[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp":3,"chapter-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-125":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Get Stronger Every Payday—With One Billion Employees!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2264338,4419,"Chapter 125: Valued at 16 Billion, a Sucker Walks Through the Door (Requesting Monthly Votes)","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-125",125,"\u003Cp>The next morning, as soon as Chen Yansen arrived at the startup park, he called Lin Chenfeng from Penguin Investment, Zhang Suyang from IDG Venture Capital, and Zhang Jiancheng from Siwei Capital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen’s message was straightforward: he wanted to sell 5% of Fox Tao ’s equity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mr. Chen, I’ll first consult with Martin and get back to you once I have news,” Lin Chenfeng implied he would need to seek approval from Liu Zhiping on whether to accept the 5% stake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Suyang and Zhang Jiancheng gave similar responses—they were quite interested in the 5% stake but needed to reassess Fox Tao ’s current business scale before determining a purchase price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen didn’t take it seriously; he was just going through the motions of notifying them, since the news had to leak out anyway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That same afternoon, several domestic venture capital firms focused on e-commerce began receiving whispers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The news that Fox Tao ’s founder intended to sell 5% equity immediately drew significant attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the guide-e-commerce sector, Fox Tao  was far ahead of everyone else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It left MeiliShuo, Mushroom Street, and What’s Worth Buying far behind—the latter could only scavenge the leftovers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first quarter alone, it achieved 1.5 billion yuan in sales (actual: 1.29 billion), and set a full-year sales target of 10 billion yuan; if achieved, its sales and profitability would rank second in China only after Ali and JD, surpassing Yihaodian and Dangdang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, interested venture capital firms quickly submitted bids.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Using the user-value valuation method, with Fox Tao ’s current daily active users at 3 million and each active user estimated to generate 500–1,000 yuan in profit, the valuation range was 1.5 to 3 billion yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Fox Tao ’s Series A valuation had already reached 2.8 billion yuan, so Chen Yansen hung up on any VC offering less than 3 billion yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, these people were throwing out numbers without thinking—he didn’t expect them to offer anything more sincere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Using the price-to-sales ratio method, with current daily sales of 30 million yuan, annual sales were projected at 10 billion yuan; applying the e-commerce industry’s average 1.5–2x price-to-sales ratio, the valuation would fall between 15 and 20 billion yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, guide-e-commerce still differed from true comprehensive e-commerce platforms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most VCs saw potential in Fox Tao ’s growth but believed its ceiling was low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The highest valuation offered was just 10 billion yuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even more frugal VCs used traditional discounted cash flow methods and offered a 7.2 billion yuan valuation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen preferred the price-to-earnings ratio method, using an average multiplier of 20; with annual profits of 600 million yuan, a 12 billion yuan valuation from VCs would be reasonable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But regardless of the calculation logic or valuation model used, all estimates exceeded 6 billion yuan, proving Fox Tao  had already achieved unicorn-level corporate strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen and the VCs engaged in mutual probing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A week later, the truly interested venture capital firms emerged: Sequoia, IDG Venture Capital, and Augusta Capital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, Augusta showed the greatest interest and made the most sincere offer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had originally been evaluating Ebates (the pioneer of cashback services) and were preparing to invest when they learned a guide-e-commerce platform in Asia was growing even faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In less than a year, its annual sales were projected to exceed 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This instantly sparked their interest!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, after investing $40 million in Ebates, Augusta’s team immediately flew to Hui’an, took a high-speed train, and headed straight for Xu Yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing the news, Chen Yansen smiled faintly, thinking: it seems the investment firms from Lightland are still generous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps they were more familiar with and trusted this business model after dealing with Ebates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen knew well: unless he could take Fox Tao  public on Nasdaq within two years, any investor would inevitably lose money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Penguin weighed the options, decided Fox Tao ’s valuation was inflated and the return on further investment too low, and withdrew first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Siwei Capital faced a similar situation; being small-scale, they preferred high-risk, high-reward bets and deemed it uneconomical, so they gave up their right to purchase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun from Ali was very interested, but his funds were tied up buying back Yahoo’s 40% stake—he wanted to, but couldn’t, so he also withdrew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>May 9, 1 p.m.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the first floor of the startup park, Chen Yansen met Augusta’s investment team; aside from one Chinese translator, they were all Lightlanders, showing Augusta Capital had no office in Asia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their willingness to invest was likely due to strong confidence in the future of the guide model.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Chen Yansen knew the guide model had no future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mr. Chen, this is Augusta’s investment manager Jody—he handled the $40 million financing deal for Ebates.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The translator politely introduced the middle-aged white man beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hello, Mr. Chen, I’m Jody, it’s really hard to imagine that the founder of Fox Tao  is so young.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jody, sporting a balding head and wearing a bespoke navy-blue suit, enthusiastically extended his right hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The translator was about to translate Jody’s words for Chen Yansen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Chen Yansen stepped forward, gripped Jody’s hand, sized up the “sucker” from head to toe, then fluently exchanged pleasantries in English and invited him upstairs for a tour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The translator froze for a moment, then secretly rejoiced—these foreigners were paying anyway; why should they work? It was damn nice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jody was stunned—he hadn’t expected Chen Yansen’s English to be this good, with pure American pronunciation and zero accent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen led Jody and the others upstairs; the first person to be stunned was Wang Zihao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew Chen Yansen too well—his college entrance exam English score was 80, the most patriotic kid in Class 8 of Senior 3, guessing vocabulary and guessing listening comprehension.