Before trying his luck at Penguin Company in Shenzhen, Cheng Wei first went to see angel investor Wang Gang.
The two had worked together in Alipay's B2B department and Alipay's merchant division for many years, and both left Ali in 2012 to start their own businesses.
Strictly speaking, the idea of making a taxi-hailing app was decided by the two of them together.
When Didi was still a concept, Wang Gang gave Cheng Wei 700,000, and Cheng Wei himself took 100,000, which was the initial start-up capital.
In May of that year, Cheng Wei went to Beijing from Lin'an. With no entrepreneurial experience, he made a product that could barely be used for demonstration and could be launched online. He planned to use this thing to find an investment of 5 million US dollars.
At the same time, Yixing Taxi Hailing has been launched in four northeastern cities and Beijing and Tianjin.
In another time and space, when Cheng Wei first started his business, he searched all the mainstream VCs, but no one was willing to invest.
The rapid expansion of Kexing Taxi has made many investors realize that this thing is not just a simple taxi software, but may also be the entrance to Internet travel.
So at this time and space, the most embarrassing thing Cheng Wei encountered in the early days of starting a business was when an investor took the YiXing taxi-hailing software installed on his mobile phone and asked: "How can yours surpass this? What are the advantages and how to defeat it?"
Capture the market?”
Cheng Wei was able to start a business and achieve success in the end, so he is naturally a good storyteller.
If you want to succeed in Internet entrepreneurship, the most important thing is to be able to tell stories.
Cheng Wei deceived him in various ways, but in the end, he really got investment from Jinshajiang Venture Capital and had the capital to start a business.
But before the market was opened and occupied, Lu Yan took Yi Xing to take a taxi and entered the Magic City, the place he chose to start. This cost Cheng Wei his own life!
If we lose the market here in Shenghai, how can we compete with Yi Xing!
The opponent's advantages are too great. First, it has already achieved a certain scale of development in the country.
Second, founder Lu Yan’s personal brand and reputation are something he does not possess.
Third, in terms of funding, it is currently incomparable...
It can be said that Cheng Wei had a headache just thinking about it. After some discussion with Wang Gang, he finally went to Shenzhen alone to try his luck with Penguin. Wang Gang went to Jinshajiang Venture Capital to have a chat.
However, Penguin has naturally noticed the new trend of taxi-hailing on the Internet.
Because the aftermath of the "3Q War" has not settled, Penguin has no idea of making a QQ taxi-hailing service. But investing in one and getting a share of the pie in this field is inevitable!
Cheng Wei's arrival caused Penguin executives to have different opinions on whether to invest in a new company or to contact Lu Yan.
In the former case, you can naturally spend less money and take more shares, but the price is to compete with Lu Yan's Yixing Taxi for the market.
The latter is more secure in terms of investment, but the other party may not be willing to let Penguin invest in it, and the funds and shares may not satisfy them.
After various discussions, we decided to send a team to contact Lu Yan first.
At the beginning of September, Lu Yan, who was doing pre-event planning and layout in Shenghai, was not surprised when he received the news that Penguin Company was sending someone over to discuss buying shares.
Because this is a good thing for him.
After all, the three BAT companies are the three giants in the domestic Internet market today, and they all keep an eye on each other's actions.
For example, Qiandu was cheated by Penguin and Ahri when it came to mobile assistants.
Now that Penguin Company has contacted Lu Yan, Yi Xing, Qiandu and Ahri will definitely come to carry the sedan!
Lu Yan smiled and said to Yu Shuangpeng: "It's a good thing, we must receive it well, and the standards cannot be bad!"
Yu Shuangpeng has also been trained in the past few years. He smiled and said: "I will do the work, don't worry!"
Sure enough, while the Penguin team was still on the road, Ma Yun's call came to Lu Yan.
In fact, this person had plans to invest in Yixing Taxi when it was first established.
But the valuation was not high and there was no shortage of money, so Lu Yan definitely couldn't agree to it.
Fortunately, for payment, Alipay is used, so this person is not in a hurry.
Now that I heard that Penguin is about to die, I can't sit still.
In today's domestic Internet market, although BAT is known as the three giants, search macros are not taken seriously by them.
I always feel that Qiandu’s business model is not ideal. It sells search rankings, and whoever pays more money is put in the front. How can there be any corporate culture? There is no pattern!
Penguin, although he despises the opponent strategically, he does not dare to really despise the opponent.
The other party does have a good way of acquiring users. Even he is jealous of the user stickiness of QQ and WeChat.
Most of the remaining Internet companies are aging.
Only Lu Yan is a rare rising star.
First there was the world's first "group buying" model, and now there's Internet taxi-hailing, but we can't let him fall into the enemy camp!
"Xiao Lu, I heard that you are in Shenghai?" Ma Yun still called Lu Yan the same name as when they first met, but his tone was full of enthusiasm.
Lu Yan smiled and said, "Yes, Mr. Ma, where are you busy again?"
"Hi, I just returned to China, and I happen to be going to Shenghai tomorrow. I want to have tea with you!"
Lu Yan said: "Okay, then when you arrive tomorrow, we will contact you again!"
Both of them were busy with worldly affairs, so the two of them hung up the phone without saying much.
Su Li, who was sitting on the sofa, said, "Did he come here to talk about Yixing's financing?"
Lu Yanxiao: "Of course, Internet companies compete for users and traffic. Online ride-hailing will also be an important traffic entrance in the future, and these companies will not let it go easily!"
Su Li opened his eyes wide and asked curiously: "The valuation of Yi Xing won't be like Meituan, or several billion dollars, right?"
"In two or three years, there should be no problem!"
When Su Li heard this, the expression on his face was one of confusion, confusion, and a little bit of admiration.
"This company was founded less than a year ago, and it has already matched the results of my parents' hard work over the years. It's so amazing!"
It is said that beauty likes to seduce successful men. In fact, a man who is dedicated and successful at what he does is very attractive to women.
Like those emotional liars in society, the first step is to set up a personality. Some of them don’t pretend to have a successful career!
"When strong winds come, pigs will fly. When the tide recedes, you will know who is swimming naked. I just happened to be on the cusp of the development of PC Internet to mobile Internet. I just stepped on the right beat. It's not that great!"
Su Li listened in amusement and chuckled: "What kind of metaphor is this? Pigs can fly and swim naked! By the way, when you are not busy, come and go swimming with me! It's too hot today!"
"Okay, I'll try my best to find time. You know I'll be busy for a while lately!"
As I was talking, the phone rang again. When I looked at the screen, it was a search macro.
It is said that Qiandu is really an afterthought when it comes to mobile Internet.
However, Lu Yan's achievements were really dazzling.
The search macro is also a hit or miss, so call and ask first.