In the end, Li Feng took Zach and Bob with him, and the three of them headed towards Silicon Valley together.

For this trip to Silicon Valley, Li Feng actually has three purposes, one is to get a mortgage and find a guarantor, the second is to find a line that can be related to Netscape, and the third is to understand the progress of Netscape's IPO and prepare for his investment in Netscape.

For the above three purposes, it is all up to venture capital institutions, after all, companies like Netscape generally accept venture capital at the beginning, and it will be very convenient if Sequoia Capital can help them connect.

At the same time, whether it is Mark Anderson, Michael Moretz, Don Valentine of Sequoia, or Duljohn of KPCB, there is a chill down the spine.

Li Feng named his trip a wealth hunt for gold, thinking that if he could get a loan and get some shares before Netscape's IPO, wouldn't it be a veritable wealth quest.

Li Feng is already coveted by Netscape, and he has been planning since he invested in Yahoo online, just for this day.

Although Li Feng doesn't know when Netscape will be listed, it has already entered April, and it should be soon.

......

When it comes to Netscape listings, it's about IPOs (initial public offerings) of U.S. companies. Recently, Li Feng has made up some basic knowledge in this area. After all, I may often be exposed to this aspect in the future, and I still need to have a certain understanding.

At this time, Netscape's listing plan doesn't know what stage it has reached, and it may be already looking for an investment bank to start "baking", and often investment banks call the whole process of a company's IPO a "baking competition".

Once a company is ready to go public, the company already has the conditions for "baking", that is, the process by which major investment banks win the competition for the underwriting of pre-listed companies.

In fact, many places are directly called "beauty pageants", and investment banking companies enter the conference rooms of the listed companies one by one to publicize and offer their own services, hoping to undertake the IPO process.

It is quite a bit of a corporate beauty pageant, and the "beauty" here is the investment bank, at this time, the company takes the initiative, and the corresponding price is much smaller.

Of course, this is under the premise that listed companies are generally optimistic, and those investment banks will come to compete.

However, if on the contrary, the investment bank of the listed company is not very optimistic, then it will be the other way around, and the company will go to the investment bank, hoping to go public through the operation of the investment bank.

At this time, the initiative is in the investment bank, and the corresponding price will be greater.

......

For example, in the previous life, like A, the whole world was optimistic about its prospects, and at that time, basically the world's big investment banks would go to Ali, and at this time, Ali took the initiative and could choose calmly.

The Ali management team chooses the most suitable winner for themselves, and this winner becomes the leading investment bank in the Ali IPO prospectus.

One of them is a leading investment bank, which gives control and most of the remuneration in the investment bank's underwriting team.

In the past life, it is said that Ali paid the investment bank underwriting team only 300 million US dollars, so whoever will become the leading investment bank will get the most benefit from this remuneration.

It can be said that from the very beginning, investment banks have begun to compete for the position of leading investment banks.

As for Netscape, although Li Feng from later generations is very clear about the grand situation after his listing, others don't know.

As far as Li Feng knows about the situation, the Internet tide - bubble feast has not really started, and no one knows what the stock price will be after listing, except for Li Feng.

As the first Internet company to go public, Netscape is actually not very insured in the eyes of investment banks, so if Netscape is listed for IPO, it is estimated that Netscape should ask investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for help.

......

After talking about the first stage, then the second stage is that the leading investment bank will file an S-1 (prospectus) document with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for the pre-listed company.

This document contains a detailed description of the pre-listed company, including the business, law, business branches, funds to be raised, financial status, management team evaluation, etc.

The SEC then releases the information of the pre-listed company for public comment, a process that typically takes several months. At the same time, this is also the time to show the strength of investment banking.

The third stage is the so-called "roadshow", which is actually a process of distributing dividends.

Investment banks will produce relevant information about pre-listed companies and present them to some investment institutions, funds, and even individuals, and these investors will buy some shares before going public.

Roadshows are usually about 7-10 days long, and include interviews between investors and corporate management, where institutional investors will indicate how many shares they want to buy at what price, and then the investment bank will record this information into a book, known as building the book.

After the roadshow, the investment bank will proceed with the allocation of shares, which will take into account the stability and liquidity of the stock price.

......

The last step is pricing, that is, determining the listing price.

Generally, this price will be much higher than the price purchased by those investment institutions and investors during the previous roadshow, which is why I say that the roadshow is a process of distributing dividends.

When the stock price rises, it proves that it is a successful IPO, and if the final stock price is lower than the issue price, it is a failed IPO.

In the previous life, "FB" seemed to be very bullish, with a market value of hundreds of billions, but many people may not know that "FB" is known as one of the most failed IPOs in history. The initial issue price was $42, but the stock price fell to $38 that day, breaking the issue price.

......

Li Feng's goal this time is to see if he can buy some shares through venture capital institutions through the roadshow or even earlier, or directly contact Netscape to see if he can buy directly.

According to the current situation, the Internet tide has not yet started, and under unclear circumstances, if Li Feng can borrow enough money, or even directly contact Netscape, he is willing to bear a part of the shares.

Whether it is Netscape or investment banks, they may support Li Feng's proposal to reduce the risk of IPO.

After all, if the IPO fails, the reputation of both investment banks and listed companies will have a huge impact.

Of course, if you can't buy the previous shares, you can only buy them in the stock market, and considering the situation of Netscape, you may be able to increase your income by 1, 2, or even several times.

......

Li Feng is also thinking about it, I don't know what the issue price of Netscape is, if he buys millions of shares cheaply, he will really make a fortune, and it will be a big fortune.

Thinking of this, Li Feng couldn't help but laugh for a while, really, the loan hasn't arrived yet, and he can't help but feel depressed, he is still too poor, otherwise he wouldn't have to be so troublesome.