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

Chapter 240 Chopsticks Rider: Can I also buy a house in Shanghai?

Yiyuan Office Building, Lane 200, Longcao Road, Shanghai.

At 4 PM is the tea break time at Kuaipao. The local aunties from the administration department will distribute pre-packaged fruit platters and milk tea to each person's workstation.

At this moment, employees from the operations department gathered in twos and threes, eating fruit and gossiping in hushed tones: "I heard that the company is going to launch its Series B financing round. This time, the investors include Tencent, Ali, Hillhouse Capital, and GSR Ventures."

"It has nothing to do with us!"

"You don't know anything! Boss Kou from the investment promotion department said that everyone will receive stock options as a reward this time. Given the big boss's generous nature, even customer service staff will probably get a few thousand shares."

"Brother Quan, can you tell us how the stock option rewards are calculated?"

A young man in the crowd asked Li Quan, who was standing opposite him.

"Simply put, they'll send us a withdrawal slip, and the money will be in our hands when the company goes public or launches an option repurchase program!"

Li Quan held the fruit platter, picked up a piece of pineapple, put it in his mouth, and explained with a smile.

Whether options can be successfully cashed out depends on the exercise conditions, exercise price, and listing plans, and is definitely not as simple as Li Quan said.

However, according to his understanding, although the first company founded by the big boss was not listed, after it was sold to Ali, the big boss still paid out of his own pocket to repurchase some of the unfrozen options with cash.

Including subsidiaries of Senlian Capital, all exercise prices are uniformly $0.01 per share, so Li Quan's statement is not wrong.

After the company goes public, the difference between the stock price and the exercise price, plus the corresponding taxes and fees, is the employee's stock option income.

The lower the exercise price, the larger the price difference!
Therefore, an exercise price of 0.01 yuan is practically the same as giving it away for free!

the other side.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, and Deng Ye sat under the sunshade in the rooftop garden, their faces beaming with joy at having joined Kuaipao.

"I've confirmed with President Pei that the financing is real, and the stock option incentives for all employees are also true," Wang Yuan said excitedly.

Currently, KuaiRun's operations are limited to Luzhou and Shanghai, but its valuation has already reached 10 billion US dollars.

Even if each person only owns tens of thousands of shares, their future value will not be less than several million US dollars.

It's worth noting that in many neighborhoods outside the city's ring road, the price per square meter is less than 20,000 yuan. If this equity is successfully liquidated, it could easily buy a large apartment or a detached villa.

"Does the delivery department also have one?" Kang Jia couldn't help but ask.

"Of course there are. The riders are all under the same labor contract as us, signed with Kuaipao Technology Company," Deng Ye chuckled and shrugged.

"Sigh, it's not surprising at all that Eleme lost to Kuaipao. We can't even compare in terms of salary and benefits."

Kang Jia sighed and couldn't help but feel sentimental.

"Old Kang, Ele.me is a thing of the past. Stop talking about 'us' all the time. If President Pei and President Kou hear this, they might think the three of us are corporate spies." Deng Ye gave a thumbs up and made a shushing gesture.

Kang Jia's expression froze for a moment, then he realized what he meant and grinned apologetically, saying, "Damn! I just said it offhand!"

"Hao Ge went to Nuomi.com, I wonder how it went?" Wang Yuan said in a low voice.

"Nuomi.com offered him a pretty good position and benefits, as the operations manager for the North China region. I just don't know who will be the ultimate winner in this group-buying war," Deng Ye said calmly.

He is now the finance director of Kuaipao's Shanghai branch, and the mystery surrounding Zhang Xuhao's identity as the founder of the food delivery company has long been removed.

"Who cares! I only care about how many shares I'll get under this stock option incentive plan," Wang Yuan waved his hand dismissively.

To put it bluntly, including Kang Jia and Deng Ye, they all harbored resentment towards Zhang Xuhao.

If Zhang Xuhao had accepted Gao Weilin's financing, or even acquisition proposal, the fate of Kuaipao and Ele.me might have been reversed, and they would be sitting in the general manager positions of their respective departments today.

The project went from boom to bust and eventually failed. All team members were responsible, but the person who bore the greatest responsibility was undoubtedly Zhang Xuhao.

