The Goddess Shines on America

What other colleagues in the film industry think has nothing to do with Alice. Her daily life is just going to and from school as usual. As soon as March is over, the enthusiasm brought by "Ghost Shadows" will dissipate, and she has already poured hundreds of millions of box office revenue into the bottomless pit of the clothing market. It can be said that nothing happened for a while.

Of course, it can't be said that, at least, Microsoft's Windows 1.0 is indeed popular because of the movie. In any case, this is also a super hit with a revenue of 200 million US dollars in the US domestic market alone, and the overseas box office is still gradually heating up. Alice did the ad?

"When it is sold with the DOS system, it is completely the same as the sky!"

Therefore, it is no wonder that this completely zero endorsement fee advertisement is so effective that Gates would call to thank him in person, and he was so excited that he couldn't even speak: "Many companies in Britain, Italy, Germany, and France Call us and ask for Windows 1.0 by name! Just yesterday, we signed 452 orders, 341 orders the day before yesterday, and 675 orders the day before yesterday. The sales in a single day are tens of thousands!"

Really promising... Alice thought so after hearing Gates' incoherent exclamation.

Single-day sales... tens of thousands, what is this?

Although the profit margins are ridiculously high...

You know, Cisco sells a router for two thousand dollars, while the price of windows 1.0 is only $100. Microsoft has to sell 20 copies of their system, which is equivalent to Cisco selling a router here.

However, who said that the current market situation is like this? Although the graphical user interface is excellent, the current Microsoft is not without other competitors, and the number of current application software is also limited. People who use the DOS system well do not have to pay a penny.

I bought it for your face, because I think it is really convenient to use, and it is the icing on the cake, but that's all. After all, compared to the really popular 95 system, the highlight of windows 1.0 is really only the graphical user interface.

But the router is different. It can directly reduce the cost of building a local area network by three or four times, and it also frees up space for an extra computer. Although 90% of the 2,000-dollar selling price is pure net profit, the direct effect of saving huge costs for users is directly there...

Just as Alice had calculated earlier, if it wasn't for the price war in the future, even if she raised the price to a full four thousand dollars, the orders would still keep coming!

Speaking of which, it was not until Bosac hung up the phone again that Alice, who had been busy with other things, remembered that the agreed deadline of the 30 venture capital companies had arrived.

Yes, how can I say it was April 1st in 1985. According to the original errand speed of the couple, that is, the hard-working achievements of 73 companies in 1986, it is really about the same to gather 30 companies on this day. up.

So, on the morning of the second day after receiving the call, Alice and Sophie took a small plane directly to San Jose Airport, just in time for lunch, and sat in the dining room of the Bosack couple's mansion near Stanford University.

On the spacious dining table, the couple prepared a sumptuous lunch for the guests at noon, but although the expressions on their faces were cryptic, they clearly expressed one meaning, that is, they were eager to end the meal quickly.

"This is the company's March financial statement, please take a look."

Sandy handed the report to Sophie, and the copy to Alice, and added: "The ledger is in the company, how about going to see it after lunch?"

Sophie nodded in agreement, and Alice read the report seriously.

Main business income: 828,700

Net profit: 694,370

Liabilities:-

Recalling the financial statement in February, Alice said: "Although it is already countless times higher than other industries, it is an indisputable fact that the profit margin has decreased. What cost has increased?"

Posak lowered his glasses and said with a smile: "CPU, Sandy and I's contract with Intel has expired, and they refused to sell the goods at the original price and increased the price by 10%. Because you were still in China at the time, So we had to renew the contract directly, but it was only for three months, that is to say, we can bargain with them again in June."

Alice nodded, said nothing more, but opened the client list. Sandy is very serious in her attitude towards customers. Just looking at the list, she classified all the information in detail according to strict standards. Even the library can't do better.

"Los Angeles has a market share of 8%, San Francisco's market share is 17%, San Diego's is 4%, and Las Vegas has a full 12%...Sandy, how is this share calculated?"

"We looked through the enterprise yellow pages in this city, and counted the number and industry distribution of all registered companies. This ratio is the proportion of companies that have purchased Cisco products to the number of companies in the yellow pages."

