Back to the prime of life

Chapter 158 Zhou Shuang Joins
"What is Mr. Lu doing recently?" At the Hailan Bay Swimming Pool, Zuo Shuya invited Chen Xiaohe to sit in her office for a while.

However, Chen Xiaohe came here to swim several times but didn't see Lu Changge, so she asked this question.

In fact, let alone her, Zuo Shuya has hardly seen Lu Changge in the past month and a half.

However, she heard that software testing was carried out yesterday, so she thought that the work would come to an end. Unexpectedly, when she called in the morning, she found out that they were busy again.

The end of testing does not mean the end of development. After the test is completed, further improvements need to be made to the problems that arise, which is estimated to take another half a month to twenty days.

So Zuo Shuya could only shrug now.

In fact, she didn't miss or depend on Lu Changge, but she had previously agreed that a member of the national swimming team would come to their place after the Olympics.

Although the specific date for his arrival in Jiangzhou wasn't immediately after the Olympics, there had to be some preparations to be made. How to receive a national team member like him, how to arrange specific activities, and so on—all of that was serious business.

Who knew that Lu Changge would just stay in the garage.

Facing Chen Xiaohe at this moment, Zuo Shuya could only shake her head helplessly, "The previous project was not completed, and it is still ongoing. A new company has also been established."

They all knew that it was related to the Internet, but they were not very clear about what it was specifically. Lu Changge did not say much. Why would he publicize it if the thing was not done? There were also some confidentiality issues involved.

However, once PulseGo is registered, there is no need to hide it. Instead, we need to find ways to promote it and expand its fame.

Chen Xiaohe also expressed her concern, "Are you really starting an internet business?"

"right……"

Before Zuo Shuya could finish her words, there was a knock on the office door, and before she could say "come in", the door was pushed open.

The person who came in was Lu Xiaohui. She was probably so excited that she came in directly. "Boss Zuo, the person on the poster at our door won the championship!"

Zuo Shuya's expression froze, "You mean...?"

"You mean Liu Zige won the Olympic championship?" Chen Xiaohe was also a little surprised.

She had seen the large poster on the wall outside, with the person's identity and name at the bottom, many times, but she had never imagined that this person would be an Olympic champion.

Zuo Shuya touched her forehead, forced herself to calm down, and then said, "Wait, let me take a look first."

Now is the Olympic period, and every website has a special Olympic column with the gold medal counts updated in real time.

When she opened the website, she saw a big headline: Liu Zige won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 200-meter butterfly and broke the world record!
"Great!"

Chen Xiaohe also leaned over to take a look, "It really is."

"Boss Zuo, should we do something now?"

Of course.

"Go hang up the celebratory banners first! I'll take care of the rest."

"to make!"

Lu Xiaohui left happily. She liked doing this job because it made her look good. Besides, didn’t it mean that she would be able to see the Olympic champion in person in the future?
As soon as she left, Chen Xiaohe also wanted to leave. After all, she knew that he was busy. But before leaving, she said, "Boss Zuo, you are going to do a swimming practice and invite an Olympic champion to give a talk. But she has to have someone to talk to, right?"

What she meant was that when people stand by the swimming pool and start sharing their experiences, will they have to have another row of children standing in front of them?

Now the question is, where can we find such a group of children?

In the past, this was just a matter of finding someone to fill in the numbers, and the swimming pool had to say all the nice things it could, not only to coax the children, but also to include the parents.

It’s different now. We are standing in front of an Olympic champion. The children may not care, but the parents care a lot.

Whenever they succeed, they will have to come back and thank Jiangzhou Foreign Language School.

Precisely because this opportunity was so special, she, as the principal, spoke up immediately.

Zuo Shuya gave an artistic response, "Principal Chen, you're too polite. We've always had a good cooperation. If President Lu doesn't have other arrangements, I think it's fine. From my side, I have no problem."

"I understand. Then can I contact him? You..."

"Of course, I'm fine. He's still the boss after all."

So, Chen Xiaohe really started making phone calls after she went out.

Lu Changge knew that Liu Zige would win the championship, but he didn't remember the specific date. After receiving a call from his aunt, he felt that he had to pretend to be very surprised. Otherwise, being too calm would make people feel weird, as if he knew it in advance.

So he called Ji Shi first to thank her for her efforts and to discuss the matter. Ji Shi replied, "You chose this person yourself. It was a good choice."

Lu Changge just laughed it off and said he was lucky.

