My absurd experiences in North America over the years

Li Fu had no interest in paying attention to the reports about him.

He was extremely busy and turned down all social engagements, including some political and business dinners and invitations from celebrities.

He and his team were evaluating all possible acquisitions and began working around the clock on both the East and West coasts.

Thompson followed Li Fufei to New York twice, watching him spend money with a heart full of anxiety, and his heart could hardly take it.

Lina stayed in Nashville to oversee the project, sending the selected project reports to his encrypted email address every day, with each report marked with a priority indicator in red, yellow, and green.

Red means "give up immediately", yellow means "continue to observe", and green means "must be taken down".

Of course, there are very few green projects.

Therefore, Li Fu personally oversaw each one.

In the third week of September, he arrived in Los Angeles, a place he hadn't visited in a long time.

However, it wasn't to meet Hollywood celebrities, but to go to a small place called Hawthorne.

There was a space exploration technology company there. The factory wasn't big, and there were a few dusty pickup trucks parked in front of it.

He was greeted by a young man with messy hair, wearing a dark blue polo shirt. His name was Elon Musk, the future world's richest man.

This technology company is none other than SpaceX, which will be famous for the next twenty years.

Musk speaks at an extremely fast pace, like a machine gun, talking about everything from rocket propellants to electric vehicle battery packs without pausing.

This young man now only had a few hundred thousand dollars left in his liquid assets.

If this round of investment fails, he could very well go bankrupt.

Li Fu sat in the creaking folding chair, listening to Musk recount the details of the first stage separation during the fourth launch of the Falcon 1.

He had never heard of those technical terms, but he didn't need to understand them.

Just pretend you understand and are very interested.

Because he knew that this young man owned two companies that could become industry giants in the future, and he also knew that this young man would become the world's richest man in the future.

However, Musk felt the opposite way; the 2008 financial crisis created the most difficult period of his life.

It was already on the verge of taking off. From 2005 to 2007, Tesla had completed three rounds of financing, raising nearly $1 million. At the beginning of this year, it completed another $4000 million in transitional financing.

This funding is enough for him to expand the market, reap the benefits of the times, and enter a period of rapid growth.

Unfortunately, the financial crisis exacerbated his predicament.

He had to seek financing again.

However, the entire financial market has been completely frozen due to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and it is impossible to find anyone willing to invest. Some websites have even set up a "Tesla Death Countdown" column, and everyone is waiting to see the joke.

Trams were far ahead of their time.

Li Fu knew Musk's life story, and could even say he knew him very well. If Musk couldn't raise $4000 million in investment in the next two months, he would go bankrupt.

Of course, in the end, Musk scraped together $2000 million and forced other company shareholders to contribute the same amount, which ultimately helped them overcome the crisis.

However, the process was extremely dangerous.

If the money had arrived a few hours later, he would have been forced into bankruptcy liquidation.

At this moment, Li Fu's appearance can be described as a timely help.

Musk was both extremely excited and extremely nervous, fearing that the prospects he described were not grand or expansive enough—he could only attract investors with his vision now.

Because the company cannot see any profit.

"I can invest the full forty million dollars," Li Fu patiently listened to Musk finish speaking, "but I need a higher percentage of shares and an observer seat on the board."

Tesla is not yet an industry giant; against the backdrop of the financial crisis, its market value is only $50 million.

However, market capitalization is market capitalization, and actual value is actual value.

With a $40 million investment, Musk was only willing to give 15% of the shares, and no management authority whatsoever.

This is actually quite normal; no founder wants shareholders telling them what to do.

Most shareholders are not eligible to attend board meetings.

The board of directors and the shareholders' meeting are two completely different concepts.

Musk was taken aback when he heard Li Fu's reply; he hadn't expected the other party to invest so readily.

But the request made put me in a somewhat difficult position.

He wanted to refuse, but the reality didn't allow him to... so he could only try to provoke him with a strategy.

"Hmm..." Musk took a deep breath and fell into thought. "We can discuss the shares further, but why do we need board observer seats?"

A board observer is not a formal director and has no voting rights, but in practice, it is a highly valuable "quasi-director" position.

Observers can attend board meetings, have the right to know all board resolutions, and their speeches at the meetings are recorded. Management usually takes them seriously because they represent investors with real money behind them.

Li Fu originally didn't need this seat. He believed in Musk's management skills and thought the less he was involved, the better.

However, he does not represent an individual.

The investment wasn't made in his personal name; the Forrest family was behind it.

Of course, the most important thing is that Tesla's future board of directors will be very complex, ultimately posing a threat to Musk.

His observers can implicitly support the other side.

"Believe it or not, I want the observer seat to better support you. Including all your future decisions, the observers I send will cooperate with your actions," Li Fu stated directly.

Musk looked bewildered; he didn't know whether to believe it or not.

"You can consider it. My funds are available anytime," Li Fu patted the other person on the shoulder. "Call me when you've made up your mind. I look forward to reaching the top of the world with you."

His tone was very natural and very confident.

That confidence seemed to understand all of Musk's predicaments, knew how much he needed the investment, and at the same time had boundless confidence in him, believing more than anyone else that he would succeed.

Musk didn't know how to describe his feelings at that moment.

Just as Li Fu was about to leave the meeting room, he readily agreed.

Twenty percent it is.

Board observer seats were also granted.

This wasn't entirely because he needed money, but also because of his confidence in and trust in Li Fu.

Reaching the top of the world is his goal.

With Tesla, which desperately needed funding, secured, negotiations with SpaceX became much easier.

Li Fu invested 20 million to acquire a 10% stake and also requested a seat as an observer on the board of directors.

After the detailed contract was finalized, the $60 million payment arrived in the account within a minute.

Lina had made all the preparations at her Nashville headquarters, and the company's cash reserves were better than those of some companies with market capitalizations of tens of billions.

Li Fu successfully finalized a cooperation agreement with the future richest man.

However, instead of leaving immediately, he took Musk to see Taylor Swift's concert in Los Angeles.

He wants to give newcomers in difficult situations enough encouragement.

At this point, Taylor Swift is already a nationally renowned superstar.

She provided Li Fu with the best front-row seats.