"Please elaborate on this project in detail. After I just listened, your expressions were all conceptual descriptions and lacked substantive imagination."
Li Jingyi had already received a master's degree from Berkeley and joined Goldman Sachs as a full-time investment manager.
As a Chinese woman who has been educated since the founding of the People's Republic of China that women hold up half the sky, Li Jingyi is naturally not satisfied with serving another person's life's purpose, and in order to avoid suspicion, she does not even work in emerging investments.
Li Jingyi’s academic background and internship experience are enough to support her entry into Goldman Sachs. Of course, she can start directly as an investment manager after joining Goldman Sachs, instead of starting as an assistant. Zhou Xin is naturally behind it.
The young man with a bit of a nerdy temperament in front of him just said a lot about why people are keen on anonymous social networking and why POSTSecret can be a great success.
Li Jingyi listened for ten minutes without knowing what product the man in front of her wanted to create.
If it were Zhou Xin, he would definitely be able to recognize him at a glance, Zuckerberg, the founder of FB.
But Li Jingyi obviously didn't know who the other party was. She met Zuckerberg because the other party's academic qualifications, resume and background looked good, and Li Jingyi believed that he might be a valuable potential investment target.
Li Jingyi does not want to get too much help from Zhou Xin, which also results in her having too few resources compared with other investment managers.
Li Jingyi's network of contacts is large and wide enough. She knows all the big names in the Bay Area, and others also know her. The problem is that it is not her turn to invest in the entrepreneurial projects of big names.
Unless Zhou Xin helps her, and Li Jingyi doesn't want to do that, if Zhou Xin helps her get investment projects, it would be better to work in Xinxing Investment.
Zuckerberg murmured: "Madam, I can only tell you that my entrepreneurial project is based on anonymous community software. I will use POSTSecret as the object to create anonymous software in the mobile Internet field.
But I can't tell you more information because it involves commercial confidentiality. "
Li Jingyi, who was in working mode, was able to quickly grasp the key points, "You just mentioned anonymous social networking and PostSecret. Why should I invest in you instead of directly investing in PostSecret?
POSTSecret also has a mobile app.
What's more important is that the information you disclosed is too little, and I can't make a judgment based on such little information. "
Because of the popularity of the mobile Internet and the popularity of Mphones on campus, the current favorite thing for college student entrepreneurs is mobile applications.
In other words, the web page isn’t cool enough, doesn’t fit in with current trends, and is a relic of the past.
Zuckerberg looked embarrassed. To be honest, creativity is king in many Internet applications. Especially for small entrepreneurs, if you do not use creativity to gain enough advantages in the early stage, other Internet companies will take advantage of your creativity later. Come to surround you.
But let’s not talk about it, and he can’t get investment. If he just makes a web page, he can build it first and get initial users before looking for investment. But mobile applications cannot, because mobile applications involve too many aspects, and he can’t handle it alone. It's not okay to trick classmates into helping.
Because in Zuckerberg's design, they had to access electronic payment software in the early stages. Zuckerberg had already thought about the profit model of this mobile software from the beginning.
It is precisely because of the emergence of Zhou Xin that startups in Silicon Valley are now very particular about profit models. Especially after the burst of the Nasdaq bubble, profit models have become increasingly important.
Zuckerberg was able to find Li Jingyi also because of Peter Thiel.
In the original time and space, Peter Thiel was the first investor in Facebook. He invested in Facebook because Zuckerberg created a website to rate the appearance of female classmates when he was studying at Harvard. It was this website that attracted Peter's attention. Zuckerberg.
Now Peter Thiel is in charge of NewPay, a global electronic payment giant. He has no energy to be an investor, but he still noticed Zuckerberg.
In view of the good personal relationship with Zhou Xin and Li Jingyi, Peter Thiel introduced Zuckerberg to Li Jingyi.
It was also because of Peter Thiel's face that Li Jingyi listened to the nerdy young man in front of her for so long. As a result, the concepts he talked about further proved that his temperament was consistent with reality.
"I wonder if you know about the website I made before - Facemash"
After finishing speaking, Zuckerberg briefly introduced the website. As a woman, Li Jingyi obviously doesn’t like others to comment on her appearance, even if she is good-looking.
