Chapter 205: Advance Layout, O2O Closed Loop! Handsome Chen's First Move

The next day, nearing noon, Chen Yansen hurried to Luzhou.

The Kuaipao headquarters building was located in the northwest corner of Luyang District, fairly close to the factory building that Meng Yuanzhi had allocated to him, only five or six kilometers apart.

Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, Kou Zhen, and other senior executives of Kuaipao stood at the park's main gate at this moment, watching the silver Bentley slowly driving over from the intersection.

Once Xiao Li parked the car steadily, Chen Yansen pushed the door open and stepped out.

"Boss!"

Pei Yi was the first to react, quickening his pace two steps, stepping forward proactively to greet him.

Although Kang Guodong had lost the CEO position, harboring a trace of resentment in his heart, when facing Chen Yansen, he still behaved with great respect.

Before accepting the financing from Senlian Capital, he held 70% of the equity, but only earned three or four hundred thousand a year; after receiving two rounds of financing successively, and obtaining the homepage resource slot from Pinbei, Kuaipao's valuation skyrocketed, reaching a peak of 1.4 billion.

Although the proportion of equity in his hands had shrunk, its value had grown higher, pressing close to the 7 million mark.

Moreover, Penguin, Sequoia, and Gao Ling Capital were still vying and bidding against each other for Kuaipao's Series A financing; perhaps by the day the financing opened, his personal net worth could break through 10 million.

Therefore, Kang Guodong's mindset was extremely complicated.

Kou Zhen was a senior executive recruited through social hiring; he understood Chen Yansen's maneuvering methods better than Pei Yi and Kang Guodong.

Back at Lashou, he had personally witnessed the sycophantic expression of the marketing director when trying to please Fox Tao for merchant recruitment.

"You've worked hard, it's cool outside, let's everyone go inside and chat! You are all the backbone of Kuaipao, you must conserve your energy and strive to win the post-New Year eradication battle."

Chen Yansen patted Pei Yi's shoulder, smiling and exchanging pleasantries with everyone.

As for the eradication battle, as the name suggests, it meant going to Hucheng to eradicate the competitor Ele. me!

Pei Yi nodded in agreement, and introduced several colleagues nearby to Chen Yansen.

The group chatted as they walked, heading into the building.

This was a four-story office building, originally the production workshop of a garment factory.

The outer walls still bore faded advertising slogans; only the interior had been renovated, which gave Chen Yansen a slight feeling of visiting an internet company.

Each floor had an area of up to 1,600 square meters; at a glance, densely packed office desks filled the space.

"Boss, we originally only rented one floor, but the expansion speed over the past month has been too fast, so we rented the other three floors as well. This location is a bit out of the way, but the office cost is also low—only 0.7 yuan per square meter per day."

Pei Yi pointed at the first-floor office area, explaining slowly.

"How many people does the headquarters have now? Where does everyone live, and how do they usually handle meals?"

Chen Yansen asked casually.

The office building Pei Yi and Kang Guodong had chosen was truly excellent value for money; the money saved was all spent on new customer subsidies, ground-promotion sales staff, and delivery riders.

This pleased him greatly!

"There are roughly 400 people, but only a little over 300 come in to work each day; the rest are all ground-promotion sales staff, scattered across the commercial centers of Luyang, Yaohai, Shushan, and Baohe Districts, coming back once a week."

Pei Yi replied.

He paused, then added: "The employees basically live in the nearby Rongfeng Yuan residential area; there's a snack street at the southeast corner of the complex, and a shopping mall three kilometers away."

"This place used to be a garment factory, so there should be a cafeteria. We can hire our own chefs—employees eat well, and it saves quite a bit of time that can be used for lunch breaks."

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, then instructed.

After all, running his own cafeteria could create another ten or so jobs, contributing several hundred strands of Human-Fire merit to him each year.

"Understood, boss, I'll arrange it as soon as possible."

Pei Yi hurriedly agreed.

