Global Monopoly of Technology

【Heavy! The start-up company "Bluestar Technology" owned by the BlueSpace website has just completed a pre-A round of financing of 77 million, with a valuation of 1.1 billion! ! ! ] - "Internet Reference News"

【Has the cold winter gone? For the first time since the Internet entered the cold winter, a start-up company with a valuation of over 1 billion appeared! ]——"Investment Today"

[BlueSpace, a rookie social networking site, received 77 million pre-A round of financing. This round of financing was initiated by Tengxun and led the investment, and SoftBank Capital, IDG, and Venture Capital Fund also participated in the investment. ] - "Financial News"

[The most powerful founder in history was born, and the founder of BlueSpace website pre-A round of financing made capital willingly accept the almost impossible harsh conditions, almost a legendary financing case! ] - "Search arc network"

[BlueSpace website received 77 million financing at a valuation of 1.1 billion, founder Luo Sheng, a student at Fuda University, a rising rookie in the Internet industry! ] - "Science and Technology Daily"

After the news of Bluestar Technology's completion of the pre-A round of financing came out, the company became popular in the industry, and Luo Sheng also became popular.

The founder is a college student, with a valuation of 1.1 billion, and the first company with a valuation of 1 billion after the Internet bubble. These series of entries have attracted Luo Sheng and Bluestar Technology.

This financing is a critical date for the Internet industry, and more and more people in the industry, especially entrepreneurs, see hope.

The cold winter may really be over, and the Internet is about to usher in a new stage of vigorous development.

...

With the completion of this pre-A round of financing, the company officially set up an option pool reservation. After receiving this financing, Luo Sheng did not immediately consider expansion. The problem he most wants to solve now is the operation and management of the company.

Simply put, it's people.

If this problem is not solved, once it enters the fast lane of rapid development, the company will inevitably have a chaotic situation in its operation and management.

Next, the company will truly enter the right track of development, and the subsequent expansion of employee recruitment will be aimed at adults, and the company's current dormitory culture must be removed.

The development has entered a new stage, and also has to enter a new management method.

Just shouting slogans is not enough. The current start-up teams are basically students and fresh graduates. The enthusiasm is naturally high now, but without a good incentive mechanism, this enthusiasm will not last for too long, especially with the company After expanding, recruiting adults.

After completing the pre-A round of financing, the company's option pool reservation has been set, but how to use it effectively and how to use equity incentives reasonably is really a waste of time.

Obviously, the company urgently needs a professional legal person. Although Luo Sheng knows a little about legal affairs, this is not his expertise.

To this end, he called his mother for help.

Luo Sheng didn't forget that his mother was a senior practitioner in the legal industry, and she was a top elite in the industry. At that moment, he had an idea to invite his mother to the company to be the chief legal officer CLO, but he didn't. Give up decisively after thinking too much, which is no different from asking a Tathagata Buddha to put himself under Wuzhi Mountain.

In the end, Luo Sheng's mother made a cameo appearance as a headhunter and recommended him a professional legal practitioner who was also her most proud student.

Luo Sheng was overjoyed. With his mother's professional abilities, she would definitely not deceive her son.

However, Luo Sheng's mother asked for an annual salary of 8 million plus 1% of the company's equity for the person she recommended, not because of the relationship, but because her student had the ability to match this treatment and was able to To bring Bluestar Technology a contribution far beyond this treatment.

If Luo Sheng didn't agree, his mother made it clear that he would not recommend her. Luo Sheng didn't care about it. As long as it was really worth the treatment, so what?

The newly established option pool is reserved for real talent sharing.

To be able to get his mother to offer such a high treatment, the talent he recommended must have something. Luo Sheng waited for three days in anticipation, and the client finally came to Shencheng and met this talent who was praised by his mother.

...

This morning.

Luo Sheng went to meet at the agreed place. In a cafe, he already knew the client's name, Qin Weimu, a woman.

After the meeting, Luo Sheng was still quite surprised. Qin Weimu is a high-value urban beauty, with parted long hair, red lips that are not pointed, intellectual and full of royal sister style.

