Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 164 Three Million Shares

Before hanging up the phone, Lei Jun told him some more information.

Lin Bin received technology stock at Microsoft.

After 10 years of work, participating in the development of Windows NT3.51, Windows NT4, IIS, Exchange 2000, and Windows 2000, and making outstanding contributions to more than a dozen Microsoft products, I am already quite wealthy. I am not very interested in mobile phones and want to start my own company to create an internet music platform.

Taken together, the meaning behind these words is self-evident.

Shares.

It's about shares again.

Moreover, judging from his tone, he definitely wouldn't come without the condition of having a partner.

According to market rates, a technical partner should be given at least 10% to 20% of the shares, and a core technical partner should be given more than 30%.

It seems he has no other way to solve this problem except by offering high salaries.

A company with net assets of only tens of millions, and whose assets are mainly concentrated in Changzheng Capital.

Taking Singularity Technology as an example, with a rented office and a small factory, the profit is not bad, but the source of the profit is the precarious counterfeit market. It is definitely not suitable for valuation according to the income approach. For such a company, how many shares should be given to attract talents?
But their request is quite reasonable.

If someone leaves a world-class corporation to work for a small company like yours, without a high salary or substantial stock options as a future expectation, what motivation do they have to work hard?
He knew all too well what the future of Singularity Technology would be like. He would be heartbroken even if he had to give away just one percent of the shares, let alone meet Lin Bin's expectations as a partner.

Shares in the three companies,
How much salary should I offer to meet their expectations?

Moreover, relying on guaranteed salaries to attract talent without equity incentive plans might discourage people from working hard and become lazy.

This problem gave Chen Xuebing a real headache, so he immediately adjourned the meeting and went into his office.

……

wait.

Two unusually quiet weeks.

Everything in Chongqing was proceeding smoothly. He didn't want to interfere with the construction; all his men were focused on the third construction site, and with his uncle as the general manager, he didn't need to worry about progress payments.

The Taohuaxi dredging project is expected to start around December, and the client is still Chongqing Water Investment.

A technical meeting was held in Shenzhen, and everyone was assigned tasks. Under Lu Weibing's management, things went quietly, except for three phone calls from Lu Yiwen.

Once, it was said that a fake Swarovski crystal was sold on Taobao, and the buyer sued the platform, causing a huge uproar. The platform also wanted to support genuine products, but where the hell are there any genuine products on Taobao?
Therefore, there has been a recent intention to support low-priced goods, since small items are less likely to be involved in lawsuits.

Their accounts selling consumer goods priced over 1,000 yuan have also had their traffic restricted, and their sales have declined recently. Fortunately, they still have a group of old customers who recommend them by word of mouth, so they can still sell even without the platform's traffic.

Lu Yiwen contacted Ake by phone, and she said that this situation wouldn't last long, and that Taobao would launch a paid ranking service called "Zhao Cai Jin Bao" after New Year's Day.

Lu Yiwen wanted to give it a try.

Chen Xuebing knew about this. In his previous life, the "Bringing in Wealth and Treasure" promotion hadn't been very effective, and some Taobao sellers had jointly boycotted it on forums. Some even said that Taobao was indirectly breaking the free agreement. Seeing the public resentment, Taobao quickly opened a link to hold a referendum, canceled the service, and refunded the service fee.

Since the money would be refunded sooner or later, Chen Xuebing figured he might as well take advantage of the situation and let him arrange for 100 million yuan to be invested in this "Fortune and Prosperity" product in January.

The second call said the goods shipped to India had arrived, the other party had paid the payment as agreed, sales were going well, and they were preparing a second batch of goods worth 100 million.

This time, Chen Xuebing took the initiative to call Lu Weibing to discuss exporting to Southeast Asia. However, Lu Weibing said that when he was the general manager of overseas sales at Konka, he mostly dealt with the Indian market. He did not have reliable contacts in other places for the time being. To expand the market, he needed to go abroad for inspection. He planned to train a group of experienced people first, and then organize a team to go abroad to set up overseas offices after the New Year.

In the third phone call, Lu Yiwen asked Chen Xuebing if he was busy and if he wanted to play Legend of Mir. He said that he had recently opened a private server for Legend of Mir, where players could start at level 39 and were given a set of paralysis and resurrection equipment, and could even get the Dragon Slayer Sword for free.

Chen Xuebing scolded him, calling him a good-for-nothing.

Then that night, I notified a group of my brothers, and they went in and gave me a dressing down.

When they entered the area, Chen Xuebing gave a strict order: no money was allowed; they were just to experience it and get a feel for it.

Everyone was very obedient and teamed up to farm the Wild Boar Cave all night.

The next day, Chen Xuebing couldn't resist spending 200 yuan to buy a Super Wuji Staff with 250 attack power and Taoist magic, and formed a guild.

