Fight to the third generation

It was only an hour's journey. After waking up, he had already arrived at his destination. When he was led into the office building by John Zhou, the product director, he saw the word "TAT" on the elevator. As the boss, Su Yehao finally knew what the North American branch looked like. .

John Zhou had lived in Seattle all year round, so he hardly had to adapt to the local environment. He greeted people from other companies in the same building familiarly. His spoken language made Su Yehao envious, and Yin Liuli was at a loss.

When he came to the TAT North American R&D Center, John Zhou introduced:

"Boss, this floor and the floor below are both our company's offices. The rent is 17 US dollars per year, but we haven't recruited enough people for the time being. Now there are only 26 employees in total. Most of them have gone home for vacation and have to wait I didn’t come back to work until January [-]. Recently, I had contact with two entrepreneurial teams and wanted them to give up their half-dead projects and come to work with us. Basically, the talks were similar, and more than a dozen employees would join by then. "

The front desk lady is home on vacation.

Su Yehao, who was in a sluggish state of mind, asked John Zhou to help him make a cup of coffee. He smiled happily when he saw the pool table and yoga ball next door to the tea.

The research and development center is small in scale, but the recreational facilities are quite complete.

Su Yehao, who finally understood where the funds were being burned, didn't care about these things, and only told: "The scale is still a bit small, continue to expand enrollment, but the most important thing is to look at the ability. There will be more new projects in the future, and Chinese will be admitted first. If it is Those who are willing to work in the Mainland or Hong Kong will be even better.”

John Zhou sighed and explained:

"There are such talents, but the salary can't be coordinated. If you go to Hong Kong City to work, but the salary is the same as that in the United States, the old employees in Hong Kong City must have opinions. For example, the bearded one, count his 8 Ten thousand annual salary, the income has actually surpassed mine."

Su Yehao, who could hear a hint of sourness, only asked: "Is that guy very powerful?"

"Of course, an old Oracle employee who also worked at Yahoo, I thought of a lot of ways to invite him over."

"...I've made you worry about it, as long as the results come out next, I'll give you a raise."

Su Yehao followed to the office.

As the boss, since the establishment of TAT Internet Company, Su Yehao really didn't have much to worry about. He often only gave one direction, and then left it to John Zhou and others to take responsibility.

Especially for this research and development center located in Silicon Valley, from the beginning until now, he basically didn't care about the rest of the things except paying for it.

The reason for this is that on the one hand, he has a lazy personality, and on the other hand, it is also because Su Yehao doesn't understand, so letting someone who understands take responsibility is barely considered a kind of cleverness, and it is much better than layman commanding experts.

It doesn't matter about other aspects. Su Yehao only cares about whether the developed products meet the market demand.

I skipped the link of contacting the employees directly. It is expected that the few left-behind employees will not be happy if they are still working during Christmas. It is also good to avoid contact.

After shopping around, I heard John Zhou talking about the next task of the R&D center, which was nothing more than continuing to improve the functions of the TAT chat software and developing a more efficient search engine. These were all Su Yehao's ideas.

To be honest, when it comes to certain specific technologies, Su Yehao has only a half-knowledge, but his face is full of "I understand it very well".

Wait until 09:30 am.

The representative of the team who packaged and resold the search engine technology, took the time to meet with Su Yehao.

After trying their search engine first, Su Yehao followed John Zhou's suggestion and lowered the price by 20 US dollars.

It is a lie to say that Americans do not like to bargain.

Two young Caucasian boys argued with Su Yehao for a long time, and finally settled the deal at a price of 36 US dollars.

Today's Silicon Valley has no shortage of entrepreneurial teams and products, but only rich people who are willing to invest.

Good software is everywhere, but whether it can be developed is another matter.

……

Chapter 240 TOT

"They dropped 10,000+ US dollars in one breath, and they promised so readily."

Su Yehao said.

After the negotiation ended, an agreement was directly signed, which means that the transaction has basically been completed, and the patented technology will only be delivered after the loan is released.

