Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 182 Teacher Liu's Care

IDG was one of the earliest venture capital firms to enter China, and it has now been operating in China for ten years.

This investment firm doesn't just invest in internet companies; the internet is only a small part of their vast investment portfolio. They also have investments in film, finance, energy, sports, and even tourism.

After joining the company, Li Dong worked in the internet sector. His direct supervisor was a senior partner at IDG and the head of several core investment teams at IDG China.

IDG operates more like an independent studio. The headquarters cultivates a group of experienced and highly capable senior partners, each of whom forms a team. Each team has its own focus based on the abilities and expertise of its leader.

Li Dong's boss was originally a computer science graduate from Tsinghua University, and later studied finance abroad. He joined IDG in 96 and then focused on investing in internet projects, including the investment in Tencent, which he spearheaded.

However, IDG sold most of its Tencent shares to MIH last March, which was arguably their biggest failure in investment history. They seem unaware of this problem and will continue to sell off the remaining Tencent shares next year.

Li Dong has worked hard over the past few years and earned the trust of his boss. Now he is a mid-to-senior level manager in the team and has a certain degree of autonomy in investment. He can basically make decisions on investments of one or two million US dollars on his own. Even if internal review is required, he will usually give it the green light. This is also IDG's model for cultivating potential partners: let them do things with a small amount of capital, continue to increase investment if successful, and gradually tighten investment if they lose money. Whoever can persevere through repeated attempts will become the next partner.

Li Dong has indeed been looking for suitable internet projects. Since last year, he has successively invested in four companies, but none of these companies have yet demonstrated strong capabilities.

When Liu Shiyu recommended Renren.com to him, Li Dong had his own selfish thoughts for the first time. He felt that as long as the project was worthwhile, he would give it a push. As long as he got it going, regardless of whether it succeeded or not, he would have more opportunities to deepen his relationship with Liu Shiyu.

So, after hanging up with Liu Shiyu, he opened the school's intranet website and registered an account.

After registering an account, using the discovery feature, and receiving a batch of notifications from classmates he might know, Li Dong realized that the website's new user path was designed perfectly.

Never underestimate the importance of "guided tours." A website, a shopping mall, or a scenic spot can greatly improve user satisfaction if the guided tours are well done.

Next, Li Dong and his old classmates followed each other, and even went to the school's fishpond, where he saw more old classmates and witnessed their enthusiastic exchanges.

He felt as if he had suddenly entered a paradise.

"interesting!"

This was the first comment Li Dong couldn't help but make in front of his computer half an hour after using the school's intranet.

An hour later, his palms started to sweat.

The reason for sweating is excitement.

Although Renren's user base is far smaller than that of Tencent, NetEase, Sina, and Sohu, its user stickiness is extremely high.

Moreover, it has only been online for less than ten days.

None of these well-known internet products could achieve this level of popularity within ten days of their launch.

He immediately picked up his phone and eagerly called Liu Shiyu back, excitedly saying, "Shiyu, this Renren.com is really great! Where is your friend? Would it be convenient for us to meet and chat? As long as he's in China, I can fly over as early as tomorrow."

Liu Shiyu wasn't surprised at all that Li Dong was optimistic about Renren.com, and simply told him, "My friend is in Jiangcheng."

Li Dong was delighted to learn that Liu Shiyu worked in Jiangcheng and immediately said, "Great! I'll fly to Jiangcheng tomorrow! I'll let you know when I've confirmed the time!"

Liu Shiyu hurriedly said, "Brother Li, don't worry."

"What's wrong, Shiyu?"

Li Dong was indeed anxious.

Firstly, I wanted to meet the founder of Xiaonei.com as soon as possible, and secondly, I also wanted to take the opportunity to meet Liu Shiyu. In all the years I've been working, I've never had such a great business trip.

Liu Shiyu hesitated for a moment before revealing the truth: "My friend isn't ready to raise funds right now. I was talking to you, Brother Li, behind his back, so I don't know if he can accept your sudden trip to Jiangcheng to see him. I wanted to take some time to talk to him again, and if he thinks it's okay, I'll arrange for you to meet."

Li Dong, who was very knowledgeable about the Chinese internet, frowned and said, "Shiyu, is your friend very wealthy?"

Liu Shiyu thought for a moment and said, "Well... how should I put it, I'm not quite sure, but I guess he probably earns tens of thousands or even more a month."

Li Dong sighed, "That's not enough. With the current size of Renren.com, including the team and operating costs, it would probably cost at least 100,000 yuan a month. Moreover, they are currently in a phase of rapid development, and it's very likely that in another ten days, the daily operating cost will exceed 10,000 yuan. When the user base is growing rapidly, if the website has to suspend operations due to funding issues, the losses would be enormous!"

