I watched her eyes glaze over. It was subtle, a micro-expression of dismissal.

“That sounds… interesting.”

Marcus squeezed her hand, a gesture of solidarity against my mediocrity. “Sarah’s still trying to find her footing. The startup world is tough.”

“Oh, definitely,” Amanda agreed, nodding sagely. “We see it all the time. Most of them fail.” She looked at me with genuine pity. “But it’s great that you’re trying. Very brave.”

I had nodded and changed the subject.

That was eighteen months ago. Since then, Meridian had grown to 450 employees across four countries. Our valuation hit $2.1 billion after our Series C. Fortune had just named me to their “40 Under 40” list. We were in active negotiations to acquire one of our largest competitors, TechFlow Solutions, a deal that would make us the dominant force in enterprise supply chain optimization.

And Davis & Polk was representing the company we were acquiring.