I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 155 Zhang Xuhao: Messed Up, Lost 1 Million Yuan in Funding (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Chen Yansen returned to Building 8 and took the elevator to his office on the fifth floor.

On the table was the executive lunch, consisting of five dishes and a soup, accompanied by four sets of bowls and chopsticks. The restaurant also provided several bottles of drinks.

"Old Gao, call Ye Qiuping over, and also call Wang Xueting from the personnel department."

Chen Yansen sat down, but instead of picking up his chopsticks, he called Gao Weilin and others to eat together.

Eating is secondary; I mainly want to talk about Orange Technology's expansion and Pinbei Technology's recruitment progress.

A short while later, Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping, and Wang Xueting arrived together.

"Boss!" the three greeted from the doorway.

"Come in, let's eat and talk."

Chen Yansen rolled up his sleeves and gestured for the three of them to sit down.

"Thank you, boss," Gao Weilin replied, and sat down first.

Ye Qiuping and Wang Xueting exchanged a glance and sat down next to Lao Gao.

Wang Xueting graduated from Tongji University with a major in Human Resource Management. She had worked for many years at a telecommunications company in Shanghai before being poached by Chen Yansen to Orange Technology with a monthly salary of over 4 yuan.

She recruited Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze, two leading figures in the field of industrial design.

"How is Pinbei's recruitment progress? First, help me set up the framework of the human resources department, focusing on development and business development personnel in the early stages."

Chen Yansen picked up his chopsticks, took a shrimp and put it in his mouth, then looked at Wang Xueting and asked.

"We currently have two suitable candidates for HR manager: Xiong Li from JD.com and Zhang Junjie from Suning. They both have extensive experience in the e-commerce field, and Xiong Li also has business operations experience."

Wang Xueting answered immediately.

"Mr. Ye, do you know this person?" Chen Yansen turned his gaze to Ye Qiuping.

"The recruitment manager at Dongfang Small Appliances is quite capable; he understands both human resources and business," Ye Qiuping said after a moment's thought, offering a positive assessment.

"Arrange interviews as soon as possible, and if they are suitable, hire both of them."

Chen Yansen nodded and made a decision immediately.

“Okay, boss,” Wang Xueting replied.

"The recruitment progress of Orange Technology and Pinbei Technology is slower than I expected. So, draft an internal referral reward mechanism, with the reward amount being equivalent to the headhunting expenses, and submit it to me before leaving get off work."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yansen added.

Take Orange Technology as an example; most of its employees come from mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, Xiaomi, Huawei, and ZTE.

Having them refer people can significantly speed up the recruitment process.

After all, they are familiar with Orange Technology's compensation and work environment, so their communication with former colleagues is more persuasive.

"Understood, boss," Wang Xueting replied immediately. The HR department currently has six people, including herself, and the interview rooms are fully booked every day.

However, Orange Technology currently only has a little over 200 employees.

It's not that the pay and benefits are bad, but rather that Orange Technology is developing too fast, and their recruitment speed can't keep up with their staffing needs.

"Old Gao, has the payment for the equipment at the Orange Mobile Phone factory been made yet?"

Chen Yansen put down his chopsticks and asked Gao Weilin.

"There are a total of 34 production lines. The funds for the equipment were directly transferred to the suppliers' corporate accounts, totaling 13.7 billion yuan."

Gao Weilin had been on several business trips with Chen Yansen and knew his temperament well, so he answered casually, explaining as he ate.

This is why most mobile phone manufacturers choose contract manufacturers; even before the phones are produced, the equipment alone costs billions.

However, for Chen Yansen, the money was well spent.

Once the factory is in operation, it can accommodate more than 5000 employees and provide him with 4000 humanitarian aids every month.

Monthly production capacity can be increased from 50 units to 300 million units!

Those netizens on Weibo who were relentlessly criticizing Chen Yansen for his monkey-like antics can finally have some peace and quiet for a while.

From August to early October, the factory shipped a total of about 1 million units, with a total pre-sale volume of 3.5 million units, leaving 70% of the orders unmade.

