Top of the big era

This is the difference between starting a business domestically and starting a business overseas.

In China, everyone knows who everyone is.

In particular, people like Guo Pengfei, Meng Houkun, Chen Dong, and Ji Zian have been with Zhou Buqi since they were in college, and they all have a great understanding and trust in each other.

Even if we are unfamiliar with each other, we all grew up in the same soil, speak the same language, have similar habits and culture, and can quickly become familiar with each other.

Therefore, if you run a company in China, you can be very bold in hiring people.

Even if this person is a college student with little social experience like Guo Pengfei or Chen Dong, he can still be entrusted with an important task and use Bole's vision to discover them.

It's different overseas.

If you are not familiar with the place, it will be difficult to reuse some young people with ideas to do some big projects.

If you want to be a bole, you must first understand horses.

Zhou Buqi couldn't predict the foreign horses, so it would be difficult for him to use his keen eye to pick out the thousand-mile horses from the herd. He can predict things in China, but he really doesn't know many of these foreigners.

what to do?

It’s also simple, and it’s no longer a bole.

Just go to the market and buy a Chollima.

Just like the famous former Microsoft executive Steve Sinofsky.

Zhou Buqi doesn’t know much about the specific product design and technical framework, so he can only talk about some of his concepts and ideas about this online collaboration platform based on cloud computing.

What to do at the execution level, Zhou Buqi can't help, it all depends on Sinofsky's level.

If he fails...

does not matter.

There will definitely be many startups with similar projects in the market, and they will directly engage in mergers and acquisitions under the name Ziweixing International. If the optimal solution cannot be reached, a suboptimal solution will do.

After all, we have to occupy this track.

Next, is the focus of the discussion.

How to allocate investments and shares?

Sinofsky is not short of money. Since he has decided to do this, he will definitely contribute personally. Otherwise, he will not be called a partner but a professional manager.

Zhou Buqi said: "I think US$200 million in start-up capital is quite good."

"Isn't it a bit much?"

Sinofsky's expression changed slightly.

Although he is not short of money, there is still a big gap compared with Boss Zhou. His total assets are approximately US$800 million, but they are all in the form of stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.

It’s not easy to raise $100 million directly.

You have to sell Microsoft stock in a big way.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "A little more money won't be a disadvantage after all."

Sinofsky coughed and said hesitantly: "A start-up company does not need too many people or good office facilities. Once you find something wrong, you can stop the loss in time. Maybe... maybe invest early. Five million dollars is enough, and we can each contribute half.”

Zhou Buqi disagreed, "This is too little."

If it is an ordinary project, the initial investment is of course as small as possible.

In fact, it is the cost of trial and error.

Once you fail, you won't lose much.

However, for some key projects, the larger the initial investment, the better. The more early investment, the more shares you will hold. When the project is successful and the valuation becomes higher and higher, the funds required to obtain shares will increase sharply.

For example, Sinofsky's plan is to invest US$5 million, with both parties holding half and shares equally.

Sinofsky invested US$2.5 million in shares, holding 50% of the shares; Zhou Buqi invested US$2.5 million, holding 50% of the shares.

Such a small amount of money is definitely not enough, and we need to continue to raise funds.

When the company's valuation reaches US$2 billion, diluting 10% of the shares can earn US$200 million. At that time, Sinofsky will invest US$2.5 million to hold 45% of the shares, Zhou Buqi will invest US$2.5 million to hold 45% of the shares, and the new investor will invest US$200 million to obtain 10% of the shares.

This is not right.

Zhou Buqi is full of expectations for this project.

He is not short of money.

When raising funds in the future, investment will definitely be given priority, either in my own name or in the name of Ziweixing International. Spend $200 million to acquire 10% of the shares, plus the initial 45%, for a total of 55%.

This is equivalent to a total investment of US$202.5 million to obtain 55% of the shares.

This is just too bad.

