My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1239 Take the lead, big brother

   After Xia Jingxing released the news that he was going to spend a lot of money to support the employees who left Facebook to start their own businesses, his office was directly kicked over the threshold by a large group of employees who left Facebook.

   There is no doubt that Xia Jingxing at this time has become a representative figure of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.

   Coupled with the successful aura of Vision Capital, his fame is not much worse than that of the previous life Xiao Mazi.

   Who wouldn't want to get help from such a big man on his entrepreneurial path?

   Of course, not everyone in Xia Jingxing voted, and a certain degree of screening would be carried out.

   If you are a star entrepreneur in a previous life, then naturally you have to invest.

   If he is not a star entrepreneur in the previous life, he will also give a certain opportunity and send someone to follow up.

   Among the large group of entrepreneurs who came to sell themselves on Facebook, Xia Jingxing admired and paid attention to Adam and another Sri Lankan youth named Chamas Palihapitiya the most.

   On this day, Chamath came to Xia Jingxing's office for the second time and explained his business plan to the latter in detail.

   "Darren, because I joined Facebook relatively late, I didn't get much money in this option cashing out, just a few million dollars.

   So I plan not to set up my own venture capital fund for the time being, and try to do angel investment first. "

  Chamas looks in his early thirties, with a full beard and dark skin, which looks very similar to Indians.

   And he speaks at a rate similar to that of Indians, like a machine gun, shooting non-stop.

   Xia Jingxing did not dislike such employees who love to express themselves and strive for opportunities.

   In fact, he and Chamath only worked together for a few months. Shortly after Chamath joined Facebook, he left and returned to China.

What impressed him deeply was this guy's superb German poker skills, which should be called the number one on Facebook, and even the average professional player couldn't beat him. It is estimated that he is similar to Zhou Sheng, who is still a professional gambler in Macau. A comparison.

  Xia Jingxing pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Why did you choose to do finance? I remember you graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada, majoring in electrical engineering?"

   "Can I say, I prefer financial or numbers games?"

   Seeing Xia Jingxing frowning slightly, Chamath explained with a smile: "Daren, my poker skills are actually not born, but acquired.

  I was born in an ordinary middle-class family in Sri Lanka in 1976. When I was 6 years old, I immigrated to Canada with my parents. Later, my father suffered from depression and began to drink heavily. The whole person died immediately, and the family conditions also plummeted.

   In order to help my mother share the heavy responsibility of supporting the family, I started working in places like Burger King when I was in high school, often working alone for several people.

   Those manual jobs were so exhausting, until later I stumbled upon a way to make quick money that opened me up to a new world. "

   "Tokyo?" Xia Jingxing asked.

"right!"

   Chamath smiled, "Once I borrowed a fake ID to sneak into the casino, and I actually won money.

   After that, I went to the casino once a week and ended up winning only $50 each time until I won college. "

  Xia Jingxing was stunned when he heard it, and encountered another persecutor.

   Zhou Shengfu played poker in Macau for a living, winning tens of millions of dollars.

   This guy in front of him seems to have the same talent as a professional gambler, but he knows how to restrain himself.

Chamath continued: "After I went to college, my father's depression gradually recovered, he began to work outside, and the family economy improved, so I stopped gambling and spent all my thoughts on it. learn above.

  In 1999, after I got my degree, I worked for a year as a derivatives trader at the Bank of Montreal in Canada.

   But I found that this seemingly decent job was actually very restrictive and not the life I wanted, so I moved to Silicon Valley with my girlfriend. "

  Xia Jingxing added with a smile: "Then, you joined the Internet trend and joined AOL. In just four years, you were promoted from an ordinary engineer developing chat software to the company's youngest vice president."

   In the face of the former boss's praise, Chamath couldn't help showing a bright smile on his face.

   He spread his hands, "However, I soon found that I am not suitable for AOL, my driving habits and pursuit of speed do not match the old car that is driving slowly on the road.

   So I tried a different track and joined the Mayfield Fund, an established VC firm.

   After working for only a few months, I found that my Asian face could not really fit into the circle of the white old man fund partners. "

  Xia Jingxing laughed, "Old white men dominate America, maybe they think they dominate the world."

   Watching Xia Jingxing tease the old white man, Chamath also laughed, "So I left decisively and chose to join Facebook, which was founded by Asians and has a more inclusive and equal corporate culture."

  Xia Jingxing nodded lightly, Facebook should be the most Asian-friendly company in Silicon Valley.

   It’s not that other tech companies discriminate against Asians, but compared to Facebook, other tech companies have far fewer Asian executives, and Asians have far fewer opportunities for promotion.

  To a certain extent, Facebook is quite different in Silicon Valley, but it is more international, and its relatively equal promotion opportunities have also attracted a large number of excellent Asian talents to join.

  The eclectic talent reduction is also a big advantage of Facebook.

   "You've been employed by Facebook for the past four years to manage user growth.

   I have to say, you did a great job growing your website from 100 million users to 800 million.

  Christina is a little reluctant to let you go.

  How about you wait another year or two? Facebook is going public soon. "

  Chamas waved his hand, "Daren, thank you very much for your recognition of me and Kristina, but I think I should be more suitable, or rather want to work in investment.

   It doesn't mean staring at a few dead big screens all day like in my first job, but it means more creative investment work, such as venture capital, is very good. "

   Seeing that Chamath's entrepreneurial idea is very firm, Xia Jingxing no longer discouraged him too much.

   Chamath was well-known in the industry in his previous life, and was a well-known billionaire in the financial industry.

