Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

{Time: June 3-4, 2003}

{Location: Mountain View, United States}

Ning Zimo showed his fierceness by pressing Rafael Andrea to the floor and rubbing him without any resistance. Seeing that he was defeated, Ning Zimo nodded, but his two friends Mick sitting next to him

Monz and Peter Warman, however, accepted the result with bitterness.

Because, they also got a good response.

Elon Musk, who was watching Ning Zimo's sharp performance, was very pleased. He called the lawyer who had been working with him for a long time. After Zhang Miaoying's verification, an investment of 3 million US dollars was made, with Ning Zimo occupying 70%.

The investment contract for the shares was finalized.

Ning Zimo won the Chihua Company with an absolute advantage, but this dominance did not bring any burden to him.

The moment Mikmundz took over the contract, he reached out to Ning Zimo and shook it.

While shaking vigorously, Mikmundz managed to speak: "Ning, just now we were very concerned about whether you invest in this project. Therefore, I have a small request that I didn't dare to mention."

Ning Zimo looked at the man, who was actually quite young, with an expression of pleading, and said, "It's okay, you can tell me first."

"Ning, you just mentioned Frankfurt and Cologne, which reminds me of a possibility that I first discussed with my companions."

Encouraged by his partners, Mick Munz told Ning Zimo, "We have always considered locating Chiwa in Germany, where robot manufacturing is the most advanced, especially in Frankfurt and Cologne, where the supply chain of raw materials and technology is

It’s more complete. Especially Frankfurt, which is actually my hometown.”

Mikmundz had a somewhat apologetic look on his face,

But Ning Zimo's heart was filled with joy.

Isn't this a coincidence?

Even if Mikmundz didn't mention it, Ning Zimo would take the initiative to mention the relocation of Chiwa Company.

After all, both acs and bing are based in Frankfurt, and the supply chain issue mentioned by Mick Muntz is one of the considerations.

What's more, isn't it a good thing to take Chihua away from Mariana and bring it closer to the future b2c e-commerce center?

Ning Zimo's heart had turned a few times, but there was no wave on his face.

He lowered his head and pretended to think for a while, then looked serious when he raised his head again.

"I think this is possible."

After seeing off the Chihua trio, Elon Musk took Ning Zimo and continued to sit back on the sofa.

Elon looked at Ning Zimo carefully, almost making him feel scared inside.

"What's wrong? There are flowers on my face?"

"No, no, no, I just can't understand you suddenly," Elon Musk shook his head.

In the past hour or so, he watched the young man he admired easily take down Chihua with a fierce offensive.

At that time, he couldn't see the slightest trace of youthfulness or the temperament of an engineer on Ning Zimo's face. Instead, he saw a tyrant with the determination to kill.

At that moment, Elon Musk suddenly thought of his green face when he first met this young man and listened to him talk about the current situation of Beibao.

More than a year later, he could still see the youthfulness on the face of the young man in front of him.

But if we discuss specific work and affairs, and think about the topics he talks to himself on skrpe on weekdays, it is difficult to connect his lofty goals and youthfulness together.

But Elon Musk has to admit that this young man with contradictory internal and external temperaments is a real existence.

Elon was suddenly very happy that he had given some help to this young man he admired. Although he was not sure whether this help would be repaid in the future, and he didn't care about it. But Elon felt that having such a motivated and impressive young friend

, is a very happy thing.

Elon raised the corners of his mouth and shook his head but smiled happily, "Ning, although I can't fully understand what you are doing, the logistics processing center you mentioned must be considering a similar one to Mariana.

times, but it will definitely be a bigger platform than them, and Chiva will definitely be a big help in your definition."

Elon Musk's words shocked Ning Zimo's heart.

He suddenly remembered that in addition to being a genius programmer, the great man in front of him was also a business wizard, and his ability to see the subtle things should not be underestimated.

"Elon, you are this one." Ning Zimo extended his thumb to Elon Musk, sincerely appreciating this ally's vision.

Perhaps, it was just a sentence and a heartfelt action that exposed Ning Zimo's ambition.

But to extract this attempt from the myriad threads can only be achieved by relying on the accumulation behind us.

Elon accepted it gladly,

The two people's eyes collided again,

It's quite a bit like knowing heroes and valuing heroes.

***+***

By the way, I took down [Chihua] and stayed at Specax for only one day. Ning Zimo took the Emperor Penguin team to say goodbye to Elon Musk and left Specax.

