BEST

In Benten, we began our interviews at the BEU’s (Benten Economic Union) headquarters in Uponor, which holds Benten Economic Support Team’s (BEST) office. There, we spoke to Hesperia_ and Oderik, 2 new CEOs who benefitted from BEST; both receiving a grant worth ₡1,000,000.

Hesperia’s interview

Hesperia and the interviewer sat opposite each other in a plush office lounge, instantly recognisable with their pointed doberman ear implants.

“So, what do you think of the BEST grant?”

Hesperia relaxes into the chair, “Well, the BEST grant was pretty good to help Valandin Solutions start making and selling something of note, but honestly I think the best, excuse the pun, outcome from having it wasn't necessarily just having the funds to build up my business on Katoa, it was the community engagement that came after.”

“Pretty much immediately I started learning from the BEST representatives and other CEOs discussing my grant, what works and what doesn't, which helped me understand the business a whole lot better than what the APEX’s tutorial courses teach you.”

A moment of silence passes. Hesperia sits back up, ears at attention. “I'll be honest, the only reason I joined the BEU was because I received a letter from Benten outreach, saying ‘hey join the BEU and get 1 million for free!’.” 

Hesperia smiles, relaxing back into the chair again, “But I'm glad I did, because I honestly didn't expect such a lively and supportive community, and part of why managing my business has been so great is all the brainstorming and problem solving you do behind the scenes, which I wouldn't have had any idea how to do without the help I got from the people in BEU, which I wouldn't have even known existed without the BEST grant!”

Oderik’s interview

ICR searched the building, but couldn’t find Oderik at all. We were told by a staffer that Oderik was a few blocks away, drinking at a brauhaus. Thus, we sought to conduct the interview there instead. 

By the time we got there, Oderik was visibly drunk and could only speak German:

“Was mal als kleiner Treibstoffschuppen mit beknackten Namen auf Katoa begann, ist nun die erste Adresse in Sachen Para Aramid. Alle wollen nur noch Qualitäts-KV von uns, weil das ja klar ist.”

Oderik sagged, slightly defeated, “Ich hatte in meinem leben gerade so zu viel Alk, Tüten und Kippen, um vernünftige Entscheidungen treffen zu können.”

Jumping back up again, “So! War es nur konsequent, sich [B] anzuschließen.”

“Mit Treibstoff haben wir bis auf weiteres nichts mehr am Hut. Dafür aber bald mit Versorgungsgütern für die armen Schlucker, die das dann alles... ja, schlucken müssen.”

Oderik shouted: “Macht das Universum wieder großartig!”

One of his employees handed us his interview draft. It described how Oderik was hesitant at first due to not wanting to liaise with external support outside of the existing APEX program, and wanted to do things on his own, considering taking offers of grants as “cheating”, and wanted the fulfillment of self-achievement.

But, he had a nice and welcoming interaction with Benten's outreach program, and decided to take the time to set-up new workflows and tools for his business, which really paid off; citing “refined PrUn”, a common commercial-grade overhaul to the APEX framework as “really, really paying off”; and that defending his business proposal to the BEST representatives was mildly challenging at first, but getting all that advice was very valuable.

And finally, he was glad to be rewarded with a tremendous increase in profit because of moving from SF to KV.

B Corporation

While at Uponor’s spaceport, we found our way to the business-class lounge of Booze, Blunts and Bigarettes, otherwise known as B, as compensation from Oderik. There, we had a chance encounter with two new CEOs: Mezzi, and Zoybel.

Mezzi’s interview

ICR first decided to interview Mezzi, the CEO of Mezzonite, who was keen on sharing more about what B was.

“So, what’s your first impression of reddead (the Leader of B)?”Mezzi smiled with appreciation. “My first impression of reddead was him giving me enough money to join the corporation after like a couple days of playing. My friend and business associate Fushiii had already joined B, so he told the other CEOs about me and within a day they had offered to let me in.”

“So after about a month into running Mezzonite, I felt like I was starting to get a grasp on things, but had a bunch of questions so I asked to meet with reddead since he offered to give me ₡1,000,000 at 0% interest to get my base going since I had like 7 buildings total. LambdaTiger and reddead held a meeting with me and went over various common business management tools such as PRUNplanner and BURN and why certain things were going wrong in my business. They helped me plan out a fully built base and recipes to use to maximize profits.”

“What else do you have to say about B?”

Mezzi tapped on the figure of a ship on his desk. “Well, another great thing about them is their business incubator program and the giveaways they do. I upgraded one of Mezzonite’s ships through raylu’s forevermore shipbuilding and a 250k grant, which also really helped me out since we were smelting SI from the start, which made shipping everything a constant struggle.”

“Since then we’ve been slowly trying to save up to expand Mezzonite to a second branch. The BEST grant helped tremendously, I was able to fully fund our second branch and the advice given by the team was amazing.”