"Guodong, with over 100,000 orders per day now, as head of the technology department, you must handle order processing and dispatch well—both ensuring full-time riders' income and considering delivery timeliness. By the way, have any of you actually delivered food? Especially the colleagues in the route planning and timeliness optimization group?"

Chen Yansen stopped walking, looking at Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, and the others.

Deliver food?

That question actually stumped them.

"Boss, Dong-ge and I delivered at the Emerald Lake University Town before." Pei Yi answered.

"Boss, in terms of order distribution algorithms and real-time tracking monitoring, Kuaipao mainly uses GPS positioning technology and message push mechanisms to quickly and accurately assign orders to riders, and to update order status for users in a timely manner. The initial results are quite good."

Kang Guodong followed up.

Chen Yansen understood—the colleagues in the route planning and timeliness optimization group had never delivered food, and didn't have a clear understanding of the underlying food delivery fulfillment path.

"These two positions need at least one week of delivery experience. Delivery timeliness depends not only on algorithm improvements, but also on the number of riders and order distribution capability."

Chen Yansen said in a serious tone, his voice low.

To put it bluntly, if there's a shortage of hands, then increase the number of delivery staff; there's no need to compress delivery times to the extreme in pursuit of higher per-capita efficiency.

He didn't want to see a single rider earning twenty or thirty thousand a month, nor did he plan to market the delivery rider profession as a job everyone would want to do.

After hearing this, Xia Xiangyu, the director of the Rider Department, repeatedly mulled over Chen Yansen's words, vaguely reading the subtext behind the big boss's remarks. He nodded heavily and said: "Boss, I understand."

"Guodong, I've read your work report. The biggest problem currently troubling route optimization is that you can't get real-time road conditions, congestion, and traffic accident information from Baidu or Gao De Maps. I've discussed this with Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital—he'll help you sort it out by mid-February at the latest."

Chen Yansen said to Kang Guodong.

Regarding Kang Guodong tactfully stepping aside from the CEO position, Chen Yansen was also fairly polite to him. This man's management skills were average, but his programming skills were genuinely solid.

Did Zhang Xuhao, with a group of top students from Jiaotong University, spend two years building an order distribution system that was actually inferior to the product Kang Guodong had cobbled together in half a year.

Chen Yansen's solution was also very simple and blunt: he asked Liu Zhiping to step in and help him arrange a dinner gathering. At that time, besides Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital, there would also be Cheng Congwu of Gao De Maps.

For an O2O platform like Kuaipao, its mobile nature aligned perfectly with map navigation apps.

And in early 2012, Ali Mama had not yet gone public, and Meituan had not yet emerged from the Thousand-Group War.

Gao De Maps played a role in the industry more as a traditional map software, partnering mostly with automobile manufacturers.

Although it had already begun transforming toward the internet industry, it hadn't attracted investors' attention.

Two years ago, Gao De Maps went public on NASDAQ, with an opening price up 1.39 USD on the first day, reaching a high of 13.89 USD.

But two years had passed, and Gao De Maps' per-share price still hovered around 12 USD, indicating that in investors' eyes, Gao De's potential had long been exhausted, worth at most 1 billion USD.

After all, mobile internet was just beginning to rise. Take Taobao as an example: last year's total sales were 600 billion, with mobile Taobao selling just over 10 billion—PC output still accounted for the bulk.

So, it makes sense that Gao De Maps wasn't well received by internet moguls and investors.

When Shen Nanpeng heard that Chen Yansen of Senlian Capital planned to make a strategic investment in Gao De Maps, he got the idea to broker the deal and offload part of Sequoia Capital's equity holdings in the process.

Chen Yansen's initial thinking boiled down to three points:

First, Gao De Maps held Class-A surveying and mapping qualifications for navigation electronic maps, aerial photography, and internet map services, along with a 26.3% market share—leading Google Maps and crushing Qiandu Maps—so the product quality itself was solid;

Second, for the mobile internet layout, the development of Kuaidi Dache, Yunshu Express, and Kuaipao all relied on map and navigation technology. Rather than paying Mama Ali massive service fees down the road, it was better to strike before Ma Liyun and acquire while Gao De's stock price was depressed;

Third, Gao De's data capabilities could highly complement the businesses of Pinle, Yunshu, and Sister Chengzi Pay, forming a complete O2O closed loop.

