My read of it is that Godinet wasn't interested in scaling up and turned down the offered 20k purchase (which would've likely been at a nice profit) and instead

My read of it is that Godinet wasn't interested in scaling up and turned down the offered 20k purchase (which would've likely been at a nice profit) and instead just sent a couple sample sets - with a bit of a "do what you want with it" implication, IMO - and a bill just to cover costs instead of asking for more. So then he felt free to go do his own version. I think this is supported by the next paragraph: > In a similar vein, Nike was founded in 1964 only after a running shoe company called Onitsuka lost interest in partnering with a recent Oregon track grad named Phil Knight. While his shoe empire was born between the grooves of a waffle iron, Bob and Jill's cup empire was sketched on the back of a Fresh Fish Co. paper placemat. There was someone else in the space, but they weren't interested in working with the newcomer who ended up being bigger.