My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1274 Great Good People Hold CEO Summit

  “In the context of the global economic recession, all walks of life are suffering a severe test of survival.

  In order to survive, business owners will cut the funds used for advertising on the Internet, cut off businesses with reduced revenue, lay off employees...

   We will reduce our own operating costs through all conceivable cost-cutting methods, so as to survive this once-in-a-century financial crisis. "

   In the large conference room of Vision Capital's Silicon Valley office, Xia Jingxing sat on the stage with a golden knife and talked about strategies and methods to combat the financial crisis.

  The audience was crowded with people, all of whom were the founding management teams of companies invested by Vision Capital, such as Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus and many other CEOs of Silicon Valley star companies, all of them were listed.

   The white-haired, nearly seventy-year-old CEO of the Working Hours Company, David Duffield, is like a primary school student who listens carefully in class, taking quick notes while listening.

"There is no end to the egg under the nest. Although the Internet and IT software industries are asset-light operation models and have relatively low liabilities, under the background of advertisers cutting budgets and layoffs of software service targets, it is bound to cause damage to the entire technology industry. critical hit.

  Many people think that the financial crisis has little to do with them. After all, they did not buy half-depreciated properties and sub-prime derivatives whose value was almost zero. "

   Seeing the funny appearance of Xia Jingxing with his hands and head tilted, a burst of laughter broke out off the court.

   "This view is wrong, the technology industry is not a business island, it needs to do business with traditional companies.

   The life of traditional entrepreneurs is difficult, and the life of technology entrepreneurs will naturally be difficult.

   At present, except for a few technology giants in Silicon Valley, the rest of the companies are laying off large-scale employees, including some well-funded listed companies.

   In addition, the financial crisis has hit the capital market hard, and many startups that want to go public have shelved their IPO plans.

The   VC market has also suffered its worst cold since the dot-com bubble period, with many funds failing to raise funds or reducing the amount raised.

   This also means that in the next few years, everyone will face a less relaxed financing environment.

   In other words, the good old days are gone forever, and the financing myth that a dropout can get millions or tens of millions of dollars in investment is hard to reproduce. "

   Hearing Xia Jingxing's words, except for a few people, most of the others put away the smiles on their faces, and their expressions gradually became serious.

   There is no doubt that this is a friendly warning to them from the financial tycoons.

   "But there is also good news, Vision Capital has raised a new $1 billion VC fund, which has now been closed.

   Next, it will invest in companies and entrepreneurial teams that remain unyielding in the financial cold.

   Vision Capital is the firmest ally and partner on everyone’s growth path. I believe everyone should have heard this when accepting investment from Vision Capital.

   This is not a scene, but a promise, and now is the time to fulfill the promise.

  Please rest assured, we will stand with you to get through this difficult time together. "

  Xia Jingxing's words are like the warm sun in spring, sprinkled in everyone's heart, making many people feel a touch of warmth in the cold spring.

   At the same time, some people sighed in their hearts that they did not choose wrongly when they chose to accept the capital injection from Vision Capital.

  Not every institution is willing to give help in the snow, and everyone generally chooses the icing on the cake.

   Noticing the grateful glances from many people in the audience, Xia Jingxing sighed in his heart.

   Don’t you just want to take advantage of the golden opportunity created by the financial crisis to expand the shareholding ratio of Vision Capital in various startups?

   A win-win business, abruptly understood as charity.

   Well, he is regarded as a great man, not once or twice, he is used to it.

  The operation of Envision Capital VC Fund in the United States is far from invincible as it is in China.

  Domestic VC funds once held 30% and 40% of the shares of Tudou and Ganji. Venture capital almost made a holding acquisition.

   In this regard, Wang Wei, Yang Haoyong and others did not express too strong resistance.

   It is not that the founder is born to be resigned, but it has something to do with Xia Jingxing's position in the domestic business community and the domestic venture capital environment.

   Domestic entrepreneurs do not have so many choices, and Xia Jingxing and Envision Capital are already their best choices.

   Unlike the United States, the venture capital industry has prospered for decades, and Envision Capital is only a cutting-edge investment institution in Silicon Valley.

   Compared with contacts, resources, and grades, there is not much advantage.

  In the early stage of development, Xia Jingxing also exchanged a lot of resources with the PayPal entrepreneurial gang headed by Peter Thiel, which was the initial foundation.

Therefore, the shareholding ratio of Envision Capital's US VC funds in various startups is not high. The minority holds only a few percent of the shares, while the more ones hold more than ten percent of the shares, and few of them exceed 100 percent. Twenty exists.

  The true meaning of venture capital is not to cast a wide net and catch more fish. Investing in too many mediocre companies cannot create good returns. The correct way is to focus on the top projects of each fund and invest heavily.

