Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 183 Saving billion can earn a million per year
I have to say that Chen Jing is still a good comrade.

Although the boss's plan didn't sound so reliable, she still helped to improve it seriously.

"Boss, which industry are you planning to enter?"

"It's still relatively close to the entertainment industry, such as games, fast fashion, the Internet and the like." Meng Bai said: "But if there are other suitable companies, you can also take a look. There is no need to limit yourself to a certain industry."

To be honest, Meng Bai has experience in venture capital.

The "target" of his first venture capital was himself.

From starting from scratch to becoming a little famous today, in his understanding, venture capital for start-ups first looks at the personal ability of the founder and secondly the market space for the company's business.

So he actually doesn't have any obsession with any industry, he just does whatever makes money.

The reason why he wants to get closer to the entertainment industry is because his main business is still in the film and television industry. If the industry is close, there will be greater benefits from cooperation in the future.

Of course, all this is based on the success of the investment.

"I understand." Chen Jing nodded and adjusted her glasses. "I will compile a list and information of startups that are in demand in the market in the next few days. Also, boss, do you personally have any promising companies?"

Meng Bai touched his chin and said, "I have always been optimistic about ByteDance."

“ByteDance?”

“Oh, it’s Toutiao.”

Chen Jing suddenly realized that she knew Toutiao. It was an Internet company founded by Zhang Yiming, the younger brother of Wang Xing of Meituan, two years ago. Its main business was information search and distribution.

The growth momentum is very strong. Since its establishment in 2012, in just three years, it has developed into a "top-tier" platform with nearly 3 million users and 2500 million daily active users.

As far as she knows, the company just completed its Series C financing round led by Sequoia Capital last year.

The amount of financing is 100 million.

US dollars.

Even so, they only got 20% of ByteDance's shares. In other words, the capital market valued the company at $500 million.

And this is the price last year. Now, this number has almost increased tenfold.

Qiming Venture Partners' current assets are 30 million RMB, which is approximately 5 million US dollars based on the current exchange rate.

Not bad, almost one thousandth of other people’s.

"Boss." Chen Jing said calmly, "You do have a good vision, but unfortunately, the vision of global capital is also good."

"Heh." Meng Bai laughed dryly: "I know, just talk about it and discuss the feasibility."

"Actually, it's not like there's no chance."

"Oh?" Meng Bai's eyes lit up and he poured a glass of water for Chen Jing. "Tell me more about it."

Chen Jing thanked him and continued, "It's very simple. As long as we can add a zero to Qiming Venture Partners' funding by the end of the year, we will have a chance to catch up with the D round of investment."

"..."Meng Bai looked at Chen Jing speechlessly.

If I can make 300 million in half a year, why would I invest in ByteDance? I can just wait for others to invest in ArcLight.

This is like the classic joke, how do you make a million dollars a year? Put 60 million in the bank. How do you get 60 million? Put 4 billion in the bank.

ByteDance is definitely a pipe dream for Meng Bai. If he really wants to find a suitable target, he still has to honestly go to the capital market and "search for a needle in a haystack."

Chen Jing acted quickly. In less than half a month, she handed Meng Bai a list of hundreds of start-ups and more than 200G of company information.

"So fast?" Meng Bai said in surprise as he looked at the detailed company information on the screen.

Even if an entire team of experienced people were to do this, it would take at least a month or two to collect all the information.

"Oh, I have a few friends who are also in the investment field. I asked them to borrow it directly." Chen Jing explained: "But they can only provide some public information, not internal research information and investment analysis."

"It's already good." Meng Bai was still very content. "It's impossible for them to give their core information to outsiders like us. Having these is enough."

After looking at the neatly arranged documents in the folder again, he looked at Chen Jing sincerely: "Thank you very much, Sister Jing, I owe you a favor."

"It's nothing, actually." Chen Jing said, "These public materials were proactively sent by the companies to their venture capital companies. They were already sorted out, so it was just a piece of cake for my friends."

Meng Bai smiled. Chen Jing said it lightly, and of course it might not be difficult, but the favor was real because people were doing it for her face.

It has been more than a year since Sister Jing came to Arclight. She has been working hard and has never made any mistakes, whether it is the financial accounts of the crew or the profit settlement between Leshi.com.

Meng Bai has already planned to adjust the corporate nature of Arclight Films before the end of the year. Firstly, it is to prepare for possible financing in the future.

Secondly, it is also to give some dry stock dividends to the management who have made greater contributions to ArcLight, such as Chen Jing, so that everyone can share the profits together.

As Arclight Films grows in size, the number and capabilities of management personnel are also increasing. Without satisfactory benefits, how can we attract talents to join?

