America's Road to Fame

Chapter 70 No Advantage
"Yes, Paris, I think you have done a good job in turning your hobby into a career. Just like the brand you named after yourself, it has excellent results in many fields, such as perfume, handbags , accessories, clothing and beauty products, fashion products, you do it better than anyone else, and you are also very talented in music.”

"Since this is the case, why don't you invest some money, instead of relying entirely on cooperation with those big brands, but gradually build your own brand and your own production line? I believe that if you do this, you will create your own fashion Big name."

What William Chen said was not entirely for the purpose of letting Paris focus on business, but that she did indeed have outstanding abilities in the fashion field.

Pleasure can make people happy, but it is more of a physiological pleasure produced by stimulating the secretion of dopamine through external objects, which is a more primitive instinct of human beings.This kind of pleasure will only increase one's own threshold with the stimulation over and over again, and in the end, the same stimulation will produce less and less pleasure.

In contrast, through career success, the realization of personal value, and the sense of satisfaction generated, it will last longer.When you have really tasted the taste of success, the pleasure you can experience is incomparable to simple physiological stimulation.

Therefore, William Chen hopes that Paris can enjoy a more valuable life through her career success, and in the process, the interests of the two will be closely linked, so that the relationship between the two parties will be more stable.

"Do you really think so?" Paris was very happy to hear William Chen's praise.

By William Chen's side, Paris witnessed with his own eyes that he had gone from the previous abject situation to the Jedi's counterattack, and now he has the success.Therefore, in her heart, she still admires him very much.Hearing his praise and encouragement to me now makes me feel good.

"Of course, Paris, haven't you found that you do these things better than them? So I think you should focus on these and develop your fashion industry well. I believe that although everyone is talking about When you come here, many people will still think of the Hilton family first, but one day, everyone will find that Paris has her own business kingdom, and this business kingdom has even surpassed the Hilton family. You will definitely be able to do it , I will support you."

William Chen's support moved Paris very much, and the future he described made Paris very excited just thinking about it.

"So this time is not an opportunity for you to change things? Paris, just like when I returned to New York. You can use this time to sort out your own fashion products and make From a plan, if you need funds, I can provide you, whether it is as an investment, or lend you an interest-free loan, it is all possible, you know, I am very rich now."

Encouraged by Chen William, Paris also became serious and began to plan the development of her own brand.At this time, William Chen also began to continue his work.

Nelson reported to him the latest progress in contact with Siri.

“We found that in Siri’s B round of financing in the first half of this year, the company’s post-investment valuation was 1.2 million U.S. dollars, and Siri performed well after it was launched on the AppStore—this is why it successfully aroused Jobs’ interest. , and because of this, Siri has also received a lot of cooperation orders, mainly because some merchants hope to use them to promote their stores. Therefore, at present, Siri is not short of funds, which is also their decisive rejection of Apple's last acquisition intention main reason."

From this point of view, the difficulty this time is not small. If they are not short of funds, and even Apple refuses without hesitation, if I want to win them, I must come up with something special, especially with Apple. Where there are advantages.William Chen thought about it and asked, "Can I find out Apple's asking price?"

"The specific amount was not disclosed by both parties, but I heard that Jobs personally called Siri to propose the acquisition, so I predict that their acquisition bid must be more than 1.5 million US dollars, and even in the style of the other party, it is likely to reach 2 million US dollars. One hundred million U.S. dollars."

At this time, Chen Weilian deeply felt that money is not everything when it comes to acquisitions.Many companies, especially those led by founders, have deep feelings for the companies they created. Therefore, when faced with acquisitions, money is really not their first choice. Many people would rather choose An object whose bid is not the highest, but which is most suitable for the development of his company.

Therefore, in this respect, William Chen does not have an advantage over Apple.After all, the current Apple company is under the leadership of Steve Jobs, who has amazed the world time and time again. The aura he gathers is still very attractive to those entrepreneurs.

Of course, he can also simply offer a high price that the other party can't refuse to compete.But one issue that needs to be considered is that after the company is acquired, it is impossible for William Chen to run it himself, so it is best to let those founders who have been successful in previous lives continue to be successful.

In this case, you bought the company at a high price, and the hard-working entrepreneur got a lot of money at once, realizing the freedom of wealth, and then?
How many people can continue to be aggressive at this time?Do you want to enjoy it first, feel the luxury car and mansion first?Do you want to make an appointment with the beautiful actress first?In the end, their fighting spirit is easily destroyed.

It's also understandable why many bosses believe that the antidote to keeping their employees motivated and hungry for success is "delayed gratification."

You can be given shares and equity incentives, but you will not be given too much money at one time, just to prevent the other party from indulging in pleasure after achieving wealth and freedom, thus losing the motivation to continue working hard.

Therefore, William Chen prefers to keep the founders holding a part of the shares, binding them to the future of the company, so as to continue to make progress.It's like when he acquired Twitter, he was willing to leave 15% of the shares to the founding team instead of buying them all himself.

Finally, after discussing with Nielsen, William Chen made two acquisition plans for Siri.

The most optimal thing is to try to win the company in one fell swoop after interviewing with their founders, so as to completely cut off Apple's hand reaching them; There is a part of the shares, so that it can also interfere with the acquisition of Apple, and then slowly increase the shares in the follow-up, and finally complete the absolute holding.

As for which method to use in the end, it depends on the result of the meeting between William Chen and Siri's founding team.

Siri has three founders, Adam Cheyer, Daig Gitras, and Tom Gruber.On the second day, William Chen met the three of them in the Siri company as agreed.

"Mr. William, we want to first express our attitude, that is, Siri is currently developing well, and we have no idea of ​​selling this company."

Adam Cheyer said this first, and from the expressions of other people, Chen William also saw that he should be the person in charge of external communication among the three founders.

But even though he encountered such a situation at the beginning, William Chen was not discouraged. He shrugged and said:
"It doesn't stop me getting to know you guys better, and admiring what you've done, isn't it, gentlemen. But with all due respect, are you really sure you're not going to sell the company? I mean, I know Mr. Jobs from Apple He also expressed his intention to acquire Siri, are you really sure that you will not sell the company to him?"

After saying this, William Chen paid attention to the other party's expression, and sure enough, he saw a look of hesitation in it.

"Even if it is sold in the end, Apple will be a better choice, what do you think? Mr. William."

(End of this chapter)