I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 96: Round A financing of 5.6 billion, rejecting Xiao Ma Ge again

January 14, Pullman Hotel Shanghai, top floor banquet hall.

Chen Yansen, along with Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, as well as financial and legal staff, discussed the details for a whole morning. After they had no objections to the contents of the investment agreement, shareholder agreement, equity transfer agreement and employee stock option plan, they signed their names and stamped the official seal of Sennheiser Technology.

20% equity in exchange for 5.6 million yuan in funds, with a valuation of 28 billion yuan!
Once the news gets out, the entire e-commerce circle will be in a sensation.

Chen Yansen shook hands with each of the three investors and exchanged brief greetings, thinking to himself, "I've barely reached half of what I made in my last life. My rebirth wasn't in vain."

"Mr. Chen, congratulations! With this funding, FoxTao will definitely make a qualitative leap in talent recruitment, marketing, and technological upgrades."

Zhang Jiancheng shook Chen Yansen's hand and congratulated him with a smile.

The words also secretly reminded him that the money must be used in accordance with the provisions of the investment agreement.

Young entrepreneurs are easily seduced by money and use financing to buy cars and houses, or set up third-party companies to privately use venture capital funds.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang, for your trust."

Chen Yansen heard the hidden meaning, but didn't care.

Having noticed that he was not interested in Lotte and SIG, they immediately put SIG aside and joined forces with IDG Venture Capital Fund to successfully obtain the A round of financing for FoxTao.

People who act decisively, have no morals, and no bottom line will achieve great success in the future.

"Mr. Chen, can we talk alone?"

Just then, Liu Zhiping came over and interrupted.

Zhang Jiancheng smiled slightly, tactfully left, leaving time for Liu Zhiping.

He is just an investment manager and can put on airs in front of small entrepreneurs, but Liu Zhiping is the real boss.

He can't afford to offend.

"Thank you, Brother Martin. Without Penguin's support, IDG and Siwei wouldn't be able to offer a high price of 28 billion." Chen Yansen said in a low voice.

"The higher the Series A valuation, the better Mr. Ma's vision. If you don't have the ability, no matter how high the price I ask for, it will be useless. Senzi, you are really amazing."

Liu Zhiping nodded and changed to a more intimate name.

The two walked out of the banquet hall and entered a conference room. Business hotels like Pullman have long taken into account various business needs. On the same floor, in addition to the conference room, there is also a multimedia hall that can accommodate 50 people.

"Pony wants you to take over Paipai.com." Liu Zhiping said straight to the point as soon as he sat down.

"Brother Martin, I've said before that I don't want to work for others." Chen Yansen smiled faintly and refused firmly.

If Ma Wenteng is willing to come to FoxTao, Chen Yansen is willing to give him a customer service position.

As for asking him to work for Xiao Ma, forget it.

"Don't be so quick to refuse! Before you came, Pony specifically told me that if you join Penguin, Paipai.com can operate independently and you'll be in charge of all matters. I'll give you an annual salary of 30 million and options worth 200 million."

Liu Zhiping said confidently.

With such conditions, even Zhang Xiaolong could be easily impressed, let alone Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen was stunned. He didn't expect Ma Wenteng to be so determined to do e-commerce. After thinking about it for a while, he understood that WeChat, the T0-level application that Ma Wenteng bet on, had not yet been launched.

Ma Wenteng, who is determined to improve the Penguin ecosystem, will naturally not give up the e-commerce track easily.

2 million options?
You have to know that Penguin's market value in 2011 was far from its peak. If he agreed, he could cash out at a high price ten years later and get at least 80 billion.

This is a huge amount of wealth that Chen Yansen has never seen in his life!

"Brother Martin, I'm sorry, please tell Pony that I'm not interested in Paipai.com, and I don't want to work in e-commerce at Penguin."

Chen Yansen took a deep breath and still refused.

Liu Zhiping frowned, surprise flashing in his eyes. He shook his head and said, "Don't think the difference between 2 million options and Fox Tao's 28 billion valuation is that huge. You should be very clear about the upper limit of the shopping guide model. Even though Zhang Yong and Liu Qiangdong are currently acting like they need a shopping guide e-commerce platform, if they join forces to strangle Fox Tao, how much of the 28 billion valuation do you think will be left?"

After hearing this, Chen Yansen smiled and thought to himself: He is a big boss after all, he can see far ahead.

In fact, in his previous life, Ali announced new alliance rules in 2016, and all sales generated by redirects from shopping guide websites would no longer be counted in Taobao’s monthly sales.

Liu Qiangdong is even more ruthless. He bluntly said that shopping guide websites are worthless and are just robbers.

Since then, the development of shopping guide e-commerce has taken a sharp turn for the worse, with some companies either switching to self-operation or struggling to survive.

To put it bluntly, these platforms have been making too much money and have relied too much on domestic e-commerce platforms, which is why they have ended up in this situation. If they could transform in time and introduce overseas shopping websites, they would not be so passive.

Chen Yansen has witnessed the ten-year golden age of e-commerce and has long been on guard against Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong.

He didn't plan to stay with Fox Tao forever. He would do it for another year or two at most. Then he would find a sucker to take over, cash out and leave.