What Arclight Films lacks most now is a comprehensive manager with extensive network channels.

After all, Meng Bai often goes out with the crew for ten days or half a month, so he needs someone who can take charge of daily operations.

The most ideal candidate in his mind was Liu Jun. After all, he had been working with this guy for such a long time and they had a tacit understanding. Moreover, the other party's abilities and qualifications fully met the needs of Arclight Films.

But he is currently working for Leshi.com, and if there is no suitable opportunity, he probably won’t change jobs easily.

After getting the information, Meng Bai focused most of his energy on researching these companies.

Fortunately, the filming of "Forensic Qin Ming" is nearing completion, and now the only thing he has on hand is rewriting the script of "Detective Chinatown 3".

Oh, by the way, there is also the script of "The Wandering Earth".

However, this project really cannot be completed quickly. He and Guo Fan have only recently determined the main storyline, and there are still a lot of details that need to be filled in after the demonstration and design are completed.

Conservatively speaking, it will take at least until the end of the year.

And even if it is completed, the outcome is still unknown.

Will China Film Group be able to approve their setting? Will they choose their team after being approved? No one can say for sure.

Meng Bai had come to terms with it anyway, and considered the one million he invested as a qualification for bragging in the future.

"Back then, we brothers worked hard and spent real money to contribute to the development of domestic science fiction..."

Once these qualifications are made public, the audience and netizens will at least remember Shu Guang’s hard work, if not his contributions.

Time passed quickly. In mid-May, the filming of "The Best of Us" was completed. Liu Haoran went to prepare for his college entrance examination, and Meng Bai also took out the first version of the script of "Detective Chinatown".

Compared to the plot I told Chen Sicheng, the movie version of the story has changed a lot. Except for a part of Qin Feng's personality, the rest is basically new.

"The origin of the story is a case of 'murder and treasure'. A gold shop in Chinatown, Thailand was robbed, but the criminal died in his own studio. Tang Ren, the 'Chinatown Detective' hired by a mysterious man, unexpectedly became the biggest suspect. It happened that the 'reasoning genius' nephew came to seek refuge, so the 'protagonist duo' kept dealing with the underworld bosses, the police station and the thieves, trying to get rid of the pursuit while reasoning about the truth of the case..."

In the room, Meng Bai gave Chen Sicheng a brief account of the main plot.

"Hmm - it sounds a bit like Guy Ritchie's Snatch." Chen Sicheng said.

Meng Bai smiled slightly: "Brother, you have a good eye. Indeed, this story itself has some elements of black humor, so I also made similar arrangements in the story structure."

After thousands of years of human civilization, the routines and structures of literary stories have been basically explored. What later generations write is nothing more than modifying the "skeleton" of their predecessors and adding their own "flesh and blood".

Chen Sicheng nodded. As he had been a screenwriter himself, he naturally understood this.

And then again, Guy Ritchie's style is indeed quite suitable for this movie. As long as the story itself is different, imitating other parts can actually improve the quality of the film.

"This 'Tang Ren' is the role given to Baoqiang, right?" Chen Sicheng asked.

Meng Bai nodded: "Yes, and in order to match Mr. Baoqiang's personal style, some action scenes have been specially added. But this aspect needs to be designed by you, brother. I really don't know much about action."

Since it is a comedy, there are naturally all kinds of gags.

For Meng Bai, there is no pressure on the plot and lines. Both "Soul Ferry" and "Forensic Qin Ming" have taken this route.

But when it comes to action comedy, he as a screenwriter is powerless.

"No problem, we have a professional martial arts director, and Baoqiang himself has the ability to choreograph action."

Chen Sicheng said indifferently. He was more concerned about another question: "Does Leshi Films have any intention to cooperate in this project? I don't think the words 'Green Ivy Series' appear in the plot at all."

"Oh, I went to talk to Leshi." Meng Bai spread his hands and said, "But they said that there are already many projects being filmed this year, and they don't plan to make additional investments."

"As for the plot, I've said before that the first part is the 'origin' part, so let's first establish the characters and tell the story well. As for whether to expand the background setting, we can wait until the next part."

As a new series that does not have the mass base of the original work, the most taboo thing is the creators being "greedy".

In a 100-minute plot, the film wants to tell the character's growth, the main story, and a huge background, but the end result is that nothing is told well.

It took three films to tell the story of "returning the ring" of "The Lord of the Rings".

Apart from other aspects, Chen Sicheng is quite capable in the film industry. He accepted Meng Bai's suggestion, gave up unnecessary ideas, and made the first film as an independent "suspense film".

(End of this chapter)