The two walked out of Tower A of COFCO Plaza. The harsh sunlight gradually dimmed, and dark clouds gathered in the sky, turning from sunny to overcast in an instant.
Lu Fei pulled off his tie, unbuttoned the first slit in his collar, and immediately relaxed his tight neck. He exhaled loudly:
"What's the date today?"
"It's the 21st." Xu Lei threw a cigarette.
Lu Fei lit the cigarette with a lighter and took a deep breath.
One minute after 9 a.m. on October 21, 2000, it was completely different from before. He became famous, refreshed IDG, and even made various firsts in the Chinese venture capital circle.
The first time to invest in a high school student, the first time to invest in a grassroots entrepreneur, the first time...
emm, this honor originally belonged to Cai Wensheng.
If you are a cheat in The Sims, you have already racked up various achievement badges, and your reputation in the IT and Internet circles has been promoted from "a shrimp in the world" to "somewhat famous".
But that's it, he's not completely famous.
After a while, Xu Lei asked: "Have you figured out how to use this money?"
Lu Fei now has 1.75 million on hand.
The first step is of course to find an office location. At least you have to have a place to stay. You wouldn’t want to share your desk like Dr. Ma and Song Weiyang did, right?
Xu Lei said with a smile: "There are many empty writing rooms near Lianxiang. Do you want me to ask for you? Maybe I can give you a preferential price?"
Lu Fei rolled his eyes, "Renting a luxury office building, you think I'm cheating!"
"I'm kidding." Xu Lei shook off the cigarette ashes, "How about it, the financing is done, and we've settled everything. Let's send you home, or should we go to a bar and disco to celebrate?"
Oh, you haven’t even started your business yet but you’ve spent all your budget on disco music?
Lu Fei threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stretched out his foot to crush it out, and while opening the car door, he showed a strange smile:
"No, not going anywhere, go to the Old Summer Palace to work, no, Kyoto University."
………
Yanyuan Resource Hotel is located in the southwest corner of Kyoto University.
It is simply a geomantic treasure, located in the core hinterland of Zhongguancun, surrounded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kyoto University, Shuimu University, Renmin University, etc.
Xu Lei followed Lu Fei and walked in the hotel, looking up and down, left and right, and exclaimed: "Holy shit, how did you find this place?"
"Of course someone told me."
Lu Fei was mysterious and secretive, with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the vacant rooms for rent. When the Internet was in its infancy, there were really not many requirements for an office location. The most important thing was that it was cheap.
Website development will require increasing investment costs.
Investments in all aspects will increase exponentially. For a small website, the initial investment in server and bandwidth may only be a few thousand yuan a year, but it can develop rapidly. The cost of this aspect alone is just a drop of several million a year.
1.75 million, barely enough. When Lu Yun founded Dabao, he had burned through 20 million U.S. dollars and only had one or two million yuan left.
This little money won’t last long, and within half a year, Series A refinancing will be required.
He walked through the corridor and passed by Room 1409. He came face to face with girls with their slender legs exposed, walking in and out of the converted foot massage parlor in a ostentatious manner.
A young lady flirted: "Handsome man, do you want to wash your feet?"
Lu Fei was speechless for a moment. Xu Lei next to him held back his laughter and put his arm around his shoulders: "You found a good place, regular customer?"
"roll!"
"Oh, why do you have to choose this place? Why not rent a private house to work? The rent is cheaper."
“Don’t forget that there are key universities nearby.”
If Lu Fei wants to build an e-commerce platform and build a website, he must form a technical research and development team. What better location than here? Students and teachers from the computer science departments of Shuimu, Kyoto, and Renmin University are all masters of programming.
You may not be able to hire a full-time employee, but you can still hire a part-time employee.
What is the most important thing for a major Internet company? Talent!
"Damn it, was this all part of your plan?"
Xu Lei's heart was shocked, and he stared at this high school student with surprise and admiration. He was like a treasure boy, full of mysterious treasures that he could not finish digging.
While they were chatting, the door of Room 1414 behind them suddenly opened and two people walked out.
Lu Fei glanced casually and raised his eyebrows. They were Li Yanhong and Xu Yong, the swordsmen of Baidu!
"Who are you?" Li Yanhong asked doubtfully.
Lu Fei stretched out his hand, "Oh, we are here to rent a house. We will also work here in the future. We may be neighbors in the future."
