Back to the prime of life

Chapter 152 Development! Development!
"Maybe Yu Na and Chuan Kun are still young and can't understand it, but I'm sure Teacher Chi and Sister Zhou can understand that if this trend is accurate, the scale of our product users will grow exponentially. And what does it mean for a software to have a user base of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions?"

Lu Changge's tone was very seductive.

Chi Yongsheng began to swallow his saliva, but Zhou Shuang smiled. The things here could not be summarized in one sentence. The work that needed to be completed was innumerable.

But after all, she is not in this group, so it is inappropriate to attack her.

However, Chi Yongsheng had no intention of letting her go. He turned around and asked, "What do you think as an industry insider?"

Zhou Shuang thought for a moment. "I can only say two things. First, I think Mr. Lu's idea is worth supporting. If you don't give it a try, you'll regret it later. Second, just because a trend is right doesn't mean you'll succeed. There are also losers in the blue ocean industry, and this must be fully considered."

Lu Changge showed a hint of smile at the corner of his eyes. This woman's words were also "not a single leaf gets involved". It seemed that she said a lot, but in fact, nothing.

But fundamentally speaking, they are right. You are responsible for your own decisions, especially such important decisions.

The focus for Chi Yongsheng is not actually on how he makes his own decision. He is an adult and has his own ideas. How can he change his mind just because of a few words from others?

His focus is on Zhou Shuang.

"Old Zhou, you should seriously consider this. Let me be frank, you don't have to pay the $50 anyway. My technical skills are enough for iOS client development, but writing client code is only one aspect. I still need you to control the overall product."

Zhou Shuang smiled and said, "Don't flatter me so much. I'm already feeling a bit stressed if I don't do anything."

Lu Changge rolled his eyes. Their combination of one teacher and three students was really a makeshift team. Chi Yongsheng was a technical expert. Since he recognized this plain-looking woman, it meant that she was quite capable.

So he also started to have ideas.

Not everything in the world is black and white.

"How about this? We'd like you to be our special consultant first. You can stay at your current job, and we don't require your hours. You just need to help us with the process. We can pay you a certain amount of compensation."

This is equivalent to private work.

This is especially common in the workplace.

Chi Yongsheng blinked. He didn't expect Lu Changge to come up with this plan. "The reward should be cheaper. We can't afford it if it's too expensive."

"If we do well later on, Ms. Zhou can also join us. We will then distribute options, and Ms. Zhou will still get founding shares."

In other words, still treat her as the founder.

This should be a very generous condition. Her risk is very low. If it fails, she can just take the money from the private work and leave. If it succeeds, she can directly become a founding shareholder.

What else do you want?
Zhou Shuang said to Chi Yongsheng, "No wonder they can make so much money. You are a very smart student."

"Then you agreed?"

"There are definitely conditions. There's no such thing as something with only advantages and no disadvantages." Zhou Shuang said with certainty.

Lu Changge thought to himself, this seemingly plain-looking woman is really smart.

"Yes, but it's also for our own protection. There are two things in total. The first is that you have to sign a confidentiality agreement with us. I think this is a gold mine. Sister Zhou didn't join us, but she is deeply involved in our project. So I'm afraid you will abandon us and form your own team."

Chi Yongsheng was shocked. How could a college student be so smart?
"no problem."

"Secondly, Sister Zhou can join us later... and this 'later' only means one year. After a while, if we bring in investment or more people join, it will be difficult for you to do this."

Zhou Shuang's eyes changed slightly when she looked at Lu Changge. The so-called 'not easy to do' actually meant that the balance was difficult to strike after the interest structure became complicated.

However, this kind of thing can only be known through personal experience, and the boss in front of him, Mr. Lu, has already realized this problem at this stage.

"Is your family in business?" Zhou Shuang asked.

Lu Changge nodded and said seriously, "I used to run a small shop."

Yu Na and Hui Chuankun both burst out laughing at this answer.

Zhou Shuang was also a little helpless, "Okay, I can agree to this one."

At the same time, in her heart, she had changed her opinion of Lu Changge. Previously, when she learned that the person Chi Yongsheng was going to cooperate with was a sophomore who was about to enter his junior year, she was really a little disapproving.

But after such a short contact, she could already feel Lu Changge's extraordinaryness.

As I said, there is always a reason to make money.