Some talents from the original company will also be included in the TAT R&D center.

The current name of the search engine is Kasos, and Su Yehao thinks it is not very good, thinking of changing it to "TVT" or "TOT", and using emojis to create a brand image and deepen the impression of users.

John Zhou hesitated for a few seconds, and finally told:

"As I mentioned before, they once received US$100 million in financing, but unfortunately the product did not develop in the end, so investors had to withdraw their capital at a low price and transfer the shares to the founders. In fact, if you insist on killing US$30 , They probably will agree, look at how refreshing they are when signing the contract, Silicon Valley now has thousands of entrepreneurial teams, and finally they can cash out at a price of more than 30 US dollars and leave, it is considered lucky to meet us."

Su Yehao was just happy, not caring about gains and losses of tens of thousands of dollars, and asked with interest: "I spent 100 million dollars in it, why do you think it didn't develop?"

"What else could be the reason? On the one hand, the influence is not enough, and on the other hand, the money is not enough. It costs too much to use 100 million US dollars to promote and only burn a few thousand users. There is Yahoo on the top, and several companies occupy a large Market share, if you spend another [-] million US dollars, maybe the Kasos search engine will be successful, but no one is willing to gamble. If you have money, you would rather invest in a successful company. The [-]/[-] rule is especially obvious in the Internet industry, where winners take all most market share."

John Zhou smacked his lips after speaking, and continued:

"You use your own funds, so you can't feel it. In fact, this market is very realistic, and the cost of trial and error is too high. Once it is initially proved that it is not good, all investors will choose to give up. For example, the Kasos search engine, get After 100 million US dollars, no one dares to invest in it anymore, and there are too few retained users. If a user spends [-] US dollars, it is very likely that there will be no pants left in the end.”

Su Yehao suddenly realized, and nodded with a vague understanding.

John Zhou was right. Su Yehao had money on his own, so he didn't need to go to the market to find investment funds. His previous contact with Silicon Valley was only investing in Yahoo and Amazon stocks.

He really knows too little about the "eco-environment" where the jungle of the jungle preys on the weak in Silicon Valley. The inland market he is targeting is like an undeveloped new continent. It has not yet directly collided with and competed with Silicon Valley companies. Only WPS and Microsoft Word wrestle with each other.

Referring to Yinhai's WPS document, Su Yehao is planning to further reduce the price. By injecting 1000 million interest-free loans to Yinhai, he will join forces with other shareholders to try to make the office software free and open, divided into "simple version" and "full-featured version". There are two types of "version", the latter is priced at no more than ten yuan.

After all, whether or not Yinhai is making money now is not important to him as a major shareholder, and the key is to seize market share.

Since he has made a lot of money in the stock market, it has undoubtedly given Su Yehao a strong confidence. The investment of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars no longer has to be too entangled. Compared with other entrepreneurs, the advantages are obvious.

At this moment.

Su Yehao told John Zhou: "There is no way to celebrate the holidays here in the United States. You remember to take the product back and hand it over to the team in Hong Kong City to modify and improve it as soon as possible. The sooner you enter the mainland market, the better. I will hand over things like registering a new company. Do it for others, it’s called TOT.”

"...TOT, what a strange name again."

"The name is not important, as long as it can be remembered."

Su Yehao changed the topic: "By the way, Lao Zhou, you've been busy recently, and I've noticed it. When I go back, I'll ask the financial department to transfer a bonus to you in private. Next year, your salary will be raised to 70 Hong Kong dollars. Work hard."

The company is small, and it is difficult to recruit well-known managers. Even if they are recruited, they may not have a tacit understanding with John Zhou.

In order to control costs, some bosses like to raise salaries by recruiting new employees instead of promoting internal old employees. Su Yehao doesn't think so.

In his opinion, as long as the direction of exploration is right, the management's abilities are only the same. Compared with the smart people with personality, obedient, reliable, and conscientious are the focus of Su Yehao's concern.

