My Age of Investment

  Chapter 724 Investment Empire

  "Daren, you should have heard of it? Last year I established a venture capital fund, FoundersFund."

  Peter Thiel picked up a bottle of red wine, first poured a glass for Xia Jingxing, and then poured it on himself.

  The two were holding red wine, standing side by side in front of the French windows, looking at the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

  Under the sun, the iron cables of this two thousand-meter-long sea-crossing bridge are shining brightly, and the endless stream of vehicles on both sides of the north and south describe the prosperity of the Bay Area.

  Xia Jingxing did not answer rashly, but was thinking about the profound meaning of Peter Thiel’s words.

  Founders Fund, the transliteration is called the Funders Fund, and the free translation is called the Founders Fund.

   is indeed worthy of the name, because it was formed by Peter Thiel and several other PayPal founding team members, both of whom are very successful founders.

  The current asset management scale of this fund is only US$50 million. It is not well-known in the United States and is only a junior in the industry.

   But judging from the investment cases he holds, LinkedIn, Yelp, Palantir... each is a well-known unicorn company, and success is a matter of time.

  This does not include Peter Thiel’s private investment in Facebook and YouTube.

  Several major deeds of Peter Thiel in his previous life, the most important one is that the angel invested in Facebook and obtained a 10% stake in Facebook, with a return rate of several thousand times.

  In this life, Peter Thiel did not have the opportunity to invest in Facebook by angels, and only caught up with the A round. Currently, he personally holds 0.336% of the shares in Facebook, worth 84 million US dollars.

  In addition, after the oil pipe was split, Peter Thiel personally held a 0.315% stake in the oil pipe, valued at about 21 million US dollars.

   Together, these two assets are not a small piece of wealth, or Peter Thiel’s personal greatest source of wealth. Because after selling PayPal, Peter Thiel personally received only $55 million.

  Because of this relationship, Peter Thiel kept introducing the resources in his hands to Xia Jingxing.

  In short, there is no love or hatred for no reason.

  In the past, Peter Thiel used to make angel investments in his own form. The amount of investment was small and the project was relatively early. Not only was there no competition with Envision Capital, it was still a complementary relationship.

  Now that Peter Thiel has established his own venture capital fund, how to coordinate the relationship between the two parties has become a matter worthy of attention and careful consideration.

  If we say that the Founder’s Fund will be on the street in the future, forget it.

  But Xia Jingxing knows that not only can it not beat the street, but it has also grown rapidly, becoming the best-performing and most well-known funds in Silicon Valley.

Many people attribute this success to Peter Thiel’s network of connections, because his younger brothers, members of the PayPal gang, continue to start businesses and invest in start-up companies, quickly spread their branches, and cover the entire network of relationships. Silicon Valley and even the United States.

  In venture capital, the role of contacts is very important.

  Look at China, the U.S. and even the world, and see which companies the founders of the fund and recruited partners have worked for and which companies have invested in. You will know the law of resource flow, and they will only flow in a small circle.

  For example, Liu Erhai invested in Lu Zhengyao's UAA Automobile Club when he was employed by Legend Capital more than a decade ago. After more than a decade, Lu Zhengyao founded Ruixing Coffee, and the first time he wanted to take his old friends to cut American leeks.

  Of course, the project eventually overturned, and it also caused the old friend Liu Erhai to be questioned and his reputation was severely damaged. However, Lao Lu’s starting point for caring for his old friend is still worthy of recognition.

   After thinking for more than ten seconds, Xia Jingxing replied indifferently: "I heard about this. Speaking of it, our two experiences are very similar.

  You founded PayPal, I founded Facebook;

  You founded Claire Capital and Founders Fund, and I founded Envision Capital.

  Of course, the size of Envision Capital’s hedge fund is still not comparable to Claire.

  I heard that your performance return last year was very good, and you also won the Global Macro Fund Award. Congratulations. "

  Xia Jingxing picked up the red wine and touched Peter Thiel.

   "Hehe, Claire Capital has been developing for ten years, and it only achieved an asset management scale of 3 billion US dollars last year. There is nothing to boast about."

  Peter Thiel looked at Xia Jingxing with a smile on his face, “I heard that the scale of the two hedge funds of Envision Capital is close to 2 billion US dollars. It took only two and a half years for you to achieve this step.

  Seriously, you are the real stars of tomorrow. "

  Xia Jingxing smiled, just as he paid close attention to Peter Thiel’s movements, the other party also paid close attention to him, and actually understood Vision Capital in such detail.

  In a sense, Peter Thiel and him are similar people, both ambitious people, trying to build a full-field investment empire.

Before founding PayPal, Peter Thiel worked as a financial derivatives trader at Credit Suisse First Boston for several years. Later, he raised $1 million from relatives and friends and rented it in the financial center of Silicon Valley at the cheapest price. A windowless warehouse founded Thiel Capital (later changed its name to Claire Capital), and it took another two years before PayPal was founded in 1998.

  For him, PayPal was just a short-term entrepreneurial attempt in his investment life. After selling PayPal in 2002, this man put his main energy into the investment business.

  Clary Capital has developed very well in recent years. It is known as the rising star of the hedge fund industry and is expected to become a top fund of tens of billions of dollars.

  At this time, tens of billions of dollars of hedge funds are even the industry’s giants.

  In this context, Peter Thiel’s sudden establishment of the Founder’s Fund is definitely not a game.

  Xia Jingxing guessed that he should be the same as himself, constantly trying to expand the investment field in order to gain greater wealth and influence, and form a closed loop in the industry.

  Let the Founders Fund give Envision Capital’s VC fund smaller, Peter Thiel is definitely unwilling.

  And if the founder’s fund eats the lean meat, that is, invests in the angel round, the A round, and the B round, and throws the fat, that is, the C round and the D round, to Envision Capital, Xia Jingxing will also be unwilling.

  Because of the C round and D round investment, many times it is not making money to make money. The reason why some funds are rushing is to cheat management fees with well-known investment cases.

  Of course, he can also leave the founder’s fund and everyone is free to compete.

   But after all, in this foreign country, with multiple allies, there is so much more than one enemy.

  Especially Sequoia, Defengjie and a large number of decades-old funds are still watching, rashly alienating and even grieving with Peter Thiel, who had a good relationship with him, which is unwise.

  "Dalun, Founder Fund and Vision Capital's VC funds are still very weak. Compared with Sequoia and the others, we are just newborn children.

  They have classic investment cases with hundreds of times of returns and billions of dollars in returns. The two of us have not even put any company on the stage of IPO, and there is not even a case of M&A exit. "

  Peter Tell stared at Xia Jingxing with a serious expression. After a while, he suddenly smiled, "What does this mean? It means we must be united!"

   "Hahahaha~"

  Xia Jingxing also laughed, "Peter, you are right. Our two families are indeed unknown. If we are not united, how can we gain a foothold in Silicon Valley, which is fiercely competitive and full of established funds."

   Hearing this, Peter Thiel was relieved a lot. He also didn't want to befriend Xia Jingxing. In addition to the existing interests, it was obvious that the advantages of cooperation between the two sides outweigh the disadvantages.

  At least before the two VC funds grew up.

  After a period of trial and error, because the thinking was on one channel, it was easy to reach an agreement, and the previous cooperation relationship between Peter Thiel and Envision Capital continued to the Founder’s Fund.

  In terms of investment shares and investment rounds, the two parties also reached a certain verbal agreement.

  (End of this chapter)