A professional investor needs to avoid personal emotional factors affecting rational decision-making as much as possible. Li Jingyi did not interrupt the other party, but listened to the other party continue.
After Zuckerberg finished talking about Facemash, he continued: "POSTSecret's anonymous social network is passive anonymous social network. They give the initiative completely to the users. What the users say, what users publish, and hot topics in the community are decided by the users. .
The disadvantage of this is that no matter how many users there are, there is no guarantee that there will be explosive content every day.
The anonymous social software I want to build is for us to create topics and allow users to discuss our topics. Of course, if the topics initiated by the users themselves are interesting enough, we will also adopt them.
I very much agree with the concept of 'fragmented time' mentioned by Newman at this year's Mphone Developer Conference.
The reason why we want to make a mobile application instead of a web page is precisely because we found that mobile applications can better seize users' fragmented time. One of our major features compared with POSTSecret is that we design the topics ourselves.
We plan to start with colleges and universities across the United States. I know very well what young people at Amerikan University like to discuss, what they like to talk about, and what kind of topics they are interested in.
By building an anonymous community, they can express their views and opinions without restraint. "
It is obvious that Zuckerberg does not intend to build a social networking site based on the Facebook model. This is because WeChat and Moments are mature enough, resulting in sites like Facebook not having such a large market.
When the Internet is entering the mobile Internet era, with Weibo and WeChat at the same time, doing Facebook is tantamount to courting death.
Even with the classmate registration function, when users use Facebook to find the classmates they are looking for, they will eventually turn to WeChat to chat.
Therefore, Zuckerberg’s goal in starting this business is anonymous social networking, which is an area not covered by WeChat.
When Zuckerberg met, the Chinese woman had an expressionless face and seemed to be thinking. He continued: "We have already thought of a clear profit model. This is the biggest difference between us and other entrepreneurs."
After saying this, Zuckerberg also remained silent. Li Jingyi said: "I need to take a look at the website you have built before, which is the Facemash you just mentioned. I will reply to you within a week."
The other party didn't want much, just 500,000 US dollars and 30% of the shares. Li Jingyi could decide to invest this amount of money in the other party.
You must know that Goldman Sachs rents 150,000 square meters of office space in Silicon Valley every year, with annual rents of up to US$12 million. However, this office space has been idle and no one is using it.
Goldman Sachs' Bay Area office is in San Francisco, which means that Goldman Sachs spends $12 million a year on wasted money.
Money is a trivial matter to Li Jingyi, but she has not started investing in projects since joining Goldman Sachs. She hopes that her first project will have a good start. Li Jingyi is not so confident whether the other party's anonymous social networking can be achieved.
After returning to the car after chatting with Zuckerberg, Li Jingyi saw a new WeChat message on her Mphone. When she opened it, she found that it was a WeChat red envelope sent by Zhou Xin. The red cover had the words "Gong Xi Fa Cai" in Chinese characters, full of Chinese national elements.
"How about it? Do you think this idea is great?"
After Li Jingyi clicked on the red envelope, she found it was worth 200 US dollars. She replied with a few messages: "It's really creative."
“The question is, can foreigners understand what Gong Xi Fa Cai means?”
Zhou Xin: "It seems that you haven't watched TV for a long time. WeChat red envelope advertising videos are full of major TV programs, and they are explained in detail in the advertising videos."
"It's definitely very attractive to Chinese people, but I'm skeptical about the effect on other ethnic groups."
"I can't help it. I've been too busy with work recently. I haven't been able to open the business and I'm under great pressure." Li Jingyi replied.
Zhou Xin: "Would you like me to help you find out which of the projects you have has investment value?"
Li Jingyi shook her head and said, "I'll try it on my own first. If it doesn't work, I'll ask you again."
After sending it, she sat in the car, thinking about the project. To be honest, the other person's academic qualifications, experience, and Peter Thiel's recommendation made this project reliable enough.
Including the website Facemash, Li Jingyi had seen it before coming to chat. She knew what type of website it was, so she was inclined to invest in this project. However, anonymous social networking, Li Jingyi always felt that she might not be able to do it.