With a full budget, there are only more than 100 people under him, even if all the salaries are raised, the cost will not be too high, and there is no need to worry too much about management. After all, it is just a small company that has been developing for half a year...

John Zhou has some local friends.

After leaving the R&D center, he took Su Yehao and Yin Liuli to visit other companies.

Unlike ordinary retail businesses, people are inseparable from the backstage, so even during holidays, there are staff on duty staying behind so that you won’t be stopped outside the door.

next to the road.

Su Yehao saw many familiar signs, including IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, etc., and Yahoo, which he invested heavily in, also had advertisements saying that they were recruiting with high salaries.

As a major shareholder, it is inevitable that there will be an urge to go to Yahoo's headquarters.

Hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in assets are all on Yahoo. After all, it is the eighth largest shareholder at present, and it will never be swept out.

Su Yehao's name has been rising steadily in the list of major shareholders disclosed by Yahoo. In fact, his shareholding has not changed in the past two months, but other major shareholders took advantage of the opportunity of stock splits to cash out part of the stock, which led to His name moved up one more place.

Since Yahoo went public, its stock has soared. At present, its total market value has exceeded the threshold of 30 billion US dollars. Some people feel that they have earned enough, so it is not surprising that they choose to withdraw their capital.

Looking at Yahoo's profits alone, it is obvious that it cannot support a market value of 30 billion US dollars, and its price-earnings ratio is surprisingly high, far exceeding many established listed companies.

The view that the Nasdaq market has a serious bubble has existed all year round, and some people really believe it.

There are also people who have been short all the way, losing money until they have nothing left in their pants, and they still have no change in their thoughts of looking down on the Internet. These people are often over 40 years old, their concepts cannot keep up with the development of the times, and they can't see the future at all.

Su Yehao bought Berkshire Hathaway's stock at the end of March, and then sold it as soon as possible. It was also because the old stock god was outdated in his opinion and couldn't keep up with the fast lane of getting rich overnight.

It is safe to attach importance to value investment, but ultimately missed the opportunity for development.

After more than an hour, he inspected two small companies one after another, but did not meet any investment targets that made Su Yehao's heart beat, so he casually asked about Jobs and Apple.

From John Zhou, he learned that Jobs had just returned to Apple last year, and he became the CEO of Apple again a few years after being kicked out of the company he created himself.

This was about the same time as Su Yehao remembered. Apple was still half dead. It had just been invested 5000 million US dollars by Microsoft and hadn't produced any decent products yet.

It's amazing to experience these old almanacs in person.

After all, Su Yehao went to Yahoo. After identifying himself, Yahoo's chief operating officer personally led him to visit the company.

Said to be a shareholder, but everything seemed very strange.

It was originally just to invest and make money, and it was difficult to find a sense of identity and belonging.

Instead, Su Yehao has been thinking about poaching people, finding some experienced talents to work for him, trying to kill Du Niang in the cradle...

Chapter 241 1998

Being a shareholder in a company like Yahoo doesn't mean you're a manager.

The equity is firmly held in the hands of the founding members. As long as they do not make major mistakes, even the general meeting of shareholders has no right to interfere with the company's operations.

Yahoo just held a shareholders meeting last month. Not only did Su Yehao not attend in person, he didn't even find an agent.

A group of shareholders holding a meeting is more like passing information unilaterally, and the shareholders can only sit and listen.

Of course, the company will not go too far, and will carefully evaluate good suggestions. After all, investors are united enough to affect the stock price trend, and it will also have an impact on the financing market.

The Internet industry has been developing in the United States for some years, and the rules and regulations are relatively mature. The founders will generally tightly control the right to speak by relying on the company's articles of association and regulations such as different rights for the same share.

In other words, although Su Yehao is the eighth largest shareholder of Yahoo, he actually has no real power.

Even if you come to Yahoo, you can only be a distinguished guest.