At this point Gao De's market cap was only USD 650 million; once mobile internet became mainstream in the future, Gao De's valuation could easily climb to USD 10 billion, or even USD 20 billion.

Just the more than tenfold investment return, plus the incalculable traffic value, was enough to pique Chen Yansen's interest.

Hearing Chen Yansen say this, Kang Guodong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly replied, "Thank you, boss."

"Right, tonight's annual meeting—Tao, the secretary from the Central Secretariat will be coming too. Find someone sharp to keep an eye on things on the first floor of the restaurant. Don't slack off."

Chen Yansen turned his head and instructed Pei Yi.

Kuaipao's headquarters was right in Luzhou, so the connection with Tao Jingwen couldn't be wasted.

The Central Secretariat?

Secretary Tao?

Pei Yi obediently acknowledged, clearly still not having transitioned out of his graduate student role—he was naturally awed by people like Tao Jingwen.

Chen Yansen glanced at him, saw what he was thinking, and said with a smile, "Pull yourself together. Don't embarrass Kuaipao's CEO. It's just a big secretary—if I took you to meet Meng Yuanzhi, would you crawl there on your knees?"

"Boss, it's mainly that I've never dealt with these people before and don't know how to talk to them."

Pei Yi gave an awkward laugh, feeling a bit embarrassed by what Chen Yansen had said.

He wasn't lacking in interpersonal experience—he just hadn't handled people like Tao Jingwen before, which was perfectly normal.

Chen Yansen smiled, pulled Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, Kou Zhen, Xia Xiangyu, and the others into a meeting room, and shared with them how to deal with associations like the Market Supervision, Fire Control, and Industrial and Commerce bureaus.

After hearing a few sentences, Kou Zhen's pupils unconsciously dilated, and he stared at Chen Yansen in astonishment.

Talent could explain things in business, but Chen Yansen's experience in handling all kinds of industrial and commerce associations left them far behind as well.

Xia Xiangyu and Kou Zhen exchanged a glance; in each other's eyes, they both caught a whiff of shock.

"For a local life app like Kuaipao, you have to prepare in advance when it comes to public relations. Otherwise, if something really goes wrong, those people up top won't protect you."

Chen Yansen added solemnly.

"Boss, I got it. It's getting late—shall we go grab lunch first?"

Pei Yi suggested.

"President Xia, please prepare a few sets of Kuaipao work uniforms for me. This afternoon I need to experience the brothers' daily delivery work."

Chen Yansen instructed Xia Xiangyu.

"Got it, boss. I'll have someone prepare them right away." Though Xia Xiangyu was full of surprise, he agreed without hesitation.

"Boss, it's way too cold out there!" Pei Yi instinctively tried to dissuade him.

"Have any of Kuaipao's eight hundred-plus brothers ever complained about the cold weather?" Chen Yansen retorted.

His thinking was simple: first, do some publicity for Kuaipao; second, experience Kuaipao's order dispatch and route planning functions.

Otherwise, just looking at the data in the PPT, it was hard to truly feel Kuaipao's current business reality.

Meanwhile.

Liu Qiangdong was driving a delivery van, wearing Jingdong's red work uniform, cruising through the streets of Yanjing.

He was an entrepreneur with extraordinary execution ability—he said he'd do it and he did. In one morning he delivered several packages, and not a single customer recognized who he was.

As the number two player in e-commerce, even Ma Liyun didn't have much national recognition at this point, let alone Liu Qiangdong.

During the deliveries, Liu Qiangdong even ran into a bizarre customer—the delivery address was unclear, and the phone wasn't answered. In the end, he left the package with the security booth at the residential complex.

Less than two minutes later, he got a bad review saying he hadn't delivered it to the door.

Liu Qiangdong was so furious he started cursing, suddenly feeling how treacherous people could be!

(End of chapter)