My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1233 One year to become a unicorn

   "Although Groupon is now just a humble website, and it only sells some cheap items such as dining coupons and performance tickets, its business scope is limited to one city in Chicago.

   But we already have a clear expansion plan. This year, we will expand our business scope to major cities in the United States, and we will also cooperate with more merchants.

   In the future, Gaopeng users can form a group to buy mobile phones, home appliances, cars…”

   A young white man in his twenties was standing on the stage, spitting out the business plan of Gaopeng.com.

   This entrepreneurial passion is undoubtedly very moving to investors.

  Ricky, who was sitting under the stage, nodded secretly. It looked like that, at least his PPT production and presentation skills were not weak.

  "Andrew~"

   Xia Jingxing just shouted out, and Andrew sitting next to him and Andrew on the stage both looked at him at the same time.

  Xia Jingxing smiled and said, "Mason, can I understand it this way?

   Your business plan can be summed up in one sentence, everything can be organized? "

  The founder and CEO of Gaopeng.com, Andrew Mason, immediately smiled, "That's right! This is exactly what we want to do.

   Now the financial crisis broke out in the United States and even the world, the economy has fallen into recession, and a large number of people are facing unemployment and salary cuts.

The    group buying model allows people to buy the products they want at a lower price, which is very cost-effective and attractive.

   For merchants participating in group purchases, even if the profit is a little lower, it is also a good thing to have a large influx of cash flow when bank loans are tightened.

The    group buying model connects consumers at one end and connects with merchants at the other, forming a win-win situation. "

Eric Lefkowski, another founder of Gaopeng.com, who was sitting opposite Xia Jingxing in the audience, added: "And the group buying model is very light, it does not need to deal with logistics and transportation like e-commerce platforms, build warehousing, As well as investing too much money and people.

  We only need to carry out simple information matching, and put enough goods and services on the web page, so that users can choose freely. "

  Andrew spread his hands and said: "Sorry, I interrupt, it seems that I didn't see enough goods and services listed on your website?"

  Eric is nearly forty years old. This dude started his business in college and once made an annual income of $100,000 by selling rugs at school.

  After graduating from university, he directly joined the entrepreneurial army, and successively founded T-shirts, children's sportswear and telephone outbound companies, advertising software companies, printing companies, supply chain management companies and several Internet companies.

   Some of these companies went bankrupt, some cashed out $240 million, and two companies completed independent listings.

   Judging from his past entrepreneurial achievements, Eric is a serially successful entrepreneur with brilliant business talents.

   Therefore, when faced with the challenge of potential investor Andrew, he behaved calmly. In the past ten years of his entrepreneurial career, he has encountered too many similar situations and has rich experience in coping.

   He first smiled politely at Andrew, and then answered calmly: "Because there are not enough users on our website, if there are too many merchants rashly online, it will affect the efficiency of group buying.

  Although we only launch one product every day, our promotion efficiency is very high. The full group time has changed from a few hours in the past to dozens of minutes today, and it has been decreasing.

   This brings a good experience to users, and at the same time creates a "very popular" feeling, making Gaopeng.com become the most popular website in Chicago in just over two months.

   Now all of Chicago is talking about Gaopeng, saying we are an amazing site. "

  Ricky took a pen and recorded it, and will conduct relevant investigations when due diligence.

   "Is your current marketing method mainly through local word of mouth?" Andrew continued to ask Eric.

   "Not only, but also email marketing."

   At this time, Mason stepped off the stage and took his seat, and he added: "This is the most cost-effective marketing method, and we can make trial and error at a small cost.

  Once the business model works, we will invest on a larger scale. "

  Ricky asked with a smile: "Then do you think the business model is working?"

   "Of course it got through, otherwise we wouldn't have a business plan to expand to the United States."

Mason pushed a stack of paper documents in front of Ricky and introduced: "This is a report on the revenue and net profit of the group buying business that Gaopeng.com has carried out for more than two months. We have already made predictions internally, and after three more months Within months, the site will fully break even."

  Ricky is a little surprised that he will break even so soon?

   He thought about it, Gaopeng.com is a light model without much investment, and it is normal to make quick profits.

  Ricky briefly flipped through the document and said, "If Gaopeng.com is going to expand in a big way, the balance of payments may be delayed."

   "It will indeed be delayed, and a lot of marketing and promotion costs will greatly reduce our business profits, but this is enough to prove the superiority of the group buying model."

   After finishing speaking, Mason also glanced at Xia Jingxing, who was there with the old god. He found that the latter looked indifferent, and he didn't know whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied.

  Eric said: "Gaopeng.com will expand in two directions next, one is to set up a merchant development team to allow more merchants to establish cooperation with Gaopeng.com, and the other is to increase the ordinary registered users of the website.

   Expansion plans in both directions require a lot of money, and it’s a lot of money.

   Therefore, we chose to open financing externally. "

  Ricky nodded, indicating that he understood, then he looked at Andrew, who looked at Xia Jingxing.

   "I am very much in favor of Gaopeng.com's expansion. The timing of your choice is very good. Now a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are having a hard time, and they are in great need of passenger traffic, while ordinary people need products that meet their hearts and are cheap."