Everyone was silent for a while, and Chi Yongsheng slammed the table slightly, "It's settled!"

Now comes the key matter.

Lu Changge said, "Teacher Chi, please start."

"it is good!"

This 30-year-old man was more enthusiastic today than he had been in the past few months. He carefully sketched a framework diagram with a pen and said, "Let's put everything else aside. First, we need to establish a core technical team. There are five main technical tasks to be completed: iOS client development, system architecture design, back-end development, UI interface design, and application testing. Beyond these sub-projects, we also need a chief technical officer to coordinate the work of various teams."

Lu Changge said, "Although I'm the one paying the bill, my technical capabilities aren't enough to be the general manager."

Zhou Shuang disagreed. "Even if it's not enough, you have to come. If you don't understand something, figure it out. If you don't know how to do it, learn it. If the boss doesn't do it himself, this kind of difficult task won't get done. Besides, who else can do it besides you? Furthermore, at this stage, it's unwise to split up into independent groups. We must focus on tackling each challenge one by one. Even though Lao Chi is a teacher, he's not always right."

Chi Yongsheng couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, "Don't expose my shortcomings right away."

"It didn't work just now, but it works now." Zhou Shuang said easily.

It seems that their friendship is still good, after all, they are both ugly.

Hui Chuankun said, "I think it would be better if we tackled the problems together. I've also been learning other things on my own during this time, so I understand that if we were to separate and just study on our own, our efficiency would be very low."

Lu Changge looked at Yu Na, and the girl nodded, "I have no objection."

"Okay, then one group."

He was the one who decided on this matter. Zhou Shuang was right, he needed to be in charge. With so much determination and money invested, what was there to be afraid of? If it failed, he would take the responsibility!
"In terms of specific technology, we have already discussed the basic interface style. Next, we will start coding immediately to complete functions such as message sending and receiving, contact management, and basic chat interface.

Regarding the communication protocol, I recommend the XMPP server framework for two reasons: it's commonly used in chat applications, and it's open source. Also, I don't know what others think, but I believe communication security and privacy are crucial; otherwise, serious incidents could occur, so we need to redesign the encryption handshake protocol. Regarding the other two points, I might need Ms. Zhou's help, either asking for help or seeking advice. One is the design of a traffic compression algorithm, and if necessary, developing a dedicated compression algorithm, with the goal of keeping each message under 100 bytes. The other is regarding offline messaging: I'd like to build my own storage queue server to handle network fluctuations..."

A year ago, Lu Changge would never have been able to make such professional technical arrangements, which also gave him a lot of confidence.

Yu Na felt the difference deeply. When they first talked about these things, Lu Changge didn't even understand the difference between OC language and C language.

She still remembers Lu Changge's words: I will work hard on software development for the Apple system!
He put in a lot of effort and money for this.

In her opinion, Chi Yongsheng might have decided to join them this time because he no longer had to worry about food and drink.

As she thought this, she also listened to Zhou Shuang say, "The two points you mentioned are indeed crucial, but there's no need to hire anyone. I know a few things. Don't be afraid. If you're determined to invest $500,000, then technical development shouldn't be a problem. Instant messaging isn't some incredible alien technology. If it really doesn't work out, just outsource the technology and hire someone else to develop it."

With her words, everyone felt a little better.

Yes, this is not some unprecedented technology. Instant messaging software for PCs has been around for ten years.

After that, they began the real work, disregarding the distinction between backend and frontend, and diving headfirst into studying Apple's official development documentation and technical specifications. Development must comply with iOS system requirements and App Store listing standards... Then, they had to design a stable, scalable underlying architecture based on the operating system's characteristics...

If you get busy with this kind of thing, you'll be really busy.

And it is relatively simple if you know how to do it, but once you encounter something you don’t know how to do, you will get stuck.

This is when the importance of Lu Changge using a compromise method to keep Zhou Shuang is reflected. As Chi Yongsheng said, she has practical experience, which is completely different.

Not only that, she also reminded Lu Changge that if a domestic team like theirs wanted to launch an app overseas, it would be best to find a legal broker to avoid legal risks and also have a technical solution to bypass regional blockades.

Lu Changge was overwhelmed, but he had already boasted about the $500,000,000!

This matter has to move forward no matter what.

In addition to all of this, there is a bigger challenge that he has not told everyone.

