My Age of Investment

After Xia Jingxing released the news that he would spend a large sum of money to support Facebook employees who had resigned to start their own businesses, his office was directly kicked out by a large group of employees who had resigned.

There is no doubt that Xia Jingxing has become a representative figure in Silicon Valley entrepreneurship at this time.

Coupled with the blessing of the success of Vision Capital, his reputation is not much worse than that of Xiao Mazi in his previous life.

Who wouldn’t want to get help from such a great person on their entrepreneurial journey?

Of course, Xia Jingxing does not vote for everyone, and will conduct a certain degree of screening.

If you are a star entrepreneur in your previous life, then you will naturally have to invest.

If he is not a star entrepreneur in his previous life, he will also give him a certain chance and send people to conduct follow-up investigations.

Among a large group of entrepreneurs from Facebook who come to promote themselves door-to-door, Xia Jingxing admires and pays most attention to Adam and another Sri Lankan young man named Chamath Palihapitiya.

On this day, Chamath came to Xia Jingxing's office for the second time and explained his business plan to the latter in detail.

“Darren, because I joined Facebook relatively late, I didn’t get much money from this option cash-out, just a few million dollars.

So I plan not to set up my own venture capital fund for the time being, but to try to make angel investment first. "

Chamas is in his early thirties, with a full beard and dark skin. He looks very similar to an Indian.

Moreover, the speed of his speech is similar to that of an Indian, like a machine gun, firing continuously.

Xia Jingxing didn't dislike employees who loved to express themselves and fight for opportunities.

In fact, he and Chamath only worked together for a few months. Shortly after Chamath joined Facebook, he left his job and returned to China.

What impressed him deeply was this guy's superb poker skills. He should be ranked number one on Facebook. Even ordinary professional players couldn't beat him. He was probably as good as Zhou Shengfu, who was still a professional gambler in Macau. A comparison.

Xia Jingxing pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Why did you choose to go into finance? I remember that you graduated from the University of Waterloo in Canada majoring in electrical engineering?"

"Can I say that I prefer finance or number games?"

Seeing Xia Jingxing frown slightly, Chamas smiled and explained: "Darren, actually my poker skills are not innate, but acquired through practice.

I was born in an ordinary middle-class family in Sri Lanka in 1976. I immigrated to Canada with my parents when I was 6 years old. Later, my father suffered from depression and started drinking alcohol. His whole life was ruined, and his family conditions also plummeted.

In order to help my mother share the heavy responsibility of supporting the family, I started working in places like Burger King when I was in high school. I often did the work of several people by myself.

Those physical jobs were too tiring, until I accidentally discovered a way to make quick money, which opened the door to a new world for me. "

"Poker?" Xia Jingxing asked.

"right!"

Chamas smiled brightly, "One time I borrowed a fake ID to sneak into a casino and actually won money.

From then on, I went to the casino once a week, and I only won 50 US dollars each time. I continued to win continuously until college. "

Xia Jingxing was dumbfounded when he heard this, and met another cheater.

Zhou Shengfu made a living playing cards in Macau and earned tens of millions of dollars.

The guy in front of me seems to have the talent to be a professional gambler, but he knows how to exercise restraint.

Chamas continued: "After going to college, my father's depression gradually recovered. He began to work outside the home, and the family's economy improved. Therefore, I stopped gambling and spent all my time on gambling. Study above.

In 1999, after I received my degree, I worked as a derivatives trader at the Bank of Montreal in Canada for a year.

But I found that this seemingly decent job was actually very restrictive and not the life I wanted, so I moved to Silicon Valley with my girlfriend. "

Xia Jingxing added with a smile: "Then you jumped into the Internet trend and joined AOL. In just four years, you were promoted from an ordinary engineer developing chat software to the youngest vice president of the company."

Facing the praise from his former boss, Chamas couldn't help but have a bright smile on his face.

He spread his hands, "But I soon discovered that I am not suitable for AOL. My driving habits and pursuit of speed are somewhat inconsistent with that old car driving slowly on the road.

So I tried a different track and joined Mayfield Fund, an established venture capital institution.

After only a few months of working, I realized that my Asian face could not really fit into the circle of old white fund partners. "

Xia Jingxing laughed loudly, "Old white men dominate the United States. Maybe they think they dominate the world."

Seeing Xia Jingxing teasing the old white man, Chamath also laughed, "So I left decisively and chose to join Facebook, which was founded by Asians and has a more inclusive and equal corporate culture."

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. Facebook should be the most Asian-friendly company in Silicon Valley.

This is not to say that other technology companies discriminate against Asians, but compared to Facebook, other technology companies have far fewer Asian executives, and Asians have far fewer opportunities to be promoted.

To a certain extent, Facebook is quite an anomaly in Silicon Valley, but it is more international, and its relatively equal promotion opportunities have also attracted a large number of outstanding Asian talents to join.

Recruiting talents in an eclectic way can also be regarded as a major advantage of Facebook.

"You have been employed by Facebook for four years, primarily responsible for managing user growth.

I have to say that you did a great job, growing the number of website users from 100 million to 800 million.

Kristina is still a little reluctant to let you go.

Otherwise, why don't you wait another year or two? Facebook is going public soon. "

Chamas waved his hand, "Darren, thank you and Kristina very much for recognizing me, but I think I should be more suitable, or I would rather work in investment.

It doesn’t mean looking at a few lifeless big screens all day like my first job, but it means more creative investment work, such as venture capital, which is very good. "

Seeing that Chamas was very determined in his entrepreneurial idea, Xia Jingxing stopped trying to dissuade him too much.

