My Age of Investment

After the three-day trip to the desert, Ricky just led the team back to Silicon Valley when he learned from his boss that the company had reached a settlement with Sequoia.

This turn caught Ricky off guard, and many of his preparations were useless.

However, he also respects and understands his boss's decision. After all, if he can do business well, who would be willing to distract his energy to deal with his opponents.

And the venture capital market is not like the Internet market, where the winner takes all.

Even if Vision Capital destroys Sequoia Capital regardless of cost, the vacated market will not be able to absorb it and will only be naturally digested by the market.

At the same time, Xia Jingxing also gave Ricky an important instruction, asking him to keep an eye on the Duobaoxi Company and not to miss a round if he had the opportunity to invest in several rounds in a row.

This company also belongs to the cloud computing industry chain company, providing cloud storage services to individual users and enterprise users, and also belongs to the SaaS software service field.

It’s just that this company is not very outstanding yet, and it has not launched a cloud disk service. It only has a small tool software that facilitates the transfer and sharing of files on mobile phones, computers and other devices. The entire company, including the two founders, has only 9 employees in total. , small scale.

In addition, Xia Jingxing also solemnly gave Ricky a new task to go to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, to inspect a music streaming company called Spotify.

As soon as he heard that this company had the opportunity to become the YouTube of the music industry, Ricky became immediately interested. He even forgot to ask his boss how he discovered this start-up that was thousands of miles away from Silicon Valley.

In fact, Xia Jingxing had only just remembered this company, and he was still influenced by the name Shopify.

The names of the two companies, one called Spotify and the other called Shopify, are very similar, and they are both leaders in their respective fields.

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Tesla Office Park in Silicon Valley, R\u0026D workshop on the first floor.

Including CEO Straubel, CTO Gene Bodichevsky, Senior Vice President responsible for managing the vehicle engineering team David Lines, Chief Designer Franz, Vice President Peter Rawlinson, and Design Consultant Henrik ·A dozen senior executives, including Fisk and others, formed a circle and looked at Xia Jingxing standing in the circle with a smile.

After circling a car covered with red cloth, Xia Jingxing raised his head and asked, "Is this the final product?"

Franz nodded, "Yes, Darren, this is the final prototype of the Model S! It took the hard work of all of us, and we revised the plan countless times before we came up with this version that makes everyone excited." Hurry up and check the goods!"

Xia Jingxing smiled, no longer hesitated, grabbed the red cloth and opened it.

A car with silver-gray metallic luster came into view, with a low, streamlined body and sharp-edged lights, which looked full of technology.

More than a dozen company executives said nothing, but their attention was focused on Xia Jingxing's face, observing whether the big boss was satisfied.

Xia Jingxing walked around the car again, but this time much slower. He was carefully observing some design details.

The appearance of this Model S is very close to the Tesla he remembered from his previous life. It no longer uses the chassis provided by Lotus Motors. From the body to the chassis to the three-electric system, everything is designed independently by Tesla.

Xia Jingxing was about to open the car door when he noticed that the door handle had become a hidden door handle, not only to pursue a sense of cool technology and ritual, but also to reduce wind resistance.

Franz smiled and stepped forward and handed Xia Jingxing the key. Then the car sensed the key and the door handle automatically popped out.

After opening the car door and sitting in the driver's seat, Xia Jingxing was a little surprised because at first glance there was only a steering wheel and a large central control screen, and there were very few physical buttons on the steering wheel. He was somewhat unfamiliar with the interior of a fuel vehicle.

He suddenly remembered that most of the buttons on the new model had become virtual buttons and were integrated into the 17-inch large screen.

After looking at the off-white seat for a few more times, Xia Jingxing nodded secretly. It was typical of minimalism, simple but not shabby.

The only flaw is that the workmanship seems not fine enough, the stitching looks a bit sloppy and rough, and the gaps between the thread ends are not very even.

He secretly made a note to urge improvements in the future.

After searching around, Xia Jingxing couldn't find the ignition switch. Then he smiled bitterly and forgot again.

Pressing the brake pedal with his foot, the car was powered on, and the large central control screen next to it also lit up. Xia Jingxing reached out of the window and dialed some numbers.

When the executives knew that the boss was about to leave, they quickly stood on both sides and made way for a passage.

Xia Jingxing pushed down the gear lever on the right side of the steering wheel, shifted it into forward gear, slowly released the brake, and the car began to slowly drive out of the R\u0026D workshop.

Seeing this, all the executives followed him out.

There was a large open space outside the workshop. Xia Jingxing drove the vehicle slowly with his left hand while using his right hand to test various functions on the large screen next to him, such as air conditioning, lights, driving information, etc.

At present, the functions are not rich enough, not to mention the audio and video entertainment functions, and it is not even equipped with electronic maps, which is very rudimentary.

After playing for a while, Xia Jingxing lost interest. He parked the car aside, opened the door and got out of the car.

A group of senior executives gathered around him and asked questions.

"Darren, how do you feel? Isn't it cool and technological?"

"Darren, why do I feel like you are more familiar with this car than we are? When I drove this car for the first time, I didn't even know how to start it. It took me a long time to find the keyhole and ignition switch."

"Darren, are you even surprised by this car? Hahaha~, I had exactly the same reaction as you. I was also shocked and couldn't even speak."

…

Xia Jingxing listened with a smile on his face as everyone introduced their driving experience.

To be honest, his driving experience is still a little different from everyone else's, and he doesn't have the pride of this group of executives who have a glimpse of the future and lead the times.

Because he has seen smarter electric cars, he really can't empathize with everyone.

However, he still needs to look a little better to avoid misunderstanding. Is the boss dissatisfied? Or maybe the boss is too harsh, not aware enough, etc.

He pressed his palms, and the chattering group immediately fell silent.

"Let me tell you about my driving experience!"

Xia Jingxing looked around the crowd and said with an extremely proud tone: "To be honest, it is even more amazing than I imagined! I can now be sure that this is the development direction of future cars, just like the revival of mobile phones. Will redefine an industry with innovative technology.

In particular, the touch screen controlled by fingers integrates and connects countless sensors and on-board MCUs in the car, which can be called the soul and technological crystallization of the entire car.

When I was just driving, I was thinking, is this still a car? Falk, this must be a space battleship. "

Everyone laughed, and they had similar feelings. At this moment, everyone had a strong spiritual resonance.

"At the same time, I'm still thinking, what if this car officially came out? Technology enthusiasts all over the world would go crazy and demand that we take their knees.

Even if ordinary people don't understand technology, after witnessing the various innovations of this car, they will probably shout "Oh my god".

Those automotive and technology colleagues who look down on us and belittle us will put away their arrogance and stupidity, keep silent about their previous remarks, and delete the texts and videos posted on social media.

Then they transformed and became the most determined and optimistic practitioners of electric vehicles, shouting all day long: Tesla is a respectable opponent and someone we can learn from and catch up with.

Did I say before that I won’t build electric cars? You must have remembered wrongly. I have always supported the development of electric vehicles, okay? It’s just that the time was not yet ripe and there has been no formal action, but we have been silently paying attention to Tesla’s development. "

All the executives burst into laughter. The boss's vivid imitation made them feel like they could see someone being slapped in the face in the future, and they felt indescribably happy.