"I understand the value of these 2 million options, and I also have the ability to cope with changes in domestic e-commerce policies."

Chen Yansen responded confidently.

"You've given me a hard time. Before I left yesterday, I promised Pony that I would definitely get you into Penguin."

Liu Zhiping smiled bitterly and sighed, full of regret.

He knew Chen Yansen's style. His refusal wasn't a negotiating tactic to raise his price, but rather a genuine desire to join Penguin. "Penguin is now a significant shareholder in FoxTao. This is another form of working for Mr. Ma."

Chen Yansen made a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"With the support of a big company, you can get unimaginable financial and technical resources. Why waste your precious time?" Liu Zhiping couldn't help but asked again.

If it were him, he would definitely join Penguin without hesitation.

"As a man, even if I fail a hundred times, I have to succeed at least once. I don't want people to say that all my successes are due to investors, not my personal abilities."

Chen Yansen thought about it and repeated what he had said in his previous life.

"If you have time, come to Shenzhen and I'll treat you to tea." Liu Zhiping stood up and made the invitation in a calm tone.

Since we can't reach an agreement, there's no need to waste time.

"Brother Martin, let me take you there." Chen Yansen followed behind and walked him downstairs.

Then he turned and went upstairs.

The three investment institutions and FoxTao also had a small press conference, followed by a dinner. Although Liu Zhiping had left, the process had to proceed as usual.

At 1:30 p.m., the homepage of Penguin News Network was filled with the headline "Fox Tao completes 560 million yuan in financing, with a valuation of up to 28 billion yuan."

After seeing the news, FoxTao members cheered on the second floor of the Entrepreneurship Park.

In the office, Tang Qingshan thought for the first time: Letting Fox Tao participate in the College Student Entrepreneurship Competition in March is definitely bullying!
Chen Guobin in Chunshen stared at the news on his mobile phone, lost in thought, and became numb.

Immediately afterwards, the three major portals and Weibo reported and forwarded the news.

"IDG led the investment, with Penguin Capital and Thinking Capital also participating. How big is the potential of shopping guide e-commerce?"

"Within six months of entrepreneurship, the core members are all college students. A 19-year-old business genius created a quasi-unicorn company?"

"The leader in shopping guide e-commerce: With so many followers flocking in, how can FoxTao build a moat?"

Mogujie, which was supposed to be established in February 2011, joined the competition in the shopping guide e-commerce market a month ahead of schedule.

Meilishuo, founded in November 2009, also announced on the same day that it would adjust its business, launching a business investment plan and a brand sales channel.

For a time, the shopping guide e-commerce model became popular in the industry.

At the dinner, Zhang Jiancheng asked, "Mr. Chen, what do you think of the business changes at Mogujie and Meilishuo?"

"The e-commerce shopping guide industry seems to have a very low threshold, but in fact it is very high. Not everyone can do it well."

Chen Yansen sneered and commented with disdain.

It is a good thing that some people follow the trend. There are hundreds of millions of Internet users, and this number will increase by 1-2 million every year. Although the cumulative number of registered users of FoxTao has reached more than 4000 million, more than 90% of people are skeptical about the rebate model and have not registered on FoxTao.

The actions of Mogujie and Meilishuo can help FoxTao cultivate the market and educate users. Once these users are familiar with shopping guide e-commerce, they will automatically look for industry leaders.

What Chen Yansen needs to do is to buy traffic on the one hand and grasp merchant resources on the other hand to become the ultimate winner in this industry.

Zhang Jiancheng, Lin Chenfeng from Tencent Venture Capital, and the IDG investment representative felt relieved when they saw how confident he was.

The dinner gradually ended at 8:30.

"I'll go back to Xucheng tomorrow." Wang Zihao said that although Xucheng College has already had winter vacation, the project team still has to operate.

This group of young people aged 18 or 19 felt for the first time the difficulties of working people, as they no longer had winter and summer vacations.

"What about you?" Chen Yansen looked at Song Yuncheng and asked.

"I have to go back to my hometown and will probably be back in Xucheng on the afternoon of the 16th." Song Yuncheng tightened the collar of his shirt and said in a low voice.

"Lucheng? Have you bought the train ticket?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

"I've bought it." Song Yuncheng answered with her head down. In order to prepare the financing materials, she hadn't bothered to buy tickets at all. When she remembered it, it would be even harder to buy tickets after the students had their winter vacation.

She plans to try her luck at the long-distance bus station tomorrow.

"Then go back and rest early." Chen Yansen raised his hand to look at his watch, glanced at Song Yuncheng's face, and urged.

Several of them stayed at the Pullman Hotel.

Chen Yansen returned to his room, looked at the vibrant night scene outside the window, and fell into deep thought.

He still has two years to prepare before 4G and smartphones become widely available.

What was Lei Jun doing at this time? Preparing for the Mi 1 phone?

Where's Zhang Yiming? Probably still working on Room 99.

Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo is probably still working at Google.

"I'm not bad either! Compared to them, Jun'er is richer than me, but is he as handsome as me?"

Chen Yansen thought happily that when he cashed out in the future, he would also say:
I was nineteen years old that year, and there was only a cold, hard 40 billion in my card.

(End of this chapter)