Winning the new financial era

Chapter 325 Experimenting with VC Money
After Yimin Wealth went public, most of the executives of Yimin Wealth returned to China. After all, there is still a lot of work to be presided over.

Ding Siyao took a few people to Singapore to participate in the second round of bidding for the acquisition of Barclays' Singapore and Hong Kong wealth management businesses.

Zhang Yida, Xu Xiaoming and Shen Beipeng visited Silicon Valley.

Zhang Yida sat in the car, looked through the window at the shared electric scooters of several colors on the street, and frowned.

Although most of them are green scooters, there are also scooters in other colors with "Lime" or "Bird" Logo printed on them.

What he was most worried about happened, Green started to have competitors.

Zhang Yida, Xu Xiaoming, and Shen Beipeng went to Green Company and met the company's CEO Howard.

"Congratulations Boss, another listed company." Howard also knew about Yimin Wealth's listing, and he started flattering Zhang Yida as soon as he saw him.

"Howard, you let me down."

Zhang Yida said angrily, it wasn't that Howard didn't flatter him well, it was that Green was beaten to the door by his competitors, and he, the chairman, didn't even know about it.

"Boss, what's the matter? Are you dissatisfied with my work?"

Shen Beipeng and Xu Xiaoming didn't speak. Although they are also shareholders of the company, they usually don't intervene in the company's management. At this time, they just sit on the sidelines and watch the fun, acting like air people.

"Didn't I tell you to be optimistic about your competitors? Now they are putting all their scooters in Silicon Valley, and I, the chairman, don't even know about it."

Howard looked at the furious Zhang Yida, and smiled wryly, "Boss, this is what happened in the last week. I just came back from Europe, so I haven't had time to report to you."

"Then tell me now, what's going on with Green's competitors?"

Seeing that Zhang Yida was really angry, Howard put away his playful smile and said solemnly:

"Lime was jointly founded by Sun Weiyao, investment director of Kinzon Capital, and Bao Zhoujia, managing partner of Kinzon Capital.

At present, it has completed the A-round financing of US$500 million, and has produced a total of 5000 Lime scooters, which are currently mainly launched in San Francisco...

The founder of Bird, Travis Vanderzanden, served as the COO of the taxi software Lyft and the vice president of Uber.

At present, Bird has completed the A-round financing of US$800 million, produced a total of 1 Bird scooters, and entered several cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles..."

Howard carefully analyzed the competitor's situation, and he continued: "Boss, you let me learn the style of play you used in the bike-sharing campaign in China. I have never forgotten it, and I have been acting according to your instructions.

Compared with the number of scooters of the two competitors of no more than 1, our number of scooters has reached 20.

This number will reach 40 in the next three months.

The two rivals have covered one and two cities respectively, and we have entered more than 50 cities across the United States.

Three months later, that number will be 100. "

Zhang Yida looked at Howard, who was full of confidence, and asked, "Green will double in three months, how do you know that he won't undergo earth-shaking changes?"

Howard shook his head and said with a smile: "Of course not. Among other things, just a funding problem will kill them.

Now all of Silicon Valley knows that we Green completed a $2.5 million Series A round led by Google and Uber, plus 20 scooters and 50 cities.

Anyone who wants to enter this industry needs to weigh it.

Besides, isn't there a boss in charge of you?

Many investors in Silicon Valley have heard of you, know that you are an entrepreneurial genius, and are against you with little hope of winning.

I have to say, Boss, your "blitzkrieg" in China was really beautiful, and you usually solved all kinds of opponents by cutting melons and vegetables.

Including China's "Uber" Didi and Ali Baba are all defeated by you.

To sum up, your existence, coupled with Green's operating data, has brought great financing resistance to Green's other competitors. "

Zhang Yida narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "You mean, Lime and the others have encountered financing problems."

"Yes."

Howard said with a smile on his face: "I asked a friend to find out that Lime and Bird want to raise a B round of financing and met with many investment institutions.

But unfortunately, investment institutions ruthlessly rejected them.

Because investment institutions think that their chances of winning are already very slim, and they are unwilling to gamble with them. "

Zhang Yida thought about it, and the two shared electric scooter brands should have encountered the same problem as Baimo and Xiaolan.

The distance from Green is too large, and investment institutions will take great investment risks to enter at this time.

If it is not done well, it will be nothing.

"What if someone is willing to lower the valuation, or sign a match?"

Howard nodded, "Yes, there is indeed the possibility you mentioned, Boss.

I recently released the news of Green's entry into Europe, and I have dealt with a lot of technology media, and they will help us build momentum recently.

Even if they do get funding, it will be on a lower scale than expected and with more stringent conditions. "

Zhang Yida looked at Howard with a big beard, but he didn't expect that under his rough appearance, there was such a delicate and transparent heart, full of bad water.

"Okay, competitors want to raise funds and launch scooters, and we can't stop them.

How is the work going on in Europe so far? "

Howard replied: "At present, Paris, Berlin, and London are selected as the first batch of launch sites, and 5000 Green scooters will be launched in each city.