If he follows Zhou Buqi's plan, he can get 50% of the shares by investing US$100 million. With a total initial investment of US$200 million, it is not easy to spend all this money, and there is almost no need for financing.

If you really want to raise funds, you may go public through an IPO.

There is no need to continuously raise funds to dilute the shares.

However, matters of money and shares are trivial.

The most important thing is the human heart.

Sinofsky is a core executive of Microsoft. He has worked at Microsoft for more than 20 years and is rich. He is not short of money at all. If he was only allowed to invest 2.5 million US dollars... what would this amount of money mean to him?

It’s gone, it’s gone.

It would be different if he was asked to invest US$100 million. Sinofsky was not a top tycoon. He had a lot of assets, but he couldn't come up with cash at all.

To raise $100 million, he would either have to sell Microsoft stock or take out a loan.

This is great.

When the pressure is on him, he will put all his heart and soul into the startup company, even if he doesn't work hard. With so much money invested, he couldn't even regret it.

US$100 million is nothing to Zhou Buqi, but such a sum of money is enough to tie up Sinofsky.

…

Sinofsky seemed somewhat indecisive.

It may also be that I have had too little contact with Boss Zhou, and I am not used to his vigorous and resolute style, and I need to digest it slowly.

When he arrived at Ziweiyun's subsidiary EverZoom, he became excited.

Even Zhou Buqi was a little baffled.

When asked why, he said that these people are all young people. Only by working with such a group of young people can we be more motivated and more creative at work.

Then, Sinofsky got a little "forgetful" and talked to a few young people about the product concept of SaaS online collaboration. It was very speculative when he talked about it, and he actually forgot about Boss Zhou.

Zhou Buqi immediately felt that this person was a bit reliable.

Then, I talked about product strategy with Yuan Zheng, the president of EverZoom. Yuan Zheng immediately talked about HTML5 and said with a smile: "EverZoom should be a representative product of the company that supports HTML5 technology."

Zhou Buqi said vaguely: "Well, HTML5 will be a major trend in the future. But on the mobile phone, product development must still focus on apps."

Yuan Zhengdao: "As long as the funds are sufficient, of course we can develop enough versions. But from the perspective of product differentiation, we must delve deeply into the direction of HTML5. We must not be the first in the world, but also the top three in the world. . Especially for multi-person online video conferencing products like Zoom, including the online collaborative design tool you and Sinofsky want to make, they must be built along the technical lines of HTML5. You said the core of the mobile version It’s an App, but the main application scenario for this type of product is not mobile phones, but computers.”

Zhou Buqi thought deeply, "Well, that's true."

Yuan Zhengdao: "So we must make HTML5. Only products based on HTML5 technology can be adapted to Windows, macOS, Linux and other operating systems at the same time, and can take care of different groups in all fields. Especially in design, some Designers like to use Apple, some designers like to use Microsoft, and others like to use Linux."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Is this how Zoom started?"

Yuan Zhengdao: "Even if we have just taken the first step, most traditional software is localized services. If new challengers want to attack them, it is best to take the initiative to differentiate. They are localized software, For localized services, we have to provide cloud software and cloud services. Differentiation is the best competitiveness."

Zhou Buqi agreed very much, "You can have a good chat with that guy later and tell him your opinion."

"What if he disagrees?" Yuan Zheng asked.

Zhou Buqi was silent for a moment and said slowly: "If he doesn't agree, then he is not the partner we are looking for."

"Yeah, I understand."

Yuan Zheng is Chinese and talented.

Although his reputation is far behind that of Sinofsky, Zhou Buqi knows that he is a thousand-mile horse. Sinofsky is just a thousand-mile horse bought from the market. It is not certain whether this thousand-mile horse can adapt to his own horse farm.

Chollimas selected from your own horse farm are more in line with the temperament of your own horse farm, and can adapt better and produce better.

In particular, Yuan Zheng's product views and technical route choices are completely in line with Ziweixing International's current strategic plan, and they are absolutely united.