"Neighbors."
Li Yanhong suddenly realized and shook his hand politely. When he found out that he was running an Internet company and a colleague, he was even more shocked, especially when the boss was Lu Fei.
"You are starting a business at such a young age, are you partners?"
Xu Lei waved his hand and introduced himself as being from Lianxiang, then patted Lu Fei on the shoulder and boasted about his achievements, such as the high school students who cleverly placed Lianxiang domain names and outsmarted the IDG angels, all of which were quite dramatic.
Li Yanhong and Xu Yong looked at each other with surprise in their eyes, wondering which field of the Internet they would enter.
"I plan to enter e-commerce." Lu Fei said with a smile.
"E-commerce, there may be opportunities for cooperation between us."
Li Yanhong immediately transformed into a salesman and handed over his business card, promoting Baidu in a serious manner.
"Our business is Chinese search, and it is the largest, fastest and latest technology in the world. Sohu and New Wolf are our big customers. If you need search technology, please feel free to contact us."
"OK!"
Lu Fei accepted the business card and flipped through the front and back at will. Today, Baidu has not yet introduced the stinking bidding ranking mechanism.
After some polite conversation, they parted ways.
As Xu Lei walked, he talked about Li Yanhong and others' status as Silicon Valley returnees. He stopped at the door of the hotel, looked back at the signboard, and couldn't help but sigh:
"This is indeed an excellent place to work. Who told you that?"
Lu Fei smiled and said nothing, either you saw it, it was Li Yanhong!
He asked: "Hey, Lao Xu, are we friends now?"
Xu Lei was not angry, "Don't laugh so horribly, tell me, what's the matter?"
"Hey, does it matter, can you help me get a preferential price?"
…………
"You are already so handsome, but you still want to be beautiful."
Xu Lei curled his lips and did not agree in person. One code is the same. Financing is a promise, but matchmaking is a private job.
He needs to think about whether the help is worth it!
When I returned to the company, the sky was as dark as night, with dark clouds overhead, no sign of rain, and the air was dull and hot.
Buzzing, the electric fan is beating.
"Hey, Mr. Xu, have you heard?"
Wang Jun knocked on the office door and served hot tea.
"What did you hear?" Xu Lei frowned and asked, "What's the big news about the company?"
"We, Lianxiang, want to set up an investment fund."
"Hey, this news is out of date. I already knew it."
"Also, do you know who this first investment is for?"
"who?"
"Jinshan." Wang Jun whispered, "I heard from others that Mr. Liu personally made the decision and invested 6 million in Jinshan's newly established e-commerce company, accounting for 30% of the shares..."
Xu Lei was struck by lightning, "When did it happen?"
Wang Jun replied: "It was just yesterday, and Lei Jun from Jinshan was the chairman of the board and was in command."
Xu Lei had a gloomy look on his face. Damn it. Liu Chuanzhi just told him before that he would never invest randomly in an industry he didn’t understand, so he invested in Jinshan’s e-commerce instead?
Liu Chuanzhi is a cunning and evil man!
"Now we have a good show. Isn't that high school student also engaged in e-commerce? It's a coincidence that we are in the same boat. How can he stand up to it?"
Wang Jun gloated: "If you knock us, we will get it back."
Xu Lei's expression changed suddenly, and a cloud of worry floated on his eyebrows. Then he heard a rumble outside the window, thunder and lightning flashing across the rainy night.
The total investment is 16.4 million. Compared with 2 million, the ammunition is sufficient, the firepower is amazing, and the equipment is well-equipped. As for Lu Fei, it is just Xiaomi plus a rifle. He is so poor and weak. How can he play this?
"Wow, wow, wow~"
In an instant, it started to rain heavily, and the rainwater hit the glass with a crisp sound, and the whole city was plunged into a mist.
Xu Lei felt heavy and murmured: "This is definitely not in your plan, A Fei."
Dangdang, 8848, eBay, Excellence...
Facing the heroes, he believed that Lu Fei could not win this battle, and it was impossible. He would definitely lose without even thinking about it!
He sighed, then picked up his cell phone, made a few calls, and then contacted Minister Kong of Kyoto University. The Yanyuan Resource Hotel is an external hotel affiliated to Kyoto University, so it is naturally in charge of it.
