Reinventing the Millennium

Yu Hong got into the car where her uncle and brother came to pick her up, but the chat atmosphere was a bit strange.

"Dahong, you said you are working on the Internet now?"

"Um."

"What exactly?"

"Medical registration."

"Then what is the relationship between your company and Sequoia? Why did the vice president come to pick him up?"

Yu Hong had known her uncle Li Bintao's habits for a long time and replied seriously: "My boss is the president. Isn't it normal for the vice president to succeed one president after another?"

Li Bintao stopped talking.

However, after two traffic lights, he couldn't help but ask: "Sequoia is an investment company. Has it invested in your company?"

"Well, I invested two million." Yu Hong hesitated and almost said the number was a vague few million. She felt that her impulse must be influenced by Fang Zhuo, who was always able to fool people like this.

Li Bintao was quiet for two seconds and exclaimed: "Then your company must have a valuation of tens of millions!"

Yu Hong followed Fang Zhuo's tone and replied: "If the market can't do it, the valuation is just waste paper."

Li Bintao felt indescribably awkward while driving. He was quiet for a while before asking: "That young man, your boss, who is he? He is so young. Is his family rich?"

Yu Hai, a high school student in the passenger seat, endured for a while and finally said: "Uncle! Why do you keep asking others?!"

"Just asking." Li Bintao said displeased, "Look at others, and then look at you, they are not on the same level. Learn more!"

Yu Hai revealed: "You didn't even take anyone's business card!"

Li Bintao explained: "I didn't have time. I was thinking that your sister's friend is quite talented. Dahai, I have to tell your mother when I get back. You asked someone in front of others whether he has a boyfriend or not. No wonder your sister said you are embarrassed. .”

Yu Hai: "..."

Li Bintao taught his nephew a lesson and then asked, "Dahong, do you have any shares in this business?"

Yu Hong lied calmly: "No, I just work part-time."

"Yes." Li Bintao was not too surprised. He thought about it and said, "When you get home, please tell me about your company and the boss in detail, and I will see if there is any way for us to cooperate."

Yu Hong vomited in her heart, why cooperate? Can I send a small leather bag through the registration network?

…

In the Mercedes-Benz on the other side, Zheng Lang casually asked about the situation.

"Is Mr. Yu coming to Shencheng to visit relatives?"

"Yes, happy New Year." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Everyone has been busy recently, so we only have some free time as the Spring Festival approaches."

Zheng Lang nodded slightly and praised: "The registration network is progressing faster than I expected. Lin'an Hospital's online situation is very good."

"The hospital's launch was very fast as long as there was administrative cooperation. On the contrary, there is still a lot of room for publicity. We used five newspapers to place a unified advertisement on New Year's Day." Fang Zhuo said eloquently, "The portal website Advertising cooperation is also gradually being done, and TV station advertisements will be shot and released after the Chinese New Year.”

Zheng Lang commented: “Publicity is a time-consuming and labor-intensive job.”

Fang Zhuo nodded: "It's also a waste of money."

"Okay, Mr. Fang is here to ask me for money?" Zheng Lang laughed.

"Mr. Zheng is both a senior and an elder. Isn't it appropriate to give red envelopes for New Year greetings?" Fang Zhuo joked.

"Mr. Fang's words make sense." Zheng Lang found it interesting and took advantage of the joke to continue, "Can we start charging this year? In that case, Sequoia will get a big red envelope."

This is the basis for judging Sequoia’s willingness to invest money.

Fang Zhuo said with an unchanging expression: "It depends on the situation. Our plan for this year is to bring the registration network to Shanghai. When Shanghai is familiar with it, I think we can try charging and see how the market reacts."

Zheng Lang asked: "Is Shencheng's development before the round or after the round?"

"Before one round." Fang Zhuo gave a positive tone, "If we win Shanghai, we should be able to raise more money, right?"

"That's natural, but you can also consider financing first. I think the two provinces are large enough to test whether the charging model is stable and mature." Zheng Lang made a small suggestion.

Fang Zhuo responded with a thoughtful expression. He knew what the vice president was thinking.

The previous Sequoia Investment Angel round contract had priority for the first round of financing. If it really wanted to raise the first round, Zheng Lang would definitely want to see more clearly whether this registration network can be expected to succeed.

However, this designation cannot be shown to him.

Fang Zhuo said slowly: "Mr. Zheng, judging from my work and contacts, the two provinces are not enough. What our registration network needs to do now is to staking the land. The more markets we occupy, the more Able to price aggressively.”

Zheng Lang shook his head and retorted: "We can do small-scale experiments first."

"Hey, you investors." Fang Zhuo changed his expression to a half-smiling expression and mockingly criticized, "I always feel that I understand the development of the industry better than the entrepreneurs."

The words were a little harsh, but the young man's tone was very natural.

Therefore, Zheng Lang was not angry.

Instead, he argued with great interest: "We come into contact with many companies and industries, and many things actually have something in common. Listen to others' advice and have enough to eat."

"I heard that IDG and Li Zekai are going to sell their shares in Penguin." Fang Zhuo used an example that will surely become famous. "What do you think will happen to Penguin's development?"

"It was a bottomless pit that burned money." Zheng Lang said an industry consensus, "Those two companies gave Penguin almost 20 million, and Penguin spent more than a year to burn almost all of it, and there was no profit at all. Dawn.”

Fang Zhuo said calmly: "But I heard Ma Huateng say that their Penguin users exceeded 100 million this year, oh no, last year, that is, the fourth quarter of 2000. This is what they achieved by burning money. It’s not burned in vain.”

"Unable to make a profit, this number is very high." Zheng Lang commented.

"Things happen step by step. Penguin has used money to obtain traffic. This is the acquisition stage. Its next step is how to use the traffic. How can venture capital only focus on the present and not look at the future?" Fang Zhuo said calmly. Said, "If I were you, I would immediately go to Li Zekai and buy his Penguin shares."

Zheng Lang said disapprovingly: "It's not that we don't look at the future, it's that without a stable profit model, there will be no future."

As the senior vice president of Sequoia Capital, Zheng Lang is undoubtedly a successful person.

He relied on his past experience to succeed, so he naturally had confidence in his own judgment. How could he make important decisions based on Fang Zhuo's words?

"Profit models need to be explored, especially for the Internet. Mr. Zheng, Penguin has such a large amount of traffic. Once it finds a way to make profits, its value will expand rapidly." Fang Zhuo said, "I saw in the newspaper in the middle of last month that Penguin got through In order to cooperate with China Unicom, we use phone bills as the payment entrance for our services.”

Zheng Lang still didn't care: "You are quite concerned about penguins."

"Okay, Mr. Zheng, I'll make a bet with you." Fang Zhuo raised his index finger, "The cooperation between Penguin and China Unicom will be released this year, and its shares in the hands of IDG and Li Zekai will be sold at a good price. .”

"What's the bet?" Zheng Lang found it funny. Instead of letting the venture capital give him advice, the young president started giving advice on the venture capital business.

"It's not easy to bet on the price of the first round of financing. Well, didn't Mr. Zheng say last time that venture capital will ultimately invest in people? Just bet on whether I am worth investing in. It just tests whether venture capital knows the industry better than entrepreneurs." ." Fang Zhuo said calmly.

"Mr. Fang came prepared." Zheng Lang said with a smile, "Venture investment is about gambling, and I like gambling too. I took the gamble."

Just got home, had a bite to eat and continued coding.