I'm not interested in money or women.

Chapter 19: Not an Entrepreneur, but an Investor
"Are you hungry?"

Li Mengyao looked confused. She had never heard of Ele.me.

But Gao Qi and Cui Tingyan looked very knowledgeable, obviously they had heard of this name.

Bai Yuliang obviously knew something about Ele.me. He smiled and explained to Li Mengyao: "It's a mobile app that allows you to order food. After you place your order, someone will deliver it to you. It's quite popular in Shanghai, and this year it's also available in Jinling."

"Oh, it's like the restaurant's takeout phone number, right?"

Li Mengyao suddenly realized.

She thought it was the usual model where she called the restaurant, asked them to cook and send the food over, and then paid.

"almost."

Bai Yuliang didn't know much, but he had heard about it. He nodded and asked Huo Chenglong, "You want to do home delivery, but other supermarkets can do it too? It's not difficult to hire a few students."

His doubts were reasonable. Huo Chenglong hesitated. It was obvious that he didn't know how to solve the problem yet. He could only explain it in a roundabout way: "I heard that the school also has some policies to encourage college students to start their own businesses. We can find a way to win the school's support."

"What support?"

Bai Yuliang was still asking questions.

Huo Chenglong was a little embarrassed, but he still kept smiling: "This depends on the actual situation!"

Seeing him being questioned repeatedly but still trying hard to achieve his goal, Lu Feng felt a little emotional.

Many times, if ordinary people want to succeed in starting a business, they have to rely on some luck.

Jack Ma was not the only one who thought of creating a yellow pages for business information and online shopping.

Li Yanhong is not the only one who thinks that online search is a business opportunity.

Many people have discovered entrepreneurial opportunities but have not taken action, so that many years later they realize that the business opportunities have become small goals and have become listed companies, and then they regret it.

However, there are also some people who took action but lacked the conditions for success, and ultimately had to exit the market in disgrace after burning through all their capital.

Huo Chenglong is obviously the latter type of person.

Although his ideas are a bit limited, the general direction is correct.

In fact, the model he was talking about is online group buying + door-to-door delivery service, which is also the hottest topic in the capital circle in the past two years.

This proves that he still has some vision.

Unfortunately, that’s all.

The group buying he envisioned was to create a QQ group, let classmates in the school buy things in the group, and then have the goods delivered to their homes.

This is the most basic and original model of community group purchasing.

In the current Internet entrepreneurship circle, the ones that are playing are real online group buying websites.

The first group buying website, Manzuo.com, was launched as early as January 2012.

In August last year, the number of corporate projects using group buying as their main model had exceeded 8.

Most of these are investment scams, but there are also projects from various giants.

For example, Alibaba Group’s Juhuasuan channel, Sohu’s Aijiatuan, Tencent and Sina’s group buying channels, etc.

Giants such as Baidu, JD.com, China Merchants Bank and Carrefour are also testing the waters.

In later generations, this period was called the Thousand Group War, which was the largest commercial melee in the history of the Internet.

This melee started in 10 and lasted for five years until 15, burning countless amounts of money.

Each company has spent a lot of money to attract new customers and provided huge subsidies, using all means to seize the market.

In the end, the market produced successful projects such as Juhuasuan, Dianping, and Meituan.

But the vast majority of projects basically died in the competition and became cannon fodder.

Many of these projects have strong backing from large portals and communities, large news media groups, telecom operators, banks, etc.

Even so, they cannot escape the fate of becoming cannon fodder.

Huo Chenglong was just an ordinary student with no capital. He wanted to get his classmates to invest in a business with him based on a just-right idea. The probability of his success was basically smaller than being hit on the head by a meteor while walking on the street.

Today's meal was the closest he had ever come to success.

Because he and Lu Feng sat at the same table.

If Lu Feng intends to invest in him, he is likely to succeed.

Because Lu Feng not only has the capital, but also has the experience and vision to predict the future.

Unfortunately, Lu Feng did not intend to invest in him.

Because Lu Feng was not optimistic about this track. Lu Feng knew the answer to the question that Huo Chenglong could not answer.

You can deliver goods to people's homes, and so can others. But why would people buy your products?

The answer is simple: burning money.

This is also what all capitals are doing in the current battle among thousands of groups.

Spend money to attract new users and expand the user base.

Various subsidies and low product prices attract users to consume.

Improve the welfare of riders, attract riders to join, and attack the opponent's vitality.

Simply put, what Huo Chenglong wants to create is a miniature version of Pinduoduo, while other supermarkets are Taobao, JD.com, and Meituan, and the entire university is the domestic market.

If you want to fight your way out in the environment, it all depends on who has the better blood-replenishing ability and who can outlast the others.

If you survive, you can become the king.

But Huo Chenglong doesn't have the capital. Lu Feng does, but he doesn't want to waste his money on the market of a mere university.

What's more, this track has no appeal to him.

Lu Feng is not an entrepreneur, but an investor.

He is a person who makes money with money and looks at the return on investment.

Ordinary people believe that finding a good job, earning a high salary, or even a million dollars a year is success.

Anyone with a little ambition would want to start a business and become a boss, managing hundreds or thousands of people, making hundreds of millions in turnover, and becoming wealthy.

But truly smart people will choose to be investors.

The president of Coca-Cola, the top manager, works very hard and his annual salary for a full year is 5000 million US dollars.

Buffett made more than $5 million in profit a year just by owning the company's shares.

In the eyes of many people, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, who is well-dressed and earns over 100 million yuan a year, is undoubtedly a rare talent.

But in the eyes of real capital, they are just sheepdogs working for them.

Similarly, if you start a business and become a business owner, with thousands of employees, billions in assets, and hundreds of millions in turnover, in the eyes of many people, you are already a big boss.

But anyone who has actually run a business, especially a labor-intensive manufacturing boss, will know that the more glamorous they appear in front of others, the more miserable they are behind the scenes.

Every link in business operation, management, production and sales is filled with various problems.

If you go to the bank to apply for a loan, you have to ask everyone for help, otherwise you won’t get the loan.

When looking for sales channels and buyers, you have to smile and offer benefits, otherwise you won’t be able to sell the products.

Even the employees in the company seem to be the ones being managed, but once their wages cannot be paid, they will turn into hungry wolves and it will be natural for them to bite you to death.

So, to outsiders, you are a majestic boss.

But only you know that you are a slave who feeds your employees, a business owner who provides jobs to the local government, a rich man who is extorted every now and then, and a fat pig to be slaughtered in times of crisis.

Just like the group buying track, the biggest achievement is Meituan.

To ordinary people, this behemoth, whose market value once reached 1.6 trillion yuan, undoubtedly made a fortune.

But everyone in the capital circle knows that although this company's cash flow is terrifying, it actually doesn't make much money.

Because it has become a reservoir of jobs, millions of riders are the ballast to ensure the stability of the job market.

It cannot make money, nor is it allowed to make money. It has become a part of people's livelihood and it is impossible for capital to make a profit from it.

Lu Feng is an investor. He has no interest and no ability to create a company like Meituan.

He only knows how to make money, not how to manage.

If he were to start a business, it would be a disaster.

This was a painful experience he gained through two bankruptcies.

However, he still had some admiration for Huo Chenglong.

Moreover, Huo Chenglong was Liu Bo's roommate, and eating at the same table with him was somewhat of a fate.

He also didn't want to see Huo Chenglong fall into the trap.

So, he thought about it, and then smiled and asked Huo Chenglong: "Brother Huo, I have some opinions. Do you want to hear them?"

(End of this chapter)