Despite Chen Yansen's popularity, some impatient users still urge him to ship the goods in his comment section, and quite a few of them use foul language.

"What about the brand department? How are the online public opinion and user feedback?" Chen Yansen looked at Ye Qiuping and couldn't help but admire her strong mental fortitude.

Even knowing that he had been thoroughly investigated, he was still able to stay at Orange Technology with peace of mind, and was now sitting comfortably across from them eating.

Wang Xueting looked nervous and restrained, but she was as relaxed and comfortable as if she were at home.

"Besides issues like insufficient production capacity and poor signal due to the aluminum alloy back cover, user feedback shows that Orange phones have a much higher approval rating than Xiaomi phones; the data department predicts, based on sales models, that if the production capacity issue is resolved, monthly sales could increase by more than three times."

When Ye Qiuping heard Chen Yansen call her, she looked up and slowly spoke.

"Wait another month until Shenzhen completes recruitment and equipment debugging."

Chen Yansen spoke in a flat tone.

Although the aluminum alloy back cover affects signal reception, it improves the strength of the device and heat dissipation.

Compared to Xiaomi phones, Orange phones offer a significantly smoother experience and a superior user experience.

As a result, after Xiaomi's pre-orders exceeded 70 units, it was met with a flood of negative reviews online, with many people joking that it was so hot it could be used to fry an egg.

Without the Orange phone, users might have tolerated Xiaomi's overheating and lag, given its extremely high cost-performance ratio.

With so many options available, who would want to settle for less?

After lunch, Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping, and Wang Xueting left the office.

Chen Yansen put his feet up on the desk and took out his phone to browse the news.

Ali raised the annual technical service fee and store breach of contract deposit on Taobao Mall, angering small and medium-sized sellers.

These merchants went to the stores of large merchants to place orders, cancel orders, and bombard them with negative reviews, using this as an outlet for their dissatisfaction.

To put it bluntly, Ma Liyun felt the sheep were fat enough to be harvested. But small and medium-sized sellers didn't think so. Last year, Ali quietly adjusted its search rules, directing traffic to large and branded merchants, causing their income to plummet and leaving them feeling resentful.

This unilateral price increase has thoroughly enraged them, with hundreds of merchants even protesting downstairs at Ali's headquarters.

"Let it be chaotic! The more chaotic the market, the better!"

Chen Yansen thought to himself and muttered to himself.

Who is Ma Liyun?

Even if we compromise for now, we'll have to deal with these people later.

Like Zhang Yong, he believes that with the development of e-commerce and economic growth, users' demand for products will continue to increase, and the average order value will gradually rise.

Consequently, they abandoned the 6 trillion yuan lower-tier market.

But three years later, Pinduoduo suddenly appeared and completely disrupted the e-commerce landscape, forcing Alibaba to create TaoTe and TaoFactory, and JD.com was also tricked into launching JDJoy and JDJoy Special Sale.

Unfortunately, the tide had turned against them. Pinduoduo then pulled out a "refund only" offer, which firmly captured the hearts of users and propelled it to the top three in the e-commerce sector.

Chen Yansen's Pinbei borrowed the business model of Pinduoduo, aiming to take over the small and medium-sized sellers abandoned by Alibaba and JD.com.

Taking the mobile phone industry as an example, a mobile phone priced at 1999 yuan is only a mid-range smartphone for many people, but there are still many people who cannot afford it.

Feature phones and knock-off phones priced at 299 yuan, 499 yuan, and 699 yuan have never lacked users.

Everything that exists has its reason!
It's perfectly normal for a multi-trillion-dollar market like the lower-tier cities to give rise to an e-commerce behemoth.

Chen Yansen only needs to go with the flow!

Scrolling down, the second news item is about the passing of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and the imminent arrival of the Tim Cook era at Apple.

The rest of the news focused on the fierce competition among group-buying websites, with Lashou, Wowo, Nuomi, Dianping, and Meituan locked in a battle, poaching employees from each other and offering substantial subsidies, all vying for market share.

To Chen Yansen's surprise, Lashou and Nuomi.com were exceptionally strong in this life, with excellent online marketing, and they could even compete with Meituan's most valued ground sales team.