Because WeChat firmly holds the No. 1 position in instant messaging in the mobile Internet era, even if Nokia and Motorola refuse WeChat to enter their platforms, this cannot shake WeChat's status.
Making anonymous social software can defeat the same function of supporting anonymity. Li Jingyi is skeptical about the success of the project.
When Li Jingyi returned home in the evening, while she was still answering work emails, she saw another email coming, from Zuckerberg:
"Ms. Li, I would like to say a few more words. Our product plans to start in Boston because there are a large number of universities here. It is the city with the most universities in the United States. We plan to capture the college student population here first."
After Zuckerberg finished chatting with Li Jingyi, he talked to Peter Thiel, who asked him to seize this opportunity as much as possible: "Ms. Li's public identity is just an ordinary investment manager at Goldman Sachs, but she is also Newman's girlfriend.
This identity allows her to provide you with a lot of unexpected resources, which is also an important reason why I recommend you to find her. "
After Zuckerberg learned about Li Jingyi's other identity, he became eager to obtain investment from the other party. Originally, he considered that it would be okay if he could not get investment from Goldman Sachs. He had other networks to rely on. Looking for investment from Harvard alumni is also a way.
When Li Jingyi was reading emails in the study, Zhou Xin walked up behind her and saw the sender's name: Zuckerberg. Then Zhou Xin took a closer look at the beginning of the email and said:
"Looks pretty good, at least he knows how to catch the young ones."
Li Jingyi's already inclined balance turned completely to the other side after hearing this: "Really?
I also think this project is good”
After briefly describing it, Li Jingyi said: “I’m just curious about what profit model he mentioned?
PostSecret has not found a profit model for anonymous software for so long. Has he really found it?
If anonymous social software has a profit model other than advertising, then POSTSecret's valuation will be much more than that. "
Zhou Xin laughed and said: “It’s nothing more than a paid membership model. After paying, the anonymous software will provide members with some additional services.
The most common way to play is to unlock an anonymous identity. For example, if we met on an anonymous software, it requires us to reply to each other 100 sentences to unlock each other's true identity.
The membership requirement has been reduced to 50 sentences.
It’s just that the number of people paying will have high requirements for the quality of software users, so only more women than men will be willing to pay. "
Zhou Xin nicely revealed the essence of the rise of social software - solving basic human needs.
This is true whether it is a WeChat drift bottle.
Li Jingyi looked at Zhou Xin with admiring eyes, then kissed him and said: "The only problem now is how their software can compete with PostSecret.
When everyone knows the profit model of anonymous software, competitors are the big problem. "
Zhou Xin said helplessly: "This is not an issue you need to consider.
How much did you invest in him? "
Li Jingyi said: "Fifty thousand US dollars, 30% of the shares."
After finishing speaking, Li Jingyi reacted, but Zhou Xin’s words had already reached her ears: “That’s right, the valuation is only US$1.6 million.
Even if POSTSecret competes with it, as long as the product itself is good enough, it will make a lot of money if it gets one-tenth of POSTSecret's valuation.
This valuation does not require so much consideration.
Why are the investment institutions on Wall Street rushing to invest in electronic payment software regardless of its size, even if it only has a few thousand users?
It’s not just the idea of casting a wide net, and as long as one fish is acquired by other Internet companies, they will also make money. "
After signing the investment agreement the next day, Li Jingyi told Zuckerberg Zhou Xin’s ideas about the profit model. After hearing this, Zuckerberg was shocked:
"Can you think of our profit model in one day?"
He then thought about it and guessed that the other party had asked Newman for advice, which made him admire Newman even more. They had been thinking about the profit model for a long time in the dormitory, and Newman guessed it as soon as he heard it.
Li Jingyi said: "I heard from my friend that I know a very powerful product manager."
Zuckerberg thought that was indeed the case, and then said: "Our profit model is roughly like this, but it is definitely more than that.
We have also designed a lot of details to allow users to pay differently. "
Let me briefly talk about yesterday's writing, which Crow admitted was not good, but yesterday's one did not use AI, and all the content in it was based on the world line. How could AI help Crow write press releases based on the timeline.
In addition, the reason why I wrote that content is because I committed an occupational disease by writing too much in the report. I will try to reduce the relevant content as much as possible later.
(End of chapter)
