My Age of Investment

“Although Groupon is just a small and crude website now, and it only sells some cheap products such as dining coupons and performance tickets, its business scope is limited to one city, Chicago.

But we already have a clear expansion plan. This year we will expand our business scope to major cities in the United States, and we will also cooperate with more merchants.

In the future, users of Gaopeng.com can form groups to purchase mobile phones, home appliances, cars..."

A young white man in his twenties was standing on the stage, spitting about Gaopeng.com's business plan.

This kind of entrepreneurial passion is undoubtedly very impressive to investors.

Ricky, who was sitting in the audience, nodded secretly. It seemed quite similar. At least his PPT production and presentation skills were quite good.

"Andrew~"

Just as Xia Jingxing shouted, Andrew sitting next to him and Andrew on the stage both looked at him at the same time.

Xia Jingxing smiled and changed his words: "Mason, can I understand it this way?

Can your business plan be summed up in one sentence, everything can be united? "

Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Gaopeng.com, suddenly smiled and said, "Yes! This is exactly what we want to do.

Now a financial crisis has broken out in the United States and around the world, the economy has fallen into recession, and a large number of people are facing unemployment and salary cuts.

The group buying model allows people to buy the products they want at lower prices, which is very cost-effective and attractive.

For merchants participating in group buying, with the tightening of bank loans, even if the profits are lower, it is also a benefit to have a large influx of cash flow.

The group buying model connects consumers to merchants, creating a win-win situation. "

Eric Lefkowsky, the founder of Gaopeng.com, who was sitting opposite Xia Jingxing in the audience, added: "And the group buying model is very light. It does not need to deal with logistics and transportation and build warehousing like e-commerce platforms. and investing too much money and people.

We only need to carry out simple information matching and put enough products and services on the web page, and users can choose freely. "

Andrew spread his hands and said: "Sorry, let me interrupt. It seems that I didn't see you listing enough products and services on the website?"

Eric is nearly forty years old. This man has been starting a business since college. He once made an annual income of US$100,000 by selling carpets in school.

After graduating from university, he directly joined the entrepreneurial field and successively founded T-shirts, children's sportswear and outbound phone companies, advertising software companies, printing companies, supply chain management companies and several Internet companies.

Some of these companies went bankrupt, some cashed out US$240 million, and two companies completed independent listings.

Judging from his past entrepreneurial achievements, Eric is a serially successful entrepreneur with great business talent.

Therefore, when faced with questioning from potential investor Andrew, he acted very calmly. In the past ten years of his entrepreneurial career, he has encountered too many similar situations and has rich experience in dealing with them.

He smiled politely at Andrew, and then replied calmly: "Because our website currently does not have enough users, if we rashly list too many merchants online, it will affect the efficiency of group buying.

Although we only launch one product every day, our promotion efficiency is very high. The time to complete the group has changed from a few hours in the past to dozens of minutes now, and it has been decreasing.

This brings a good experience to users, and at the same time creates a "very popular" feeling, making Gaopeng.com become the most popular website in Chicago in just over two months.

Now the whole of Chicago is talking about Gaopeng, saying that we are a magical website. "

Ricky took a pen to record it and will conduct relevant investigations during the due diligence.

"Is your current marketing method mainly through local word of mouth?" Andrew continued to ask Eric.

“Not only that, it also includes email marketing.”

At this time, Mason walked off the stage and sat back in his seat. He then added: "This is the most cost-effective marketing method. We can trial and error at a low cost.

Once the business model works, we will make larger investments. "

Ricky asked with a smile: "So do you think the business model is working?"

"Of course it went through, otherwise we wouldn't have made a business plan to expand to the United States."

Mason pushed a stack of paper documents in front of Ricky and introduced: "This is the revenue and net profit report of Gaopeng's group buying business over the past two months. We have already made internal forecasts. In three months, Within months, the website will fully achieve breakeven."

Ricky was a little surprised, breaking even so soon?

He then thought about it, Gaopeng.com is a light model, there is not much investment, and it is normal to make quick profits.

Ricky briefly looked through the documents and said: "If Gaopeng is going to make a big expansion next, breaking even will probably be delayed."

"It will indeed be delayed, and a large amount of marketing and promotion costs will significantly reduce our business profits, but this is enough to prove the superiority of the group buying model."

After saying that, Mason specially glanced at Xia Jingxing, who was there. He found that the latter looked indifferent, and he didn't know whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied.

Eric said: "Gaopeng.com will expand in two directions next. On the one hand, it will form a merchant development team to allow more merchants to cooperate with Gaopeng.com, and on the other hand, it will increase the number of ordinary registered users of the website.

Expansion plans in both directions require a sum of money, and a large sum of money.

Therefore, we chose to start financing externally. "

Ricky nodded to express his understanding, then he looked at Andrew, and Andrew looked at Xia Jingxing.

"I very much agree with Gaopeng.com's expansion. You have chosen a very good time. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are now having a difficult time and are in great need of customer traffic, while ordinary people need products that meet their needs and are low-priced."

