Daily news meeting. I was not thrilled when Luke, our CEO, looked at me and suggested I go to the news stand by the train station in Bound Brook to pick up extra copies of Black Enterprise, which is chock full of stories that are of interest to us. I was a lot happier, though, when he told me to take a few people to lunch while I’m out and expense it.

I followed him into his office after the meeting so he could give me cash. After he handed over $60 he asked me about school. He thought I was going to be graduating next year, but when he found out I’d be a junior he asked how many credits I was taking and if I was on scholarship or if my parents paid for school. Was planning on staying at the internship, he asked? I told him the plan was to continue on a (very) part-time basis. But in contrast to what I’ve told everyone here, I really can’t balance Targum, this and school, so I’ll have to make a decision. It has always been Targum, the sense of family and the experience I’ve gained there would be difficult to give up. But the decision just became a lot more difficult.

Luke started talking about the future of this company, that we’ve all developed something really profitable that can be sold in the future, and there are other prospects for us. A few days ago I had heard of profit sharing/stock options for employees. Luke told me long-term interns would be included in that. He told me that before the end of the summer I should sit down with him and Foulis to discuss ways to at least partially pay tuition, which is crazy cool but not shocking since they’re most likely paying for two employees to go to grad school. He also said, although I was confused at this part, that he wants to give a year’s salary as a bonus to employees after three years (I guess because there’s such a high turnaround rate here and at dot coms in general).

Interesting, to say the least.