The day we sold up

After building a company from scratch, we sold it 10 years later

Photo by JC Bonassin on Unsplash

Snow was forecast for the last day of February, 2018. We were supposed to start at midday but no one seemed too hopeful.

“Just be somewhere local and wait for the call,” said Tim, the junior of the two legals. We’d found a hotel just off London Wall. It was close enough and we could sit, drink coffee and wait.

The sleet quickly turned to snow muting the dystopian, faceless grey blocks surrounding us. We were glad to escape.

Nearly every table in the overcrowded reception was taken, mostly by well dressed suited men talking to each other or their phones giving directions, putting something off until later? They must have decided to swop their offices and lonely sandwiches for an overpriced menu to chat with friends or network with colleagues. Later, they migrated quickly, distracted or disturbed by the passing hour. The snow didn’t stop them hurrying back to comfortable high-backed chairs to stare once again at their wide screens, in-between more meetings, more urgent fires and never ending to-do lists, burgeoning well beyond the point of focus.

We were shoe-horned into a line of crowded tables with just enough room for one person on either side…