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

Chapter 214 Are you there, brother? Help me cut it
I have to say that Li Qin is a very easy girl to please.

When I first met Meng Bai, I was full of resentment, and when he left, I was reluctant to let him go.

After saying goodbye after dinner, Meng Bai did not rush to the airport, but went to Jinhong Bridge first.

He has an investment project worth about 30 million here. It's a rare opportunity for him to come here, so he goes to see how Huang Zheng is doing.

"Mr. Meng, have some tea."

In the office, Huang Zheng poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of Meng Bai with a very enthusiastic attitude.

After all, which company boss would not like an investor who only invests money and never interferes with operations?

"Just now I saw from outside that the scale and staff have expanded a lot." Meng Bai took a sip of tea, "and everyone seems to be quite busy."

"It's not that busy anymore. The fruit orders are smaller in winter. If you had come a few months earlier, I might not even have had time to say hello."

Huang Zheng smiled bitterly, and seeing that Meng Bai was curious, he explained it to him.

Since Meng Bai and his team received their angel round of financing, Pinhaohuo has also started to expand its market.

It just so happened that lychees were ripe in June and July, so Pinhaohuo, which specializes in fresh fruits, wanted to take advantage of this wave of popularity and make a big splash.

At the beginning, Huang Zheng was full of confidence and thought that he would have at least 8 to 10 orders a day.

However, the actual trading volume is somewhat different from what was expected, but it is not less, it is more.

And there were a lot of them, with the daily order volume reaching 20, far exceeding their inventory and delivery speed.

As a result, the entire company had to work day and night to purchase, pack, and deliver goods.

But even so, many customers who place orders still have to wait three or four days to receive them.

Fruits are different from other commodities. They are eaten fresh. If you wait too long, they may go bad.

So the warehouse keeps shipping goods, while the platform on the other side has to deal with various complaints and refunds.

In short, everyone from top to bottom is busy and exhausted.

"At that time, I even went to the warehouse to help pack the boxes."

Huang Zheng sighed with an expression that said "I've worked so hard", but he couldn't suppress the boastful tone that came from within.

In fact, it is normal. After all, you always have to brag about your achievements in front of investors.

"How is it now?" Meng Bai asked.

Huang Zheng said: "It's no problem now. We have built 20 new warehouses in several major cities across the country and added eight new logistics transportation channels, which can fully guarantee sufficient inventory and logistics speed."

"In addition, we also found that self-operated e-commerce does require a lot of basic needs. So we launched a new comprehensive e-commerce platform, using the name you suggested before, called Pinduoduo."

As he spoke, Huang Zheng handed his mobile phone screen to Meng Bai to look at.

Pinduoduo has its own app, which is also connected to WeChat to facilitate users to share group purchases. In addition, it has added a special feature called "Kan Yi Dao".

"It's very simple. I buy something and send the discount link to my WeChat friends. As long as they click on it, they can give me a certain price reduction." Huang Zheng said that this function allows users to get discounts and the platform to get promotion, which is a win-win situation.

Meng Bai thought about it and thought that this was indeed a good innovation. The only problem was that the people who were shared the link would be disturbed.

However, whether to disturb or not is something the users have to consider, and it has nothing to do with their capital.

"Is there any problem now?" Meng Bai asked.

"There are many problems." Huang Zheng said, "The main one is the lack of money."

The company is building warehouses, expanding its workforce, and incubating new platforms. The angel round of funding of more than 1000 million US dollars has basically been used up.

"It's a good thing that you are here, Mr. Meng. I plan to start recruiting for a new round of A financing." Huang Zheng said.

“Are there any VCs willing to lead the investment?”

"Gaorong Capital is quite interested and intends to invest 1000 million US dollars." Pinduoduo has developed rapidly in the past six months, with monthly transaction volume exceeding 1000 million and the number of paying users exceeding 2000 million.

Although it is still far behind its predecessors such as Taobao and JD.com, its growth rate is far ahead among the start-up e-commerce platforms.

Huang Zheng had contacted Gaorong Capital before, but the other party was hesitant at that time. Now that he sees the potential of Pinduoduo, he finally plans to join.

"What about Tencent? Have you gone there to talk to them?"

"I've talked to them, and they're quite interested, but still a little hesitant." Huang Zheng spread his hands, "My funds are almost gone, and I can't wait for them to consider it, so I can only raise the A round first."

For venture capital, the returns become lower and the risks become lower as time goes by.

This is the advantage of large companies like Tencent. They are not afraid of high costs, they just want stability, so they can wait until the B or even C round to get on board.

Unlike "new players" like Qiming Venture Partners, they can only enter the market through high-risk angel rounds.

Of course, if you can bet on the right target, the rewards will be equally amazing.

"Mr. Meng, are you interested in further investment?" Huang Zheng asked in a seductive tone.

Unfortunately, all of Qiming Venture Partners’ funds have been invested in Pinduoduo, and Meng Bai has no plans to continue investing, so he had to miss the Series A financing.

Anyway, the financing amount is only 1000 million US dollars, and the shares will not be diluted much.

After chatting with Huang Zheng about the financing situation and taking a look at the financial statements, Meng Bai declined the other party's dinner invitation and returned to northern Beijing.

The next day, it was December.

The casting work for the "The Lost Tomb" project has officially started.

The core of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" is naturally the "Gold-touching Trio". As the first male protagonist, Hu Bayi is the core of the core.

According to the original novel, Hu Bayi was born on the Army Day in 1950. The timeline of The Lost Tomb begins in 1982, so he was about or years old when he appeared.

At this age, it is inherently destined that the project "Ghost Blows Out the Light" cannot use young popular actors like "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", and can only be recruited from the Mesozoic male actors.

"In fact, if this project could have been started ten or eight years earlier, there would be no need to look for a male lead candidate, as there would be a ready-made one."

In the office, Meng Bai talked to Li Muge who had just returned from location selection not long ago.

"Ready-made? Who?"

"Liu Huohua. Tian Xia Ba Chang once said that the prototype of Hu Bayi was Zhong Yuemin in Blood Romance."

Li Muge thought about it and it was true that Hu Bayi and Zhong Yuemin were similar in both their growth experience and personality traits.

In fact, Meng Bai had actually asked Liu Huohua before - the two had met once when they were filming "All Quiet in Peking".

Unfortunately, he is now in the film industry.

Even if we make a TV series, it has to be a serious drama like "All Quiet in Peking".

It is obvious that they cannot invite him to the fantasy-themed web drama "Ghost Blows Out the Light".

Of course, if you are willing to spend 30 or 50 million in film pay, you can definitely spend it, but there is no need for that.

"Actually, I think Jiang Wen is also quite suitable." Li Muge said on the side.

Explain to me what the fuck is tomb robbing!
It sounds quite exciting too.

"..." Meng Bai glanced at him and said, "Old Li, there are many ways to resign. There's no need to be so euphemistic."

Li Muge was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

Yes, Jiang Wen is also a director now, and a great director at that. If he were to come, why would he need to use me?

"Well, just pretend I didn't say anything."

(End of this chapter)