it while we wait?” 

Ronie jumped from the chair and walked around the office, pacing, taking in the art on the walls, and reading off Aashvi’s degree from U Chicago. Inadequate, unrelated, insignificant. Each thought they had was ejected from their head with the force of a trebuchet against old castle walls. They let each though flow, judging them for their worth, and let them pass with imperial judgement. 

Until, they said “Any analysis you could do at this scale eats resources. Where are you getting your funding? What will you do once the data becomes unusable?” They had their back to the desk but turned to face Aashvi. She sat at her desk and frowned. 

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Those who most believe in the process are already onboard. As the brand spreads in name and recognition, you will continue to attract people who genuinely believe, but once those join, then what? You will eventually hit a wall where either new users can’t be found or the quality of users contributing is significantly diminished.” Ronie advanced to the chair and stood behind it. Their hands rested on its back and they looked to Aashvi for a reply. 

She nodded, and replied, “Of course, we will continue to sell it beyond deterioration. Buyers won’t be able to tell if we supplement data or report more than we receive, but once the well dries up completely that might be the end for us.” Aashvi seemed morose in her office now, her thoughts had turned toward the death of her business. 

She brewed with melancholy in her chair fading from the conversation she was having with Ronie. The gut-wrenching suggestion of failure crept into her psyche and now she would struggle to continue the conversation, to discern if Ronie could help her. 

“Yes, I do see the problem you’ve posed. But, now, I need you to answer my question: What should we do with the data now that we have it?” And Aashvi once again set Ronie’s mind ablaze.