After leaving Facebook, Chamath founded an investment fund called SocialCapital with the help of PayPal founder Peter Thiel and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Be bullish on Tesla and bet on a series of listed unicorns.

   In just nine years, it has created ten times the net rate of return for LPs and gained fame in the investment world.

   And one of the things that Chamath is more talked about is that in 2010, he spent $25 million to buy a 10% stake in the NBA club team, the Golden State Warriors.

   Ten years later, this investment has increased by 20 times and has become 500 million US dollars, which can be called fame and fortune.

At the same time, this guy also has multiple identities such as the king of SPAC transactions, a currency circle boss, and a Twitter celebrity investor. One of the Hundreds".

But what Xia Jingxing didn't know was that in 2021, the guy in front of him had done something even more out of the circle, leading a group of retail investors to fight Wall Street, so he was elected by retail investors as the "leading brother" and became famous all over the world. once.

   "Chamas, the valuation of start-up companies in Silicon Valley has risen rapidly in the past two years. If you are engaged in angel investment, your millions of dollars may not be easy to make a name for yourself."

  Xia Jingxing’s words were very direct, and it was close to saying that Chamath’s capital was not strong enough.

   But Chamath didn't get angry because of this, but said with a smile: "So I really hope to get your support!"

  Xia Jingxing pondered for a moment and decided to throw an olive branch: "Or you can join the Silicon Valley office of Vision Capital, and I will manage a fund of several hundred million dollars for you."

When   cha Marston was stunned, he said in disbelief: "Daren, are you serious? I'm just a rookie with a year and a few months of financial investment experience."

   "You are being humble when you say that. I heard that Disney is interested in acquiring the social gaming company Playdom. It seems that this company has accepted your angel investment of $25,000, right?"

Chamath's mind turned quickly, and he immediately defended himself: "Daren, the cooperation between Playdom and Facebook, although I introduced it, I definitely did not use my authority to seek anything improper for Playdom. Interests."

  Xia Jingxing smiled, "I didn't say you opened the door of convenience, what did you explain."

   In fact, Chamas cannot blame Chamas for thinking too much. The Playdom and Zynga games he invested in are both companies that develop social games for Facebook, and they are competitors with each other.

   And Vision Capital invested in Xingjia Games, while Xingjia founder Mark Pincus invested in Facebook.

   He rashly brought Playdom to the Facebook platform, in fact, he touched the cheese of the boss.

  Xia Jingxing has no intention to care about these at all. In fact, in addition to Playdom, Facebook has also introduced many social games developed by other companies in order to check and balance a dominant Xingjia game.

   Chamath’s actions actually helped Facebook and secretly got Kristina’s acquiescence.

  Xia Jingxing is really concerned about the rate of return on Chamath’s investment in Playdom, the social game developer that Disney acquired in a previous life for $700 million to $800 million.

   Chamath invested $25,000 in Playdom a few years ago and is likely to reap several thousand times the return on his investment.

  With this dazzling investment record, it is quite easy for Chamath to go out to raise funds in the future, and he does not need to hang on the tree of Vision Capital.

  Xia Jingxing planned to trap this guy before Playdom was sold to Disney and before Chamath took off, and let him work for himself for two years.

   It is definitely unrealistic to trap Chamath for a long time, after all, he has the strength and luck to become a boss.

  Xia Jingxing intends to train Chamath as an external sub-fund manager of Envision Capital, like Zhang Sanshi, Ma Ziming, Bill Huang, Einhorn, and Spitznagel.

  Eggs are not put in one basket, lest one of these people roll over.

   "How about it? Join Vision Capital for a few years, and I'll give you the power to independently manage hundreds of millions of dollars in funds."

  Xia Jingxing said in a persuasive manner: "When you have the experience and performance of managing hundreds of millions of dollars in funds, it will have a multiplier effect on your business in the future.

   And I promise, when you want to go out and start a business, I will invest at least $100 million in you. "

   Hearing the conditions reported by Xia Jingxing, Chamath hesitated.

   With an adventurous gene in his bones, he is naturally restless and has always had the idea of ​​starting an independent business.

  Xia Jingxing let him manage a fund of hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time he could use the various resources of the big platform Vision Capital, which was particularly exciting to him.

   is equivalent to using Envision Capital’s money to practice investment skills. Where can I find such good things?

   Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Chamath happily agreed, "Daren, I'm willing to work for you... um, how about three years?

  You can rest assured, I will definitely achieve results in these three years.

  If there is no grade, I will not be ashamed to ask you for investment. "

   "No problem, just do as you say!"

  Xia Jingxing raised his palm with a smile and gave Chamath a high five.

   Chamas was full of smiles and felt extremely happy. Although his investment plan was not completely successful and he sold himself to Xia Jingxing for three years, he reaped a lot of hidden benefits.

   He asked with a smile, "Then Daren, when will I join Vision Capital?"

   "This is not in a hurry, you can try to complete a task for me first."

   Chamath said with a puzzled face, "What mission?"

   "Help me find an NBA club that can make a lot of money."

   Chamath said with a smile: "Daren, do you like basketball too?"

   "Of course, this is a sport that the whole of America likes."

   "Are you interested in the NFL Major League Football team? The influence and popularity of this sport in the United States are even higher than the NBA."

  Xia Jingxing glanced at Chamas, "If you can find something that meets my requirements, you can also take it together."

   Hearing the words, Chamath was very excited immediately. He liked this kind of boss who used the US dollar as Zimbabwe currency, and he would have a future if he followed such a boss.

   (end of this chapter)