At this moment, the two are sitting opposite each other in a private room. Luo Sheng is also very curious about her talent. You must know that Bluestar Technology currently owns 1% of the equity plus an annual salary of 8 million. Even if it is to recruit an executive vice president, Luo Sheng will It is impossible to give this kind of treatment when you come up, and it almost exceeds the treatment of all executives of domestic Internet companies at present.

Luo Sheng looked at the beautiful lawyer sitting in front of him and said thoughtfully: "Weimu, it reminds me of the myth of Jingwei's reclamation, oh, it should be from Tao Yuanming's "Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Tenth", Jingwei Titled Weimu, I will fill the sea."

Qin Wei Muxian looked at the man who was three years younger than him and could be his boss, holding his chin in his hand, and said, "I'm ready, now I can interview and assess?"

Hearing this, Luo Sheng shook his head and smiled and said, "Forget about the interview and assessment, you can trust my mother, if you leave the original law firm and go to my startup company, I have no reason to disbelieve it. If not, my mother will cheat on me? From now on, you will be the chief legal officer of the company."

Qin Weimu pursed his lips and smiled. After a while, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "Actually, I didn't know it before, but I didn't expect that Teacher Li would recommend me to work in her son's company. Bluestar Technology has recently become very famous in the Internet world. , I've heard of it too."

Luo Sheng smiled and said nothing, and after a while Qin Weimu added with a touch of confidence: "You can consult me ​​with any questions related to legal issues, whether it is domestic, North American or EU countries. Including Financial audit issues, financial issues.”

Luo Sheng stared at the beautiful lawyer lady in front of her in surprise. Her words showed strong confidence in her profession. Obviously, she also had great trust in Luo Sheng's mother.

After a while, Luo Sheng nodded, thought about it, and said, "The company has completed a new round of financing, and has reserved an option pool, and the company has also entered a new round of development from the start-up stage. It can be said that you are blue. Star Technology's first employee with work experience, apart from you, the other 20 employees are either fresh graduates or current students. Before, the management was flat and loose, but the new stage is obviously not suitable for this kind of management. management tools."

Qin Weimu nodded lightly and listened carefully to what he said.

Luo Sheng continued: "As more and more adult employees with work experience are recruited in the future, how to maintain the centripetal force and struggle of the entire team is very important. This is the issue that I am most concerned about and troubled by recently. I think Equity incentives are the best way, and I also decided to implement equity incentives in the company, but the question is, how to do equity incentives? Is it appropriate to give them to employees or sell them to employees?”

After talking about these questions, Luo Sheng looked at the lawyer lady in front of her and asked her to consult and analyze, so that she could make a decision by herself.

"Sell!"

Qin Weimu said without hesitation.

Luo Sheng couldn't help but stare at her for a while, and Qin Weimu continued: "You have to implement equity incentives, and you must not give them to employees, otherwise, no matter how good your company's management is and how good you are, Bluestar Technology The probability of failure has already occupied 50% in advance, I can say so with confidence.”

"Go ahead, all ears." Luo Sheng looked at her and waited for the next sentence.

Qin Weimu quickly organized what he wanted to say, and after a while, he said in an orderly manner:

"The equity incentive must be sold, because if you give it away for nothing, he will not cherish it. The purpose of the equity incentive is to let employees share the benefits and risks with the company like shareholders. If you give the equity to him, the company will If it develops well, he shares the benefits, but if the company develops poorly, he will not share the risks with you.”

"When making an equity incentive plan, it is easy to send it. You can send it as you want. But it is difficult to sell the equity to employees. From the perspective of human nature and psychology, no matter what price it is sold to employees, He will feel high. Therefore, if you want to do a good job of equity incentives, you must meet six core elements, which are indispensable, namely: equity pricing, setting caps, waiting periods, immediate incentives, sense of security, and deep lock-up.”

Luo Sheng couldn't help but get interested. He decided to do equity incentives, but he didn't think so clearly. He really was a professional. Luo Sheng immediately said: "Please explain these six core elements in detail."

Qin Weimu took a sip of coffee, put it down, and glanced at Luo Sheng, and found that his eyes were looking straight at her, but she did not see the lightness in the other's eyes, but listened to the silence with humility. Waiting for the following, this made Qin Weimu's favorability to him rise a lot.

