Ligang started working the day after he arrived.

Through his alumni network, he searched non-stop, and as soon as he found a suitable candidate, he tried to get in touch with them, actively introduced them to Kuang-Chi, and even flew over to meet them and encourage them to join Kuang-Chi Technology.

Li Hua also contacted several headhunters in the aerospace field to recruit various talents for us.

The first position to be recruited is the chief engineer of rocket design, the head of the launch vehicle design and R&D team, and a master who can take charge of the technology alone.

Without such a general technical leader, with me, Li Hua and Li Gang, the three laymen, Kuang-Chi's technology research and development team would not have been able to be built.

After three weeks of searching, comparing, initial contact, and online communication, we identified nearly nine Chief Engineer candidates and sent them an invitation email to come to Silicon Valley Kuang-Chi for interviews.

Of course, travel expenses such as air tickets and hotels are all reimbursed by Kuang-Chi.

In the end, however, only one candidate accepted the invitation for an on-site interview: Indian Kumar. Sweat.

Kumar is now the head of rocket design at AB Space, a space technology company in Long Beach, California.

He holds a Ph.D. in aerospace from the California Institute of Technology (yes, the school in The Big Bang Theory) and spent fifteen years at AB Space after graduation, working his way up from junior engineer to head of design.

A headhunter recommended him to us, and Ligang had already talked to him a few times, and he was very interested.

That Sunday, Kumar drove from Long Beach to Stanford University's industrial park.

I received him with Li Gang and Li Hua in the large conference room of the Kuang Chi office.

Kumar is of medium-chubby stature, with dark skin and a pair of dark eyes that are alert.

After introducing each other, I invited Kumar to a seat, and Li Hua served him a cup of coffee.

Kumar sipped his coffee from his cup as he peered through the glass of the conference room at the empty office outside the room.

"Mr. Zeng, are there only three people in your company right now?"

He was slightly taken aback.

"Yes, our company has just been established and is still in the process of building a team."

Ligang answered for me.

"You are one of the first candidates to come for an interview." I added.

"Oh, I'm honored!" Kumar asked a little proudly, "Mr. Zeng, LG has already introduced Kuang-Chi Company to me on the Internet earlier. But you are the founder of the company, can you tell us more about your company's development plan? ”

"Kumar, I'm glad you came to meet us. Although Kuang-Chi is a newly established company, we have ambitious goals, a first-class founding team, ample capital and a large potential customer market. ”

Anyway, if you want to recruit people now, you should blow it or blow it.

I don't have the confidence to brag about myself, how can I convince others?

Kumar was a little interested.

He put down his coffee cup and leaned forward towards me, looking like he was listening.

I silently took a deep breath and continued driving:

"Kuang-Chi Technology's goal is to become the world's leading space transportation and travel service company. You know we're from China, which has the largest number of billionaires and middle class in the world, and our potential customer market is the largest in the world.

Because of this, our company's shareholders are full of confidence in the future development of Kuang-Chi Technology, and have prepared sufficient capital for the company to raise, and the first phase will be in place for 100 million US dollars.

As for the team, I am a serial entrepreneur myself, and I am the founder and majority shareholder of China's largest Internet technology company, Yewang Technology Group, which is now worth more than $30 billion. LG is a Ph.D. from MIT, and Lily is an MBA from Stanford, formerly a senior manager of strategic consulting at MKC Consulting. We have completed the design of the company's market, capital, and business model, and are now recruiting a technical team leader: all responsible for the design, development and manufacturing of the company's products. ”

Kumar listened to my speech and his eyes lit up a little. He respectfully asked again:

"Mr. Zeng, I admire an entrepreneur like you, and I hope I have the opportunity to work for you. I also understand that the position that your company is recruiting now is the head of technology, which is quite important. But your company is a start-up after all, and IMHO, the failure rate is very high, especially in the aerospace sector. I would like to find out, how will you protect me from the risk of unemployment? ”

"What do you mean?"

I didn't understand what he meant, and looked at Ligang for help.

