My Age of Investment

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“Against the backdrop of the global economic recession, all walks of life are experiencing severe survival tests.

In order to survive, business owners will cut the funds for Internet advertising, cut off businesses with reduced revenue, lay off employees...

Use all conceivable cost-cutting methods to reduce your own operating costs in order to survive this once-in-a-century financial crisis. "

In the large conference room of Vision Capital's Silicon Valley office, Xia Jingxing sat on the stage with a golden sword and talked about strategies and methods to fight the financial crisis.

The audience was packed with people, all of whom were the founding management teams of the companies invested by Vision Capital, such as Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus and a large number of CEOs of Silicon Valley star companies, all of whom were listed.

David Duffield, the gray-haired CEO of Manshi Company who is nearly 70 years old, is like a primary school student who listens carefully in class, taking notes quickly while listening.

“No egg is left unfinished when the nest is overturned. Although the Internet and IT software industries are asset-light operating models and have relatively low liabilities, in the context of advertisers cutting their budgets and software service providers laying off employees, this will inevitably have a negative impact on the entire technology industry. critical hit.

Many people think that this financial crisis has little to do with them. After all, they have not purchased properties that have lost half their value or subprime mortgage derivatives that have almost zero value. "

Seeing the funny look of Xia Jingxing spreading his hands and tilting his head, the audience burst into laughter.

"This view is wrong. The technology industry is not an isolated business island and needs to do business with traditional companies.

Traditional entrepreneurs have a hard time, and technology entrepreneurs will naturally have a hard time too.

At present, except for a few technology giants in Silicon Valley, the rest of the companies are laying off employees on a large scale, including some listed companies with strong financial resources.

In addition, the financial crisis has severely damaged the capital market, and many startups that want to go public have shelved their IPO plans.

The VC market has also suffered its biggest freeze since the Internet bubble, with many funds failing to raise funds or reducing the amount of funds raised.

This also means that in the next few years, everyone will face a less relaxed financing environment.

In other words, the good old days are gone forever, and the financing myth that dropouts can get millions or tens of millions of dollars in investment is difficult to reproduce. "

After hearing Xia Jingxing's words, except for a few people, most of the people put away the smiles on their faces, and their expressions gradually became serious.

No doubt this is a friendly warning from financial tycoons.

"But there is also good news. Envision Capital has raised a new VC fund of US$1 billion and has now completed its closing.

Next, it will invest in companies and entrepreneurial teams that maintain their indomitable will despite the severe financial crisis.

Vision Capital is our staunchest ally and partner on the road to growth. I believe everyone should have heard this when accepting investment from Vision Capital.

This is not a mere statement, but a promise, and now is the time to fulfill it.

Please rest assured that we will stand with everyone to get through this difficult time. "

Xia Jingxing's words were like the warm sunshine in spring, shining in everyone's heart, making many people feel a touch of warmth in the harsh spring cold.

At the same time, some people sighed in their hearts that they really made the right choice when they chose to accept the capital injection from Vision Capital.

Not every organization is willing to provide help in times of need, and everyone generally chooses to add icing on the cake.

Noticing the grateful looks from many people in the audience, Xia Jingxing sighed in his heart.

Don’t you just want to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity created by the financial crisis to expand Vision Capital’s shareholding in various start-up companies?

A win-win business is suddenly understood as charity.

Well, it’s not just once or twice that he is regarded as a good person, he is used to it.

The operation of Vision Capital VC Fund in the United States is far from being as invincible as it is in China.

Domestic VC funds once held more than 30% or 40% of the shares of Tudou and Ganji.com, and venture capital almost led to holding acquisitions.

In this regard, Wang Wei, Yang Haoyong and others did not express too strong resistance.

It's not that the founder is naturally rebellious, but it has something to do with Xia Jingxing's status in the domestic business community and the domestic venture capital environment.

Domestic entrepreneurs do not have so many choices, and Xia Jingxing and Vision Capital are already their best choices.

The United States is different. The venture capital industry has been prosperous for decades, and Vision Capital is just a new investment institution in Silicon Valley.

Compared with connections, resources, and achievements, there is not much advantage.

In the early stages of development, Xia Jingxing also exchanged a lot of resources with the PayPal entrepreneurial gang headed by Peter Thiel, and only then did he initially lay the foundation.

Therefore, the shareholding ratio of Vision Capital U.S. VC funds in various startup companies is not high. The shareholdings of the small ones are only a few percent, and the shareholdings of the large ones are more than ten percent, and rarely exceed 100%. The existence of twenty.

The essence of venture capital is not to cast a wide net to catch more fish. Investing in too many mediocre companies cannot create good returns. The correct approach is to focus on the top projects of each fund and invest heavily.