In his previous life, Chamas was well-known in the industry and was a well-known billion-dollar financial industry tycoon.

After leaving Facebook, Chamath founded an investment fund called Social Capital with the help of PayPal founder Peter Thiel and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. He is bullish on Tesla and has invested in a series of listed unicorn companies.

In just nine years, it created a cumulative net return rate of ten times for LP and became famous in the investment community.

One of the things that Chamath is even more talked about is that he spent US$25 million in 2010 to buy 10% of the shares of the NBA club team, the Golden State Warriors.

Ten years later, the value of this investment increased 20 times and became US$500 million, which can be regarded as a double gain of fame and fortune.

At the same time, this guy also has multiple identities such as the king of SPAC trading, a big brother in the currency circle, and a famous Twitter investor. He is a highly talked about billionaire and has been rated as "the most amazing person in Silicon Valley" by well-known media. One of the Hundreds".

But what Xia Jingxing didn't know was that the guy in front of him did something even more out of the circle in 2021. He led a group of retail investors to fight against Wall Street. As a result, he was elected by retail investors as the "big brother" and became famous all over the world. once.

"Chamas, the valuations of startups in Silicon Valley have risen rapidly in the past two years. If you engage in angel investment, it may not be easy for you to achieve anything with your millions of dollars."

Xia Jingxing's words were very direct, just saying that Chamas' capital strength was insufficient.

However, Chamas did not get angry because of this. Instead, he said with a smile: "So I really hope to get your support!"

Xia Jingxing pondered for a moment and decided to extend an olive branch: "How about you join the Silicon Valley office of Vision Capital, and I will manage a fund worth hundreds of millions of dollars for you."

Charmar was stunned and said in disbelief: "Darren, are you serious? I am just a rookie with one year and a few months of financial investment experience."

"You are being modest when you say this. I heard that Disney intends to acquire a social gaming company. It seems that this company accepted your $25,000 angel investment, right?"

Chamas thought quickly and immediately defended himself: "Darren, although I introduced the cooperation with Facebook, I definitely did not seek any improper benefits with the authority in my hands. .”

Xia Jingxing smiled and said, "I didn't say you opened the door to convenience. What do you want to explain?"

In fact, you can’t blame Chamas for overthinking this matter. The companies he invested in and Zynga Xingjia Games are both companies that develop social games for Facebook, and they are competitors with each other.

Vision Capital invested in Xingjia Games, and Xingjia founder Mark Pincus invested in Facebook.

He recklessly added it to the Facebook platform, but he actually touched the boss's cheese.

Xia Jingxing had no intention of worrying about these. In fact, in addition to Facebook, Facebook also introduced many social games developed by other companies in order to check and balance the dominant Xingjia Games.

Chamas’ actions actually helped Facebook, and he secretly got Christina’s acquiescence.

What Xia Jingxing is really concerned about is the rate of return on Chamath's investment. In his previous life, Disney acquired this social game developer for US$700 million to US$800 million.

Chamath invested $25,000 a few years ago and is likely to reap a return of several thousand times his investment.

With this dazzling investment record as a foundation, it will be quite easy for Chamas to raise funds in the future, and there is no need to hang himself on the tree of Vision Capital.

Xia Jingxing planned to trap this guy before it was sold to Disney and before Charmas took off, and let him work for him for two years.

It is certainly unrealistic to trap Chamas for a long time. After all, he has the strength and luck to become a big boss.

In the future, Xia Jingxing plans to train Chamas to become an external sub-fund manager of Vision Capital, like Zhang Sanshi, Ma Ziming, Bill Huang, Einhorn, and Spitznagel.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket, lest one of these people fall over.

"How about it? Join Vision Capital and work for a few years, and I will give you the power to independently manage a fund worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

Xia Jingxing said in a persuasive manner: "When you have experience and performance in managing funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it will be more effective for you to start your own business in the future.

And I promise that when you want to start a business, I will invest you at least US$100 million. "

After hearing the conditions reported by Xia Jingxing, Chamas hesitated.

He has an adventurous gene in his heart, is restless by nature, and has always had the idea of ​​​​starting his own business independently.

Xia Jingxing allowed him to manage a fund of hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time, he could use various resources of the large platform of Vision Capital, which particularly excited him.

It's like he is using Vision Capital's money to practice his investment skills. Where can he find such good things?

Therefore, after thinking for a while, Chamas readily agreed, "Darren, I am willing to work for you... Well, how about three years?

Don't worry, I will definitely achieve results in these three years.

If there are no results, I will not be so shameless as to ask you for investment. "

"No problem, just do as you say!"

Xia Jingxing smiled and raised his palms, high-fiving Chamath.

Chamas had a smile on his face and felt extremely happy. Although his plan to attract investment was not completely successful and he sold himself to Xia Jingxing for three years, he reaped a lot of hidden benefits.

He smiled and asked: "Then Darren, when will I join Vision Capital?"

"Don't worry about it. You can try to complete a task for me first."

Chamas asked with confusion on his face: "What mission?"

"Help me find an NBA club, one that can make a lot of money."

Chamas smiled and said: "Darren, you also like basketball?"

"Of course, this is a sport loved by the entire United States."

"Are you interested in the NFL professional football league team? The influence and popularity of this sport in the United States is even higher than that of the NBA."

Xia Jingxing glanced at Chamas and said, "If you can find one that meets my requirements, you can take it too."

Hearing this, Chamas suddenly became excited. He likes this kind of boss who uses US dollars as Zimbabwean currency. Only by following such a boss can you have a future.

:,!