Chapter 241: Kuipao Riders: Can I Also Buy a House in Hangcheng?

In Hangcheng, the Yiyuan Office Building at No. 200 Longcao Lane.

Four in the afternoon is the tea break for Kuipao; the local auntie from the administration department distributes pre-packaged fruit platters and milk tea to every workstation.

At this moment, employees from the operations department gather in small groups, eating fruit while whispering gossip: "I heard the company is launching Series B financing; the investors this time include Penguin, Mama Ali, Gao Ling Capital, and Jin Sha Venture Capital."

"What does that have to do with us!"

"You know nothing! Boss Kou from the business development department said everyone gets stock option rewards; given the big boss's generous nature, even customer service might get a few thousand shares."

"Brother Quan, tell us, how is the stock option reward calculated?"

A young man in the crowd asked Li Quan across from him.

"Simply put, we're given a withdrawal slip; when the company lists or launches a stock option repurchase plan, the money will be in our hands!"

Li Quan held a fruit platter, speared a piece of pineapple, put it in his mouth, and explained with a smile.

Whether the options can be successfully cashed out involves exercise conditions, exercise prices, and listing plans; it is absolutely not as simple as Li Quan says.

But from what he knows, the first company founded by the big boss, although not listed, after being sold to Mama Ali, the big boss still paid out of his own pocket to cash-repurchase the unlocked portion of the options.

Plus, with the subsidiary under Senlian Capital, all exercise prices are unified at 0.01 US dollars per share, so Li Quan's statement is not wrong.

After the company lists, the difference between the stock price and the exercise price, minus the corresponding taxes and fees, is the employees' option income.

The lower the exercise price, the greater the difference!

So, an exercise price of 0.01 yuan is no different from a free gift!

On the other side.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, and Deng Ye sat under the sunshade on the rooftop garden, their faces full of the joy of joining Kuipao.

"I confirmed with President Pei; the financing is real, and issuing stock option incentives to all staff is also real," Wang Yuan said excitedly.

Currently, Kuipao's operational scope covers only Luzhou and Hangcheng, yet its valuation has already reached 1 billion US dollars.

Even if everyone gets only a few tens of thousands of shares, their future value will not be less than several million US dollars.

Keep in mind, many residential compounds in the outer rings of Hangcheng have housing prices below 20,000 per square meter; once this equity is successfully cashed out, it could buy a large flat or a detached villa at the very least.

"Do the delivery department get them too?" Kang Jia couldn't help but ask urgently.

"Of course they do; riders sign labor contracts with Kuipao Technology Company just like us," Deng Ye chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

"Sigh, Ele. me losing to Kuipao is really no surprise; just looking at salaries and benefits, we can't compare."

Kang Jia sighed and couldn't help but remark.

"Old Kang, Ele. me is history; stop saying 'we' all the time. If President Pei or President Kou hear it, they'll think the three of us are corporate spies," Deng Ye raised his thumb and made a shushing gesture.

Kang Jia's face froze, then he realized, grinned apologetically, and said, "Damn! It just slipped out!"

"Brother Hao went to Nuomi. com; I wonder how it's going?" Wang Yuan whispered.

"Nuomi. com gave him a decent position and treatment, North China Regional Operations Manager; just don't know who will be the final winner in this group-buying war," Deng Ye said in a flat tone.

He is now the financial supervisor of Kuipao's Hangcheng branch and has long since lost his awe of Zhang Xuhao's identity as the founder of food delivery.

"Who cares! I only care about how many shares I can get in this stock option incentive plan," Wang Yuan waved his hand, dismissing it.

To put it plainly, including Kang Jia and Deng Ye, they all harbor resentment toward Zhang Xuhao.

If Zhang Xuhao had accepted Gao Weilin's financing or even the acquisition proposal back then, the fates of Kuipao and Ele. me would likely have reversed; the positions of general managers in various departments would now be occupied by them.

The project declined from prosperity to failure until it collapsed; all team members share responsibility, but the person with the greatest responsibility is undoubtedly Zhang Xuhao.

He took Senlian Capital's offer, approached other venture capital firms to artificially inflate his own valuation, not only offending Chen Yansen, missing the best financing window, but also provoking a powerful competitor.