He took Senlian Capital's offer and used it to inflate his own valuation by approaching other venture capital firms. This not only offended Chen Yansen and caused him to miss the best financing opportunity, but also provoked a powerful competitor.

Kang Jia and Deng Ye exchanged a smile, full of anticipation.

at the same time.

In the banquet hall on the top floor of the Pullman Hotel, representatives from five parties—Penguin, Ali, GSR Ventures, Hillhouse Capital, and KuaiRun—gathered together.

Chen Yansen, Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu, and others sat at a table chatting.

The negotiation work was then handed over to Gao Weilin and Pei Yi.

“You are really different from other entrepreneurs your age. Young people tend to prefer asset-light operating models, but you do the exact opposite. You invest in whatever industry is hard to make money in.”

Liu Zhiping joked.

Chen Yansen laughed and said, "Didn't Tencent also vote for it? It seems great minds think alike."

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei smiled but remained silent.

The food delivery industry may not seem to be very lucrative, but the sheer volume of orders is a major factor. According to data predictions, once Kuaipao fully unleashes the potential of the food delivery market in Luzhou and Shanghai, the daily order volume will reach as high as 200 million.

If this model is extended nationwide, the daily order volume will exceed 100 million!

At that time, the daily active users will not be less than 100 million!
Keep in mind that this is a consumer app with 100 million daily active users, and the revenue it can generate every day will be an astronomical figure.

Furthermore, by leveraging its massive traffic, it can expand into categories such as hotels, movies, leisure and entertainment, and ticketing, thereby widening its competitive advantage.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei had considered supporting a new platform.

But firstly, can his trading skills be compared to Chen Yansen's?
Secondly, Kuaipao has the advantages of Gaode Map's electronic navigation and is far ahead in intelligent delivery scheduling systems.

Even after more than three years of development, Ele.me is no match for Kuaipao in terms of order matching and route planning.

They certainly didn't believe that a newly established food delivery platform could surpass KuaiPong in both aspects and break through KuaiPong's technological barriers.

Unless BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) gets involved, there is still a certain possibility.

However, Tencent lacks e-commerce DNA, Alibaba is busy preparing for its IPO, and Baidu is developing cloud computing and cloud storage services. Looking at the domestic market, KuaiPu is virtually unrivaled.

"By the way, I heard that Kuaidi Dache is recruiting full-time private car drivers in Nanjing and Hangzhou, and they will pay for the five social insurances and one housing fund for the drivers, as well as provide a base salary?"

Liu Zhiping couldn't help but ask the question.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xiaohu immediately perked up his ears and stared intently at Chen Yansen, wanting to hear his explanation.

If Chen Yansen acts recklessly as soon as he gets funding, then Jinsha Venture Capital will simply give up on Kuaidi Dache's Series B funding and even transfer its equity stake.

"Yes, that's true, but the relevant benefits only apply to a small number of full-time drivers. In fact, so far, only a few dozen people have joined."

Chen Yansen naturally wouldn't tell the truth, so he just made it up.

In his defense, this move became a key strategy for Kuaidi Dache to improve service quality and increase dispatch flexibility.

First, it can quickly expand the transportation capacity pool and alleviate the pain point of difficulty in hailing a taxi during peak hours; second, with the addition of dedicated drivers and social vehicles, the order response speed in remote areas has increased by 40%, and the average waiting time for passengers has been shortened to 3 minutes.

“Compliance is a big issue, but we can get started!” Liu Zhiping nodded, seemingly unconcerned.

Who says you can't do it without documentation or authorization?
After all, no one who can succeed in starting a business is a simple, conventional person.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei largely agree with this view: as long as the scale is large enough, non-compliance can become compliance.

It wasn't until the last rays of sunlight faded outside the window that Lin Chenfeng from Tencent, Ji Gang from Ali, and investment managers from GSR Ventures and Hillhouse Capital reached an agreement with Gao Weilin to set Kuaipao's Series B valuation at US$12 billion.

In its previous life, when Ele.me received its Series D funding, it had around 10 orders per day and a valuation of 4 million US dollars; during its Series F funding, it had around 100 million orders per day and a valuation of 10 billion US dollars.