Everyone jokingly calls the leader a fool, but seeing him take down a white boar in two hits, they are all envious.

On the third day, they got into a fight with another guild near Mengzhong City. The opposing guild leader was also a super Wuji staff user, and they lost.

Chen Xuebing cursed and spent another thousand yuan to buy a temporary GM to boost his stats, and then gave everyone in the guild a bunch of high-level civilian gear and super potions.

Now, a bunch of brothers secretly spent money on in-game purchases, each getting a Super Wuji Staff. They led the rest of the guild to utterly defeat the opposing team, becoming famous throughout the region.

Mr. Chen was overjoyed.

I almost got addicted to a crappy private server.

There's nothing I can do, things have been too tough lately.

The tedious study time.

To prepare for future developments, Chen Xuebing spent every day at the library intensively studying semiconductors and software.

I've never worked this hard when I was in school.

Ren Ying also had to catch up on her studies. She was Chen Xuebing's confidante. Although she was usually quiet and didn't play a significant role, Chen Xuebing would always take her with him.

She knew everything about business. When Chen Xuebing was tired, confused, or couldn't remember anything, she was his second brain and human backup.

I returned from Shenzhen in early November and had decided to stay at the university and not go out for the time being. However, two weeks later, I boarded a plane to Shenzhen again.

This time, instead of catching up on sleep in first class, I sat in economy class with Ren Ying.

As the plane took off and entered the air, Ren Ying noticed that he wasn't sleepy, so she took out a notebook and quietly helped him organize the recent information.

“Singularity Technology and the factory now have 210 full-time employees. They paid salaries on the 16th, which was quite an expense. I calculated that the profit for the past month was 160 million, with a considerable amount still remaining. But next month, the expenses and income will be close. You need to talk to General Manager Wei and urge him to expand the business.”

“I’ve talked to him. The first batch of ground sales staff has already been deployed. Building a network of relationships will take time, and revenue generation in Shenzhen should begin after the new year.”

"Yes, I checked Lin Bin's previous salary. Based on his level at Microsoft, his annual salary should be between $85,000 and $120,000, with a 9-to-5 work schedule, 15 days of paid annual leave, and a 13th-month bonus. In addition, the working environment at Microsoft Research Asia Pacific is quite good. I suggest you move the researchers' offices to the SEG Plaza. Their work is rather monotonous, and they are at their desks for long periods of time, so they need a good environment."

"Oh." Chen Xuebing turned around in surprise: "This is rare. Is this the first time you've tried to persuade me to spend money?"

“I took your advice to heart.” Ren Ying said somewhat shyly, “I couldn’t stop you when you were hiring. You paid such high prices to bring in talent, and everyone earns more than 10,000 yuan a month. As long as it can improve work efficiency, it’s worth spending a little more money to rent two offices.”

"You can arrange the office matters once we get to Shenzhen," Chen Xuebing waved his hand. "There are too few talents in the domestic IC field. Everyone is heading to foreign companies. Offering high salaries is like spending a fortune to keep a horse's bones, a siphoning of talent. We are a new company, so being able to offer high salaries is actually our advantage. Go and see the four major Chinese companies: ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo. They have R&D teams of thousands of people and thousands of managers. Every time there's a change in salary levels, it's a disaster. How could they attract such a good team as us so quickly, with each member being a highly educated talent with experience working in advanced companies?"

"Indeed, it's a pleasure to see so many outstanding people working together. I enjoy listening to their meetings and brainstorming sessions. Sometimes I even regret not choosing computer science as my major."

Ren Ying looked hopeful, then said, "How long are you going to keep running around recruiting talent? Actually, we have people in Shenzhen and Chongqing. Once we've recruited the core team, we can leave the rest to them. Besides, you're managing everything; it's too tiring."

Chen Xuebing smiled, looked at the white clouds passing by outside the window, and said nothing.

Having reached this point, he had already surpassed the ranks of "small business owners" from his previous life, and he was somewhat lost. It wasn't that he didn't know how to make money, but rather that he hadn't figured out how to approach his work.

Although he was reborn, he never truly grasped the timing and trajectory of his life. Upon closer reflection, his success to date is a result of both calculated steps and a bit of luck.

In December, he received a sudden phone call from Taobao, and his account had 200,000 yuan.

During the price war in Huaqiangbei in April, he earned four million.

In August, Baosteel earned him 20 million.

These are all successes achieved through rebirth, but is that entirely true?

He funded the bridge and highway project out of his own pocket, hoping to use it to gain access to the Western Development Strategy, but there has been no news since.

He wanted to get rich by riding the wave of MediaTek and Taobao, but Taobao grew bigger and bigger, and MediaTek captured 70% of the domestic mobile phone chip market. His Huaqiangbei business, however, remained a small member of the other side's larger camp.

He had clearly realized that trying to make money by following in others' footsteps through the oracle might yield a small amount of money, but it wouldn't amount to much.

