My Age of Investment

  Chapter 172 PPT Building a Car

  "Daren, I would take the liberty to ask, if Tesla's business plan can impress you, how much can you invest in us at most?"

  Eberhard is still a little worried about Xia Jingxing's strength, after all, making electric cars is not a simple project.

  If it is a small website, rent a few servers and hire a few people to do it.

  The electric vehicle project is not good, which involves considerable investment, especially in research and development, which is simply a bottomless pit.

  Of course, Xia Jingxing invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he would not dislike it.

  It’s just that he still needs to find another lead investor, and Xia Jingxing can only act as a follower.

  The amount of capital contribution relates to his positioning of Xia Jingxing's identity and the adjustment of subsequent financing plans. He thinks it is better to ask clearly.

  Tapenning also looked at Xia Jingxing eagerly. He, like his partner, was also very concerned about this issue.

   "I see what your business plan says, you want to raise 7.5 million US dollars, right?"

Xia Jingxing did not directly answer the question of Eberhard, the "father of Tesla".

  He heard the other person's question, and knew that his strength was underestimated.

  But he also understands that, in the eyes of the outside world, Facebook is just a start-up that has received an angel round of financing of $500,000.

  There have been rumors that Facebook is valued at US$500 million, but in the eyes of many people, it is mostly the media that is catching up on the news and exaggerating reports. After all, there is no definite evidence to release.

  As for him, he has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars each in Scape and LinkedIn, and his hand is too small. Many people don't even know that he has made such two early investments.

   LinkedIn is in Silicon Valley, and there may be information about his personal participation in the follow-up investment.

  Scape is great, and the confidentiality work is absolutely top-notch.

  Eberhard nodded, "Yes, because we want to use the 7.5 million dollars to make a prototype.

  As long as we have a prototype car, we will proceed to the next round of financing and start the mass production plan with the money raised. "

  Xia Jingxing leaned on the chair and said lightly: "Let me see your current results first. If it is ideal, I can make all of the 7.5 million dollars."

  "Are you all alone?"

Tarpenning was surprised that his partner Eberhard, like him, looked at Xia Jingxing in amazement.

  Xia Jingxing felt that it was necessary to brighten up his family, otherwise he would always be underestimated, which would not be conducive to the subsequent negotiations.

  "Facebook is about to complete tens of millions of U.S. dollars in Series A financing. The pre-investment valuation is 500 million U.S. dollars. I personally hold more than 60% of Facebook's shares."

  "I also invested in an Internet phone company called Scape. They have completed the second round of financing with a valuation of 72 million U.S. dollars, and I personally own 8% of the shares."

  "I personally also like to invest in securities. I currently hold nearly 30 million US dollars in securities assets."

   LinkedIn has not yet started the next round of financing, and only has three stakes, all of which were directly ignored by Xia Jingxing.

  The fact that he showed his family status was enough to surprise Eberhard and Tarpening.

  Eberhard asked: "Facebook's Series A financing is about to be completed? And Scape, you actually invested? Recently, their Internet phone is very popular. It's really cool."

  Tapening asked: “30 million US dollars in securities assets? Is it a US listed company? Didn’t the news report say that you came from an ordinary family in China?”

  There are a lot of questions, but Xia Jingxing still patiently answered them one by one.

   "Facebook’s financing will be officially announced in about a week, so you can pay attention to it then."

  "Scape is relatively low-key. Recently, they have just completed the due diligence of the second round of financing. I personally continue to follow up with the investment. Andrew just returned from Estonia today. Some time ago, he was entrusted by me to have been busy for more than half a month."

  Andrew nodded slightly, admitting it.

  "As for the securities assets, I made my own investment after I came to the United States to study. Netease and Amicco. You can pay attention to the trend of these two stocks. One has risen by 50 times, and the other has risen by 10 times..."

   Hearing Xia Jingxing said that he had nose and eyes, the two of them were not as suspicious as they were just now, but decided to check on the stock software after Xia Jing walked to see if it was so mysterious. Buffett is a younger brother in front of you.

