New York 2006

Chapter 117 Holi Company with a Market Value of Ten Billions
"Why do you guys suddenly want to resign? Am I not good enough to you? I don't object to you working in school, and I don't require you to clock in at the company. Your salary is above the average level in New York. I only want you. Just maintain the software and servers. Where can you find a boss like me?"

Luo Ji looked at the manager of Holi Internet Company, Yang Jian, and several employees and spoke. They were all top computer students from an Ivy League school near New York. They were about to graduate, and Luo Ji didn't want them to leave.

Yang Jian, as the representative of several people, began to speak: "This software is not challenging at all. After we leave, you only need to recruit a few technical personnel for daily maintenance. We want to develop in Silicon Valley, where there are more opportunities."

Silicon Valley does have the advantage of industrial clusters, where the world's best technology talents are gathered, from entrepreneurial venture capital to various software and hardware service providers, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Cisco, HP, etc. There, but that's obviously not why they want to leave.

Luo Ji thought for a moment and asked, "Tell me the truth. Why do you want to leave? Are you dissatisfied with the salary? You can bring it up."

Several people looked at each other and hesitated for a while. Yang Jian, an upright and stubborn person, began to speak: "Let me tell you straight, we can't see a future here. The current valuation of this music comparison software is also It’s only a few million, and the future development is limited. In the end, the market value will only be 2000 to [-] million at most. And this is still wholly owned by you, and we don’t have any shares, so we feel there is no need to stay.”

It turned out that they were dissatisfied with not having any shares, but with this software you could see the upper limit at a glance, so Luo Ji couldn't help them.Luo Ji asked, "Do you have any good ideas for starting a business? I can provide you with angel seed round investment."

Yang Jian said: "Not yet, but the entrepreneurial atmosphere in California is very good, and a few of us want to try our luck there."

These few people are capable and powerful, and they will definitely be able to enter the big Internet companies in California.Moreover, the Internet industry is booming, and it is also a good choice for them to go to California.

But they were satisfied, but Luo Ji was not.Luo Ji didn't want to let them go so easily. After all, these people were really skilled people, and Luo Ji wanted to use them to help him make money.

"You guys wait a minute. I'll get back to you shortly and give you a reply," Luo Ji said.

"it is good."

Luo Ji walked outside and called the only Internet tycoon he knew now, Chen Shijun, the founder of YouTube.

Luo Ji and Chen Shijun had known each other through several phone calls before, but the two had never met because their schedules didn't match up.Of course, Luo Ji's rapid rise on YouTube was certainly due to his help.

After the call got through, the two of them exchanged a few polite words, and then Luo Ji explained the situation to him.Chen Shijun thought for a while and said.

"If you have capital and ideas but no technology and want to start a business in the Internet industry, if the technical team you find is very good, you must give them certain shares or option rewards so that you can retain those elite talents. Simply paying wages is It’s very difficult to retain these elite talents.”

Luo Ji said, "You mean, if these elite talents only receive a salary, why should they stay in my small company if they can join Google?"

Chen Shijun smiled: "Yes, there is no shortage of potential buyers for top skilled talents. Only share options can gain their loyalty to the company, otherwise a headhunter will poach them casually."

"Is this the same when you first started the pipeline?"

"Yes, after we got the first venture capital, we recruited a few industry giants and gave them certain option rewards. So YouTube only relied on a few dozen people to serve tens of millions of users. At that time, Compared with the video websites we competed with at the same time, YouTube is much better in terms of network speed, fluency, and server optimization. It is because of the existence of these giants that we have defeated many competitors."

Luo Ji said: "So, your suggestion to me is that I can pay a certain amount of options and shares to keep them?"

Chen Shijun, the founder of YouTube, said: "I don't know about the other people you mentioned, but Yang Jian is a top talent in the industry and has achieved many dazzling achievements. If you have a startup project, I suggest you pay a certain amount of shares to retain him. .”

Luo Ji asked, "How much is more appropriate?"

"Internet start-ups generally reserve 30% of their shares before going public to recruit top talents in various industries. You have to consider the specific details yourself."

"Okay, I'll think about it."

Chen Shijun suddenly said: "By the way, do you have a specific entrepreneurial project?"

"Not yet, but I have thought about turning the "Twilight" novel into a game before, but I don't know what the prospects are. I haven't made up my mind to do it yet."

Chen Shijun paused for a moment: "The development prospects of the game industry are indeed very good in recent years. What kind of game do you plan to make? Online game or stand-alone game?"

Luo Ji said, "You can make a lot of money by playing online games. But because the investment is relatively large, I haven't made up my mind yet."

Chen Shijun immediately retorted: "If you want to make a well-made online game, the investment will be tens of millions of dollars, and the production cycle will be as long as one or two years. If you do this as a start-up, the risk will be huge." It’s too big. I suggest you make a stand-alone game first to test the waters. Not only is the production cost low, but the production cycle is also short. Many game companies in the United States started by making stand-alone games.”