In October 2008, the first smartphone equipped with the Android system was released. Within two years, Android became the world's number one in the field of smartphone operating systems. After all, Apple phones were still too expensive and not suitable for the general public.

In other words, they have to develop it again based on the Android system...

No, a firm idea came to Lu Changge's mind. He had to find a way to trick Zhou Shuang into joining.

Talent is extremely important at this stage.

In addition, he has always been thinking about Dean You Bin of the School of Computer Science, wondering if he can recruit two more people from there.

Yin Anyan did not go home this summer vacation. She did not find Lu Changge at Qin Jun's place and thought he had gone to the swimming pool, so she did not think much about it. It was not until she went downstairs that she found Lu Changge's car. The lights in the garage were on and there were five people sitting there, working on their computers and whispering to each other from time to time.

She wanted to go over and ask, but An Yihuan beside her stopped her, showed her the dishes in her hand and said, "Go upstairs and prepare the meal first, then call them when it's time."

In the past six months, Lu Changge, Hui Chuankun and others have often done this. Yin Anyan and An Yihuan have seen it and know what software they are learning. At first, they were curious and asked, but now they are used to it and are too lazy to ask more.

How could they know that a truly applicable software was already being born?

Around 6 o'clock in the evening, Lu Changge received a call and learned that the well-behaved little Anyan had already prepared the meal, so he took the others to have a quick bite, but he was not prepared to stop.

There is no criticism of 996 at the moment, and everyone knows that this is their own career and is very enthusiastic about it.

Even during the meal, Lu Changge kept talking about his ideas and concepts about such a software.

Many of them were inspired by his memories of the early days of WhatsApp and WeChat.

Everyone sat under the lamp, around a table, sharing their bursts of inspiration with each other, which was actually quite enjoyable.

Zhou Shuang asked, "Boss Lu, I actually have a question for you. Please relax for a moment."

"what is the problem?"

"I'm just imagining what will happen if it succeeds." Zhou Shuang raised an eyebrow and asked, "If, as you said, the user base of this software exceeds tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, what will you do then?"

Lu Changge paused. This is called finding joy in suffering, and sometimes it is necessary.

"I think by that time, you might feel more comfortable than me, because I will definitely be famous all over the country. Being a celebrity is not easy!"

After hearing this, everyone could feel the shamelessness in it. At first, he was talking about others, but later he said that he had become a celebrity.

"Just thinking about good things." Chi Yongsheng exposed him without any hesitation.

Lu Changge sighed. Actually, what he said was the truth. "Teacher Chi, you and Sister Zhou must know that what we are going to do is not easy to succeed. I guess Sister Zhou doesn't have high expectations of us."

"I don't think so." Zhou Shuang argued.

"Anyway, I mean, I know this is difficult. So I have to give it my all, including my decision to put myself in it."

Yin Anyan asked with concern: "What do you mean by dragging you into this?"

Lu Changge became a little more serious. "Because I'm not someone who wants to be famous. Having money but no fame gives me a lot of convenience. But to make this software a success, I need to become famous. A rural kid who has successfully started his own business, a Chinese university student, is releasing an app overseas. If it has a user base of one million, the domestic media will report it extensively."

This is related to things like "national self-esteem and Chinese pride". Anyway, this has been the trend for the past two or three decades. As long as someone achieves success abroad, how can the domestic media not report it?

Moreover, some CEOs have proven that personal endorsement by the boss does have a very explosive effect, which is what I call endorsing myself.

Moreover, later on, the top public relations officers of many Internet companies were the bosses.

50 US dollars is a lot of money for Lu Changge, so how could he hide such a trick? It would be like a shy girl who doesn't want to get into the sedan chair. Isn't that pretentious?

It is better to use all means to ensure success first. After all, if a failed person keeps a low profile, that is not low-key. No one will want to bother with you.

Zhou Shuang understood the logic behind this the fastest. "According to what you said, the English version will be published first. Once it's successful and your face starts appearing frequently in newspapers, the Chinese version will explode overnight."

"Yeah, there are so many people who worship foreign things these days. When they see you have something foreign, or something that foreigners use, they will pretend to be awesome without knowing anything about it!"

Lu Changge was secretly happy. In this case, he would really have to let this group of people contribute to his career!

(End of this chapter)