Xia Jingxing said with a smile that the background of the birth of Gaopeng.com is actually somewhat similar to that of Pinxixi. They both stepped on the trend of consumption downgrade and took advantage of the trend.

Eric and Mason were very happy to see that their expansion plan was appreciated by well-known financial and Internet tycoon Darren Xia.

Seeing the joy on their faces, Xia Jingxing couldn't help but think of himself in his previous life.

At that time, I passed the Mason interview and was announced as hired on the spot. I was as happy as a child.

The roles were reversed in this life, the interviewer became myself, and the two former bosses became the interviewers.

I have to say, this is the wonder of fate.

However, when he summoned the two founders and former bosses of Gaopeng.com to come to Silicon Valley, it was not just as simple as "reminiscing about old times."

“However, I don’t think forming a business development team is the right decision.”

Hearing this, Eric and Mason both raised their hearts and looked a little nervous.

Xia Jingxing's sullen face suddenly smiled, "I think there are more efficient promotion tools, such as Facebook.

If Gaopeng develops a function that allows users to personalized subscribe to their favorite group buying products and services, and this function can also be associated with Facebook, allowing users to see which products their friends have purchased and rated.

Guess what the effect will be? "

Eric and Mason looked at each other, and both saw the joy in each other's eyes.

Why did they rush to Silicon Valley as soon as they heard that Xia Jingxing wanted to see them?

This is because as long as a big boss leaks a little bit of resources from his fingers, he can ripen the newly sown seed of Gaopeng.com to the point where it blossoms and bears fruit.

Many Envision Capital companies such as Yelp, LinkedIn, and Manshi have enjoyed the resource support of social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

What Eric valued most was the resources in Xia Jingxing's hands.

Strictly speaking, he has been in business for more than ten years and has built two listed companies. He is not short of money, and many venture capital companies are optimistic about him as a serially successful entrepreneur.

The Point, the parent company of Gaopeng.com, received the first round of investment of US$4.8 million from NEA Enxi Investment as early as the year before last.

Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "In addition to helping Gaopeng.com to spread virally, Facebook can also help Gaopeng.com connect with advertising merchant resources.

In this case, Gaopeng.com will no longer have to expand its merchants offline one by one, and the promotion efficiency and business growth rate will soar like a rocket! "

Eric and Mason were ecstatic for a moment, but they quickly calmed down.

You know, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Eric asked, "Darren, if we partnered with Facebook, what would we have to pay?"

Xia Jingxing smiled slightly and said, "Accept Facebook's investment, they want 10% of the shares."

Eric continued: "What about Vision Capital?"

Xia Jingxing said calmly: "We also want 10% of the shares."

Eric stopped talking. The other party immediately wanted to take away 20% of the shares, which made him hesitate.

After all, Gaopeng.com has already raised a round of financing, and there are two founders including him, and they still need to set up an option pool...

This round of financing diluted 20% of the shares, which he felt was a bit too much.

However, the cake drawn by Xia Jingxing made his heart move so much that he was reluctant to part with it and did not dare to refuse it.

Xia Jingxing did not push him, but quietly waited for Eric's reply.

Although Gaopeng has two founders in name, Eric is actually the real major shareholder and chairman.

Mason graduated from the music department a few years ago and was recruited by Eric because of his excellent programming skills.

Later, because of his contribution to the development and promotion of Gaopeng.com, Mason transformed from a wage earner and became the co-founder of Gaopeng.com, but his shareholding ratio in Gaopeng.com was much lower than Eric.

"Darren, how about 5% each of Vision Capital and Facebook?" Eric asked tentatively.

Xia Jingxing shook his head slightly, "The shareholding ratio is too small, and it will be difficult for Facebook to convince the board members."

This is not a reason Xia Jingxing made up, but a series of actions by Envision Capital to squeeze Facebook’s wool, which has made Facebook’s shareholders dissatisfied.

Envision Capital borrowed Facebook's resources to help invested companies, but Facebook received little benefit.

It doesn't matter if it happens once or twice. The key is that this kind of thing has happened countless times.

Therefore, Xia Jingxing plans to share some of the benefits with Facebook so that no one will gossip about him again no matter how much he tries to do.

In short, one person cannot monopolize all the benefits. When it is time to share the cake, it is better to give some benefits to others, otherwise the road will become narrower and narrower.

"Then how much valuation are you willing to give to Gaopeng.com?"

“The post-money valuation is US$50 million, with Vision Capital and Facebook each investing US$5 million.

With this US$10 million in expansion funds and the support of Facebook, Gaopeng will become a company valued at US$1 billion by the end of this year. "

Eric barely hesitated and immediately extended his hand to Xia Jingxing: "No problem, I agree!"

Xia Jingxing smiled and stretched out his hand to shake Eric's hand. He knew his former boss very well and was a very qualified businessman. He knew how to assess the situation, and his ability to operate and get things done was no weaker than Lu Zhengyao's.

Even without the help of Facebook, the other party can still light up extraordinary achievements. The growth rate of Gaopeng is even faster than that of Luckin, which is almost as fast as that of Pinxixi.

:,!