Reborn, back to a small county town to become a wealthy family

Chapter 765 Good calculation

Shanghai is located in the East 8th time zone, while New York is located in the West 5th time zone. Therefore, Shanghai is 13 hours ahead of New York.

This is due to jet lag. Flying from Shanghai to New York means there are 13 hours "disappearing" in between. Adding the 15 hours of flight time, it takes about a day.

When Luo Yang and his company team arrived in New York on an international flight operated by China Eastern Airlines, they were greeted by two groups of people.

One side was the staff of Kunpeng Technology's US office, and the other side was Cao Shuyu, who had arrived early on Monday.

After politely thanking Cao Shuyu and the IDG team, Luo Yang and his group left the airport with their family and checked into the Four Seasons Hotel New York in Manhattan.

This hotel has a total of 386 rooms and suites, and is well-located, offering beautiful views of downtown, Central Park and the Hudson River.

After checking in, it was only 11:30 a.m.

Everyone was having dinner at the hotel.

Because of jet lag, even though many people are very tired, they have to stay up until night to sleep.

Since he couldn't sleep, Luo Yang simply called several key company executives to his suite.

The suite had a small meeting room that could accommodate seven people, which came in handy.

"Today is Friday, and everyone is jet-lagged, so we definitely won't be able to work normally. The next two days are the weekend, and the companies here in the US are basically on holiday. Therefore, our meeting with the IDG headquarters leadership has been scheduled for Monday morning."

Luo Yang sat in the main seat, sipping the coffee Sun Wei had made for him, and made arrangements: "But in an international metropolis like New York, the service industry should never rest, so An Ying, your inspection can begin immediately after you adjust to the time difference."

"Understood, boss."

An Ying nodded and said, "I have an appointment with a local market research company this afternoon to discuss specific matters. The formal work will begin next Monday, but I will personally use this weekend to get a feel for Starbucks in New York."

When An Ying came to the United States, she still brought an assistant named Xia Yurou with her. Xia Yurou was not on the list of people going abroad before, so An Ying had to apply to Luo Yang for her herself.

An Ying's trip to the United States was solely for one purpose: to understand Starbucks' operating model in the US market.

Whether it's an individual or a research firm, Luo Yang only wants one result.

After instructing An Ying, Luo Yang looked at Ding Hongyi: "It's not easy to come to the United States. I'll take this opportunity to inspect the work of your marketing department here and take a look at the market, especially our competitors. So please work hard these next few days to arrange everything. After my negotiations with IDG are over, I'll accompany you on a tour of the West Coast."

"Okay, Chairman."

Ding Hongyi immediately replied, "I will arrange your upcoming schedule."

Luo Yang nodded, then looked at Song Wan and Xiao Wei.

"Let's go through the PPT together tomorrow afternoon."

This is something he wrote in two days before leaving the country. It contains core content such as the concept of shared bicycles, market prospects, and market profit models, as well as a description of the relationship between shared bicycles and the mobile Internet.

Of course, there's also the crucial explanation of the sharing economy concept, and the story packaged with new elements such as big data and artificial intelligence.

After saying this, he gestured to Wen Wan with his eyes.

Wen Wan then took a USB drive from her briefcase and handed it to Song Wan; "President Song, you can familiarize yourself with the contents first."

After explaining three things, the executives left the small conference room.

Wen Wan and Sun Wei went into the room to help tidy up the clothes, leaving only Luo Yang and Liang Yuxin outside.

"I thought I would be the first one you would tell on."

"Why do you think so?"

"Isn't the main reason you came to the US this time to discuss a bike-sharing partnership with IDG?"

Sitting in a chair by the window, Liang Yuxin smiled at Luo Yang: "Even inspecting Kunpeng Technology is more important than what's happening here."

What if I said that your side is the most important?

Luo Yang met Liang Yuxin's eyes without flinching.

"You have a conscience."

Liang Yuxin's eyes suddenly softened, and she smiled as she said, "Has your courage suddenly grown after you went abroad and came to the other side of the ocean?"

His tone of voice carried a hint of flirtation.

But that's not what Luo Yang really meant.

