Musketeer as Entrepreneur (Part 2): Co-founders and Investors

Picking up from where I left off in the first installment of this fictional story of medieval entrepreneurship, I am going to omit a lengthy though important account of D'Artagnan's travels. What he does after resigning from the King's service is to attempt to build his A-class team of co-founders. These are the infamous three musketeers of the Dumas novel of that name: Athos, Porthos and Aramis -- the noms de guerre used by them while in military service to keep their true identities vague.

D'Artagnan has not seen any of these, his good friends, for many years and now goes to seek them out, rightly reasoning that the four together are a formidable force. In short, he could not pick a better team to accomplish his outrageously ambitious venture. In Dumas' hands, our hero is doing exactly as any entrepreneur should: choose a top-notch team that can not only execute better than any other but are certain to work well together and terrify anyone who would foolishly try to oppose them in any endeavour.

Regrettably for D'Artagnan, he can find none of them. The reader of the novel will know at this point that one of the three -- Athos -- has unintentionally become a competitor, while the other two do not play any role in this particular adventure. Now, before our entrepreneur can proceed to build a team that does not include his first choices, he needs to consider money. Indeed, lots of money will be needed, and he cannot self-finance on his modest savings from the military life. What D'Artagnan understands is that while his ex-musketeer friends would have joined him without any consideration of immediate funds, he is compelled to go with plan B and hire others. These others -- being mercenaries or employees, if you will -- will demand money as compensation for their efforts. That is why he is now in urgent need of an investor.

D'Artagnan knows where to find his ideal investor. He chooses Planchet, his former lackey (commoner servant). Planchet is flush with funds (of which D'Artagnan is aware) from his years spent as a successful small businessman since leaving D'Artagnan's service and also that of the military. D'Artagnan is well aware of this fact and, having invested his savings with Planchet, knows his man's financial acumen and greed. Further, these two men who are of similar age though of different classes know each other well and have many times had the other's life in their hands. They have never failed each other. In other words, here is a potential investor who knows D'Artagnan's qualities and can (perhaps) be persuaded to finance a very risky venture by his former master.

Therefore, D'Artagnan travels to Planchet's shop in Paris. Let's listen in as D'Artagnan makes his pitch:

"Ah! Planchet, it is very long and very hard to speak."

"Do speak it, nevertheless."

D'Artagnan twisted his mustache like a man embarrassed with the confidence he is about to make and mistrustful of his confidant.

"Is it an investment?" asked Planchet.

"Why, yes."

"At good profit?"

"A capital profit, - four hundred per cent, Planchet."

Planchet gave such a blow with his fist upon the table, that the bottles bounded as if they had been frightened.

"Good heavens! is that possible?"

"I think it will be more," replied D'Artagnan coolly; "but I like to lay it at the lowest!"

"The devil!" said Planchet, drawing nearer. "Why, monsieur, that is magnificent! Can one put much money in it?"

"Twenty thousand livres each, Planchet."

We see here a businessman who (as we learn) is accustomed to lending out his ready funds to needy clients at usurious rates, and he has become avaricious enough to want to do even better. This is an ideal venture capitalist for D'Artagnan's purpose: one with the necessary funds and ready to take on substantial risk for out-sized returns.

Now that the entrepreneur has explained the profitable exit for the investor it is time to speak about the business plan. It is an audacious one as you'll see in the next installment of this series.