My Age of Investment

  Chapter 1043 Brainstorming

  With the strong support of the big boss Xia Jingxing, Ricky, with the determination to do a big job, initiated a vigorous restructuring within the Silicon Valley office of Envision Capital.

  As the saying goes, the boat is easy to turn around. This principle also applies to the venture capital industry.

In addition, Ricky was also resolute and resolute in doing things. The next day, he arranged to pack a small plane to bring more than a dozen members of the investment team, including legal affairs, data and finance, capital markets, public relations and marketing, and government relations. A post-investment support team of more than 20 people, including job posts, recruitment, etc., were all transported to the sparsely populated Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

  The whole company can be said to have come out in full force and went on an expedition on the edge of the desert for three days.

  Of course, it’s just an adventure during the day for team building and a lively atmosphere. At night, the whole team set up a bonfire by the tent, sat around and brainstormed together to discuss the issue of fund restructuring in depth.

  As Xia Jingxing and Ricky had expected, the young people with no qualifications were very excited, and they almost couldn't find North when they were hit by the happy gift package of "shot once a year" proposed by the company.

  Although they entered the company under the halo of Ivy League + MBA, Ivy League + top consulting/top investment bank, they are the pride of the outside world and the star of venture capital in the future...

  However, the reality is very shocking. They are just a screw in the fund. They look at hundreds of projects a year, but they don’t have the investment decision-making power for any project.

  If you want to enjoy the supreme glory of “one-shot fame”, you have to work hard for your qualifications, exercise your ability, and learn the most basic screening items.

  Don’t be convinced!

  The entire venture capital industry has such promotion rules. Although it is close to money, no fund helm dares to give the money to a group of stunners who have never proven themselves to decide where to invest? How to vote?

  After all, the core indicator of the fund’s survival is the rate of return, which is the trust of the LP. No institution dares to make a joke of this.

  So, even though young VC practitioners often claim to be the next John Durr, the next Michael Moritz...

But they can only pretend to be coercive in front of laymen. They know how far they are from top investors. At least they have to become partners of the company and be qualified to enter the investment committee to make decisions before they can talk to the top. Striving for investors' goals.

  In the case of a promoted partner, it takes many years of experience and a certain amount of credit.

For example, analysts who are responsible for collecting data, organizing materials, and doing various chores must be upgraded to investment managers from the lowest level, before they are eligible to have initial contact with the project, and learn from the little boss VP vice president who leads the project. ability.

  After being promoted to VP, even if a good project is found, there is still no investment decision-making power, and the project needs to pass the investment committee.

  This level is more complicated and requires the investment committee leaders to have a high enough level to avoid misunderstanding.

  Fate is not in the hands of the investment manager or vice president of the recommended project at all.

  If God’s favor, the project has not been killed by the leaders of the investment committee, and successfully invested in it, we have to pray that one or two of these projects will become star startup companies, and the IPO will create a dream return rate of dozens of times and hundreds of times.

  If you really do this, then even if you have a small reputation in the industry, any venture capital conference is eligible to be a sharing guest on stage, instead of sitting in the audience.

  At this time, all organizations will throw olive branches. In order to retain talents, the company finally gives out the position of partner and attracts outstanding young people to the top.

  After mastering the investment decision-making power, the probability of owning a project has become higher. If you invest in a few star startup companies one after another, you will either retire to give way or go out and start your own business.

  Whether it is staying in the company to take over the position of head, or going out to create a school, as long as you do well enough, you can become a new top investor.

  If you are lucky enough to have a smooth journey, it will take more than ten or twenty years to complete the above steps, and the carp will leap into the dragon.

  Vision Capital gives young team members a chance to be the masters themselves, which is likely to change a young person’s career development destiny and bring extremely considerable returns to the company.

  For example, when Kuaishou A and B rounds of financing, the two investment managers of IDG and DCM both gave TS.

  But there was a problem during the project meeting, IDG internal investment committee failed, but DCM passed.

   There was an episode when the DCM Investment Committee voted, because the internal decision-making was too slow, and Kuaishou was almost taken away by Sequoia Capital at 1.5 times the bid.

  At the last moment, Su Hua was trustworthy and chose the DCM that gave TS to TS two days earlier, although the bid was low.

  The completely different choices of IDG and DCM have created zero returns for the two funds on Kuaishou and tens of billions of dollars in the other.

  The young investment managers of the two funds handling the project have therefore embarked on a completely different career development path. One is unknown and the other is Hu Boyu, who founded his own fund XVC at a young age.

  If there is a mechanism similar to Vision Capital in the IDG fund, the investment committee fails to pass it, and the investment manager chooses to exercise the privilege, perhaps it is a different situation.

  In short, the young people in the Silicon Valley team of Vision Capital understand what kind of opportunity the company has given themselves to wait for others. It may not be of much use, and may change their career destiny.

  Everyone is very grateful for this, and at the same time feel lucky to join Vision Capital. There are too few private funds in the venture capital industry, and they are almost unique.

  The reaction of young people is quite different from that of several big men in the investment committee. They all expressed varying degrees of concern about this proposal from the boss.

  Because of the relatively flat management of the company and the special environment of the bonfire party, there are not so many taboos in the office. Everyone opened their hearts and offered ideas and suggestions. At the same time, it was accompanied by a lot of arguments and even quarrels.

  After some discussions, the leaders of the investment committee put forward a more mature proposal: restrict privileges and only provide them to old employees who have served in the company for more than one year.

  It's not that they deliberately set obstacles to young people's emergence, but that they are actually considering issues from the perspective of the company's interests.

  If new employees have no experience in venture capital at all, even if they are given privileges, it will not help much and will only increase costs.

  After a year of systematic study, the rookies have at least a certain degree of investment literacy, which can greatly increase the success rate of investment, and maximize the boss's goal of cultivating talents and preventing missed projects.

  Ricky thought this suggestion was good, and adopted it on the spot.

  The young people in the team did not have much opinion, because in the final analysis, the company is not doing charity, and giving them opportunities is hoping to get good use, rather than waste.

  The post-investment support team also made suggestions: strengthen the review of privileged projects to avoid the transfer of benefits and all malfeasance and corruption.

  This is a very likely event. If all the projects submitted by an investment manager this year are passed and there is no opportunity to use privileges, wouldn’t it be a waste?

  It's better to hook up with a company that can't raise capital and earn some rebates.

  Ricky readily accepted this suggestion put forward by the post-investment team, and at the same time put the ugly words at the forefront. Once the abuse of privileges is found, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law and will never be tolerated.

  In this way, you and me, a team of dozens of people brainstormed, and put forward a lot of useful suggestions around the scope of use of privileges, restrictions, and reviews.

  (End of this chapter)