In fact, the silver medal in this competition also went to a Chinese athlete, but Chinese people have always only valued gold medals. In terms of commercial value, the difference between the two is not as simple as first and second.

Later, Ji Shi said that it would not be possible to invite someone so quickly and we would probably have to wait.

After all, their identities are different. Although the competition is over, there are still various activities to participate in. They may even have to participate in official award conferences, etc.

Lu Changge thought about it and it made some sense. He had thought it was too simple. He originally thought it was as simple as finding some time, but he didn't expect that he would have to queue up.

Okay, as long as you can come.

Afterwards, he called Wang Hongcheng again to express his surprise.

Wang Hongcheng also said that he was so damn lucky.

By the time Chen Xiaohe called him, he had almost digested the news. As for the requests she made, they were reasonable.

Lu Changge said, "Given our cooperative relationship, it's not a problem to specifically select students from Jiangwai. However, there are only a few spots, so I can't give them all to you. To be honest, if a leader from Jiangzhou comes to say hello, I won't be able to refuse them."

Chen Xiaohe said, "I know, so I'll talk to you first."

"Then choose two from Jiangwai, Principal Chen," Lu Changge said meaningfully, "Don't agree to this easily. Let someone leak the news first, and then you can just sit at home and wait. Don't come to us yourself."

"Do you have any idea?"

"Just listen to my advice. It's good for both you and me." It's also good for the person who leaked the information, because this way he will have some value at the dinner table.

Naturally, we have to maintain a good relationship with Principal Chen.

Scarcity makes things valuable, and for Heilan Bay, this has elevated its status. As the saying goes, whether it's food, beverages, or daily necessities, adding the word "high-end" to the front is not based on price, but on social consensus. Consumers feel that being associated with your brand gives them face.

What does it mean to have face?
You fight with me and I fight for it, and in the end I get it and you don’t. This is called having face. That’s all it is.

However, the brand management thinking behind this is somewhat subtle and complicated, so Lu Changge was too lazy to explain it.

Because Chen Xiaohe owed him a favor, she naturally agreed.

After making the call, Lu Changge returned to the garage.

Before Chi Yongsheng officially left, an important thing happened: Zhou Shuang decided to join them.

This is a person who is fully qualified to be a project manager. She has comprehensive experience in software development. Even though they had only collaborated briefly before, Lu Changge knew that Zhou Shuang was more experienced in product design, resource allocation and overall progress control.

Sometimes it doesn’t mean that she knows how to solve all the problems in the development process, or that she can write all the code, but she knows what kind of problems they are and what kind of people to find.

From these perspectives, she is better than Chi Yongsheng, who can only write client code.

So, after hearing the news, Lu Changge tried his best to suppress his smile while negotiating with her.

Chi Yongsheng was more casual, he was just happy.

Zhou Shuang said to him, "After all, you were the one who got me into this. Now you've gone to the US with a mostly tested software and $100 million, leaving me here at a loss as to what to do."

Shen Mo made it clear that she invested in Chatter, not PulseGo. While the two are generally considered one company, they remain relatively independent financially.

All that money is used to ensure Chatter's operations in the United States.

So the question is, the product is gone, the money is gone, what does PulseGo do?
Chi Yongsheng acted as if he was in a good mood and said, "Don't look for me for this matter, look for Lu Changge."

"Then I will definitely look for it. Boss, what do you think?"

The title has been changed to boss.

But before answering, Lu Changge asked her, "I want to know what made you change your mind?"

Zhou Shuang said, "There are reports that Google is indeed launching an app store for the Android system. If I continue to insist that the trend is not obvious at this time, wouldn't that be short-sighted?"

"So..." Lu Changge pretended to be calm, but was secretly delighted. "Then let's stick to our previous agreement. Even though it was just a verbal agreement, it's still an agreement. I said it won't change within a year. Since you want to join, Sister Zhou, how about the same 10% equity ratio as Teacher Chi?"

"No." Zhou Shuang crossed her legs. "It's not that I'm dissatisfied with the number, but I don't agree with this method. I couldn't say it before, but fortunately, it hasn't been officially registered yet... As for the four of you, one is a university professor, and the other three are just university students. You all have a good relationship, and many things are decided based on a little bit of pretentiousness, but in reality, it's not good."

Lu Changge became more serious.

Chi Yongsheng, Yu Na and Hui Chuankun also changed their expressions.