Overall, while the $12 billion valuation of Kuaipao may be inflated, neither Tencent nor Ali raised any objections.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei remained silent, which was considered an acceptance of the price.

Everyone was well aware that if they voluntarily gave up this round of investment, they would have to pay more than three times the cost to get the same percentage of equity in the next round.

When Pei Yi heard the price of 12 billion US dollars, he felt as if he were walking on clouds, feeling light and uncertain.

Six months ago, he was a graduate student at Luzhou University of Technology; six months later, he is the CEO of a unicorn company with a net worth of over 100 million yuan.

KuaiRun exchanged 15% of its equity for $1.8 million in funding.

Pei Yi needs to use this money to quickly open up the food delivery market in Hangzhou and Nanjing, and then expand from the provincial capital to surrounding cities, striving to reach more than 100 million orders per day as soon as possible.

Although Shanghai wasn't exactly Chen Yansen's home turf, he still easily led Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu, and others to the second event after the banquet.

He didn't leave a private club until 11:30 p.m.

Half an hour later, driver Xiao Li parked the car in front of No. 116 Yunjin Villa.

Chen Yansen got out of the car and walked straight into the bright and clean living room.

The TV was playing "Empresses in the Palace." Song Yuncheng was nestled on the sofa, her eyes slightly closed, fast asleep.

"This guy's sleep quality is really good."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, turned off the TV, then picked up Song Yuncheng and walked upstairs to the bedroom.

……

……

The next morning.

The HR staff of the Luzhou and Shanghai branches, carrying a thick stack of documents, began to communicate with employees. They first introduced the stock option incentive policy and then informed them that 25% of the stock options would be unlocked each year, and the remaining amount would be received over four years.

If you leave the company midway, you can only take the number of stock options that have been unfrozen.

Everyone, from customer service and delivery riders to headquarters operations, finance, and marketing staff, is involved; it's just a matter of how much.

Executives like Kou Zhen, who previously did not have stock options, couldn't help but smile with satisfaction after seeing the figures on the stock option agreement, and their sense of belonging to Kuai Pao grew stronger.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye, and more than 200 new employees who left Ele.me and recently joined Kuaipao also received a generous stock option incentive.

In front of the Triumph Business Building on Yishan Road, Li Zhou and several colleagues were discussing the stock option incentive policy.

"Brother Zhou, how much do you have?" a colleague asked curiously.

“6000 shares, each worth $1.20, that’s only an extra 10,000 yuan a year. I plan to save them up for my son’s future college tuition,” Li Zhou said with a chuckle.

"Once our company's valuation reaches 100 billion US dollars, we can afford to buy several wedding homes, not to mention tuition fees," a colleague next to him laughed.

In the eyes of the riders, Kuaipao is their own company.

The remaining riders also received options ranging from 2000 to 3000 shares, fantasizing about how much cash they could exchange their options for once the company's valuation reached $100 billion.

But after calculating for a long time, they still couldn't figure it out and had to give up in the end.

I only remember one sentence: "Anyway, I can buy a house in Shanghai."

Can people like them, who work in the wind and rain every day, really settle down in Shanghai?
Li Zhou and his colleagues dared not hope for such a thing, but when they delivered the food, their smiles grew even brighter, and the quality of their service became increasingly better.

After securing the Series B funding for Kuai Pao, Chen Yansen didn't rush back to Xucheng. Instead, he took Song Yuncheng to meet with brand owners in Shanghai's apparel industry.

Led by Zhou Jiancheng of Metersbonwe, more than a dozen brands, including Semir, La Chapelle, ESPRIT, and Peromon, were invited to a banquet for Chen Yansen in a private room at the Peace Hotel.

After all, Pinduoduo's influence in the e-commerce industry has already subtly surpassed that of JD.com. Within the industry, more and more merchants regard Pinduoduo as their second most important online sales channel.

Chen Yansen handled these seasoned businessmen with ease, and after a few drinks, he got their marketing budgets for the second half of the year.

After a satisfying meal, Chen Yansen declined Zhou Jiancheng's next invitation and left the restaurant with Song Yuncheng, strolling along Jinling East Road.

Xiao Li drove around in circles nearby, waiting for his boss to call him.

(End of this chapter)