Got Fired After Doubling Company Revenue To $12M. Panic Broke Out When The New President Realized…

A New Foundation at Weissand Bowworks

That evening, I received my first email from Iron Veil since the firing. It was not from Victoria, but from purchasing, stating an urgent need for vendor contact information for Midwest Precision.

Their representative said they only deal with Colin Drake. I didn’t reply.

Instead, I called Harold back and then Julia Winters at Weissand Bowworks. I also contacted three other companies that had tried to hire me away over the years.

By Friday, I had four solid offers, and by Monday, I’d made my decision. I wasn’t just going to rebuild somewhere else; I was going to show Victoria exactly what she’d thrown away.

Two weeks after my firing, I accepted the chief operations officer position at Weissand Bowworks. They manufactured specialized laboratory equipment, which was different from Iron Veil but had similar supply chain challenges.

Julia Winters gave me full authority to rebuild their operations from the ground up. “We need what you built at Iron Veil,” she said during our final interview.

“Our growth is outpacing our infrastructure; fix it and there’s equity in it for you”. I spent my first day walking the floor and talking to line workers to get the unfiltered truth.

By day three, I had identified their critical weaknesses. These included unreliable component deliveries, quality inconsistencies, and wasteful inventory practices.

That Friday, my personal phone rang with Victoria Lang’s name on the screen. I let it go to voicemail.

Her message was polite but tense, asking if I might be available for a brief, compensated consultation regarding supplier transitions. I didn’t call back.

Monday morning, my administrative assistant forwarded an email from the general contact form. It was an urgent request from Victoria Lang, president of Iron Veil Robotics.

I deleted it without reading further. By Wednesday, she was calling my personal phone every few hours, so I blocked her number.

On Thursday, she showed up at Weissand’s reception area. The receptionist told her I was in meetings all day, following my standing instructions for any Iron Veil visitors.

“Tell him it’s urgent,” Victoria insisted, “we have a major production delay that’s about to cost us millions”. I watched through the security feed from my office as she waited for 30 minutes before leaving, her perfect composure finally cracking.

That afternoon, I received a detailed email from Brian Cooper, my former assistant at Iron Veil. We’d stayed in touch, and he had become my eyes and ears inside the company.

“Complete chaos,” he wrote. Midwest Precision had raised prices 15% on the new contract, and Valari Components pushed delivery dates out 6 weeks.

Three other vendors had capacity issues that mysteriously only affected Iron Veil orders. Victoria had called four emergency management meetings that week alone.

I hadn’t asked these vendors to punish Iron Veil, as I hadn’t needed to. They’d seen how I was treated and drawn their own conclusions about the new leadership.

Some had worked with me for years across multiple companies and knew who kept promises. The next morning, Harold Blackwell called to say the board was starting to ask questions.

Harold had kept a 15% stake in Iron Veil after selling. He said Victoria was blaming vendor hostility for the delays and claiming I poisoned the well on my way out.

“I’ve had zero contact with any Iron Veil vendors since I left,” I replied truthfully. Harold believed me but said she was convinced she was the victim.

Harold mentioned they lost the Braxton contract, one of Iron Veil’s largest accounts. “Not my concern anymore,” I said, and Harold agreed.

I told him I might need to bring on some additional manufacturing capacity soon. I asked if he knew anyone looking to sublease factory space.

Harold chuckled and said he might have some leverage to help with that very soon. A week later, I received a formal letter from Iron Veil’s legal department.

They claimed I violated non-solicitation agreements by interfering with their vendor relationships. I forwarded it to Julia’s legal team, and their response came back within hours stating there was no merit or evidence.

They were right; I hadn’t solicited anyone. I had simply stepped aside and let reality take its course.

A month into my new role, I received a message from Eleanor Hayes, Iron Veil’s head of finance. She was a detail-oriented professional who preferred results over politics and asked to meet.

We met at a coffee shop where Eleanor looked exhausted from fighting unwinnable battles. “They’re blaming you for everything,” she said, noting Victoria’s narrative that I sabotaged the company.

I stirred my coffee and noted that sabotage would require planning I didn’t have time for given the 10-minute notice of my termination. Eleanor lowered her voice and explained Victoria was brought in specifically to cut costs and prep the company for a quick flip.

The investors wanted to sell within 18 months and needed to show consistent 20% margins. I noted that Iron Veil was already profitable, but Eleanor said it wasn’t enough for them.

“Your vendor contracts were too fair; they protected both sides,” she said while showing me a spreadsheet. They needed to squeeze an additional 12% out of the supply chain.

I studied the numbers and saw it was impossible without gutting quality or shifting to overseas suppliers. This would create production gaps and destroy the company’s reputation for reliability.

Eleanor continued, “Victoria didn’t fire you because of your leadership style; she fired you because you were the only one who would have challenged these targets”. I realized then that the public nature of my firing was a warning to everyone else.

Eleanor had handed in her resignation the day before because she wouldn’t participate in what came next. She told me the board was discussing emergency measures, including potentially closing the St. Paul facility and moving production to Mexico.

That would mean 200 jobs gone. Harold was being pressured to sell his remaining shares, and they were making it very difficult for him to say no.

I drove straight to Harold’s house and found him in his garage. I told him they were going to gut the company and advised him not to sell.

“Easy for you to say,” he replied, mentioning the daily calls from their lawyers. I leaned against his workbench and asked, “What if there was another option? What if Weissand acquired Iron Veil instead?”

Harold stared at me, and I explained that Julia was looking to expand and needed manufacturing capacity. It made sense for Iron Veil to have leadership that valued what it had built.

Victoria’s investors would only sell if Iron Veil was on the verge of collapse and their only hope was a fire sale. I asked Harold how long until the cash flow problems became critical.

He estimated six to eight weeks at the current burn rate. A slow smile spread across his face as he called me a “calculating son of a gun”.

I clarified I wasn’t suggesting anything unethical, merely speculating on market conditions. Harold nodded, “Purely hypothetical”.