Chapter 156: Zhang Xuhao: Botched It, Lost 100 Million in Funding (Begging for Monthly Votes)

Chen Yansen returned to Building 8 and took the elevator up to the fifth-floor office.

On the desk sat the lunch the admin had ordered—five dishes and a soup, with four sets of bowls and chopsticks, and the restaurant had thrown in a few bottles of drinks.

"Lao Gao, get Ye Qiuping over here, and call Wang Xueting from HR too."

Chen Yansen sat down, didn't rush to pick up his chopsticks, but called Gao Weilin and the others to eat together.

The meal was secondary; the main goal was to discuss the expansion of Sister Chengzi Tech and the hiring progress at Pinbei Tech.

In no time, Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping, and Wang Xueting arrived together.

"Boss!" the three greeted him at the door.

"Come in, let's talk while we eat."

Chen Yansen rolled up his sleeves and gestured for the three to sit.

"Thanks, Boss." Gao Weilin replied and sat down first.

Ye Qiuping and Wang Xueting exchanged a glance and sat down next to Lao Gao.

Wang Xueting graduated from Tongji's Human Resources Management program. She had previously worked for years at a telecom company in Shencheng, and Chen Yansen had poached her to Sister Chengzi Tech at a monthly salary of over 40,000.

The two heavyweights in industrial design, Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze, were recruited by her.

"How's the hiring progress at Pinbei? Help me build out the HR framework first—focus on development and business-development staff in the early stage."

Chen Yansen picked up his chopsticks, popped a shrimp into his mouth, and asked, looking at Wang Xueting.

"Right now there are two suitable HR manager candidates—one is Xiong Li from Jingdong, the other is Zhang Junjie from Suning. Both have rich experience in e-commerce, and Xiong Li also has business operations experience."

Wang Xueting answered immediately.

"Director Ye, do you know this person?" Chen Yansen turned his gaze to Ye Qiuping.

"He's the hiring supervisor for small appliances at Jingdong—very capable, knows both HR and business." Ye Qiuping thought briefly and gave a positive assessment.

"Arrange interviews as soon as possible. If they're suitable, hire both."

Chen Yansen nodded and made the decision on the spot.

"Got it, Boss." Wang Xueting replied.

"The hiring progress at Sister Chengzi Tech and Pinbei Tech is slower than I expected. So, draft an internal-referral incentive scheme—the bonus amount should be comparable to headhunter costs—and get it to me before end of day."

Chen Yansen thought it over and added.

Take Sister Chengzi Tech for example—most of its employees come from phone makers like Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, and ZTE.

Having them do internal referrals can greatly speed up hiring.

After all, they know Sister Chengzi Tech's pay and work environment, so when they reach out to former colleagues, it's far more convincing.

"Understood, Boss." Wang Xueting replied at once. HR currently has six people including herself, and even though the interview rooms are fully booked every day.

Yet Sister Chengzi Tech's total headcount is still only a little over 200.

It's not that the pay and benefits are bad—it's that Sister Chengzi Tech is growing too fast, and their hiring speed can't keep up with demand.

"Lao Gao, has the equipment payment for the Sister Chengzi phone factory been sent?"

Chen Yansen paused his chopsticks and asked Gao Weilin.

"Thirty-four production lines in total. The equipment funds were paid directly to the supplier's corporate account—1.37 billion in all."

Gao Weilin had gone on several business trips with Chen Yansen and knew his temperament, so he answered casually, explaining between bites.

That's why most phone makers choose contract manufacturers—even before a single phone is produced, the equipment alone costs over a billion.

But for Chen Yansen, the money was well spent.

Once the factory is up and running, it can employ over 5,000 workers and bring him 4,000 strands of Human Dao's Spark every month.

Monthly capacity can be bumped from 500,000 units to 3,000,000!

Those netizens on Weibo who keep cursing Chen Yansen for playing them like monkeys should quiet down for a while too.

From August to early October, the factory shipped roughly 1,000,000 units in total, but pre-orders totaled 3,500,000—70% of the orders haven't been produced yet.

Even though Chen Yansen is popular, some impatient users still flooded his comment section demanding shipments, and plenty of them cursed him out.

