Chapter 29– One Year After the Deal
Exactly one year ago, Jake Harper was sitting in his mom's kitchen, shaking hands with Nolan Pierce over a folder of freshly signed documents.
He was ten.
FaceWorld had fewer than a million users, and his "company" was mostly sticky notes and a few freelancers scattered across time zones.
Now?
He was eleven—and FaceWorld was a full-blown force in the digital world.
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FaceWorld: The Rise
In the twelve months since that first investment, FaceWorld had gone from a scrappy startup to a platform with over 7.2 million users and strong engagement across universities, high schools, and international academic circles.
New features rolled out monthly:
– Threaded comments
– Real-time messaging
– FacePulse (a smart, personalized update feed)
– University-specific communities
– Group events and bulletin boards
Growth was organic and sticky. Jake had kept it lean—no flashy PR campaigns or influencer gimmicks. Just features people loved, shared, and returned for.
FaceWorld wasn't just growing.
It was leading.
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The Company
The original "kitchen startup" had turned into a real company with 42 full-time employees, a modest Santa Monica office, and a clear internal culture: ship fast, build clean, and always listen to the users.
Jake's title? CEO and Chief Product Architect.
He attended meetings from his home office or the Santa Monica hub a few times a week. The rest of the time, he worked like he always had—headphones in, keyboard blazing, late nights deep in code and feature diagrams.
Even now, most of his engineers were in their twenties or thirties—but no one doubted who ran the show.
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The Money
That original $2 million from Nolan Pierce? Long spent—and multiplied.
FaceWorld raised a $12 million Series A six months ago, and the valuation was now approaching $150 million.
Jake's stake was still over 73%, thanks to careful structuring and ruthless discipline.
He paid himself a small salary, lived at home, and invested everything back into the company. Judith handled the oversight. The books were clean. The team was tight.
Jake Harper wasn't a kid with a website anymore.
He was the founder of one of the fastest-growing tech companies in America.
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Family Matters
Judith was still Jake's manager-in-all-but-title. She vetted every meeting request, ran point on media appearances, and coordinated with their legal team—still led by Ellen Givens—to keep FaceWorld protected from vultures and leeches.
Alan had tried, more than once, to pitch side projects.
Jake had gently ignored him every time.
Charlie stayed in the loop, half proud, half worried Jake was going to forget to have a childhood. Still, he never said it out loud—just kept letting Jake crash at the beach house when things got stressful.
Evelyn kept showing up uninvited. Judith kept shutting the door in her face.
And Berta? Still Berta. Still the only adult Jake could count on to not treat him like a walking ATM or a business card in sneakers.
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Jake Now
One year since the deal.
Eleven years old.
CEO of a rising tech company.
Still going to Caltech—though part-time now, by mutual agreement—and still writing code almost every day. His bedroom was half-server rack, half workspace. His life wasn't normal, but Jake had never wanted normal.
Normal kids didn't build empires.