Therefore, we often see some star projects where venture capital institutions pursue several rounds of investment in a row, desperately trying to get more shares.

Whether a fund can generate positive returns or generate ultra-high positive returns, the decisive factor often falls on one or two projects.

The current performance of Vision Capital VC Fund is a bit like being submissive to the outside world and attacking hard internally.

If you only know how to live in a nest, that is definitely undesirable.

Then, Xia Jingxing shared a set of slides with the CEOs of invested companies present.

Looking at the groups of economic charts and data shrouded in pessimism, most of the CEOs present felt extremely worried.

At the end of the slide, a connotative picture without any fonts appeared - a sharp knife stuck in a pig's head.

Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned.

Xia Jingxing did not explain the meaning of the picture. He believed that anyone who was not a pig head should be able to understand the meaning.

After the CEO summit ended, other startup CEOs stood up and left. Reid Hoffman, David Duffield and others did not move. They were still sitting in their original positions, as if they had something to say to Xia Jingxing.

Seeing this, Xia Jingxing did not get up. When everyone in the conference room was almost gone, he asked: "How many bosses want to treat me to dinner?"

Reid Hoffman laughed, "No problem, I'll treat you to lunch today. I have a few discount coupons that will expire soon."

Xia Jingxing smiled and said, "I like discount coupons. Things bought with discount coupons taste truly delicious."

After a few jokes with Xia Jingxing, Reid Hoffman got to the point: "Darren, how long do you think it will take to eliminate the adverse effects of the financial crisis?

If it hadn't been for the financial crisis, Facebook would have been a public company by now. "

Jeremy, Pincus, and Duffield all looked at Xia Jingxing. They were all very concerned about this issue and wanted to hear what the financial giants thought about this matter.

Xia Jingxing heard the underlying meaning of Reid's words and guessed that this guy already had the idea of ​​listing LinkedIn.

“It will take at least a year to get a general return to normal financial order.

If LinkedIn wants to go public, it should be scheduled after 2010. "

Reid Hoffman smiled brightly, "LinkedIn became profitable in 2007. This financial crisis actually did not cause much harm to our business, but actually helped us generate revenue.

Because many people are looking for jobs through LinkedIn after losing their jobs. "

"Really? That's great news!"

Xia Jingxing had a faint smile on his face. In a fully grown startup like LinkedIn, it would be almost difficult for Vision Capital to expand its shareholding.

Even the financial crisis failed to stop LinkedIn's financing. The month after the collapse of Lehman, LinkedIn completed tens of millions of dollars in Series D+ financing, led by Goldman Sachs Direct Investment Fund, the German software giant and the world's No. 1 ERP software Developer SAP also participated in the investment.

This involves not only money, but also resources.

With the help of SAP, LinkedIn's corporate membership service has developed many Fortune 500 customers.

Goldman Sachs has not yet provided any support to LinkedIn, but when it goes public, Goldman Sachs will definitely be on the streets of Wall Street and call on friends to work together to increase the IPO pricing, fund-raising amount, and first-day stock price. High.

These financing steps of making friends are an indispensable part before going public, so Envision Capital did not join in the fun.

In fact, as early as June last year, when LinkedIn launched its D round of financing, Vision Capital withdrew from the list of co-investors.

The reasons given by Reid Hoffman are very strong and very reasonable. He said that he hopes to introduce more diversified shareholders and let everyone work together to make the cake bigger, so that everyone can share a little more.

Having said that, what can Xia Jingxing say? He voluntarily gave up following the investment because he had already invested in three rounds before.

Fortunately, the scale of LinkedIn's D and D+ rounds of financing is not too large, and it has not diluted Vision Capital's shareholding. It still holds about 10% of LinkedIn's shares, making it the second largest institution after Sequoia. Shareholders, there is no problem in getting a piece of the pie after the listing.

Xia Jingxing chatted a few more words with Pincus, Duffield, and Jeremy.

Companies such as Xingjia, Gongshi, and Yelp, like LinkedIn, are growing very fast, and they were among the first batch of startups invested by Vision Capital in Silicon Valley.

These CEOs have the same idea as Reid Hoffman, and they all want to complete the listing of the company as soon as possible and achieve their respective goals of wealth freedom.

Xia Jingxing understands this very well. Running a company is like raising pigs. When the pigs are fattened, it is time to put them out. If you continue to raise them, the input-output ratio will not be high.

Seeing that everyone around me has become rich by raising pigs, and has arranged yachts and flights, but I am still struggling to raise pigs, anyone else would feel anxious.

As for those nonsense about changing the world, they are all told to media reporters after they become famous. They are chicken soup stories with concave characters. Normal people have no interest in money.

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