Late 963 ARR (37 BBY)
Naboo, like many affluent Republic worlds had a proud history of taking in handfuls of refugees. Many of these were children, with several orphanages having been established around the planet. The manager of the largest of these, was staring at Kyla in disbelief.
"A million credits?!"
The Naboo were an instinctively generous people. Everyone from the aristocracy to simple tradesmen would make donations to all manner of good causes, both on Naboo and around the galaxy. The galaxy spanning Refugee Relief Movement had a major office in Theed for this reason, with even its current President, Ruwee Naberrie, coming from Naboo.
However, for all this individual generosity, there wasn't a culture of corporate philanthropy. Naboo's economy was dominated by the plasma industry, which was in turn dominated by the Trade Federation, who were about as likely to set up a foundation as a Hutt was to tap dance.
With Theed Tech on course to record hundreds of millions of credits in pre-tax profits this year, the Theed Tech Trust, or just the Trust as it was coming to be known, had millions to throw around, more than all but the most generous aristocrats.
"That would just be this year of course." interjected Taenth, an experienced former civil servant who Kyla and I had hired as the Trust's Chief Executive.
"If you can put together a good expansion plan, we think we could make a more substantial fund available for a new larger home for the orphanage next year." added Kyla.
The poor woman took a good minute to find her power of speech again after that.
---
We had only lost one ship over the course of the year, we had received a distress signal from one of our contracted freighters stating they were under attack by 'pirates' who had somehow acquired vulture-droid starfighters. The ship disappeared after that; I hadn't known the captain personally, but Ona was pretty upset about it.
There were also a couple of Rebaxan freighters also forced to dump their cargos to escape attacks. Despite these setbacks, the contract with Rebaxan had been a huge success, putting us on course to produce and sell the target of a million SuperPADs in a single year.
We had managed to establish a semi-stable holocomm connection with Rebaxan Columni on Chad. Kua Tek and I negotiated a further deal for an enormous five million droid-brains over the next year. An order of this size was significant enough to make a little dent in the huge losses Rebaxan had previously been taking. Now the company had dealt with some of the Trade Federation's spies, its wider business was doing slightly better too.
It was an odd thought that I had come to consider Kua, a wingless bat, as a friend as well as a business partner. Both of us enjoying chatting about tech as a passion, rather than just as means of making money. I had suggested that she try to rebrand their MSE mouse droids for industrial use rather than as pets; I personally found them very handy for cleaning and other minor tasks.
Selling five million SuperPADs at 1000 credits each would be five billion in revenue. By that basic arithmetic, Theed Tech would be a multi-billion credit company. Considering I owned about 90% of the business myself, I would technically be a multi-billlionaire myself. With credits worth even more than pounds or dollars, this would have placed me among the very richest people on Earth, yet in an unfathomably vast galactic economy, barely a blip.
Producing and selling five million SuperPADs in a year was no small ambition. On the sales side, Theed only had a population of 10 million and had accounted for most of our 1 million sales so far. While there was still plenty of scope for growth within the capital, we agreed Rushelli would open stores in next five largest cities on the planet.
For production, we needed a much bigger and better facility. We would need both a real purpose-built factory and a corporate HQ worthy of what I anticipated would soon be one of the largest companies on Naboo.
---
"You have made quite the impact over the last year, John."
"Well, I would say Theed Tech is a team effort."
Cota had persuaded, or forced, me to sit down for a proper interview with a journalist named Jaidané Larmau, one of the most famous reporters in Theed. She was known for being to go to person for a fair professional interview, which seemed a safe place to start in my necessary role as a public figure. I had been drilled at length about what I could and could not say, but that didn't make me any less apprehensive.
"That may be true, but as founder, majority owner and chief executive you are the driving force behind the company."
"I like to think of myself as an inventor, and that by founding Theed Tech I am able to share my inventions with my fellow Naboo."
"Well let's talk about your invention, the SuperPAD. Over 1 million sold last year on Naboo. An item in great demand and unlike anything else available on the market. How do you get the idea?"
"Well all of the different things a SuperPAD does can be done by a collection of other devices. Of course, it is impractical for us to be able to carry around all those different devices all the time. I was fortunate enough to stumble on an effective way to combine those capabilities."
"It is more than that though, Theed Tech is single handedly transforming the personal communication market by massively undercutting competitors in that space."
"Theed Tech wants its devices to be affordable for everyone and we have developed the technology to make that possible." I parroted the prepared line.
"That sounds like a slogan, some people are asking how you can really be making these devices so cheaply."
"I obviously cannot share sensitive information about our technology, but I would say that the prices of competing devices might be a little inflated." I cringed, I hadn't wanted to criticise others at this point.
"So you expect Theed Tech to continue to grow from here?"
"I think we have a product that people want to buy, and we are scaling up our production to meet that demand." Okay good, back on track.
"In meeting that demand, you have rapidly risen to be one of the personally richest people on the planet."
"It has come as a real surprise to me how successful Theed Tech has been in such a short space of time. A priority for me is making sure my staff share in that success and so we have been offering some of the most generous wages and employment terms of any company in Theed." That I could at least say honestly, there was genuine shock by some of the technicians we were hiring at what we were offering.
"It is all the more impressive given that you have only been a Naboo citizen for a little under three years."
"Naboo gave me a home at a time when I had nowhere else to go. I am eternally grateful for that, and for how the people of Naboo have always made me feel welcome."
"And is that why you created the Theed Tech Trust?"
"Yes, the Theed Tech Trust has already donated millions of credits to a range of charitable causes across the planet. Theed Tech has committed to always contributing 10% of our profits to the trust, and expect that it will continue to grow in the years ahead."
"So, inventor, businessman, philanthropist, what is it that ultimately drives you?"
"I just a guy who likes playing with technology, but if I can do a little good along the way, if I can pay back Naboo for the kindness this world has shown me, then I'm proud to do so."