  Eberhard laughed and said in order to resolve the embarrassment: “Well, Darren, you don’t need to explain more. We don’t doubt your strength, but our A round of financing is not small. It’s better to ask clearly.

  Then let's talk about Tesla directly! "

  He looked at his partner Tarpenning, and said: "Mark, go and release the PPT."

  Tapenning nodded, walked to the side, and started debugging the projection equipment.

  Tesla’s office is simple, but there is still a curtain wall hung in the corner, which can be used to project PPT.

  Tapenning sat aside to control the computer, while Eberhard walked to the curtain wall and began to explain.

  "Tesla company was founded on July 1, 2003. It took this name to commemorate the physicist and pioneer of electrical engineering Nikola Tesla...

  Currently, our company has 5 employees. Mark Tarpening and I are the main founders. "

  Said, Eberhard also released his resume on the PPT.

  This action, he has done many times in recent investor meetings and roadshows, and he can't get any more numb.

  "I was born in 1960. I have a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, I became an electrical engineer...

  Tesla is my third entrepreneurial venture, the first time I founded a computer network terminal equipment company...

  The second venture was relatively successful, and I worked with Tarpening and I.

  We made an e-reader called Rocket in 1998, which was one of the earliest e-readers at that time.

Although Sony launched its first e-reader in 1991, it was very heavy, a full kilogram, and sales volume was not enough. It only achieved a small range of success in the Dongying market.

  Until we launched a lighter Rocket card reader, the market for e-readers was completely opened.

  But unfortunately, in March 2000, this company was sold to Jimstar International Group by the majority shareholder for US$187 million.

  Tapening and I each received several million dollars and ended this not very successful business. "

  After speaking, Eberhard released the resume of his partner Mark Tarpening.

  Resume is also very gorgeous. Born in 1964, he is 40 years old and 4 years younger than Eberhard. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Berkeley, California. He is currently the CFO of Tesla.

  Xia Jingxing watched it with gusto, and everyone thought that Musk was the founder of Tesla.

  In fact, the real founder should be the one who is introducing his resume, Martin Eberhard.

   Tesla’s first model, the Roadster, was developed in the hands of Eberhard, and the take-off is in the hands of Musk.

  And Eberhard’s success is not unreasonable. He has a master's degree in electrical engineering from a prestigious school. He has worked in the electrical field for many years. The two entrepreneurships are also related to electronic equipment. The industry experience and entrepreneurial experience can be described as very rich.

  Eberhard took a sip of water and continued: “In this second venture, apart from money, we didn’t get anything for nothing. We paid attention to lithium-ion battery technology.

  Later, I saw the pure electric vehicles launched by AC Drive on the Internet, so I went to Los Angeles to visit them and visited their workshops.

  But unfortunately, they are unwilling to mass-produce electric vehicles on a large scale. This is just a business hobby for them.

  Later, we decided to do it ourselves, explore the true development potential of lithium-ion batteries, and produce a high-performance electric supercar. "

  Speaking, Eberhard released pictures of electric vehicle technology models through PPT.

  He introduced: “After setting up the company, we drew technical models of electric vehicles one by one in the spreadsheet.

  And make theoretical fine-tuning of each auto component, and observe what kind of influence such adjustment will have on the appearance and performance of the car.

  We can adjust the weight, number of batteries, tires and body resistance, and finally come up with different design schemes and how many batteries are needed. "

  He pointed to the pictures across the PPT and said: "This is almost the result of our six months."

  Speaking of this, he pointed to the pile of disassembled cars not far from the office area, "By the way, those are also one of our successes."

  Before Xia Jingxing spoke, Andrew couldn’t help but speak, “You haven’t said to set up a workshop in the past six months, and you’ve always used PPT to build cars?”

   Eberhard spread his hands, "Is there any problem with this? Don't think of us as those guys in Detroit.

  This is Silicon Valley. We are building cars with IT concepts. "

  (End of this chapter)