Chapter 99: The PayPal Gang

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Palo Aldo, one of the core cities of Silicon Valley, has moved from a garage to a regular office since PayPal accepted a $2.2 million venture capital from Phoenix Capital. The number of staff has also expanded rapidly from less than 10 to more than 30.

Now, this Internet payment-based company, which has just begun to rise, has been acquired by Guo Shouyun's Phoenix Investment Management Co., Ltd. for 75% of the shares at a price of more than 10 million, except for the management to retain 10%, the rest is in the hands of Michael Moretz's Phoenix Capital.

After driving to PayPal's office, Qin Zhicheng was already waiting here.

"Boss!"

After nodding at him, Guo Shouyun walked into PayPal's office with some anticipation under his leadership.

Because of the news in advance, the office was not as cluttered as Guo Shouyun imagined.

With a round of applause, in the eyes of everyone, Guo Shouyun walked through the crowd to the center of the office. Since there is no meeting room, the office area acts as a temporary meeting room. A table and a background board behind it have become a podium for Guo Shouyun to speak.

After waving his hand and suppressing everyone's applause, Guo Shouyun's eyes quickly swept over the faces with curiosity and inquiry, and after organizing the language, he said with a smile: "It's a pleasure to meet you, I believe you also know something about me before." In addition, I would like to say sorry to my assistant, Miss Wendy, because this 37-page speech is so much that it takes me too long to read it from the script, which is very bad!"

"You're the boss, you have the final say!"

Looking at Guo Shouyun's eyes, Wendy, who was a little stunned, shrugged her shoulders slightly, and said with a little helplessness in her tone.

The conversation between the two drew a commotion from PayPal employees and even a few whistles. It's not hard to understand that PayPal's corporate culture is to break the mold. They love to see all sorts of unusual tones. Guo Shouyun's performance suited their appetite very well.

"For PayPal's business, I really appreciate the interest, so there is this acquisition. Of course, my strategy team has been opposed to my acquisition of PayPal throughout the process. I asked them why, and they told me that four of the six founders of PayPal had ever made explosive~ bombs and were out-and-out violent elements. I said it didn't matter, when I was in middle school in Huck, I used to point my adoptive father's hunting rifle at the head of that disgusting gym teacher with racist views, and I told him, 'If he dares to call me a yellow monkey again,' I'd blow him in the head, and the soft guy got into it. Although I paid the price later, I don't regret it. Of course, I don't say this because I'm advocating violence. It's about appreciating this kind of guy who is crazy in his bones, because I believe in the successological idea that 'if you want to be successful, you can't follow the rules'. ”

However, the above reasons are not enough to convince my strategy team, they are a shrewd and stubborn bunch. So they quickly said to me: Boss, PayPal is still for you. Because their founder, Pete Thiel, thinks every basketball player is an idiot, and you're the main guard for the Stanford Cardinals. In addition to that, they don't recruit any union employees, as well as MBAs, fraternity members, consultants, and more. Also, PayPal doesn't fit into the corporate culture of LinkedIn and Google. ”

Guo Shouyun's words fell, and a young man in a plaid shirt sitting in front of him on his right was stunned, and couldn't help but pull the corners of his mouth. Although he was mentioned by the new boss, he didn't say much.

“… They do have a point. But I thought about it for a moment and told my team of advisors that I was buying PayPal from Phoenix Investments, not Google and LinkedIn. So I never thought about integrating it into LinkedIn or Google, and PayPal should grow independently and then go public. As for my basketball, it turns out I'm not a muscular idiot, and now I have a master's degree in computer science from Stanford, a bachelor's degree in economics and history, and I'm a genius with an IQ of over 140 in English, Chinese, and Spanish. Therefore, such a me should fit the needs of the PayPal team. ”

"My strategy team listened to me and knew I was determined to buy PayPal. They ended up telling me that PayPal people reject headhunters, they never hire employees, they don't want professional managers, they don't want people who jump from big companies, they don't need PhDs, they only hire their friends or people who dropped out of college like Bill Gates. ”

"I said it didn't matter, because I just 'dropped out' of Stanford in April this year. In addition, no matter what form of recruitment, as long as he is a talent and has respectable moral cultivation, then even if he is a criminal, I am willing to give him a chance. ”

"So, you see, I'm such a good fit with PayPal. I didn't intend to change PayPal's corporate culture, nor did I plan to develop it into a vassal of LinkedIn, Google, or any Internet company, but to become the No1 in the Internet payment field!"

