The next morning, Jason stepped into PulseCast's executive war room—a space rarely used, saved for only the most critical strategic moments.
Today, it was personal.
A large digital screen displayed Valkyrie Media Group's sprawling corporate structure: hundreds of subsidiaries, media holdings, content licensing arms, and AI patents. All of it connected like a spider's web.
Jason stood at the center, flanked by Naomi, Rohan, Cass, and a handful of trusted insiders. No leaks this time. No moles. Everyone in that room had been vetted again. Twice.
Jason tapped the screen.
"This… is the enemy."
He turned to face them.
"They've infiltrated us. Tried to fracture us. Bought one of my oldest friends out from under me. And now… they think we'll play nice."
A beat.
"We won't."
He pointed to a sector of Valkyrie's holdings—a streaming platform called StreamRite. Once a YouTube rival, now a quiet failure operating at a loss, bleeding users month after month.
"They're planning to merge StreamRite's backend with their creator AI. It's a full-stack chokehold on the next generation of influencers."
Jason looked around.
"We're going to bankrupt them before they do."
---
Cass raised her hand. "How?"
Jason pulled up a new set of slides.
"By launching PulseLab Studios."
He clicked again. A bold, modern brand identity appeared. Under it: a mission statement.
> 'Where creators own the stage, the tools, and the upside.'
"We don't just host creators," Jason continued. "We'll fund them. Train them. Promote them. Our new Creator Fund will inject capital into the top 1,000 PulseCast creators within the next sixty days."
Naomi leaned in, eyes widening. "You're creating a talent incubator."
Jason nodded. "Exactly. With exclusive contracts, creative equity shares, and embedded sponsorship tech. Valkyrie's model is to lock creators in cages. Ours will make them fly."
Rohan frowned slightly. "That's going to cost hundreds of millions."
Jason tapped again.
"We already secured it. I just finished negotiating a Series C round with Sequoia and a sovereign fund from Singapore."
He smiled.
"We closed $650 million in new capital last night."
---
Gasps rippled around the room. Naomi's mouth opened slightly.
"Jesus, Jason…"
He just sipped his coffee.
"This isn't about survival anymore," he said. "This is conquest."
---
Across the city, in Valkyrie's high-rise headquarters, a woman named Vivian Keats—Valkyrie's co-founder and cold-blooded architect of its content empire—received the news of PulseLab's launch.
She read the leaked deck in silence.
Then she smiled.
"So. He's finally declaring war."
She turned to her assistant. "Schedule a meeting with our AI division. It's time we showed Mr. Nash what real disruption looks like."