After a while, Qin Weimu said slowly: "The first priority in equity incentives is pricing. Take the case I have taken as an example. There was once a business owner who also implemented equity incentives. He put 10% of the company's equity at I sold it to employees at a 50% discount on the normal valuation, but no one bought it. I’m not surprised at all, because the employees will first wonder if there is a problem with the company, and the boss wants to lock them up?”

"The boss also doubted his life in the end. Why didn't any employee buy it? Is there really something wrong with the company? He also had a little self-doubt. Later, he came to my law firm, and just happened to consult and entrust me with this case. I took it too."

Luo Sheng interjected curiously: "How did you do it?"

Qin Weimu Yanzhan smiled and said bluntly: "I took this case, first of all, I looked at his business operations and financial situation, and the next thing I did was to help him find an investment institution to invest 10 million, accounting for 10 million. % of the equity, valued at 100 million, the purpose of this is to price the company's equity. At this time, it is 6 million, but employees are rushing to buy it. "

"At the same time, I also gave a presentation to the employees of the company, explaining clearly the equity incentives, the advantages, disadvantages, and benefits."

Luo Sheng said: "So, my company has completed the pricing, and the pre-A round of financing has just been completed."

Qin Weimu nodded lightly and continued: "The second element is to set an upper limit. Equity incentives cannot allow employees to buy as much as they want. For example, the highest 5% for the deputy general level, 3% for the director level, and 3% for the manager level. The maximum purchase is 1%, etc., and a weight factor is made according to the employee’s working age, position, performance, contribution, etc., and the maximum selling price is specified.”

"The third element is the waiting period. The so-called waiting period is also a test period for employees. It is absolutely not possible to give a certain employee 3% or 5% of the stock right when he comes up. He must be given a waiting period and a test period. The more I look forward to it, the more I can test and assess what kind of value and contribution he has made to the company through this stage.”

"Many times you will find waiting and waiting, and the employee waits and runs away, because he feels that the waiting period set by the boss is a big pie for him, so he needs to taste the real sweetness in the middle stage. , which is the fourth element."

"The fourth element is to set up an immediate incentive. What should we do? Simple, use dividend rights as incentives. When setting options for employees, we must combine dividend rights. Although shares are still options, at least they can get dividends. I don't think you're drawing a pie."

Qin Weimu paused for a while when he said this, took a sip of coffee and continued:

"The fifth element is a sense of security. Many companies fail to do equity incentives because of the boss's verbal promises, especially if they drink some wine at the dinner table. How can employees believe your promise at the dinner table? Not only will you not work well because of your verbal promises, but you will also doubt the authenticity of your performance."

"Therefore, companies must give employees a sense of security when doing equity incentives, that is, legal protection. That is, to sign complete legal documents for equity incentives, they must be complete, and at least one equity incentive plan must be formulated and there must be an equity incentive. The agreement was signed together. The so-called equity incentive agreement of many companies is only two pages. Can this give employees a sense of security? Obviously not, it is like buying a house. The developer gives you a two-page real estate contract, do you dare to buy it?”

Luo Sheng shook his head, he definitely wouldn't buy it, and immediately asked subconsciously, "How do you do it?"

Qin Weimu replied: "What should I do if an employee is promoted? What should I do if I am demoted? What should I do if I get divorced? What should I do if I have a work accident? , demotion and other situations should be considered and written into the agreement, and everything possible should be done. If there are only two poor pages, what should I do if there is a problem in the end? Isn’t the final interpretation right owned by the company? Employees are still a vulnerable group, no sense of security."

"Therefore, there must be complete legal documents in the equity incentive, and the equity incentive agreement should be signed. When I officially enter the job, I can draw up a complete contract document for you to review."

"The last element is deep hold-up. That is, step by step, employees are locked up, and employees are required to pay money, time, and affection in the company. Don't underestimate the little money that employees pay. For example, equity incentives cost employees hundreds of thousands of dollars. , hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands to buy the equity of Bluestar Technology, after spending this money, his mentality will change."

In the end, Qin Wei said succinctly: "Because whoever has money, whoever cares."

Hearing this, Luo Sheng looked at her in surprise. With an annual salary of 8 million plus a 1% equity treatment, with the talent she has shown initially, my mother really knows the money.

...