One Yuan First Recharge: I'm Actually the Boss Behind a Fortune 500 Company

The weather was exceptionally good the day Song Kai arrived in the provincial capital.

In mid-December, the provincial capital was blessed with a rare sunny day.

The bright sunlight shone down, melting the remaining snow that had accumulated on the road a few days ago into water, which flowed down the curb and into the sewers.

The air carried a hint of crisp chill, but when the sun shone through, it gave one the illusion that spring was just around the corner.

Wang Hao arrived at the factory early in the morning. He was wearing a dark gray business jacket over a white shirt—Zhou Jianjun had told him several times to dress more formally when meeting important people, and although he complained about the trouble, he did so today.

"Manager Wang, it's 9:50." Zhao Mingyuan walked out of the R&D area, holding his phone.

"Song Kai just sent a message saying he's off the highway, and the navigation says he'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Okay, let's wait at the entrance." Wang Hao straightened his collar and walked to the factory entrance with Zhao Mingyuan.

Sunlight shone on the silver-gray exterior walls of the factory, reflecting a bright glow.

The newly paved asphalt road in the open space in front of the gate still gleamed with a dark black sheen, and several workers' electric vehicles were neatly parked in the designated parking spaces.

The entire area looks clean and tidy, and it already resembles a proper factory.

Wang Hao put his hands in his jacket pockets, looked at the intersection in the distance, and felt a little expectant.

He had heard the name Song Kai countless times in the past few days.

Every time Zhao Mingyuan mentioned him, his tone was full of undisguised admiration and respect.

For someone like Zhao Mingyuan, who is usually focused on technical work, to speak so highly of Song Kai, he must want to see for himself what kind of skills Song Kai possesses.

A black SUV turned from the intersection, slowed down, and slowly stopped at the factory gate.

The car door opened, and the first person to get out was a man in his mid-thirties.

He wasn't very tall, about 1.75 meters, and was wearing a dark blue down jacket over a gray hooded sweatshirt. He wore sneakers that looked like they were several years old, had very short hair, and wore black-rimmed glasses.

By any measure, he looked like a random passerby picked up from the roadside.

But when he looked up at the factory, Wang Hao noticed his gaze—very calm, very focused, like a deep pool of water, the surface calm, but you couldn't see how deep it was below.

"Old Song!" Zhao Mingyuan went up to him, and the two shook hands firmly, then patted each other on the shoulder. "Long time no see!"

"Old Zhao, you've lost a lot of weight." Song Kai looked him up and down. "Back in Shenzhen, you had a double chin, but now your chin is all pointed."

"I've been working overtime," Zhao Mingyuan said with a smile. "Let me introduce you—this is our boss, Wang Hao."

Song Kai turned his gaze to Wang Hao and extended his hand:

"Mr. Wang, I've heard so much about you. Old Zhao has mentioned you to me quite a few times on the phone."

Wang Hao grasped his hand and shook it forcefully:

"Brother Song, you're too kind. Engineer Zhao is just flattering me. But you—Engineer Zhao told me you're the most capable product manager he's ever met, and I've wanted to meet you for a long time."

"He's talking nonsense, I wouldn't dare accept that." Song Kai shook his head with a smile, but there was no self-deprecating embarrassment in his eyes, instead, a calm and composed demeanor.

"It's cold outside, let's go inside and talk." Wang Hao turned to the side and gestured for them to come in.

Three people walked into the factory.

Before entering, Song Kai paused for a moment—his gaze fell on the signboard at the entrance.

It was an acrylic sign that hadn't been hung up yet, leaning against the wall by the door, with silver-gray lettering printed on it:

"Xingyue Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd."

He looked for two seconds, made no comment, and followed Wang Hao inside.

Inside the factory, the first SMT placement line is in operation.

The silver-gray equipment emitted a rhythmic hum as test PCBs passed one after another on the conveyor belt.

Several operators, dressed in anti-static suits, stood beside the equipment, staring at the parameters that were flashing on the screen.

Song Kai stood beside the production line, not in a hurry to go in, but stood still and watched for a while.

He first glanced at the layout of the entire production line—from the printing press at the very front to the reflow oven at the very back, silently observing the position of each piece of equipment and the spacing between them.

Then his gaze fell on the batch of PCBs passing through the furnace. He stared at them for a few seconds, frowned slightly, but said nothing.

"Let's go inside and talk." Wang Hao led the way, taking him to a small conference room in the office area.

The meeting room wasn't large, containing a long white table and six chairs. The chip architecture diagram Zhao Mingyuan had drawn yesterday was still on the whiteboard on the wall. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, illuminating the dust particles suspended in the air.

The three of them sat down, and Zhao Mingyuan poured Song Kai a glass of water.

"Mr. Wang, let me first share my thoughts after reviewing the chip proposal." Song Kai skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

Wang Hao nodded: "Please go ahead."

"Frankly, that proposal stunned me." Song Kai's tone was calm, but his words carried weight.

"I've been in the mobile phone industry for almost ten years, from the era of feature phones to the era of smartphones, from white-label phones to big manufacturers. I've seen at least a dozen chip solutions."

But I've never seen the design concept behind your chip before.

He picked up his water glass and took a sip:

"What surprised me the most were two things: First, the architecture design of the NPU - currently, most mid-to-low-end mobile phones rely on general-purpose CPUs or GPUs for AI computing power, which is power-consuming and inefficient."

However, your solution directly incorporates a dedicated acceleration unit for AI tasks at the chip level—an approach typically only found in flagship chips.