Although Lu Changge has rich social experience, and can speak the truth to people and tell lies to ghosts, and can go to and from bars without any problem, he has no experience in starting an internet company.
"How to say?"

"The initial share grant method was too crude." Zhou Shuang had the ability to simply explain the core issue. "It's like... the founding emperors of ancient times, who made easy promises when starting a new dynasty, even promising half the empire. But once the empire was established, those initial promises became the source of conflict. The massacre wasn't about killing meritorious officials, but it can't be said that it has nothing to do with this. What I mean is that I want to completely overturn the consensus you reached earlier. Instead, I want to establish a better equity incentive system for the company.

Let me give you a simple example. Today I joined and received a 10% stake. Who will pay for this 10%? There might not be much conflict initially, as the company's fate is uncertain. 10% and 100% don't make much difference. Mr. Lu is also quite generous. Your original 80% is a lot anyway, so he'll just give it all to you with a simple gesture. Well, we've overcome this hurdle today.

What if one more person comes tomorrow? What if ten more people come the day after tomorrow? When the company's valuation is a little high, and 1% represents $100 million, what happens if no one agrees to lower it?

Chi Yongsheng said: "You have experience in this and can help us improve it. I have no objection."

Lu Changge glanced at the other two, and Yu Na nodded directly, "I can do it all. To be honest, I didn't expect to get this far."

Hui Chuankun was also very straightforward, "I'll listen to Brother Lu."

"Sister Zhou, just tell me."

"Okay. My idea can be summed up in eight words: shared interests and long-termism. Specifically, there are two stages. One is the initial stage, and the other is the mid-term stage. If there is a later stage, we can discuss it then. It's not a good idea to think too far ahead."

Initially, the company will be split into two parts: one using a partnership system and the other reserved for an employee incentive pool. The normal incentive pool is guaranteed to be around 15%, with the remaining 85% held by the partnership team.

In the medium term, we will introduce a diversified salary model and employee follow-up investment mechanism..."

Yu Na raised her hand, "Sister Zhou, you have to explain this to us."

No one has done this before, and they are just new terms that no one can understand.

Zhou Shuang was also very patient. "Okay. The so-called diversified salary model gives new employees multiple options to choose how to receive their salary. For example, 100% cash, 2/3 cash + equity, or 1/3 cash + equity. This model has two advantages. First, it reduces the cash flow pressure of startups, and second, it can identify employees who are willing to work with the company for the long term. This is better than simply giving a certain amount of bonus based on a few years of work.

The employee co-investment mechanism is even more of an incentive system. It means that during the company's fundraising process, employees should be allowed to raise funds and invest voluntarily. As the saying goes, "Good things should stay within the family." If we allow outside capital to invest in the company, why not allow employees who believe in the company to invest? We've seen real-world examples where employee co-investment can greatly boost their work enthusiasm. A company where employees don't want it to fail is unlikely to fail.

Lu Changge had never heard of these words.

But he thought it made sense.

In fact, the so-called entrepreneurship is about how to efficiently get a large group of talented people to work with you. As long as you read the speeches of a few bosses, you will know that real talents have strange tempers. Even if they don’t have any obvious shortcomings, they all have a mysterious self-confidence, even self-righteousness. If you want them to work for you honestly, there must be a reason, right?
Bringing together smart and capable individuals is actually the art of being a boss, and this requires essential institutional design.

"I think it's okay. It's always better to carry out scientific design in advance than to coordinate the interests of all parties afterwards." Lu Changge accepted the suggestion.

Zhou Shuang said, "Besides this, there's another matter the boss needs to decide. What should we do next? Even overseas, mobile smartphones are still in their infancy, and we're all Nokia here. Should we develop software for Symbian?"

Lu Changge wiped his chin. This question wasn't as simple as he'd imagined. In reality, domestic mobile smartphones still had to wait a while longer for them to truly become popular. At least until the Xiaomi phone was released, which killed off the other expensive and difficult-to-use smartphones.

But it is also dangerous to wait. Even though MiTalk has such a strong talent pool in the instant messaging software industry, it was still killed, even though others have reacted to it.

"We will still develop another phone based on the Android system. I believe that there will be a phone with the Android system on the market soon."

Lu Changge was just relying on his intuition. In fact, the first Android phone appeared in October 2008 and began to be sold in China the following year. Just two and a half years later, in August 10, Android's market share surpassed Symbian.

The speed of change was so fast that even those who experienced it later were confused. What happened in 09 and 10?

(End of this chapter)