Seeing that I didn't understand, Kumar explained, "I mean, I'm interested in this position. I am also satisfied with the salary that LG told me. But if Kuang-Chi can't do it, I may lose my job. After all, I have a stable job now. Therefore, I hope that your company's offer can include relevant unemployment compensation measures, such as buying an unemployment insurance or something. After all, I have to feed a large family. ”

This time I understood.

It stands to reason that he is not bad at thinking about this. But I feel a little uncomfortable, something is wrong.

He is a migrant worker and a man who puts the breadwinner of his family first.

He's not an entrepreneur.

Such a person cannot bring out an ideal and passionate R&D team.

He's not the guy I want.

I mentally gave Kumar an "X".

"Mr. Han, I understand your concerns. This way we will consider your proposal, and then LG will give you a clear reply. Why don't you talk about it today? ”

I motioned with my eyes to see off the guests.

Kumar looked at me a little awkwardly, he probably didn't expect me to end the conversation so soon.

Ligang stood up and said to him, "Mr. Han, I'll get back in touch with you." ”

Kumar had no choice but to stand up and say goodbye to us.

When Ligang accompanied him out of the conference room door, Kumar stopped, slowly took out a receipt from his pants pocket and asked Ligang: "LG, this is the gas fee I drove over......

"Understood, how much? I'll give it to you right away. Li Gang immediately took it.

Seeing them walk out of the door of the company, Li Hua and I looked at each other and smiled.

"The boss, the polytechnic man, is still Indian, understandable." Li Hua said: "Ligang and I will hurry up and look for it again!" ”

"Be quick!" I was a little worried and said, "It's almost been a month!" ”

"Understood, boss!"

Li Hua looked at Ligang, who came back from sending off the guests, and said, "Ligang, there are a lot of aerospace engineers among your MIT alumni, can't you catch a master?" We've got everything in place here, all we need is the east wind! ”

Li Gang smiled a little embarrassedly, saluted Li Hua and said, "Obey, Mr. Li!" ”

In anxiety, we waited another week.

Li Gang tried his best to explore everywhere, and even found the MIT alumni office, and finally targeted a person named Alexander. Sholov's alumni.

Alexander is a Russian immigrant, came to New York from Russia with his parents at the age of 5, was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineering School at the age of 16, and received a doctorate degree in aerospace dynamics at the age of 24.

After graduating with his Ph.D., he worked as a power engineer for NASA for four years before joining RocketDesignLab in California as a rocket engine designer, where he helped the company design and launch its first two lightweight rocket products, RDL1 and RDL2.

Since 2009, Alexander has been with Planet Origins as Assistant Chief Designer.

Planet Origins is a leading space and suborbital manufacturing and services company, primarily developing and manufacturing reusable launch vehicles to build service capabilities from suborbital to orbital flight.

Alexander has participated in the R&D, manufacturing and test launch of BO2 and BO3 rocket engines at Planet Origin, and has rich practical experience in the design and development of recyclable rockets, and is a well-known top expert in the industry.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, anti-Russian sentiment in the United States soared, and the Cold War nerves of the US government were strained again.

In 2014, Alexander was investigated by the FBI and the NSA for more than half a year because of his Russian ancestry and his return to Russia to visit relatives in 2013.

Although the investigation into him eventually failed, he was forced to resign from Planet Origins.

After leaving Planet Origins, Alexander, disheartened, returned to his home in Boston, where he had been idle for almost a year.

Ligang reached out to him through the MIT alumni association, has communicated with him several times by email and phone, and invited him to Silicon Valley several times to meet and talk in detail.

Although Alexander is a little interested in the Kuang-Chi project, he is skeptical about our ability as we have few technical professionals in our current team.

So he didn't accept Ligang's invitation.

After listening to Ligang's report, I felt that Alexander was exactly the talent we needed now.

"Since he won't come, we'll go!"

I said to Li Gang: "Sincerity, gold and stone are open!" With the sincerity of our Chinese, I don't believe that this Russian guy can't be handled! ”

"Then I'll make an appointment with him first? Will he see us? ”

Li Gang said a little worriedly.

"No appointment, hurry up," I said.

"We booked a flight to Boston early tomorrow morning! Will he see each other when we get there? ”