He was telling the truth.
Even if Kunpeng Technology grows to a large scale in the future, it will only be a company worth hundreds of billions. As for shared bicycles, no matter how much Wall Street hypes them up, once they reach a scale of several billion US dollars, the bubble will be about to burst.

Only Pinduoduo has an extremely high ceiling for this model.

Pinduoduo, which Luo Yang copied, once had a market value of over 2000 billion US dollars, or one trillion yuan.

This is a true behemoth!

However, it's not a good time to explain too much at this point. Since Liang Yuxin has already taken matters into her own hands, let's just let things take their course.

"The e-commerce platforms of companies like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay in the US are doing quite well, and there are many aspects we can learn from them. Besides poaching talent, you can also use your spare time to learn from them."

There was hardly anyone left in the room, so Luo Yang lit a cigarette.

"Whether it's Taobao or JD.com in China, they are essentially imitating and drawing inspiration from the models of some Silicon Valley companies. Of course, they also have some of their own innovations, which stem from adapting to our country's actual conditions and making necessary adjustments."

When it came to company matters, Liang Yuxin became serious: "As for our Pinduoduo model, it seems there are no templates to learn from or copy in the United States. If we try to copy it directly, it might end up being a hybrid that doesn't quite fit the bill."

In her opinion, the current Pinduoduo model is very good and full of vitality.

Moreover, after laying the foundation for a period of time, all that is needed now is a large amount of capital investment to rapidly expand the existing model across the country.

If she can achieve this, she is confident that she can carve out a piece of the pie from giants like Taobao and JD.com.

"So I think there are two important things to do on this trip to the United States."

Liang Yuxin said without any modesty, "The first thing is poaching people, which you asked me to do. The other thing should be raising enough funds in the United States."

New York and Wall Street, the heartland of capital.

There are countless investment institutions here.

If Luo Yang is willing, Liang Yuxin is confident that she can find an institution willing to invest in Pinduoduo and obtain a large sum of development funds.

I told you before I went abroad that I don't lack funds now.

Luo Yang reiterated, "There's no need to raise funds for Pinduoduo." "But how can your personal funds support Pinduoduo's future expansion?"

Liang Yuxin looked at Luo Yang defiantly: "You have to understand that once we start our expansion, we will inevitably become competitors, even thorns in the side, of major domestic e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com. Before we can gain a foothold, we will always be short of money!"

Luo Yang fell silent after hearing what she said.

Indeed, he became somewhat arrogant during this period.

It's no wonder, though. Anyone who suddenly has two or three billion US dollars in working capital, especially a domestic company, would be able to stay calm.

Besides, Luo Yang is only twenty-two years old this year.
"I can actually guess a little bit."

Seeing that Luo Yang had stopped talking, Liang Yuxin's tone softened and became less aggressive.

She said softly, "Luo Yang, I guess you made a lot of money in the US crude oil futures market, and it's not a small amount, maybe several hundred million US dollars, but..."

She paused at this point.

He stared at Luo Yang's face for a moment, and seeing that he didn't show any shame or anger, he continued, "But who always uses their own money to subsidize a company? No business does that. Even if someone does, it's only once in a while, or it's an emergency measure. Unlike you."

Luo Yang: "."

"Isn't it better to keep your secret stash of money in your own pocket?"

Liang Yuxin got carried away and kept talking: "According to your logic, there's no need to register a company as a limited liability company. You might as well take full responsibility."

Gee.
As sharp as ever.

This scene reminded Luo Yang of General Manager Liang from his time at Jincheng Real Estate.

He reprimanded his assistant, Xiao Luo, who was his subordinate.

"If you ask me, Pinduoduo can accept another round of funding from you. Of course, it doesn't matter if my equity is diluted, because that's something we have to face."

Liang Yuxin didn't care what Luo Yang was thinking at the moment.

She continued, "Moreover, you don't need a large amount of capital, because Pinduoduo is already profitable. As long as we show signs of expansion and attract external attention, institutions will naturally come to us. In fact, Pinduoduo is already quite large and has long caught the eye of some investment institutions. It's just that we've been developing secretly for some time, constantly strengthening our foundation and making internal adjustments, which is why not many institutions have been paying attention. Once we start expanding, believe it or not, within a week, I'll receive more than a dozen letters from investment institutions requesting meetings on my desk!"

