My Age of Investment

In the evening, Peter Thiel called Xia Jingxing and invited the latter to hang out at the bar.

When Xia Jingxing arrived at this elegant bar, Peter Thiel was already sitting on the railing on the second floor, drinking alone while enjoying the song and dance performance on the big stage downstairs.

"Dylan~"

Peter Thiel stood up with a smile on his face, fist-bumped with Xia Jingxing, and asked the latter to sit down.

"What are you busy with recently? Are you busy dating high-class ladies in New York?"

Peter Thiel joked: "If you ask me, what's the point of women? It will only affect the speed of making money and slow down the development of our career."

Xia Jingxing scratched his head, just because you're not interested in women, doesn't that mean I'm not interested? I am the man you can never break in your life.

Seeing that Xia Jingxing remained silent, Peter Thiel smiled. He was just joking and had no intention of forcing his sexual orientation on others.

"The special fund has been completely liquidated and will be transferred to your designated overseas account within this week."

Peter Thiel poured himself a glass of wine, raised his head and took a long sip, and then said: "The outside world thinks that Clary Capital has made 14 billion US dollars, but in fact it is all working for you."

Afraid of Xia Jingxing's misunderstanding, Peter Thiel quickly added: "I'm not complaining, on the contrary, I want to thank you.

Following you, Clary Capital also made more than 3 billion US dollars.

At the same time, benefiting from this industry-leading performance, tens of billions of dollars of capital poured into Clary Capital last year.

Even excluding your US$10.6 billion special fund, Clary Capital's asset management scale has reached nearly US$20 billion.

The outside world now ranks Clary Capital alongside Vision Capital as a strong contender for the top ten hedge funds in the world this year. "

Speaking of this, Peter Thiel spread his hands, "To be honest, the scale of asset management has increased so much that my team and I don't know how to invest. This is really a happy trouble."

Xia Jingxing smiled. Peter Thiel's Clary Capital was only a medium-sized hedge fund managing US$3 billion the year before last. Its asset management scale increased nearly seven times in a short period of time. On the surface, this is certainly a good thing, but At the same time, it also puts forward higher requirements on the management team's ability and investment level.

He had previously told Abel, Liu Hai and others that a sudden surge in the scale of asset management is not necessarily a good thing.

Because the amount of funds has increased and it has become a big fish in the market, many investment strategies in the past have become ineffective, and the company needs to undergo transformation from top to bottom.

Failure to adapt to this transformation can have disastrous consequences.

New funds emerge in the market every year, but most of them will fade away as their scale increases. The most powerful funds in the market are always the old funds, such as Bridgewater and Deshao.

The reason is this, I can’t control it even if I give you money!

"Some changes need to be made to allow the company to maintain this size, otherwise it will be a meteor streaking across the sky. Although it is bright and eye-catching, its existence is short-lived."

Peter Thiel nodded slightly, "Yes, you are right."

After looking at Xia Jingxing for a few times, Peter Thiel hesitated to speak. He really wanted to ask the other party about Vision Capital's next investment strategy, but it involved such high confidentiality that it was not convenient for even friends to inquire casually.

He simply started to talk about Clary Capital's next investment direction: "I want to invest in U.S. dollars and oil next."

Xia Jingxing did not ask for specifics, but nodded and said: "This is a good direction. The next direction of Vision Capital should be its old business, the stock market and the foreign exchange market."

Peter Thiel wanted to ask more details, but judging from Xia Jingxing's attitude, he didn't seem to want to talk in depth.

He understood this, but he still felt a little uncomfortable.

I have already made some suggestions, but the other party is still so wary.

Moreover, I am not asking for it unilaterally, I will share some market information collected by Clary Capital, and both parties will benefit from each other.

He felt that Xia Jingxing had changed, and he no longer had the grandeur and boldness of the past.

In other words, the other party has never changed. Take this time of shorting subprime mortgages. It is clear that the other party wants to use the name of Clary Capital to engage in such actions that can easily attract infamy.

They, Clary Capital, did get some benefit from it, but it was well deserved.

If the other party had not held back and shared more investigative reports on the subprime derivatives market earlier, they would have earned more than US$3 billion.

