"Hi, my brother, Jeff, are you okay?" Li Haiping and Jeff are high school classmates, and with the relationship between neighbors, they can be called iron buddies. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Oh, you guys have time to call me? What an eye-opener for God. Jeff was on the phone to his boss, and he was suddenly surprised to receive a call from Li Haiping.

"It's not like you don't have my phone, why do you have to need me to call you?" The relationship between the two doesn't care about this little detail, "Get down to business!" It was the boss who asked me to call you today. I heard that you called your boss early in the morning, and you didn't even sleep well, and the boss was very angry! ”

"The boss is still sleeping? Oh my God, the boss must be a pig in the zodiac! "Jeff is not stupid, he can calculate the time difference between China and the United States, so he is naturally very impressed.

"Don't sigh. It's not a good habit to speak ill of your boss behind your back, and I heard that you were fired last time at IDG because of this habit. Li Haiping saw that his boss was looking at him very seriously, pressed down and wanted to reminisce, and said, "Although what you said is reasonable, let's talk about the matter of you calling the boss at the moment!" Now the boss is by my side. ”

"Angel Capital has invested in many Internet companies, among which the seed round of financing funds of Blogger, eBay and ICQ, which the boss is most concerned about, has been exhausted. In particular, ICQ's Series A funding round is urgent, and according to Goldenfinger, ICQ's funds will be exhausted within a month at the latest. The same is true for eBay, where Blogger may have more money. Jeff first introduced the basic situation of the three network companies' own funds, "This call to the boss, the main reason is to hope that the boss will give some advice on this!" ”

After listening to Li Haiping's translation, Liu thought for a while and said, "Jeff, let's tell me about the operation of the three network companies first. ”

"Because of its novelty, the blogging service website quickly became popular in the United States with its novel creativity. Blogger provides blogging services on a large scale, although he has grown at an astonishing rate, reaching 4 million users today, and once set a record of more than 400,000 registered users in a single month. But in the nearly six months that Bloger has been online, it has not made any money, not even an online advertising business. Boss, the $10 million you invested in the original capital is almost gone, and the development team is trying to reverse the decline and is ready to introduce a paid model for blogspot, but I vetoed it. ”

Since Meg Whitman joined, eBay has rapidly formalized and grown rapidly, with registered users being the largest auction site in the United States. At present, eBay has more than 2 million registered users, and eBay is very popular, especially among lovers who collect PEZ candy boxes, Barbie dolls and other items, it has the absolute right to speak and market share. At present, eBay has occupied 53% of the market in the United States, and in the past six months, its transaction volume has exceeded 8 million US dollars, which is deeply loved by users and investors. ”

"ICQ was the fastest growing of the three Internet companies, and once it was launched, it received an immediate global response, and with its unprecedented creativity, it quickly gained a large number of users around the world, even in Asia, where the Internet was not very developed at that time, the market accounted for 70% of the number of users. The number of users using ICQ has grown rapidly, and in the past six months, ICQ has become the world's largest instant messaging software. ICQ has 12 million registered users and 1 million regular users. ”

The Internet in Chinese mainland is in the pioneering era, and the development of the Internet in Europe and the United States is much ahead of the mainland. For example, there are too many differences in the coverage area of the telecommunications companies, the speed of Internet access, the amount of profits of the companies, and so on. However, in terms of Internet products, there is not much gap between Europe and the United States compared with the mainland, and it is still an era of recklessness and recklessness of capital, and it is still an era of unlimited creativity.

Liu Si is very satisfied with all aspects of Blogger, eBay, and ICQ, but his vision cannot be limited to one city and one place, but needs to focus on the world, "Jeff, do the three companies have relevant globalization strategies?" ”

"Globalization is the goal of every company, Miel, Goldfinger and others have great ambitions, and when they mentioned Series A financing to me this time, they vaguely conveyed to me the company's ambition of globalization." Jeff has a vivid memory of the vague reminders that Miel, Goldfinger and others had called him recently.

"The three companies need Series A financing, so have you negotiated with the founders or teams of the three companies about the valuation of each company in this financing?" The valuation of the financing of an unlisted company is generally determined by the board of directors, rather than by the market, as is the case with listed companies.

"Blogger is valued at $200 million, eBay is valued at $500 million, and ICQ is valued at $400 million." Jeff had already decided on the valuation of the three companies, so he naturally spoke up without hesitation.

Liu Si frowned slightly at Jeff's valuation of the three companies, "Did you set this offer alone, or did you set it together with the heads of the three companies?" ”

"Sir, this is one of my opinions. At present, the valuation of the three companies has not been determined, and this call boss just wants you to give an opinion! ”

"Is eBay valued at $500 million and other venture capital firms acceptable?" Liu Si, who understands the market value of eBay in later generations, is not optimistic about its valuation.