"What about the brand team? How's the online sentiment and user feedback?" Chen Yansen looked at Ye Qiuping, thinking to himself that this woman's mental fortitude was really something.

Even knowing she'd been investigated down to the bone, she could still stay on at Sister Chengzi Tech at ease, and right now she was sitting across from him eating comfortably.

Wang Xueting was tense and ill at ease, yet Ye Qiuping looked as relaxed as if she were at home.

"Apart from issues like insufficient capacity and the aluminum-alloy back cover hurting signal, user feedback shows Sister Chengzi Phones' positive rating is far higher than Xiaomi's. The data team, combining sales models, projects that if the capacity issue is solved, monthly sales could climb another three-fold-plus."

Ye Qiuping looked up when she heard Chen Yansen call her name and answered unhurriedly.

"Give it one more month—wait until Shencheng finishes hiring and equipment commissioning."

Chen Yansen said evenly.

The aluminum-alloy back cover does hurt signal reception, but it improves the body's rigidity and heat dissipation.

Compared with Xiaomi phones, Sister Chengzi Phones' smoothness and user experience are clearly a notch higher.

The result: after Xiaomi's pre-orders broke through 700,000 units, scathing reviews flooded the internet, and plenty of people joked it got hot enough to fry an egg.

Without Sister Chengzi Phones, users chasing ultimate value-for-money might still have tolerated Xiaomi's overheating and lag.

But once there's more choice, who'd still want to make do?

After lunch, Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping, and Wang Xueting left the office.

Chen Yansen propped his feet on the desk and pulled out his phone to scroll through the news.

Mama Ali had raised Taobao Shangcheng's annual technical service fee and shop breach-of-contract deposit, angering small and mid-sized sellers.

Those merchants went to big merchants' shops to place orders, cancel orders, and bombard them with bad reviews, venting their frustration.

Put plainly, Ma Liyun thought the sheep were fat enough—it was shearing season.

But small and mid-sized sellers didn't see it that way. Last year Mama Ali quietly tweaked the search rules, steering all the traffic toward big merchants and brand merchants, slashing their income—they'd been stewing for ages.

This unilateral price hike finally drove them over the edge; over a hundred merchants even went to protest downstairs at Mama Ali's headquarters.

"Let them make a scene! The more chaotic this market gets, the better!"

Chen Yansen thought to himself, muttering in a low voice.

What kind of person is Ma Liyun?

Even if they compromise for now, they will have to deal with these people later.

Like Zhang Yong, he believed that with the development of e-commerce and economic growth, user demand for products would continuously rise, and the average order value would gradually increase.

Consequently, they abandoned the 6 trillion yuan down-market.

But three years later, Pinduoduo emerged out of nowhere, violently shattering the e-commerce landscape, forcing Mama Ali to create Taotie and Taofactory, and tricking JD. com into launching Jingxi and Jingxi Special Offers.

Helplessly, the tide had already turned; Pinduoduo unleashed the move of "Refund Only," firmly capturing users' hearts, advancing relentlessly, and climbing into the top three of e-commerce.

Chen Yansen's Pinbai borrowed the business model of Pinduoduo, aiming to take over the small and medium-sized sellers abandoned by Mama Ali and JD. com.

Taking the mobile phone industry as an example, a 1,999 yuan phone was merely a mid-range smartphone for many, yet there were still many who could not afford it.

Feature phones and Shanzhai phones priced at 299 yuan, 499 yuan, and 699 yuan never lacked users.

Existence implies rationality!

It was only natural that a multi-trillion yuan down-market would breed an e-commerce leviathan.

Chen Yansen only needed to go with the flow!

Swiping the screen, the second news item was about the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs; Apple was about to enter the Cook era.

The remaining news focused on the fierce competition among group-buying websites: Lashou, Wowo Tuan, Nuomi, Dianping, and Meituan were locked in a brawl, poaching each other's staff and offering massive subsidies, all fighting for market share.

To Chen Yansen's surprise, in this timeline, Lashou and Nuomi were exceptionally strong, excelling in online marketing; even Meituan's most prized ground-sales team could not match them.

Following this trend, the "Thousand Groups War" would be hard to resolve in a short time.