The special fund's floating profit exceeds US$9 billion. According to industry rules, they can take at least 20%.

Because of my nonsense... I should be generous and waive all fees.

From the bottom of his heart, he felt that he had returned Xia Jingxing's favor, everyone was even, and no one owed anyone anything.

The singing downstairs was pleasant, but neither of them was in the mood to listen. They were both scheming in their minds, and the atmosphere was a bit awkward for a while.

Xia Jingxing could actually guess that Peter Thiel would have some opinions about him.

But he doesn't care!

I let Clary Capital win once, and its development is much better than in the previous life.

In its previous life, Clary Capital only had an asset management scale of US$6 billion at this time. Now it is the second largest short-selling fund on Wall Street after Paulson.

If Paulson is an air god, Peter Thiel can also be an air god.

I am already interested in Peter Thiel, but the other person's desire is so overwhelming that he even wants to inquire about their second move.

Just leave Clary Capital to my management! Xia Jingxing felt that the other party was too ignorant.

Peter Thiel didn't want to make the relationship too tense, and at least wanted to keep his reputation up to par, so he changed the subject and talked about Palantir Big Data Company and Facebook, as well as a series of founder funds such as LinkedIn, Yelp, and Slide. A startup company co-invested with Vision Capital VC Fund.

"The IPO of Facebook should just be shelved, right?"

Peter Thiel said with a smile on his face: "I still hope that Facebook's IPO will bring an epic return case."

Xia Jingxing acted as if nothing was wrong and replied with a smile: "Yes, your wish will come true, but it may take a while at night."

"Red plans to start LinkedIn's D-round financing. At the same time, he wants to hire a professional manager who is more proficient in commercialization to succeed him as CEO. You know, Red wants the company to go public as soon as possible."

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly to express his understanding. He had been paying attention to the development of LinkedIn. The company started to make profits the year before last and has maintained a steady pace of development. Currently, it has more than 30 million registered users and nearly 100 million US dollars in sales. Received.

LinkedIn is not short of money now, and its financing only releases a small proportion of equity dilution to the outside world.

However, in last year's C round of financing, he and Vision Capital continued to invest in one round, and still firmly hold 11% of the company's equity.

It’s not particularly high, but it’s enough to get a bite of the cake.

The United States is no better than China. It can only take advantage of early opportunities to acquire more equity in high-quality startups. Once the startups grow, it will be difficult to obtain a large amount of equity, unless they spend money like Sun Zhengyi did, buy shares at a premium, and then be second-tier. The inverted market value cut three liters of blood.

"Mark Pincus founded a social game company called Zynga. Several of their games are listed on Facebook's open platform and have achieved very good results. Have you paid attention?"

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. He was paying attention to this company. It had been established for a while and it was developing faster than in its previous life. It should have been greatly stimulated by domestic games.

However, domestic social games have begun to decline a bit. Domestic games do not intend to continue to delve into this field, so they will not form a big competition with Xingjia.

Moreover, Xingjia's business philosophy is very unique, treating game products as Internet products to operate quickly: launching products quickly, and maintaining and updating products at a faster speed.

How fast? Updated several times a week.

There is a reason why Xingcan is successful. It has a good way of running this kind of short-lived social game, and it knows how to keep users fresh about the game.

“Pincus is very grateful to you for letting him invest in Facebook back then. At the same time, Xingjia now maintains a good cooperative relationship with Facebook, so he hopes that Vision Capital can lead a round of investment in Xingjia.

Last year, he and several co-founders pooled the money to start the business. This was Xingjia's first round of external financing. The first person he thought of for financing was you, which shows that you are still a very good friend to everyone, Dai Lun. "

Xia Jingxing smiled slightly. He didn't necessarily qualify as a friend, but he just had the resources at his disposal.

After chatting with Peter Thiel about the situation of these start-ups, and thinking of the happy cooperation times in the past, Xia Jingxing reflected in his heart, did he make a mistake?

He soon gave up this idea. Hedge funds are not like venture capital funds. In the volatile secondary market, no one dares to really leave their back to others.