'Whoa', thunderous applause rang out again, this time more enthusiastically than before. Because Guo Shouyun's words clarified his attitude towards PayPal, calmed the confusion among employees about the company's future after the company was acquired, and stabilized people's hearts.

For founders and management such as Pete Thiel, Max Levine, Red Hoffman, Chen Shijun, Peter Thiel, etc., yPal is still the company's elders if it grows independently, and such a future is undoubtedly more promising than becoming a subsidiary of LinkedIn or Google.

Noticing the change in the expressions of these people, Guo Shouyun nodded secretly in his heart. Although the elite of the PayPal gang is now missing a small number such as Elon Musk, these already have made him salivate. Therefore, before thinking about how to maximize the use of these talents, it is very important to use the promise of PayPal's future listing to stabilize people's hearts and let them stay at PayPal.

"Okay, that's all I have to say. … Pete, I know that PayPal operates in an open way, and all employees can see detailed data on the company's customer records, revenue data, fraud losses, and capital expenditures. So I'll just ask,... What is the number of registered users of PayPal right now?"

"The registration data so far is 1.052 million!"

Pete Thiel, who was wearing a black jacket and also the CEO of PayPal, stood up and replied.

"What about the transaction limit?"

"$77.3 million!"

Guo Shouyun nodded, "According to the 1% handling fee charging ratio, PayPal has generated a gross profit of 773,000 so far!"

"Yes! It's not much, but we're growing fast, with an average weekly growth rate of 48.5% from receiving Phoenix Capital in July! That is, PayPal's user and transaction limits are doubling every two months. Pete Thiel spoke with pride.

Guo Shouyun glanced at him, and he also had the pride and confidence of the company he founded. He could understand Pete Thiel's feelings. But as an acquirer, he wants to suppress that sentiment and increase his presence in PayPal.

Of course, it's not that hard. In later generations, he saw more Alipay and some strategies used in later development. So, it's easy to give some advice to the immature PayPal.

"You've really been very productive with PayPal. But in my opinion, PayPal has a lot of room for improvement now!"

His words instantly attracted the attention of Pete Thiel, Red Hoffman, and others.

Looking at their unconvinced eyes, Guo Shouyun was not surprised. The heart of a genius is always proud.

"PayPal is now just a simple payment tool, or instant payment tool. After the two parties to the transaction agree on the price, the transfer is made through PayPal, and PayPal is not responsible for the consequences of the transfer. This is PayPal's current business model!" After a pause, Guo Shouyun's eyes quickly swept over everyone, "This business model is feasible, but in my opinion, it is still relatively rudimentary. Because it doesn't address the security of the transaction. ”

"I'm sorry to interrupt. Transaction security should be the responsibility of both parties to the transaction, and PayPal is only an Internet payment company, not an insurance company!"

A young man with eyes unceremoniously interrupted Guo Shouyun's words.

Guo Shouyun, who had long had a deep understanding of PayPal's high-level structure, quickly recognized him as Max Levine, one of the founders of PayPal.

"It's true that PayPal is not an insurance company, but if this transaction does not reassure both parties to the transaction, why should I use PayPal? What if I am scammed? I think this question will arise on both sides of any transaction when making an online transaction." After all, the Internet is virtual, and the two sides of a transaction may be separated by the entire United States. Of course, as Mike said, we can leave these issues to the insurance company to solve, or leave it to both parties to share the risk. But in this case, what about the development of PayPal? Is it simply waiting for others to solve the problem, and then use PayPal to transact? In this case, why can't they set up their own Internet payment company, anyway, the business model does not need a patent?!"

Guo Shouyun's words successfully made most of the people present fall into thought. Before, they developed too smoothly, and many problems were not encountered, and naturally they would not think of solving them. Moreover, the well-established legal system in the United States, as well as the security procedures of e-commerce sites such as eBay and Amazon themselves, make this issue, which is very prominent in China, less prominent in the United States. Moreover, there are still too few people who actually trade online. There are only 60 or 70 million Internet users in the United States.

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