Kang Jia and Deng Ye exchanged smiles, full of expectation.

Meanwhile.

In the banquet hall on the top floor of the Pullman Hotel, representatives from Penguin, Mama Ali, Jin Sha Venture Capital, Gao Ling Capital, and Kuipao, five parties, gathered in one room.

Chen Yansen, Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu, and others sat at a wine table chatting.

The negotiation work was handed over to Gao Weilin and Pei Yi.

"You are truly different from entrepreneurs your age; young people prefer asset-light operational models, but you are exactly the opposite; whatever industry is hard to make money in, you invest in."

Liu Zhiping joked.

Chen Yansen smiled and said, "Didn't Penguin invest too? It seems heroes see eye to eye."

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei smiled but said nothing.

This food delivery track doesn't look like it earns much, but the volume is unstoppable; according to data forecasts, once Kuipao fully unleashes the food delivery market potential in Luzhou and Hangcheng, daily order volume will reach 2 million.

If this model is rolled out nationwide, daily order volume will break 100 million orders!

By then, daily active users will also not be less than 100 million!

Keep in mind, this is a consumer software with 100 million daily active users; the revenue generated daily will be an astronomical figure.

Furthermore, it can leverage this massive traffic to expand into categories like hotels, movies, leisure and entertainment, and ticketing, thereby widening its moat.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei hadn't thought about re-supporting a new platform.

But first, can their operational capabilities match Chen Yansen's?

Second, Kuipao already has the electronic navigation advantage of Gao De Maps and is far ahead in intelligent delivery dispatch systems.

Even Ele. me, which had been accumulating for over three years, was no match for Kuipao in order matching and route planning.

They certainly didn't believe a brand-new food delivery platform could surpass Kuipao in these two aspects and break Kuipao's technical barriers.

Unless the BAT giants step in, there is still some possibility.

But Penguin lacks e-commerce genes, Mama Ali is busy preparing for its IPO, and Qian Du is working on cloud computing and cloud storage services.

Looking across the domestic market, Kuipao has almost no rivals.

"By the way, I heard Kuaidi Dache is recruiting full-time private car drivers in Jin Ling and Hangcheng areas, requiring payment of five social insurances and one housing fund for drivers, and providing a base salary?"

Liu Zhiping couldn't hold back and asked.

After hearing this, Zhu Xiaohu immediately perked up his ears, gazed intently at Chen Yansen, wanting to hear the other party's explanation.

If Chen Yansen starts acting recklessly the moment he gets the funding, then for Kuaidi Dache's Series B, Jin Sha Ventures will drop out directly and transfer out the equity it holds.

"Mm, that is indeed the case, but the relevant welfare policy only targets a small number of full-time drivers. In reality, up to now, only a few dozen people have joined."

Chen Yansen naturally wouldn't tell the truth, and casually made something up.

Under his explanation, this measure became a key strategy for Kuaidi Dache to improve service quality and increase dispatch flexibility.

First, it could rapidly expand the driver pool, easing the pain point of difficulty hailing rides during peak hours; second, after adding full-time drivers and social vehicles, order response speed in remote areas improved by 40%, and passengers' average wait time was shortened to 3 minutes.

"Compliance is a big issue, but we can get started first!" Liu Zhiping nodded and said dismissively.

Who says you can't do it without documents or authorization?

After all, anyone who can succeed in entrepreneurship is never a simple rule-follower.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei quite agreed with this view—as long as the volume is large enough, non-compliance can become compliance.

Only when the afterglow outside the window had fully faded did Lin Chenfeng from Penguin, Ji Gang from Mama Ali, and the investment managers from Jin Sha Ventures and Gao Ling Capital finally reach an agreement with Gao Weilin, setting Kuaipao's Series B valuation at 1.2 billion US dollars.

In his previous life, when Ele. me accepted its Series D funding, daily orders were around 100,000 with a 400 million USD valuation; at Series F, daily orders were around 1 million with a 1 billion USD valuation.

Overall, although Kuaipao's 1.2 billion USD valuation had some water in it, neither Penguin nor Mama Ali raised objections.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei said nothing, which counted as accepting the price.