Luo Ji thought about it and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

The two chatted for another ten minutes before Luo Ji finally asked the question in his mind: "Mr. Chen, YouTube has been developing so smoothly during this period. The number of users has increased significantly and it has become the largest video website in the world. You are now Do you regret selling the oil pipeline to Gugou? If you had attracted venture capital at that time, would it have been better to take the company public step by step? Of course, it’s okay if you don’t want to answer, I’m just curious.”

"There's nothing I can't answer. People often ask me this question. After all, there has been a legend in Silicon Valley that the founder of Victoria's Secret went bankrupt and jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, right?" "Haha, yes." Luo Ji said with a smile. .

Chen Shijun continued: "It is definitely a lie to say that I have no regrets. After all, the chairman of the world's largest video website sounds much better than a senior executive of Gugou Company."

Luo Ji asked curiously, "What happened then?"

Chen Shijun said leisurely: "At that time, we had no choice but to sell the company. At that time, the development of the oil pipeline had reached a bottleneck. We were facing copyright lawsuits from traditional media companies at any time, as well as high monthly server fees. All the employees below wanted to sell the company to protect the company." Ping An. So after Gugou and Yahoo invested at the same time, we chose Gugou, which was better for engineers."

Luo Ji smiled and complimented: "Hahaha, you acted very wisely at the time. Now Viacom is suing YouTube. Now all this is Gugou's trouble."

Chen Shijun sighed and said slightly sadly: "Yes, now it's all Gu Gou's troubles."

After hanging up the phone, Luo Ji also sighed.There are countless choices in life, but Chen Shijun's most important choice was to choose to sell the oil pipe.Maybe he would wake up from a nightmare late at night and wonder if it would have been a better choice if he had not sold the oil pipe.

However, Luo Ji quickly got out of this sentimental atmosphere, thought for a while, and walked up to Chen Jian and others: "I have no objection in principle to you wanting to develop in California, but you have gone to California and now you have no creativity. , it’s not about looking for jobs everywhere and developing slowly. Let’s do this, since you feel that this company does not have your share options, then I will give you share options.”

Several other people were a little moved. After all, this company is now worth several million dollars.Only Yang Jian looked calmer. He said, "Then how do you plan to develop the company?"

Luo Ji said, "How about making a game? My company happens to have the copyright of "The Twilight Saga". We can gamify the novel and try it out by making a stand-alone game first. Of course, if you have other entrepreneurial ideas, you can also It can be brought up. We can make it happen together."

"What about the company's goals?"

Luo Ji began to draw a picture: "I have loved playing games since I was a child, and it has never changed until now. Everyone knows what the current game market is like. The industry leader EA has a market value of tens of billions, as well as Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft. Capcom is a large company with a market value of several billions. Of course, the largest number of companies are small companies with a valuation of hundreds of millions or more than a billion."

"Uh-huh."

Luo Ji continued: "Since none of you have any ideas for starting a business, just follow my idea. The company's goal from now on is to focus on game-related aspects. The company's ultimate goal is to become a listed company with hundreds of millions or tens of millions. You can imagine a market value of billions or tens of billions, EA is our ultimate goal."

After listening to Luo Ji's story, several people nodded with satisfaction. After all, drawing a cake is one thing, but if it can be realized, it will be a dream come true, an ideal will be realized, and a lot of money will be made.

"What about equity distribution?" one of the employees asked.

"I plan to continue to invest 500 million US dollars into the company in the future. Together with the company's existing comparison software and the game adaptation costs of "Twilight", the entire company's valuation can reach 1000 million US dollars. Do you agree with this? ?"

Several people did some calculations in their minds and found that they were pretty much the same, so they had no objections and nodded in affirmation.

Luo Ji continued: "In accordance with the practice of Internet startups, before going public, I will give out 30% of the shares or options to reward the company's outstanding employees. As for now, I will directly give out 10% of the shares, as well as It’s 100 million, distributed among you.”

"What about the remaining 20 percent?"

"As long as the company's valuation reaches a certain stage, I will allocate part of it to the company's employees. We can discuss specific incentive methods at that time. How many option shares you can get is closely related to how far the company can develop. You and the company will both suffer losses and prosper together."

The several people looked at each other, discussed for a while, and all nodded in agreement.

Luo Ji himself nodded with satisfaction.Then he took a few people to lawyer Jamie to draw up a contract and discuss the details. It was all done. Two hours had passed.

"How far Holi Company can develop in the future depends entirely on you." Luo Ji said to several people.

One of them boasted: "Don't worry, boss, we promise to do our best. We will strive to make Holi company a market value of tens of billions."

Ten billion market capitalization?Luo Ji didn't expect Holi to have a market value of tens of billions like EA. As long as Holi had a market value of more than one billion, Luo Ji estimated that he would wake up happy when he went to bed.

Luo Ji encouraged several people: "Haha, come on!"

Luo Ji paid a certain amount of shares, plus 500 million yuan, and then he drew a very tempting pie, and it was up to these Ivy League elites to realize it for him.

I hope they can succeed, Luo Ji thought as he looked at the smiles on their faces.

(End of this chapter)