Ralph, standing a little shorter than Randy and with darker hair, answered the question. If Ivan had to guess, he would assume that Ralph was the numbers man, while Randy was the people person.

“Well, we just started to cater to different clientele, and Lucina felt that she just wasn’t, ah, getting her full value’s worth.” He said, “But we’re glad to see that she’s working out well with you now. We’re happy for her.”

Ivan nodded, wondering how much the two of them were worth. He estimated seven to fifteen million. They were among the lead concert promoters in the city. But they mainly dealt with pop and rock music, leaving the urban and ethnic crowds alone.

Ivan projected, We probably can’t touch them on concerts right now. We still have a lot of work to do.

Randy asked him, “So, who came up with this idea? Lucina?”

Meeting face-to-face with these guys was the exact competitive situation Ivan had alluded to in his speech. He wanted to be extra-careful with everything he said to them.

“Lucina has a lot of great ideas, but the network that I’ve been able to build through Hutch and Mitchell Accounting, the Tribune newspaper, the Urban League, all of my personal friendships, and the website has allowed us both to make the bigger ideas fly,” he told them. He added, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re just getting started now.”

Ivan wanted to protect himself and Lucina right away by name-dropping his accounting firm, the local media, and a well-established African-American business group, and hinting at his own friendships, website vehicle, and the fact that they planned to increase their promotional power within the city limits of San Diego. He wanted to establish a solid base.

Ralph nodded and said, “That’s good. It looks like you’re building a strong team. So you guys will be doing mostly urban and R&B crowds? We hear you had Busta Rhymes, Timbaland, and, ah, Eve in town a few weeks ago.”

Ivan smirked. He said, “You guys are paying attention to us like that? They were pretty much just hangout parties.”

“Well, those hangout parties cause a lot of noise when you throw them in the Gaslamp,” Randy stated with a chuckle.

Since Ivan was still relatively new to most of the club owners in the Gaslamp Quarter, he wanted to create an illusion of distance on those deals to see what would happen. Were Randy and Ralph friends or foes?

“Well, I actually don’t decide on who comes in and where we have them. Lucina and the other promoters we work with are usually the ones who tell us what the crowd would like here, and I just follow their lead,” he told them.

Randy nodded, comprehending everything. He figured Ivan was more of a freelance investor who was willing to drill in whatever direction he could to find some oil.