At the current stage of specax led by Elon Musk, the only thing that can communicate with Emperor Penguin is Elon's own management philosophy. The entire factory is more filled with various machinery and step-by-step staff.

so,

one day,

It's enough.

By the next day, Tuesday morning, Ning Zimo had already led the Emperor Penguin team to lead the race.

McKinsey and Billionaire are still contacting each other about the time of their visit, but as a leader who owns shares and has a good cooperative relationship with Ning Zimo, he must be open to the Emperor Penguin team.

So when a group of people walked along the aisle to the door of Lingying Company, Hoffman and Levchin, one fat and one thin, were already waiting outside the office.

As soon as he saw Ning Zimo, Hoffman "rolled" over with brisk steps.

"Man, you're finally here again! I almost thought you were going to abandon us!"

"Hey~~ Good guy, I'm thinking that you should eat less junk food and control your weight properly."

After finally getting rid of Hoffman's restraints, Ning Zimo patted his belly gently, smiled and said to Levchin, "Man, have you been eating with him recently? With his current trend, I'm afraid

I ate a lot of your share!"

hehe

Levchin snorted softly, put his hand on his eyes and said, "In recent times, he will never have such an opportunity to take advantage in the future."

"Oh?" Ning Zimo raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "Do you dislike him for grabbing food, so you want to abandon him?"

Although the relationship with Levchin and Hoffman is not as good as that of their former roommates Chen Shijun and Pan Yu, the three of them are still old friends, so the three of them don't mind teasing each other in front of everyone.

"Of course, if I stay with him all the time, I'm afraid I'll bring bad luck to him. So I decided to go with you when you go back to plant flowers this time, and by the way implement the [Senior Programmer Incubation Center] plan you mentioned last time.

.”

Levchin curled his lips, but he couldn't hide the hidden smile.

Ning Zimo was immediately happy.

"real?"

"Of course, buddy. I think what you said is completely reasonable. The former Beibao Gang who came out of our circle need such a high-end training center."

While speaking, Levqin looked over Ning Zimo's shoulder.

Following his gaze, Ning Zimo saw Han Qinghua who was being stared at without knowing what he was doing.

"Han, I remember you. When you and Lu Lu came to Beibao to implement [Nuwa], they left a deep impression on me."

Levqin crossed Ning Zimo and walked to Han Qinghua and stretched out his hand. When Han Qinghua shook hands with him in confusion, Levqin turned to Ning Zimo with a smile and said:

"Including Pan and Chen, as well as Han, Lu and you. I see from you the hard work, hard work, and more possibilities of Eastern people. Moreover, I believe that your [Senior Programmer Incubation Center] must be more than just what it means.

So simple. Every time you plan something, you usually have a long-term plan."

Ning Zimo was teased by Levqin with a wink, and scratched his head shyly.

"You have seen this. You are indeed a good partner who is familiar with me."

"Of course, if Beibao could have had you join us a few years earlier, I'm afraid it wouldn't be as simple as selling 1.8 billion US dollars." Hoffman walked up and put his arms around Ning Zimo's shoulders and said with a smile.

Ning Zimo spread his hands and pouted at the Emperor Penguin crowd and said helplessly, "See, these are my two partners who have wanted to exploit me since I was a child laborer. The former CTO and senior vice president of Beibo.

"

"Max Levchin."

"Reed Hoffman."

The two people who introduced themselves smiled and shook hands with the emperor penguins.

"Welcome to Lingying. After all, we are also members of your Emperor Penguin family."

Amidst the laughter, the atmosphere suddenly became much more harmonious.

Ning Zimo stood aside and watched Hoffman play tricks.

but,

This is not,

What a good start.

…

Entering June, Lingying's development team followed the established steps previously formulated by Ning Zimo and displayed the address book upload and group functions on Lingying's page. At the same time, it also activated the third plan that Ning Zimo had planned for Lingying.

A formal business chain: positions and user subscriptions.

With Ning Zimo’s advance planning, and with Hoffman and Levchin personally taking charge, even without Ning Zimo’s promotion of [myspace] with the help of the [Celebrity Plan], Lingying still ran through the timeline in all directions

Another time and space of its own.

According to Ning Zimo's plan, [Lingying] only invested corresponding advertising fees in Fengyu SEM and SEO promotion, but the results of nearly 3 million users in four months are not worth mentioning in front of skrpe, but it is also a natural development.

good results.