Chen Yansen frowned; after selling Fox Tao, his influence on the group-buying industry had almost dropped to zero.

As for who would win the group-buying competition, he did not care.

Anyway, between 2011 and 2013, whether doing group buying or food delivery, it was a money-losing business.

At the beginning of the year, after Ele. me secured 1 million in funding, it failed to stir even a ripple within the industry.

Venture capitalists seemed to have forgotten the food delivery track; there was no thought of investing or following up.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen called Old Gao, asking him to try contacting Zhang Xuhao.

On one hand, by investing early, whether Mama Ali or Meituan acquired Ele. me in the future, he could make a huge profit; on the other hand, this would allow him to participate in Ele. me's daily operations.

To prepare in advance for the next step.

After hearing this, Gao Weilin immediately agreed.

After joining Senlian Capital, he originally thought his job would be buying, buying, buying, and investing, investing, investing; instead, he became the CFO at Chengzi Technology, occasionally having to help the boss pay the final installments for cars and houses.

How was this like the head of an investment firm? He was practically Chen Yansen's butler.

This time, he could finally use his expertise, but after deeply understanding Ele. me, he was instantly stunned.

Who came up with such a damn business model?

There was absolutely no hope of profitability!

The platform pleased neither buyers nor merchants.

To make money, merchants could only raise online prices, after all, packaging, delivery, and platform commissions increased costs; buyers were unwilling to spend more, feeling the platform was passing the costs onto them.

Founded two and a half years ago, Ele. me had received only one round of funding to date; with over 3,000 daily orders, after deducting management and technical costs, Ele. me had actually been losing money all along.

Gao Weilin wanted to persuade Chen Yansen, but finally sighed and chose to trust the boss's vision.

In terms of doing business, ten of himself were no match for the boss; he just needed to do his job well. Overstepping the line arbitrarily might just provoke the boss's displeasure.

Two days later, Zhang Xuhao received a call from Gao Weilin.

"We offer 100 million; Senlian wants 30% equity," Gao Weilin opened with the quote.

"US Dollars?" Zhang Xuhao asked tentatively.

"Chinese Yuan," Gao Weilin sneered, thinking this guy was overthinking it; given Ele. me's current scale, a valuation of 200 million was already generous.

Zhang Xuhao fell silent; recently, he had been pondering whether to change the product's name.

Ele. me?

He was truly hungry now!

For the past two years, besides the 1 million US dollars in funding from Jin Sha Capital, he had not received a single cent from venture capitalists.

He wanted to expand the market, but he had no money!

This damn name was like a curse!

He wanted the 100 million in funding, but he was reluctant to give up 30% of the equity.

After thinking it over, Zhang Xuhao said he would consider it first; after hanging up, he immediately checked Senlian Capital's background and discovered the boss behind it was Chen Yansen.

Zhang Xuhao immediately had an idea; taking Senlian Capital's quote, he went separately to Jinshajiang Capital, Sequoia, and Gao Ling Capital to negotiate, using this to drive up his valuation.

This left Zhang Lei of Gao Ling Capital greatly puzzled; he had previously studied Ele. me's business model and, frankly, had not taken a liking to it.

In his view, Chen Yansen's business acumen was not poor; theoretically, he should not have taken a liking to Ele. me.

So, Zhang Lei called Chen Yansen.

Only then did Chen Yansen learn of Zhang Xuhao's little trick; he smiled and denied it: "I wouldn't invest in food delivery even if I were investing in group buying."

After the pleasantries ended, Chen Yansen coldly snorted in his heart: This guy Zhang Xuhao, looking honest, is actually so scheming; he could understand Zhang Xuhao's actions, but being calculated still made him feel bad.

He instantly abandoned the thought of investing in Ele. me.

Indeed, those who left their names during the golden decade of the internet were no simple characters.

Although Chen Yansen himself was an immoral person, he preferred partners who spoke of morality; someone like Zhang Xuhao, with too many tricks up his sleeve, was better off not investing in than investing in Meituan.

Not long after, Zhang Xuhao realized he had messed up; he had not only offended Senlian Capital but also missed a funding opportunity.

(End of this chapter)