   So I often see some star projects, and some venture capital institutions have chased after several rounds of investment, desperately trying to get more shares.

   Whether a fund can generate positive returns and generate super high positive returns often falls on one or two projects.

   The current performance of the Envision Capital VC Fund is a bit like a no-brainer to the outside world and a heavy blow to the inside.

   will only be horizontal in the nest, which is definitely undesirable.

   Next, Xia Jingxing shared a set of slides with the CEOs of the invested companies present.

   Looking at a group of pessimistic economic charts and data, most of the CEOs present felt extremely worried.

   At the end of the slide, there is a connotation diagram without any fonts - a sharp knife inserted into the pig's head.

   Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned.

  Xia Jingxing did not explain the meaning of the picture. He believed that as long as it was not a pig head, he should be able to understand the meaning.

   After the CEO summit, other startup CEOs got up and left one after another. Reid Hoffman, David Duffield and the others did not move and remained sitting in place, as if they had something to say to Xia Jingxing.

  Seeing this, Xia Jingxing didn't get up either. When everyone in the conference room was almost gone, he asked, "How many bosses want to invite me to dinner?"

  Reid Hoffman laughed, "No problem, I'll invite you for lunch today. I still have a few discount coupons that will expire soon."

  Xia Jingxing smiled, "I like discount coupons. The things you buy with discount coupons are really fragrant when you eat them."

   After a few jokes with Xia Jingxing, Reid Hoffman talked about the main topic: "Daren, how long do you think the adverse effects of the financial crisis will be eliminated?

   If it weren’t for the financial crisis, Facebook would be a public company by now. "

   Jeremy, Pincus, and Duffield all looked at Xia Jingxing in unison. They were very concerned about this issue and wanted to hear what the financial giants thought about it.

  Xia Jingxing heard the overtones of Reid's words, and it is estimated that this guy already has the idea of ​​sending LinkedIn to go public.

   “It will take at least a year to roughly restore normal financial order.

  If LinkedIn wants to go public, it should be after 2010. "

  Reid Hoffman smiled, "LinkedIn became profitable in 2007, and the financial crisis this time did not cause much damage to our business, but helped us generate revenue.

  Because many people are looking for jobs through LinkedIn after losing their jobs. "

   "Really? That's great news!"

  Xia Jingxing had a faint smile on his face. For a start-up company like LinkedIn that has already grown thoroughly, it is almost difficult for Envision Capital to expand its shareholding.

The financial crisis could not stop LinkedIn's financing steps. In the following month after Lehman's collapse, LinkedIn completed tens of millions of US dollars in D+ round financing. Goldman Sachs Direct Investment Fund led the investment, German software giant, the world's first ERP software Developer SAP joined the investment.

   This is not only money, but also resources.

  With the help of SAP, LinkedIn's corporate membership service has developed many Fortune 500 customers.

Goldman Sachs has not provided any support for LinkedIn yet, but when it goes public, Goldman Sachs will definitely be walking around the streets and shouting on Wall Street, calling on three or five friends, and together they will set the IPO pricing and fundraising amount, and the stock price on the first day high. High.

   These financing steps for making friends are an indispensable part of the listing, so Envision Capital did not join in the fun.

   In fact, as early as June last year, when LinkedIn opened the D round of financing, Envision Capital withdrew from the list of co-investors.

  The reason given by Reid Hoffman is very strong and very reasonable. He said that he hopes to introduce more diversified shareholders, and everyone will work together to make the cake bigger, so that everyone can share a little more.

   Having said that, what could Xia Jingxing say, he voluntarily gave up the follow-up vote because he had already voted for three consecutive rounds before.

Fortunately, the scale of LinkedIn's D rounds and D+ rounds of financing is not too large, and it does not dilute the shareholding of Vision Capital. It still holds about 10% of LinkedIn's shares, which is the second largest institution after Sequoia. Shareholders, there is no problem waiting for a share of the pie after the listing.

  Xia Jingxing chatted with Pincus, Duffield and Jeremy again.

  Xingjia, Gong Hou, Yelp and other companies, like LinkedIn, are growing rapidly, and they are the first batch of startups invested by Vision Capital in Silicon Valley.

  These CEOs have the same idea as Reid Hoffman, and they all want to get the company listed as soon as possible and achieve their respective goals of financial freedom.

  Xia Jingxing understands this very well. Running a company is like raising pigs. Once the pigs are fattened, they should be put out for slaughter.

   Seeing that everyone around him has become rich by raising pigs, yachts and planes have been arranged, but he is still struggling to raise pigs, and anyone else will feel anxious.

   As for those nonsense stories like changing the world, they are all told to media reporters after becoming famous, concave chicken soup stories set up by people, and normal people who are not interested in money.

   (end of this chapter)