Secondly, there's its energy efficiency management. I've looked at your dynamic voltage and frequency adjustment algorithm, and logically it's much more sophisticated than existing solutions on the market.

He put down his water glass and looked at Wang Hao: "So I'm very curious—who exactly came up with this plan?"

Wang Hao leaned back in his chair, remained silent for two seconds, and then slowly said, "My brother made it."

"Your brother?"

"Yes." Wang Hao met his gaze without flinching.

"He is an independent chip architect who previously worked in a laboratory abroad for many years."

He didn't want to reveal his identity, so I can't disclose too many details, but he designed this plan himself.

Song Kai stared at Wang Hao for several seconds, seemingly trying to determine the truthfulness of his words.

Finally, he didn't press further, but simply nodded:

"Understood. With such a technological foundation, I'm not worried at all about the competitiveness of the chips themselves."

He then changed the subject: "But there's one thing I've been thinking about for a long time—who should we sell phones equipped with this chip to?"

This question is direct and precise.

Wang Hao didn't answer, but leaned forward slightly: "I'd like to hear your opinion first."

Song Kai did not refuse. He took out a laptop from his backpack, opened it skillfully, and on the screen was a document he had hastily completed the night before.

"Last night, I used the product summary that Lao Zhao gave me and did a simple analysis." He turned the screen to Wang Hao. "Here are some sets of data."

Wang Hao leaned closer to take a look.

The screen displays a three-column comparison table—the left side shows the specifications of several mainstream mid-range phones on the market, the middle shows their still-unfinished specifications, and the right side shows the specifications of several high-end flagship phones.

"In terms of specifications, our machine is actually positioned at the upper-mid-range level." Song Kai circled several core parameters on the touchpad with his finger.

"The screen is a 6.5-inch OLED screen with a 1080P resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate; the processor performance is top-notch among mid-range chips; the camera is a triple-lens rear camera—a 4800MP main camera with wide-angle and macro lenses; the battery capacity is 4500mAh and supports fast charging."

He looked up and said, "If you look at this configuration on its own, it seems to have a very clear positioning—it's a mid-range machine, priced between 1500 and 2000 yuan."

"But the key issue is—" He paused for a moment.

"If we sell for 1500 to 2000, our competitors will be Redmi, Honor, and Realme. These brands have been operating in this price range for several years, with a large user base, mature channels, and high brand awareness."

"How can we, a new brand, steal users from them?"

This was a concern that Zhao Mingyuan had vaguely mentioned before, but when Song Kai said it, the analysis was much more thorough.

"And there's another problem," Song Kai continued.

"If you look closely at the configuration of our solution, you will find that some of the components are actually ahead of their class."

For example, the AI ​​computing power of this NPU—no other phone under 2,000 yuan on the market can reach this level. And then there's the overall architecture and power consumption ratio of this chip—if a testing organization were to run benchmarks, the scores would definitely shock everyone.

"In other words, our machine actually has the base of a mid-range machine, but with the heart of a flagship-level device," Song Kai summarized.

"If we sell it at a mid-range price, we'll be wasting this heart; if we sell it too expensively, users won't recognize our brand."

After he finished speaking, the conference room was silent for a few seconds.

Wang Hao leaned back in his chair and slowly exhaled.

The question Song Kai raised touched on a long-standing, vague pain point in his mind—positioning.

"What do you think we should do?" Wang Hao asked.

Song Kai adjusted his glasses: "I think we shouldn't compete with Redmi and Honor for users in that price range."

That market is too crowded, and consumers have very high brand loyalty. If we rush in rashly, we'll most likely get crushed.

"So what should we do?"

"We want to create a niche product that is highly specialized and has a clearly defined target audience," Song Kai said confidently. "It doesn't need to be liked by everyone, but it needs to be something that those who like it really love."

He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a whiteboard marker, and wrote three words on the whiteboard:

"AI, photography, and young people"

He underlined these three words:

"What is the most powerful capability of our chip? AI computing. So we'll make a phone with AI as its core selling point—especially focusing on AI photography and AI-assisted user experience."

He turned around: "Young people are the most receptive group to new brands."

They are highly tolerant of new brands and are most sensitive to design and camera features.

Our NPU has enormous potential in photography—real-time image quality optimization, super night mode, portrait blurring—all of which can be achieved with AI.

He wrote a few more lines on the whiteboard: "If we position our product as 'the first AI phone for young people' and focus on photography and intelligent experience, we might be able to carve out a niche in this red ocean market."

After he finished writing, he turned around and looked at Wang Hao.

Wang Hao stared at the dozen or so words on the whiteboard and remained silent for a long time.

To be honest, what Song Kai said was very different from his previous ideas.

His initial idea was to create an all-around phone that excelled in every aspect—good screen, good battery life, good camera, good performance—it had to pass muster in every area to sell well.

But Song Kai's point is—don't be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none; be a student who excels in one particular area.

Giving and receiving.

Choice.

Choosing what to do is harder than choosing what not to do.

He remained silent for a long time, then spoke a sentence:

"If we choose to go down this path—would you be willing to join us?"

Song Kai looked at him, remained silent for two seconds, and then smiled:

"Mr. Wang, I had already thought it through before I came."

If your product positioning is too conservative, then I might just shake your hand and head back to Shenzhen.

But if you dare to do something different…”

He held out his hand: "Then I can stay."

Wang Hao looked at the outstretched hand and, without hesitation, reached out and shook it.

Welcome to the team.