Now that we've passed the initial accumulation phase, small businesses like Taobao and counterfeit goods are getting on our nerves. Keeping them around is agonizing, but they're not going to grow much. They're actually starting to cause some headaches.

These matters must be completely cut off or handed over to Huo Xiaowen within this year.

Engineering companies also need to organize their qualifications, define project teams, and assign different projects to specific individuals.

It's essential to thoroughly understand which business operations are primary and which are secondary within the company.

Travel light.

Downstairs at Henggang Building, Chen Xuebing spotted the long-haired young man in a leather jacket from afar.

Lei Jun's fashion sense is still so bad.

Standing next to him was a tall, thin man with a bald spot on his forehead—the typical look of a programmer.

"President Lei!"

Chen Xuebing raised a hand and greeted them with a smile.

When Lei Jun saw him, he shook hands with him and said with the emotion of an old friend, "You are really young!"

Chen Xuebing also slapped his other hand on top, and the two of them shook for a while.

Lei Jun made a really good first impression. His smile was genuine and approachable. He held hands firmly and had the enthusiasm of a scholar. It felt like if we chatted a little longer, we could all go to sleep together that night.

"This is Lin Bin, my good friend!"

The words "good friend" were accompanied by a heavy, drawn-out tone, and the introduction made Chen Xuebing feel a little nauseous.

How many good friends do you have?
If I hadn't asked you to help me dig out the people, I would have thought you two were elementary school classmates, judging from your accents, since you didn't even know each other a month ago.

"Hello, Mr. Lin."

Chen Xuebing thought to himself that he was actually quite happy. He shook hands with Lin Bin and led them on a tour.

The entire office floor was bustling with activity, as many new employees had arrived recently.

Chen Xuebing opened the doors to the Marketing Department, the Online Operations Center (Taobao), the Ground Promotion Department, the Conference Room, and even the two R&D departments with "No Unauthorized Personnel Allowed" signs, and showed them around.

The office was full of computers running EDA software, which looked similar to CAD software used in engineering projects from a distance. There were also some scattered documents on the desks, making the place somewhat messy.

They were working quite well and very focused. They looked around for a long time, but not a single person even turned their head.

He didn't inform Lu Weibing when he came back because he wanted to see how everyone was doing at work.

However, Chen Xuebing didn't take them into the office. He closed the door and said with a smile, "The conditions are simple. Let's talk upstairs."

Lei Jun smiled knowingly: "President Chen, we've come all this way, and you're still keeping things to yourself."

Chen Xuebing chuckled: "I not only hope you can watch, but I also hope you can try it yourself. Are you coming?"

Lei Jun gave a dry laugh.

Lin Bin, however, spoke up and asked, "Mr. Chen, are you going to make your own chips?"

When he arrived, he heard that a small private enterprise was going to do self-developed technology, but he didn't know the extent of its self-development. When he saw the rows of computer EDA, he understood.

Lei Jun, on the other hand, is not so sensitive.

Although Kingsoft is a software company, it focuses too narrowly on office software and IC design.

Lin Bin's work at Microsoft Research is somewhat different from Lei Jun's. They conduct basic research in computer science and digital computing, and spend a lot of time working with chips.

Some people compare Kingsoft to Microsoft, but in reality, Kingsoft can't even match Microsoft's office structure; it's playing too superficially.

"What we want to make is a great phone. It will have everything it needs. Although this place is simple, it is definitely not lacking in dreams."

He still had to indulge in some sentimentalism, but once he entered the office, Chen Xuebing became pragmatic.

"Mr. Lin, we invited you here to put you in charge of the software department. What are your thoughts on the position and salary?"

Lin Bin paused for a moment after hearing this.

In charge of the software department. In this small company, it doesn't seem like a very high position.

Lei Jun was getting a little anxious. He had finally managed to coax Lin Bin over, and Chen Xuebing had offered "conditions that were impossible to refuse."

"Mr. Chen."

Chen Xuebing waved his hand, and before he could speak, he said, "The software department I'm talking about is bigger than you think. The annual salary is one million. How about that? That's the salary for our president. Any higher wouldn't be appropriate."

"Also, regarding our company's equity situation, I had Mr. Lei give it to you, have you looked at it?"

"I've seen it," Lin Bin nodded.

"How much do you think it's worth?" Chen Xuebing asked with a smile.

"The Series A funding stage," Lin Bin said.

Series A funding, which is after the initial startup phase, would typically result in a valuation of tens of millions of dollars, and funding rounds would generally be in the tens of millions or more.

His assessment was even higher than Chen Xuebing had expected.

To be precise, it's much higher.

Chen Xuebing coughed, wanting to ask him how he calculated it, but instead said what he had already prepared:
"If you work a full year, I'll give you stock options worth three million, how about that?"

(End of this chapter)