Everyone was very clear: if they took the initiative on this round of investment, then in the next round, to obtain the same proportion of equity, they would have to pay more than triple the cost.

When Pei Yi heard the price of 1.2 billion US dollars, the whole person felt as if stepping on clouds, floating and unsteady.

Half a year ago, he was still a graduate student at Luzhou University of Technology; half a year later, he was the CEO of a unicorn company worth over a hundred million.

Kuaipao exchanged 15% of its equity for 180 million US dollars in funding.

Pei Yi needed to use this money to quickly open up the takeout markets in Hangcheng and Jin Ling, then expand from the provincial capital to surrounding cities, striving to push daily order volume above 1 million as soon as possible.

Although Hucheng wasn't exactly Chen Yansen's home turf, he still skillfully led Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu and others to a second round after the dinner.

It wasn't until half past eleven at night that he left a private club.

Half an hour later, the driver Xiao Li parked the car in front of No. 116 Yunjin Villa.

Chen Yansen got out of the car and walked straight into the bright and tidy living room.

The TV was playing "Legend of Zhen Huan," and Song Yuncheng was curled up on the sofa, eyes slightly closed, sleeping soundly.

"This guy's sleep quality really isn't bad."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, casually turned off the TV, then picked up Song Yuncheng and carried her toward the bedroom upstairs.

……

……

The next morning.

The Kuaipao HR staff from the Luzhou and Hucheng branches, holding a thick stack of documents, began face-to-face talks with employees—first introducing the option incentive policy, then informing them that these options would vest at 25% per year, to be fully received over four years.

If they leave midway, they can only take away the options that have already vested.

From customer service and riders to headquarters operations, finance, and marketing staff—everyone got a share, the only difference being how much.

Executives like Kou Zhen, who hadn't had options before, couldn't help but show satisfied smiles upon seeing the numbers on the option agreement, and their sense of belonging to Kuaipao grew stronger.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye, and over two hundred new employees who had left Ele. me and most recently joined Kuaipao also received generous option incentives.

In front of the Kaixuan Business Building on Yishan Road, Li Zhou and several colleagues were discussing this option incentive policy.

"Brother Zhou, how many do you have?" a colleague asked curiously.

"6,000 shares, at 1.2 USD per share, that's only about 10,000 Huayuan more per year. I'm planning to save it up as my son's college tuition in the future." Li Zhou said with a silly grin.

"Once our company's valuation climbs to 10 billion USD, forget tuition, we could swap out a few wedding houses." The colleague beside him burst into laughter.

In the riders' eyes, Kuaipao was their own company.

The remaining riders also received options ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 shares, fantasizing about how much cash their options could be worth once the company's valuation hit 10 billion USD.

But no matter how long they calculated, they couldn't figure it out, and finally had to give up.

They only remembered one sentence: "Anyway, I can buy an apartment in Hucheng."

For mud-legged folks like them, braving wind and rain all day long—could they really settle down in Hucheng?

Li Zhou and the others didn't dare to hope for too much, but when delivering meals, their smiles grew wider, and their service quality kept getting better and better.

After Chen Yansen wrapped up Kuaipao's Series B funding, he didn't rush back to Xucheng, but instead took Song Yuncheng to meet with brand bosses in Hucheng's apparel industry.

Led by Zhou Jiancheng from Meters/bonwe, brands like Semir, La Chapelle, Esprit, and Palomino—over a dozen brand owners in total—were invited to host a dinner for Chen Yansen in a private room at the Peace Hotel.

After all, Pinduoduo's influence in the e-commerce industry had already faintly surpassed Jingdong, and within the industry, more and more merchants regarded Pinduoduo as the second most important online sales channel.

Chen Yansen handled these seasoned business veterans with ease, and after a few glasses of wine, he had secured each company's marketing budget for the second half of the year.

After eating and drinking his fill, Chen Yansen politely declined Zhou Jiancheng's arrangement for the next round, and left the restaurant with Song Yuncheng, strolling along Jin Ling East Road.

Xiao Li drove around the area, waiting to be summoned by the boss.

(End of this chapter)