Given this trend, it will be difficult to determine a winner in the group-buying war in the short term.

Chen Yansen frowned. After selling FoxTao, his influence in the group-buying industry was almost zero.

He doesn't care who wins the group-buying competition.

In any case, from 2011 to 2013, both group buying and food delivery were unprofitable businesses.

After Ele.me secured 100 million yuan in funding at the beginning of the year, it failed to make a splash in the industry.

Venture capitalists seem to have forgotten about the food delivery sector, with no intention of investing or making follow-on investments.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen dialed Lao Gao's number and asked him to try contacting Zhang Xuhao.

On the one hand, by investing in Ele.me in advance, he can make a fortune whether Alibaba or Meituan acquires Ele.me in the future; on the other hand, he can participate in the daily operations of Ele.me through this investment.

Prepare in advance for the next step.

Gao Weilin immediately agreed after hearing this.

After joining Senlian Capital, he thought his job would be all about buying and investing, but he ended up becoming the CFO of Orange Technology and had to pay the final installments for his boss's car and house purchases from time to time.

This guy doesn't look like the head of an investment firm at all; he's practically Chen Yansen's butler.

This time he finally had a chance to use his expertise, but after learning more about Ele.me, he was instantly dumbfounded.

Who came up with such a ridiculous business model?

There's absolutely no hope of making a profit!
The platform pleases neither buyers nor merchants.

Merchants have no choice but to raise online prices in order to make money, since packaging, delivery and platform commissions increase costs; buyers are unwilling to spend more money, feeling that the platform is passing on the costs to them.

Founded two and a half years ago, Ele.me has only received one round of funding so far. With a daily order volume of just over 3000, Ele.me has actually been losing money after deducting management and technology costs.

Gao Weilin wanted to persuade Chen Yansen, but in the end he sighed and chose to trust his boss's judgment.

When it comes to doing business, ten of you are no match for the boss. Just do your job well. If you overstep the line, you might just incur the boss's displeasure.

Two days later, Zhang Xuhao received a call from Gao Weilin.

"I'll give you 1 million, and Senlian wants 30% of the equity," Gao Weilin offered.

"US dollars?" Zhang Xuhao asked tentatively.

"Huayuan." Gao Weilin scoffed, thinking to himself that this guy was overthinking things. With Ele.me's current scale, a valuation of 2 million was already a lot.

Zhang Xuhao fell silent. He had been pondering for some time whether or not to change the product's name.

Are you hungry?
He's really hungry now!
In the past two years, apart from the $100 million funding from Sands Ventures, they haven't received a single penny from venture capital.

He wanted to expand the market, but he didn't have the money!
This lousy name is like a curse!
He wanted the 1 million yuan, but he couldn't bear to give up the 30% equity stake.

After thinking about it, Zhang Xuhao said he would consider it first. After hanging up the phone, he immediately went to check the background of Senlian Capital and found that the boss behind it was Chen Yansen.

Zhang Xuhao immediately had an idea. He took Senlian Capital's offer and went to GSR Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Hillhouse Capital to negotiate, hoping to inflate his value.

This greatly puzzled Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital. He had previously studied Ele.me's business model and, frankly, hadn't been impressed.

In his view, Chen Yansen has a good eye for business and shouldn't have been interested in Ele.me.

So Zhang Lei called Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen then realized the trick Zhang Xuhao had played and denied it with a smile, saying, "I would never invest in group buying, let alone food delivery."

After the two finished exchanging pleasantries, Chen Yansen scoffed inwardly: Zhang Xuhao looks honest, but he's actually so cunning. He could understand Zhang Xuhao's actions, but he was still annoyed at being schemed against.

That instantly dispelled my idea of ​​investing in Ele.me.

Indeed, those who left their mark during the golden decade of the internet were no ordinary people.

Although Chen Yansen himself is an immoral person, he prefers to work with partners who are moral. Someone like Zhang Xuhao is too cunning; it's better to invest in Meituan than Zhang Xuhao.

Before long, Zhang Xuhao realized he had messed up, offending Senlian Capital and missing a financing opportunity.

(End of this chapter)