My room isn’t just upstairs, it’s in the attic, and I couldn’t face the stairs and the rope ladder that lay between me and my bed. I’d need a pit stop.

I went into the living room and flopped onto the couch.

The laptop was sitting open on the coffee table, and I pulled it onto my chest.

Typing lying down like that was slow, but eventually, I found the article Josh had wanted me to read. In the interview, the Tea King was talking about how Majani was Krakow, and that it was the people there who had made the company such a success: Start a business in a place like Krakow, a struggling town in upstate New York, and you don’t just get employees—you get partners who work around the clock with you, who make your dream their own, and will not rest until they make it come true. This is the reason to start a business in these towns or to give money to someone who wants to. All they need is a good idea…

I was suddenly wide awake.

I clicked open Google and put four words in the search box: Alhaadi Okello contact information.

You probably aren’t surprised that I couldn’t find the Tea King’s direct email address, but I did find one for someone in the Majani Press Office, Wally Siglinder.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Urgent Investment Opportunity

Dear Mr. Siglinder,

It would be great if you could forward this email to Mr. Okello.

Dear Mr. Okello,

I really hope this email gets to you and that you actually read it. I don’t mean that in a rude way at all, like you think you’re too good to read random emails from 12-year-old kids. I just know that you’re busy trying to get Majani into every store in America.

I don’t want to freak you out, but we actually have a lot in common:

1. We both come from food families (you=tea business, me=restaurant business)

2. We both came to upstate NY from other places (you=Kenya, me=NYC)

3. We both own businesses in upstate NY (you=Majani, me=The Doughnut Stop).

4. We both want to use our businesses to keep upstate NY towns from going extinct.

So Majani is a lot further along than The Doughnut Stop in meeting its goals. I’m not making excuses, but you should know that me and my cofounder are in seventh grade, which makes some things difficult.

Right now, our biggest problem is keeping up with demand. I read that Majani has also struggled with this. The only way to really increase our supply is to buy the Belshaw Donut Robot, which can make over 1,000 doughnuts in an hour. The problem is it costs $50,000.

I know you’re focused on expanding Majani, so I completely understand if you can’t help us out, but I read something you said that made me think maybe you’d be interested in investing in The Doughnut Stop. It was about funding businesses in places like Krakow. Maybe you don’t remember because it seems like you give a lot of interviews, and my friend Josh has read all of them. Anyway, I was wondering whether you would fund us, The Doughnut Stop, because Petersville, my town, really needs this business and may not be a town for much longer unless we can change things.