But the rational Reed did not invest more money, because Lingying now needs to expand the server capacity on the one hand, and improve the service quality of existing users on the other. The team is now focusing on the accumulated experience in the past few months.

The number of users is less than 3 million and various functions are being optimized.

After all, [Ling Ying] is different. The model, vision, and environmental structure all determine the current results. Ning Zimo has many things to do, so he can only let [Ling Ying] naturally maximize the advantages established early on.

When Ning Zimo walked into Lingying with Emperor Penguin, he saw that Lingying's current office area had expanded three times, and the added 60-person marketing team and 20 engineers were still busy in the office.

This is Silicon Valley after all, and there is no shortage of talents of all kinds.

"Peter sent us news that Sequoia Capital has begun to notice the development of Lingying through him. Soon, we may face a negotiation with real capital." Hoffman introduced as he walked.

arrive.

Ning Zimo chuckled and said, "Have we been noticed by capital so quickly? Or is there Peter's recommendation here?"

"I guess I have something to do with him, but so far he has only told us via email, and there has been no formal discussion yet," Levchin said.

The Peter that Hoffman is talking about is none other than former Bebot CEO Peter Thiel. He was originally involved in the investment world, and has returned to the investment world since leaving Bebot. Come to think of it, he has some experience in the projects of Bebot engineers.

Pay attention, and naturally you will have some exchanges with other investors on weekdays.

"No matter how Sequoia notices that we are winning, it means we are on the right path."

After all, Sequoia Capital is a local company in the United States. With their many years of experience in the capital industry, the release of information about Lingying at this time does mean that Lingying is already a valuable project.

Hoffman's face turned rosy when he said this, and Ning Zimo could fully feel the pride in his heart from his actions.

Although he was surrounded by members of the Emperor Penguin whom he had only met once, Hoffman still couldn't restrain his excitement, "Ning, what do you think, if Sequoia Capital invests in us, how much will it value us?"

Ning Zimo could understand his excitement very well, so he nodded and said, "Sequoia's involvement will give them more bargaining power. Their valuation of us depends entirely on our results in leading the first formal business chain."

.

I have also seen the data of Lingying recently. Currently we have less than 3 million users, but the user retention rate is very high. I think the user retention rate will become the key to their valuation of Lingying.”

"Do you think it can reach 100 million US dollars?" Hoffman continued to ask.

"You are a bit underestimating ourselves," Ning Zimo chuckled and shook his head, "Currently, the retention rate of less than 3 million customers visiting Lingying is very high, which means that these professional customers are still very satisfied with our Lingying

. But it depends on when Sequoia is ready to intervene. If it is a venture capital round, my valuation of 100 million is too conservative. You should consider 200 million."

Hoffman was a little disbelieving when he heard the numbers from Ning Zimo. After all, Beibao only sold 1.8 billion US dollars after three years of operation. If Ning Zimo said it, after three years of development, the valuation of Leading will definitely increase.

Beyond PayPal?

Ning Zimo looked at him and nodded, pointing to the marketing department in the distance and continued, "Everything depends on the advancement speed of these marketing guys."

Withdrawing his arm, Ning Zimo turned around and looked at everyone, "The era of the Internet bubble has passed. The 1.8 billion acquired by Yibao from Beibao has affected the venture capital's view of the existence of a bubble in the Internet industry to a certain extent. Lingying has times.

Biogene exists. You can ask Peter or Elon whether they think the valuation is low and see what their answer is.

But no matter what, I think we still have to move forward with our first round of angel financing. While expanding our reputation and money through short-term financing, we will also add some chips to Sequoia by strengthening ourselves."

Ning Zimo turned to look at Hoffman, and the determination in his eyes actually made Hoffman feel a little oppressive. Hoffman just looked at it, and he saw Ning Zimo say word by word:

"Guys, Lingying is not Beibao. It is not our money-making tool. It is a business for us. We must look at it differently from Beibao. After all, we need to invest from others.

Does money reflect our value?

No, Lingying itself is the value! Whether it’s Sequoia or other capital, they invest in us because Lingying can make the money more valuable to investors.”

Hoffman looked at the elegant smile on his young partner's face,

His voice was not loud but it seemed to have some kind of magic power.

What a weighty sentence that is,

"We ourselves are the value!"