"Of course, sir. You must know that a few days ago, Amazon went public, and a share was $18, which was much more than Yahoo's market value, reaching more than $800 million. eBay is also an e-commerce concept that is highly sought after by investors, and the current users of eBay far exceed Amazon. "At present, comprehensive e-commerce such as Amazon has not yet made efforts, first, there are not many netizens, second, the scale of comprehensive e-commerce websites has not risen, and third, e-commerce payment is still very difficult.

Liu Si can understand the psychology of investors at this time, as long as he can sell eBay, no matter how high the valuation is, he has no opinion, "As long as eBay has investment institutions or investors to invest, 500 million US dollars will not change." However, the valuations of Blogger and ICQ are not reasonable, with Blogger being valued at $500 million and ICQ at $800 million. ”

"Boss, is the valuation of Blogger and ICQ too high?" When Jeff heard the price given by his boss, he was shocked, especially the valuation of ICQ, which he thought was outrageous. If he were an investor, he would never invest.

"What, are you worried that there are no investment institutions and investors to invest?" Liu Si preached with disdain.

"I ......"

"Don't worry, even if no one invests, then this Series A financing will be jointly invested by Angel Capital and Phoenix Capital." Blogger is a social networking site, and like the instant messaging software ICQ, these websites are very sticky, they can provide traffic, and the role of the company's operation of content sites such as games and portals should not be underestimated.

"But boss, the two investment companies of Angel Capital and Phoenix Capital don't have much money anymore, and they can't jointly invest in the A round of financing of the three companies." Phoenix Capital and Angel Capital should have a total of $70 million, with the valuation of Blogger, eBay, and ICQ as high as $1.8 billion, $70 million is not enough!

"Don't panic, tomorrow you call to ask the heads of the three companies, and you will find out the details of this financing, including the financing amount, the proportion structure of equity and voting rights after financing, the level of valuation, and the ability to participate in Series A financing, investment institutions and investors, etc., and call me again at this time tomorrow." From the bottom of his heart, Liu Si doesn't want this Series A financing to be jointly invested by Angel Capital and Phoenix Capital, and it is not beneficial to eat alone.

The operation of venture capital mainly includes four stages: financing, investment, management and exit. Jeff, Daphne and others have worked in IDG, and they are familiar with the four stages of financing, investment, management, and exit, but they are not familiar with them, because most of the employees of Phoenix Capital and Angel Capital are talents who operate in the two stages of financing and investment.

In the financing stage, the most important issue is how to solve the rights and obligations of investors and managers and the arrangement of interest distribution relationship; In the investment stage, professional venture capital institutions invest venture capital in start-ups with huge growth potential through a series of procedures such as preliminary project screening, due diligence, valuation, negotiation, terms design, and investment structure arrangement.

The management phase solves the problem of "value appreciation". Venture capital institutions mainly realize value appreciation through supervision and services, "supervision" mainly includes participation in the board of directors of the invested enterprise, replacing management team members when the performance of the invested enterprise does not meet the expected goals, etc., and "service" mainly includes helping the invested enterprise improve its business plan, corporate governance structure, and helping the invested enterprise obtain follow-up financing. Value-added management is an important aspect that distinguishes venture capital from other investments.

At present, the operation of the three network companies is still passable, because the previous rapid expansion has covered the problem. In fact, the scarcity of senior management talents in the three companies has caused a great waste of human resources and financial resources in the operation process of the three companies.

And the three companies definitely need an IPO, so the IPO roadshow is not simple, if you only rely on Phoenix Capital and Angel Capital, the IPO of the three companies must be very difficult.

The listed public relations angel capital and Phoenix capital cannot provide it, because the time is too short and there is no background, and the relationship between the SEC, the Treasury and the investment banks and underwriting agencies in the capital market is missing.

That company is not dirty, if risk-free investment institutions and investors favor Blogger, eBay, ICQ, then Liu Si has no choice but not to go public. It's just that it won't be listed, and when the instant messaging market, blog market, and e-commerce market are huge in the future, some European and American governments will definitely implement local protection policies to support local Internet companies.

However, Liu Si will not succumb to the future listing, after all, the value of ICQ, eBay, and Blogger is there, and they can be sold as a whole if they cannot be listed in the future.

In this regard, Liu Si only prayed in his heart, hoping that venture capital companies such as IDG Capital and Sequoia Capital could continue to see as bright!