Return to Singapore 1995

The words of this tall boy who suddenly arrived surprised Teacher Ma, who was speaking passionately and tragically. He took a closer look and said in surprise:

"Director Li, long time no see, you are now my idol!"

Later, the delighted teacher Ma pulled Li Xiaofan and introduced to the group of people around him: "Everyone, let me introduce, this is the famous Mr. Li Xiaofan who was the first to invest in Yahoo with Sequoia Capital!"

Hearing the three thunderous names of "Li Xiaofan", the crowd around them let out bursts of surprise.

"Wow, it turns out this handsome young guy is Li Xiaofan!"

“It’s amazing that at such a young age he founded Asia’s first Internet company listed on Nasdaq!”

"Wow, I've heard of him for a long time, he's a young business tycoon! He's so handsome!"

Teacher Ma was obviously proud to know Li Xiaofan and continued to introduce:

"Three years ago, Director Li and I met by chance by the West Lake in Hangzhou. Director Li not only gave me business for the China Yellow Pages company that I just founded at that time, but also angel invested in our original China Yellow Pages project..."

Three years ago, Li Xiaofan invested 50,000 yuan in Haibo Computer Services Co., Ltd., where Teacher Ma operates the "China Yellow Pages" business, as a way of making friends with Teacher Ma.

But good luck didn't last long. Two years ago, Hangcheng Telecom took a fancy to Mr. Ma's business model, copied Mr. Ma's homework, and also launched a China Yellow Pages project.

Facing Hangcheng Telecom Company, which had almost a monopoly on resources at that time, Teacher Ma and the others would definitely not be able to defeat them. In desperation, Mr. Ma’s Yellow Pages project had to merge with Hangcheng Telecom, and he became a minority shareholder.

Last year, Mr. Ma, who was unwilling to be subordinated to others, left Hangzhou and led part of his team to the capital to develop the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Online China Commodities Trading Market, the Online China Technology Export Fair, China Investment Promotion, the Online Canton Fair and the China Foreign Trade Fair. A series of websites such as economic and trade...

This is the best of times and the worst of times. In Beijing, every day, groups of young people with dreams rush in from all over the country to pursue their dreams; there are also groups of young people with broken dreams who leave sadly.

This is a besieged city, some people want to get out and some want to get in. There are only a few successful people here, very few. Most ordinary people can only wander when they come to the capital. They are called "Beijing drifters". Teacher Ma's life as a "Northern drifter" seems to be unsatisfactory. His ideals and ambitions have repeatedly hit the wall here. Teacher Ma, who is not understood, is frustrated. Tonight, he decides to make a "beauty" with his friends in this bar. bid farewell". But unexpectedly, he met Li Xiaofan.

After a brief passionate introduction and greetings, Teacher Ma enthusiastically asked Li Xiaofan to take a seat next to him and ordered the waiter to bring Li Xiaofan a new set of dishes and chopsticks.

Then, Teacher Ma raised a full glass of Red Star Erguotou and said to Li Xiaofan: "Director Li, I would like to offer you a glass of wine! I am very happy that we can meet again when I am about to leave the capital. Welcome to Hangzhou next time Come as a guest!”

"Thank you, Teacher Ma!" After finishing his glass of Red Star Erguotou in one gulp, Li Xiaofan asked with a smile: "Teacher Ma, after listening to your passionate speech just now, are you planning to return to Hangzhou to start a business again?"

"Yes, I have been so disappointed with Beijing during this period. This is not my ideal place. I decided to return to Hangzhou and start my own business again!"

Li Xiaofan understands Mr. Ma and knows that there are two main business models popular in the domestic Internet field: news portals and search services. But Mr. Ma insisted on doing e-commerce, so everyone was not optimistic about him at that time.

After briefly listening to Teacher Ma’s introduction to the new project, Li Xiaofan smiled and said:

"Teacher Ma, let me support you one more time. Recently, I made a little money by speculating in domestic technology stocks. Or, how about I invest 10 million yuan in your new project first and you give me 40% of the shares?"

After hearing this, Teacher Ma couldn't believe his ears: "Director Li, it's true or not, you haven't even read my business plan. You just listened to my introduction and decided to invest 10 million in my new project." RMB?”

You should know that when Mr. Ma’s China Yellow Pages project was acquired by Hangcheng Telecom two years ago, the price was only 600,000 yuan, accounting for 30% of the new joint venture project with Hangcheng Telecom. Last year, when Teacher Ma left Hangzhou in anger, his shares were sold for tens of thousands of yuan.

In 1998, the average monthly salary plus bonus income in coastal cities like Mingzhou and Hangcheng was only about 1,000 yuan. This 10 million yuan is simply a huge sum of money for Teacher Ma today.

"Yes, Teacher Ma, I have decided to invest 10 million RMB in your new project!" Li Xiaofan repeated the important figure of 10 million RMB in English.

After receiving Li Xiaofan's confirmed information, Teacher Ma's eyes flashed with tears of surprise, and he held Li Xiaofan's hands excitedly: "Director Li, you are really a noble and close friend in my life, you are so kind to me!"

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan watched a video of Teacher Ma. He said that the thing he regretted most and the biggest mistake in his life was founding Alibaba... Many people thought it was Teacher Ma putting on a show in Versailles.

But now Li Xiaofan seems to be able to deeply understand what Lao Ma meant by this sentence. Mr. Ma just introduced that before he met Li Xiaofan today, Mr. Ma went around looking for investors to promote his new Alibaba project, but these investors all thought he was a liar. He found 37 companies and rejected 37 of them. He was hit by walls everywhere and was "broken and bloody", which made him extremely disappointed in Beijing...

Starting a business is really too difficult and hard, and it is a life-and-death struggle. If Li Xiaofan is not a reborn person, there is no chance for him at the moment.

Li Xiaofan smiled and said to Teacher Ma:

"Teacher Ma, let's talk business. I am a businessman, and you are also a businessman. As an investment businessman, I am just optimistic about your business model, you and your team. I am optimistic about your new project, and I believe you will definitely achieve great things in the future!"

After investing in Teacher Ma's new Alibaba project, just before leaving Beijing, Li Xiaofan received a call from Gu Qijun, saying that the leaders of Tsinghua Science Park, which was recently established by his alma mater, Tsinghua University, wanted to visit Li Xiaofan and invited Li Xiaofan to create an entrepreneurial incubator similar to Y-lab in Tsinghua Science Park.

Gu Qijun introduced on the phone that in 1993, Tsinghua University proposed the idea of ​​establishing Tsinghua Science Park, which was confirmed and approved by the Ministry of Education and Beijing. In 1994, the Tsinghua Science Park Development Center was established and the construction of the Science Park officially began. This year, the 120,000 square meters of the starting area of ​​Tsinghua Science Park was completed, and the park has begun to take shape...