Luo Yang was moved by Liang Yuxin's words.

The first sentence, in particular, shocked him the most: "What kind of boss always uses his own private money to subsidize the company?"

"So how much money do you think I should put into Pinduoduo?"

Once a firm belief is cracked, it's only a matter of time before it's broken.

Liang Yuxin probably already had a plan in mind. After Luo Yang asked this question, she immediately replied, "Your first injection of about 1 million local currency is enough. Any more than that would be a waste."

Mr. Liang made sure to clarify the currency unit, fearing that Luo Yang might misunderstand it as rice yuan.

In fact, without the current conversation, Luo Yang planned to inject 1 million yuan into Pinduoduo, but the unit was US dollars.

Now Liang Yuxin told him in a very confident tone that even if he were to do so, the investment should not exceed 1 million yuan.

“According to my plan, the 1 million yuan you invest will be just enough for Pinduoduo to conquer the South China market.”

Liang Yuxin said confidently, "With our company's own funds, I'm confident that Pinduoduo will be on par with e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com in South China!"

Luo Yang was unable to refute it.

Because he himself knew in his heart that once Pinduoduo's model was rolled out, if he had enough funds, it could really compete with Taobao and JD.com for a third of the market.

"A little over 1 million yuan is enough for us to use until the end of the year."

Seeing that Luo Yang was softening, Liang Yuxin immediately continued to coax him: "So we need to complete the Series A financing before the end of the year, and the amount of financing should not be less than 10 billion yuan. This money is enough for us to go out of South China and into the national market, and start competing with other giant e-commerce platforms for market share."

Financing of no less than 10 billion
Based on the assumption that each round of financing involves giving up no less than 20% of the equity, Pinduoduo's valuation in its Series A round would have reached 50 billion yuan.

That's quite a bold idea.

As Luo Yang listened to Liang Yuxin explain the plan, he rhythmically tapped the table with his fingers.

"According to your plan, you should start looking for Series A funding agencies now?"

Back when she was at Jincheng Real Estate, Liang Yuxin was still quite inexperienced, but she already knew how to plan ahead. Now, after several years of experience, she is more mature and certainly won't just focus on the present.

"Yes, we need to start preparing now."

Liang Yuxin replied without hesitation, "Actually, there's no need for me to fly over from the US to poach people. I can just make a transoceanic phone call to those classmates. If possible, I can arrange for them to fly to China."

According to her, the reason she was willing to come to the United States with Luo Yang was to find investment institutions.

"Is there really any need to come all the way to New York to look for it?"

Luo Yang maintained his last bit of stubbornness.

"I studied and worked in the US for a while, and many of my classmates are also in the US."

Liang Yuxin did not shy away from the question, saying, "In China, unless I bow down to Lao Liang, I don't have much of a network of connections. But here in the United States, I do have some, and with some solid projects in hand, I'm not afraid of not finding institutions willing to invest."

"That's true. If you were willing to bow down to Lao Liang, you wouldn't have ended up in such a miserable state in Guangzhou."

Luo Yang agreed with her words because Miss Liang had nearly bankrupted her company in Guangzhou, and was ultimately forced to let an outsider acquire it.

She's the daughter of a billionaire, yet she's so humiliated over a few tens of millions.
There's another reason.

Perhaps unwilling to mention Lao Liang, Liang Yuxin quickly changed the subject: "In China, if you want to raise funds, many institutions have good relationships with Taobao and others, some are even among these giant investment institutions. If you get them all involved, there are some rumors..."

In Luo Yang's understanding, this means not to have too much faith in the integrity of capital.

If it's in their best interest, they'll betray you without hesitation.

"So you didn't mention it when you were in China, but only brought it up with me after you came to the US, is it because of these reasons?"

Luo Yang laughed: "Young Master Liang, you're using military tactics on me now, huh?"

On Wednesday night, Liang Yuxin flew back to Shanghai from Guangzhou, and Luo Yang picked her up at the airport.

He even treated her to dinner that evening.

She didn't mention financing at all.
(End of this chapter)