At this point, Li Dong advised her, "Shiyu, you should advise your friend that even if he still has a lot of funds in reserve, he must not be careless. It may take a long time for Xiaonei.com to make money. When Tencent had tens of millions of registered users, the company had almost no money in its accounts. So he should contact investors as soon as possible and give himself enough time."

Liu Shiyu thought Li Dong's words made a lot of sense, so she asked Li Dong, "Brother Li, what valuation do you think we can give to Xiaonei.com, given its current product form and development prospects?"

Li Dong thought for a while and said, "I currently feel that the valuation should be around five to ten million US dollars. Anything more would be difficult, after all, Tencent's valuation was only five and a half million US dollars in its first round of financing."

Liu Shiyu said, "You usually take 10-20%, right?" "Yes."

Li Dong said, "For angel round investments in startups, we generally prefer a percentage of 10-30%. We don't consider anything below 10%, and if it's higher, it depends on the company's situation."

Angel round financing is just the beginning of the financing journey. If you can't even get 10% at the beginning, and you keep raising funds and diluting your position, you'll basically only have a small fraction left.

Liu Shiyu did the math and said, "If the valuation is at the median of seven million US dollars, then if we sell 20%, we can raise about one million four hundred thousand US dollars?"

"more or less."

Li Dong said, "If they are willing to give up 30%, it would be at most around two million US dollars, after all, it's an angel round."

Liu Shiyu said, "That's only around ten million. I thought it would be valued at over ten million US dollars."

Li Dong laughed and said, "The website has only been working on for ten days. To be honest, a valuation of several million US dollars is already very high. This is only because I personally have the authority to make the decision. If it were any higher, it would probably have to go through a rigorous internal review. If the higher-ups are not satisfied with the project, they might reject it."

At this point, Li Dong further explained, "Shiyu, actually, there's no need to worry too much about the valuation in the angel round. It's a stage where you rush in with money. Timing and efficiency are more important. If you seize the opportunity and get off to a good start, the valuation in the next round might directly exceed 100 million. Why get too hung up on whether the angel round valuation is seven million or ten million? If you tell this to your friend, I think he should understand."

"it is good."

Liu Shiyu agreed with Li Dong's statement and said, "How about this, Brother Li, I'll contact my friend and see what he thinks, and then I'll communicate with you."

"no problem."

Li Dong said, "Tell him that it's okay to talk about the investment later. We can meet up for a meal first, get to know each other, and become friends."

"Okay, Brother Li, thanks in advance!"

Liu Shiyu genuinely hoped that Chen Cheng could grow his business into a large and successful enterprise. In all her years, she had never seen such a talented young man as Chen Cheng, and she truly appreciated his talent, so she especially wanted to take care of him.

Although Chen Cheng seemed incredible to her in many ways, she felt that he definitely didn't understand the path to capitalization enough.

His decision not to consider financing for the time being reveals a degree of blind confidence in him.

Therefore, she felt that she had to persuade Chen Cheng to meet with Li Dong first, which might be the last thing she could do for him before leaving Jiangcheng.
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Chen Cheng had already returned to school by this time.

Today is Monday, and since he couldn't go to the second floor of the Sichuan restaurant to work with everyone, he stayed in his dorm room and collaborated remotely with everyone.

Tang Jiakai told Chen Cheng on QQ that he had already communicated with Chen Wei, a technical expert from the Galo Forum. Chen Wei was interested, but wanted to meet with the owner of the Galo Forum before making a decision.

Tang Jiakai was a little worried. He was concerned that Chen Wei and Yang Siqi might still be entangled, and if Chen Cheng's identity were to be revealed, Yang Siqi, with her narrow-mindedness, would definitely try every means to oppose Chen Cheng.

Chen Cheng didn't care. What could a student council president do to him?
The reason for keeping a low profile is to avoid unnecessary attention and to quietly make a fortune.

However, none of these things matter when it comes to poaching core talent.

Since Chen Wei is widely recognized as the most capable developer at Jiangda University, I need to find a way to bring him into the team.

As for Yang Siqi, he's just a clown; he can't even touch his own knees no matter how hard he jumps.

It's nothing more than him making things difficult for me; I'm not afraid of him.

He can't very well expel himself on behalf of the school, can he?

If he really has that ability, then I should thank him.

I had considered going to university before. The reason I must go to university is because I'm afraid that when I become successful in the future, those idiots will come after me saying that I never went to university.

Therefore, once you've attended university, you'll no longer have this concern.

Moreover, judging from the history of entrepreneurial giants at home and abroad, those who have not attended university are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, while those who have attended prestigious universities are at the next level, and those who have a master's or doctoral degree from top universities are at the next level.

However, even with two doctoral degrees from different universities, one cannot stand at the very top of the social hierarchy.

Because those who truly stand at the very top of the social hierarchy are all big shots who dropped out of university.

For example, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Mark Zuckerberg, who is still a nobody and just started studying at Harvard.

(End of this chapter)