We were additionally offered a look at B’s current loan table, with the sales representative informing us that it offered the best loan rates in the galaxy to new CEOs, according to their APEX HQ level.

COSM Corporation and IDA

On Cronus, in the Orthys system, ICR correspondents were at Cosmocene Combine’s (COSM) headquarters. An ice world, it was the site of COSM’s largest titanium smelting operation. There, we spoke with Nahelia, QiRenCHN, and Tomato-Chef, three CEOs who benefitted from COSM and their attached Insitor Development Authority (IDA) program.

Nahelia’s interview

We found ourselves at the office of Nahelia Verwest, bright with the orange-red hue of Hortus, smelling of lilies and incense.

“What has your time with COSM been like?”

Nahelia reminisced. “On that day, we shook hands. I finally settled into another base of operations, away from my old home. When my parents passed away during the riots against FOXV, I liquidated their sewing company to start my own ventures as an entrepreneur. I’ve always wanted a simple life as a farmer, peaceful and easy going, and Promitor was the perfect place for it, with its tender yet still fertile soil.”

“I was new to this world, as I first went to law school. Fortunately for me, there were

many farms on Promitor, and everyone was very kind and helpful. There was this giant corporation, more akin to a conglomerate of businesses, that was thriving in Promitor and all across the Insitor Cooperative. The Cosmocene Combine was their name, and I’ve since been a part of it, as a small part of their collective. They’re a bunch of joyful people, always willing to lend a helping hand to their next of kin, which surprised me. I thought these kind of associations were more… ‘Shark Tank’, I’d say? I wasn’t expecting the business world to be so gentle, but it’s better this way.” Nahelia smiled.

“Ever since I’ve joined them, I’ve been able to expand my operations. I now

have made a few associates! There’s Maya, a pretty and young woman who’s been

buying all my maize - at a bargain; she’s a tough customer; and then there’s Kendrick, who

is shipping the production I now have from my branch at Lemuria to Promitor.”

“I’ve also managed to apply to a ship upgrading program for small businesses that are run by one of the biggest shipbuilders in the universe. Thanks to this, I may now be able to ship myself some of my maize to many places in the starry skies above. I’ve been in this whole new universe for a few months now, but it’s already feeling like I’ve always been a part of it. Speaking with the people of Promitor and COSM is something I look to every day I wake up. Let’s hope this will stay like this forever.”

QiRenCHN’s Interview

COSM is well known for its Chinese-speaking segment, where we interviewed QiRenCHN, a new CEO from there. ICR brought in its Chinese correspondent for this interview.

“IDA和COSM真样帮你新公司？”

QiRen一边笑着来说： “作为一个新人，我现在就是想赚钱，赚多多的钱。”

“IDA和COSM主要是新人礼包的ǂ1,000,000和贷款，还有马上到来的6-10HQ，这些让我的扩张速度有了极大的提升。现在我玩了俩周半左右，已经有了4个基地，正在攒钱升级飞船，并准备去建造一个新基地，去建设水培农场。”

“你在COSM下有参与下有趣的社区活动吗？”

QiRen若有所思的回答：“老实说，APEX PRO对于从中国的商人来说是很昂贵的。起初我担心如此高昂的价格并不能给与我一个美妙的体验，差点退坑。但幸运的是，我在第一天就抽中了QQ群的抽奖：一个月的APEX PRO，免费的。”

“然后当我扩张到阿瓦隆的时候，马上就有了空地让我可以建立基地。一切都很顺利。”

Tomato-Chef’s Interview

ICR also got the chance to interview one of the fastest growing new members of COSM, Tomato-Chef.

“How has your time in COSM been?”

“I'm a new member of COSM, and I’ve received so much help from my partners at COSM, I pretty much follow their strategy at the moment, I do sponsorship programs, I received some loans... I try as much as I can to be the most profitable, organised.”

“IDA gave me grants, loans, and many suggestions as a new CEO, helping me avoid mistakes.”

“Have you been doing anything as of late?”

“I discovered the commercially available FIO extension to APEX, and I connected it to a corporate WAI and have some spreadsheets automatically update every time I open it. I have different pages on that spreadsheet, available inventory, company production, company finances presented in a way I prefer.

“I have a page with all my legal contracts filtered by type with the deadline of payment so that's how I keep track of that! I also have my ‘Magic page’ where the WAI analyses all the data and sends me a small report with urgent things to do in my entire company, like shipping some inventory to a planet, or strategy suggestions. It's an amazing tool that still needs improvements.”

And with that, our interviews came to a close. We at ICR wish the best for all the budding entrepreneurs in the universe!

Delissaious, Associate Editor
C-02 Frontier Voices | Benten Regional Dispatch
Intersteller Commerce Review