Compared with the company created by himself, the status is completely different. After all, he only owns about one-thirtieth of Yahoo shares, and has even lower voice.

is on vacation.

Most of Yahoo's employees are on vacation, and it is said that the CEO has gone to the Panama Islands, so there is no chance to meet this time.

The idea of ​​poaching people from Yahoo has never stopped, so as soon as he left with a small gift, Su Yehao told John Zhou: "Contact the headhunter for me, and while the Yahoo employees are on vacation, ask if there are any programmers who want Job hopping, their development experience is useful to me, and you can arrange the specific positions.”

John Zhou Xin thought about how quickly he turned his face, and said in his mouth:

"It may be a bit difficult. In the early years, Internet companies in the United States frantically poached people, so an alliance was formed. After employees joined the company, they would also sign a non-employment agreement, stipulating how long they could not work in the same company."

Su Yehao didn't expect this, but he did hear about it.

After pondering for a while, he then told John Zhou: "If it is a real top talent, I am willing to pay liquidated damages for them. In addition, I can also let some people come over as planners. It is a pity to work on the field in person. Perhaps it is more suitable to be a manager. I value the TOT project very much. In the future, we can support each other with TAT and seize users in the mainland, even if we spend a little more money, it doesn’t matter.”

John Zhou laughed and said, "If you say that, then I will help you find a way. The money earned from investing in Yahoo stocks is used to poach people from Yahoo. It's so interesting."

Squeezing between his brows, Su Yehao sighed and told:

"I'm just a small shareholder who accounts for [-]% of the shares. It's clear at a glance which is the most important and which is the most important. It must be my own business, which needs to be given priority."

……

It took half a day to finish the short investigation.

Su Yehao has a deeper understanding of the current industrial development in Silicon Valley.

Look at the garages on the street, many of them are rented out to entrepreneurial teams, with various company signs hung up, and the office buildings near Stanford are often divided into small units and rented out to people to start businesses.

There was a street full of various venture capital financial companies, so that Su Yehao also wanted to bring KOKO Venture Capital to join in the fun.

impression.

Yahoo, which will decline in the future, once rejected the famous Google and Facebook, but also successfully raised money from Boss Ma's Alibaba.

The dilemma of another horse owner seeking to sell penguins, but no one bought them in the end, is also interesting to talk about.

Su Yehao, like everyone else, has seen jokes about it. However, when he became an investment talent, he found that it is really not easy to seek gold in the waves. The main reason is that there are too many entrepreneurial teams. Check carefully for reliability.

For example, since the financing of Yinhai, the entrepreneurs who took the initiative to find KOKO Venture Capital in Hong Kong City have never stopped from the beginning to the end.

There are not only entrepreneurs from the mainland, but also projects in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and other regions. Some people dare to ask for millions of investments with their mouths and ideas in their heads, without even a business plan. No-promise projects are treasures, such as popular blogs and forums. The threshold for starting a business is relatively low. There are many people who find a certain direction and think that they will succeed.

In addition to one's own ability, one has more luck and chance to have a discerning eye.

Some things cannot be forced.

Su Yehao looked around and found that many familiar companies hadn't been born yet, and he didn't even know whether they would appear again in the future due to his own accident.

There was really no other way, and he didn't want to miss the huge treasure, so he had to roll up his sleeves and end by himself.

So far, we have already owned Yinhai's WPS, TAT instant chat program, and TAT mailbox. With the successful completion of the acquisition, the search engine and portal project temporarily named "TOT" is also expected to be launched in the next one or two. to market within a month.

Don't look at fishing for three days and posting on the net for two days. With his strong financial resources and vicious vision, Su Yehao has indeed done a lot of things, but he hasn't seen any returns in the short term, and he still makes more money from other investments.

At the end of December in 1997, according to local time on the west coast of the United States, there were only three days left before the New Year.

Su Yehao spent a few minutes reviewing the past this year, and in the blink of an eye he left his business behind...

……