I ran into Larry Wednesday afternoon. He was walking in up to DC. We paused to chat for a bit, but he ushered me into the atrium so he could get out of the cold.

He asked what was new. I told him I was progressing on the project I had told him about last May.

“Which one was that,” he asked.

“Student-run financial services,” I told him.

“Right. See it all comes back to me. That’s all you need to tell me.” For sure he talks to loads of students about various projects.

I told him I would walk with him so as not to delay him. He told me he was going to Humanities. I told him it was nothing.

It turns out he takes an almost all indoor route. “Oh, the over-40 route,” I joked.

“Good thing you didn’t say a higher number.”

I told Larry how I had asked Dennis H. whether he was retiring soon and he had told me how young he was, heh.

Then I recounted how I had met with Brian and Steve from Creative Arts CU and about Brian’s background in credit unions.

Like Larry had when I met him before. They suggested that partnering might be the way to go if we could still achieve what we wanted.

I told him that by partnering we wouldn’t have to do any of the work of setup, the back end would already be there.

As we walked into E3 he started fiddling with his shoulder pack, pulling it around and off his shoulder. We stopped walking. The strap then fell around his waist, he pulled the bag around again and pulled the strap back up on his shoulder where it wouldn’t slip down. Settled again we continued.

When I talked to him about raising capital, in part, from alumni, he got more interested. I suggested that we wouldn’t entice them with a high return on the investment, but frame it as a means of helping students.

The big difference between investment share capital and a donation is that with the investment, they own a share of the value of their contribution. Of course there is no donations receipt. In a practical sense the only donations is the difference in risk and return on where they would otherwise put their money.

We reached CPH foyer. Larry led me into the Engineering C&D and he bought a gingerbread man cookie and a diet Coke. It was the last gingerbread man cookie and he was glad to get it.

He asked the cashier whether there had been more delivered, but the cashier didn’t know.

We continued into DWE.

He said that he knew alumni to whom this idea would appeal. As students, Larry said, they either didn’t have the option of getting financial support from their parents or would have been reluctant to use it.

This project would help students take responsibility for themselves and some alumni would want to help with that.

I told him how I recognized it was important to get investment instead of just tacit support. People can say that they think something is a good idea, but when they invest money in it they are demonstrating their commitment.

Larry pointed out how getting support from one group can also help get support from another.

We cut through the accounting building and into Humanities and reached his office.

He had to get to a meeting, but I asked for a few more minutes to explain some ideas for products to him.

He had to run off for the meeting and I had to get to work.

“Sorry for taking you so far out of your way,” he called as he went down the stairs.

“Thanks. I’ll e-mail you,” I called back.

It was good to run into him, because with Megan away it has been easy
to get off track. Talking to Larry was inspiring, enlightening, and energizing.