Sandy answered very proudly, because she saw Alice's satisfied smile. At this time, she actually had a strange feeling in her heart. It was obvious that the other party was only a little girl about thirteen years old, but when she spoke to a thirty-year-old university professor, she couldn't help but act like a regular subordinate reporting work. .

And the most amazing thing is that after realizing his attitude in an instant, Sandy still felt a little unbelievable that his low profile in reporting work seemed to be a very normal thing.

Not noticing the surprise in Sandy's eyes, Alice said: "Good job, but since we have expanded the market so fast, it must be time for our peers to appear, right? For several months, we have asked major companies, Scientific research institutions and colleges have sold tens of thousands of routers, and everyone else is not a fool, and we are about to be hit."

Bosac tapped his fingers on the table, his eyes twinkling in thought, but in order to wait for what he just opened his mouth to say, after reading the financial statement, Sophie said: "Currently there are only two of you in the company, although this can save costs. , but now that the business is expanding, it’s time to recruit new employees.”

Invisibly, this sentence positioned Bosac and the others as employees, but Sophie spoke very fast. Before the two of them could think about that word, her follow-up speeches followed one after another. to.

"What Alice said just now is reasonable, so we must quickly establish a marketing department. While striving to expand the product market, we must also try our best to investigate all potential competitors. Therefore, the technical and customer service departments should also be established. There are many customers. After the establishment, various related consultations will also increase, and it is time for us to set up the corporate structure.”

Posak nodded, agreed and said: "Indeed, although the shipment process has been directly shipped by the manufacturer according to Alice's idea, we are indeed a bit unable to handle a large number of orders every day. If recruiting people, the technical department It is enough to recruit five people, after all, we currently only have this product.”

Alice waved her hand and said, "In terms of team building, let's talk about it later when we arrive at the company site. This is a very complicated issue. Let's eat first and chat with each other. My steak is almost cold!"

In this way, the lunch ended hastily under the different moods of the four of them. Posak immediately drove the car and brought Alice, mother and daughter to the current Cisco company residence.

An office area close to the San Francisco area, I found an office here as a registered address, that's all. The current Cisco company is still far from the scale of tens of thousands of employees in twenty years. When stepping into the office, Alice looked around. stuffed.

"Since we need to recruit more people, the office must be replaced with a new one."

Alice paced around the room, looking around slowly. The offices in several rooms were full of filing cabinets, and the largest room was used to study hardware assembly. It can be said that it is already the limit for the two of Bosack to work. That's right, at most one person can be accommodated, otherwise the oppression of the environment is enough to make everyone collapse.

Posak followed behind mutteringly. It has been almost a year since the establishment of the company. It is true that the company's income level is steadily increasing, but more and more businesses are beyond what the couple can handle alone.

Who would have thought that just after Alice handed in the first batch of orders, the next business would snowball like crazy? Almost since then, the husband and wife have spent almost all their time on business, dealing with various manufacturers, visiting customers for interviews, and being so busy with various matters that they can only spare a little time for financing the business. That is, a door-to-door visit to the venture capital manager.

And just after they visited those venture capitalists again and again, they ushered in failure after failure. Even until now, Bosac couldn't understand at all, why couldn't he convince them?

Of course, Alice didn't use her mind reading skills, but with the atmosphere along the way, she certainly knew what the couple was thinking.

Taking out the order summary from the general manager's office, Alice can easily draw a conclusion based on the clear information above.

Ever since she quietly asked Lawrence to mobilize contacts and posted some small advertisements in several major financial media such as the "Wall Street Journal", the number of orders flocking to Cisco is definitely beyond the word of mouth of several university professors. .

Looking at the bags of instant coffee accumulated in the trash can, and looking at the feeling of gratitude contained in the tired expressions of the Bosacks, Alice showed her white teeth shining brightly.

The reason is very simple.

After exhausting the original founders like dogs, they certainly hope that someone will share the blame for themselves.

The only problem is that once this responsibility is assigned, if you want to take it back, it will be indefinitely.