After the market observation period is over, it will be promoted to other cities and countries. "

Zhang Yida said: "Your spending speed is still a bit slow! I want you to spend the 2.5 million US dollars in the A round of financing as quickly as possible.

Three months later, we will conduct another round of financing.

After this round of financing is completed, the market structure can basically be established. "

Howard understood what Zhang Yida meant, which was to pile up data crazily. Isn't that what China's shared bicycles do?

"I can only try my best, because unlike China, the shared bicycles and scooters in every city in European and American countries are not put on the market just as they want, and an agreement must be signed one city at a time."

Zhang Yida laughed and said, "Expand your lobbying team a bit more. Don't worry about spending money. What I want now is speed and efficiency."

Howard hesitated to speak, feeling that Zhang Yida paid too much attention to his competitors.In order to suppress the competitors, it was a desperate play.

Things that can be done in two months must be compressed to one month, or even half a month, and it will cost several times more.

In Howard's view, even with the expansion at the current pace, several competitors will not be able to catch up with Green.

"Okay! It's just that the marketing work will cost you several times more money."

Zhang Yida said richly, "It's okay, just do as I tell you."

Zhang Yida looked at Howard, who was full of incomprehension on his face, and thought to himself, it is impossible for you to understand the old Chinese saying that "a lion fights a rabbit with all his strength".

In the previous life, Lime and Bird started at about the same time, and their financing rhythm and valuation were also similar.

Although there is no price war or free war like Xiaohuangche and Baimo, the market is divided into two.

Green has a good chance to kill his opponent now, and he must not let it go.

Why give up some of the track that one person can occupy?

As for whether it will involve monopoly, let's talk about it in the future, the big deal is to hire a good lawyer.

"According to this rhythm, will Green's valuation double in the next round?"

Seeing that Zhang Yida and Zhang Yida had finished chatting, Xu Xiaoming came over and said.

"more or less!"

In the previous life, both Lime and bird became unicorns with a valuation of 20 billion US dollars in [-] months.

In Zhang Yida's mind, Green, who is currently riding the dust, can only realize better than them.

Because Lime went the wrong way in the early stage, it foolishly launched a shared bicycle.

Compared with shared electric scooters, shared bicycles lack a bit of riding culture in Europe and the United States, and the second is that they are easy to be stolen and damaged.

Baimo and Xiao Huang also tried it overseas, and then they learned a bloody lesson.

"What about profitability?"

Shen Beipeng is more concerned about this issue. In his opinion, there is no price war in foreign countries, and Green unlocking starts from 1 US dollar. It should be easier to make profits than domestic shared bicycles!
"this problem……"

Zhang Yida was also thinking. He had seen Green's economic model.

If you want to make a profit, you have to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

The cost of charging, maintenance and city permits are the biggest expenses for bicycles, and saving money is to amortize costs through economies of scale.

The frequency and rate of scooter riding are open source, but there is a ceiling on it.

Assumption: 5 people ride a scooter a day, and one person rides for half an hour for about 5.5 US dollars, and the daily income of a scooter is 27.5 US dollars.

To get higher than that, either ride more often or rate higher.

For the former, there are only so many people in foreign countries, and there are only so many prosperous neighborhoods.

Even if there are many fans in Silicon Valley, a scooter is ridden ten times a day, and other regions will lower the average for you.

For the latter, if the price increase is too high, people will take a taxi or take a bus.

Another most powerful method is to find a way in terms of bicycle quality and lifespan.

If a shared electric scooter has a lifespan of 12 months, then Green is definitely catching the golden chicken that lays eggs.

Because the currently launched scooters are basically scrapped in three or four months.

For Green to recover the cost, he has to keep each scooter working for at least four months or even longer.

"Thinking about some ways, the best way is to work hard on hardware research and development, strengthen the anti-theft function of the scooter, and at the same time make it more durable, and the battery has a strong storage capacity..."

Zhang Yida began to explain Green's unit economic model to Shen Beipeng.

"Is it possible that Green may not be profitable if there is no breakthrough in hardware?"

Zhang Yida looked at Shen Beipeng and said with a smile: "To be honest, it might be true as you said.

It will be profitable in some areas. For example, in developed countries such as the United States, if the rate is raised, profits can be obtained.

Countries with poorer economies are expected to lose money! "

Shen Beipeng didn't expect Zhang Yida to be so honest, and felt that he was on a thief ship and would never get off.

"Is there no other way?"

Zhang Yida didn't want to scare him, so he said, "Yes, if street charging piles are popularized, the charging cost of scooters can be reduced.

In short, everything is possible, not too pessimistic.

When Tesla first came out, everyone thought it was doomed. "

"You are too much! You can almost predict what will happen in the future, and you are still expanding to Europe like crazy."

Zhang Yida laughed and said, "If you don't try it, how will you know? There is hope of profit."

Shen Beipeng scratched his hair, Zhang Yida used venture capital money to experiment!
I made up my mind that I can't follow up with the investment in the future, let the local tyrants of Wall Street join!
Or Sun Zhengyi can fool around a bit, he just got the money from the oil tycoon, and he likes to invest in projects with serious losses.

(End of this chapter)