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was this guy chatting effortlessly with foreigners really Chen Yansen?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Zihao was full of questions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d often seen Chen Yansen reading books and watching original-language films, but this progress was too extreme.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Augusta’s team included investment analysts, industry experts, financial and legal advisors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After sitting down, Jody bluntly asked Chen Yansen for the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and user and sales data.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the other side eager to negotiate, Chen Yansen didn’t mind—he had Hu Yun distribute the pre-prepared documents to Augusta’s staff.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Hu Yun connected the projector and opened the data reports.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next, Hu Yun looked at the translator, signaling him to assist—the data was presented in Arabic numerals and visual charts, which these foreigners could understand, but the column headers and labels were in Chinese and needed translation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The translator nodded and helped Hu Yun introduce Fox Tao ’s current development status.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daily active users: 3 million!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daily sales: 30 million yuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Daily new customer growth: nearly 1 million!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Projected annual sales: 10 billion yuan, net profit: 600–700 million yuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Frankly, Fox Tao ’s growth wasn’t worse than Ebates’.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jody, considering China’s 1.4 billion population and enormous e-commerce potential, instantly solidified his investment intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before coming to China, Jody’s team had analyzed the guide market size, growth rate, market share, and competitors—Fox Tao  held the top position in the industry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During the conversation, Chen Yansen also proposed the idea of a cashback card: in the future, Fox Tao  users could earn cashback whether shopping at offline supermarkets or online B2C platforms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combining credit cards with cashback, extending the model from online to offline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen was skilled at painting grand pictures—he had the bald foreigner’s eyes gleaming, convinced that China’s guide-e-commerce sector had enormous potential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just the idea of linking credit cards with supermarket cashback, if brought back home, could create a market worth tens of billions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen smiled inwardly—he hadn’t expected the man to take his offhand remark so seriously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, these small-scale market expansion tactics had been tried later by others, but on a smaller scale and never scaled up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, buying a shampoo brand at a supermarket and uploading a receipt to get cashback from the brand—too troublesome, easy to fake, impossible to implement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yansen was just bluffing—he had no intention of ever implementing these immature business ideas; they were just random pies he drew while painting Fox Tao ’s future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jody’s team stayed at the startup park until 6 p.m., leaving with a stack of data files.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sen-ge, when did your English get so good?” Wang Zihao asked curiously, sidling up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Learned it in spare time,” Chen Yansen replied vaguely with a smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now he just had to see whether Sequoia and IDG could offer a higher bid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zuo Hongyu was helping him find factories in Shencheng; Xu Dan had already drafted a hiring plan—they were all waiting for the funds to arrive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three days later, after comprehensive evaluation, Chen Yansen rejected Sequoia and IDG and chose to partner with Augusta.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They offered too much!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A 16-billion-yuan valuation—his 5% stake would net him 800 million yuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Chen Yansen, as the major shareholder, hadn’t withheld the right to transfer equity to IDG, Penguin, and Siwei Capital, Siwei would have been the first to sell all its shares to Augusta.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, this buy-sell could earn hundreds of millions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The news spread, sending shockwaves through the industry—no one expected a rich foreigner from Lightland to offer such a high price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a net worth of tens of billions, Chen Yansen shot to the top of the 90s billionaire list; some fans claimed those with only a billion or two weren’t even fit to be his footstool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone even created a global 90s billionaire list, placing Chen Yansen alongside Facebook’s Zuckerberg—this list was wildly outlandish, yet still had many believers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some even questioned whether Zuckerberg was a 90s-born, claiming he didn’t qualify.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Chen Yansen heard this, he laughed and sighed—but seeing his Weibo followers surge toward ten million, he stayed silent, quietly posting handsome photos and brand teaser announcements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This blocked Chen Ou’s path—he’d just secured $10 million in funding, but in looks and ability, he couldn’t match Chen Yansen; if he pursued the influencer-entrepreneur route, he’d likely be mocked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In mid-May, under Chen Yansen’s push, the Aurora System’s R&D progress reached the halfway mark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, Xu Dan began hiring hardware and industrial design engineers, gradually transferring the Aurora R&D team’s employment contracts to the newly established Orange Tech.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side, JD secured its largest-ever venture capital funding—Liu Qiangdong’s asset-heavy model finally won the favor of DST, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital, bringing in $1.5 billion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This marked Liu Qiangdong’s first serious challenge to Ali’s e-commerce dominance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1758,"2026-06-19T19:17:18.227Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","f473255706ad147ef7f1899d7fff6142f05dd01c98f369b7367a408c54494d19","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-126","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-124",387,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-cover.jpg"]