  Xia Jingxing said with a smile, the background of the birth of Gaopeng.com is actually somewhat similar to that of Pinxixi. They both stepped on the trend of consumption downgrade and took advantage of the wind.

  Eric and Mason are very happy to see that their expansion plans have been appreciated by the well-known financial and Internet tycoon Darren Xia.

   Seeing the joy on their faces, Xia Jingxing couldn't help thinking of himself in his previous life.

   At that time, he passed Mason's interview and was announced on the spot, and he was as happy as a child.

   In this life, the roles have been reversed, the interviewer has been replaced by himself, and the two former bosses have become interviewers.

   I have to say, this is the wonder of fate.

   However, he summoned the two founders and former bosses of Gaopeng.com to come to Silicon Valley.

   “However, I don’t think forming a business development team was the right decision.”

   Hearing this, Eric and Mason raised their hearts and looked a little nervous.

   Xia Jingxing smiled suddenly, "I think there are more efficient promotion tools, such as Facebook.

  If Gaopeng develops a function that allows users to subscribe to their favorite group-buying goods and services, and this function can also be associated with Facebook, allowing users to see which products their friends have purchased and evaluated.

   Guess what? "

  Eric and Mason looked at each other, and both saw the joy in each other's eyes.

  Why did they immediately come to Silicon Valley when they heard that Xia Jingxing wanted to see them?

   This is because as long as there is a little bit of resources leaking out of the fingers of the big brother, the newly sown seed of Gaopeng.com can be ripened to the extent of flowering and fruiting.

  Yelp, LinkedIn, Work Hours and many other Envision Capital companies have enjoyed the resource support of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media.

   What Eric values ​​most is the resources in Xia Jingxing's hands.

  Strictly speaking, he has been in business for more than ten years and has successively created two listed companies. He is not short of money, and many venture capital companies are also optimistic about him as a serially successful entrepreneur.

  ThePoint, the parent company of Gaopeng.com, received the first round of investment of $4.8 million from NEA Enxi Investment as early as the year before.

  Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "In addition to helping Gaopeng.com go viral, Facebook can also help Gaopeng.com connect with advertising merchant resources.

   In this case, Gaopeng.com will not need to expand its merchants one by one offline, and the promotion efficiency and enterprise growth rate will be like a rocket. "

  Eric and Mason were ecstatic, but they calmed down quickly.

  You know, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

  Eric asked, "Daren, what do we need to pay if we work with Facebook?"

  Xia Jingxing smiled slightly, "Accept Facebook's shareholding, they want 10% of the shares."

   Eric continued to ask: "What about Vision Capital?"

  Xia Jingxing said lightly: "We also want 10% of the shares."

  Eric stopped talking, and the other party was about to take away 20% of the shares at once, which made him a little hesitant.

   After all, Gaopeng.com has already raised a round of financing, and two founders including him have to set up an option pool...

   This round of financing diluted 20% of the shares, which made him feel a little too much.

   But the big cake that Xia Jingxing drew made his heart unceasingly, and he was reluctant to give up and did not dare to refuse.

   Xia Jingxing did not rush, and quietly waited for Eric's reply.

  Although Gaopeng has two founders in name, Eric is actually the real major shareholder and chairman.

  Mason graduated from the music department a few years ago, and was recruited by Eric because of his excellent programming skills.

   Later, because of the development and promotion of Gaopeng.com, Mason changed from a working man to become the co-founder of Gaopeng. However, his shareholding in Gaopeng is much lower than that of Eric.

   "Daren, how about 5% each of Vision Capital and Facebook?" Eric asked tentatively.

  Xia Jingxing shook his head gently, "The shareholding ratio is too small, it is difficult for Facebook to convince the board members."

   This is not the reason Xia Jingxing made up, but a series of actions by Envision Capital to scour Facebook’s wool, which has already made Facebook’s shareholders dissatisfied.

  Envision Capital borrowed Facebook’s resources to help investee companies, but Facebook didn’t get much benefit.

   Once or twice is fine, the point is that this kind of thing has happened countless times.

   Therefore, Xia Jingxing intends to share some benefits to Facebook, so that no one will say anything gossip if he picks up the wool in the future.

   In short, it is impossible for one person to swallow all the benefits. When it is time to share the cake, it is better to share some benefits to others, otherwise the road will get narrower and narrower.

   "Then how much are you willing to value Gaopeng?"

   "The post-money valuation of $50 million, Vision Capital and Facebook each invested $5 million.

   With this $10 million in expansion funds, and the support of Facebook, Gaopeng can become a $1 billion business by the end of this year. "

  Eric hardly hesitated and immediately handed out his hand to Xia Jingxing: "No problem, I agree!"

  Xia Jingxing smiled and reached out and shook hands with Eric. He knew the former boss very well. He was a very qualified businessman.

   Even without the help of Facebook, the other party can light up extraordinary achievements. The growth rate of Gaopeng.com is even faster than that of Ruixing, which is almost the same as that of Pinxixi.

   (end of this chapter)