After agreeing to invest in aerospace with Elon Musk, Li Mu suddenly had a deeper understanding of the middle-aged man in front of him.
Foresight is a rare skill for an entrepreneur, and the further and more accurate the foresight is, the greater the entrepreneur's room for development.
Elon Musk saw the broad prospects of commercial satellite launches at least before 2002, which is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Even now, most people dare not imagine that any company will launch its own satellites in the future. , in most people’s minds, satellites, like missiles, are super hardware that can only be operated by the state machine. However, within a few years, a large number of the world’s top 500 companies will have developed their own satellites, and they will be deployed around the world. Find the most cost-effective launch service within the range.
What Space-X sees is a future market that is difficult for others to see.
Elon Musk's vision makes Li Mu feel inferior to him in this regard.
At this time, Elon Musk did not expect that his commercial aerospace plan would be recognized by Li Mu. This was really not easy.
He once told many people about this idea, but unfortunately, almost everyone felt that there was something wrong with their brains, and no one recognized him, let alone let them invest money. Now, Li Mu not only recognized his idea , and was willing to invest a lot of money to support himself, which really moved him to the point where a man would die for his bosom friend.
Elon Musk said with emotion: "Boss, it's really not easy to meet someone like you. I have been looking for investors for Space-X for so long, and no one except you is willing to invest a penny. So much so that I have already made a decision. When the time comes to cash out my PayPal shares, I will cash out immediately and invest myself..."
Li Mu smiled and said: "The reason why I am willing to invest is not because I am optimistic about this project. The main reason is that I am very optimistic about you. I think the most intelligent investment should not be based on project investment, but should be based on people's investment." , I think you have great potential, so I will invest in you."
After that, Li Mu added: "I invested several million dollars in a college student at Harvard a few days ago. He has nothing but a computer and an IDEA. But it doesn't matter. I am optimistic about him and I believe he can succeed. Like I believe you can make it.”
"Boss, thank you. You can trust me so much. This is really the greatest recognition for me!"
Elon Musk was really moved by the young man in front of him who was ten years younger than him. When he heard this, he was stunned for a few seconds, and his eyes turned red unconsciously.
Sometimes, entrepreneurs who aspire to innovate are like a lone boat traveling in a sea of hardships. In this vast sea full of dangers, they cannot see anyone who is going in the same direction as themselves. They are lonely and always fearful. In this case, what he hopes most is to meet like-minded people and travel together to relieve loneliness and reduce fear.
However, on this unique route, it is difficult to meet like-minded people. Even if you occasionally cross paths with others, instead of being unwilling to lend a helping hand, they will laugh at your own direction and your own inability to do anything. So weak.
Elon Musk felt that he was like a lone traveler driving such a small boat, while Li Mu was the master of a huge fleet. Not only did he recognize his choice, he even picked out one from his fleet. Give the giant ship to yourself and say to yourself: "Drive this big ship forward. I believe you can find the new continent you want!"
Seeing Elon Musk's eyes turn red, Li Mu knew that his strategy to attack people's hearts was somewhat effective. Elon Musk may not be able to match Mark Zuckerberg in terms of his ability to make money, but this person is really too good. It’s unusual. Although he made his first pot of gold through the Internet, he is unwilling to continue to develop in this industry and follow the rules of this industry. He chose two unprecedented paths, and facts have proved that these two paths were not originally The road was opened up by him into two Yangguan avenues by himself, and such a talent would always be by his side no matter what.
So, Li Mu said to him: "Elon, I appreciate your unique ideas and thinking patterns that are different from others. My current personal cash flow can be said to be very abundant. If you have other Idea, even if it is just an idea that you are not sure about, as long as you want to do it, you can tell me and I will invest in you again without hesitation, and it will be at least a scale of more than 100 billion US dollars."
Elon Musk was completely stunned. The weight of Li Mu's words was too heavy, which made his original feeling towards Li Mu sublime even more.
In fact, the reason why Li Mu said this was to get the Tesla project out of him.
Li Mu wants his Tesla more than Space-X.
Although Space-X is awesome, its applicability is far less than Tesla. What makes Tesla awesome is that they have led a new era. New energy vehicles are completely a new industry driven by Tesla. Let’s not start with it. When it comes to profits, the impact alone is beyond the reach of ordinary projects.
Moreover, according to Elon Musk’s previous technical chain statement, Tesla’s technical chain is more mature and has greater applicability for expansion. In Li Mu’s impression, Tesla has strong expertise in electric motors, battery management, autonomous driving, etc. There are very strong technological accumulations in all general directions, so much so that Toyota, the originator of hybrid cars, has also purchased batteries and motors from Tesla for a long time.
Li Mu particularly wanted to directly convince Tesla's start-up team in its early days to use a large sum of money to acquire a large portion of their shares. Then with the money, they could start quickly and engage in research and development. , while building production lines, the technical foundation and industrial foundation are developing rapidly at the same time, then Tesla’s development speed will definitely exceed its development speed in its previous life.
In the past life, Tesla's biggest development constraints were insufficient production capacity and lack of production lines and product lines. In the final analysis, it was because Internet companies had no real industry accumulation.
Take Tesla as an example. The company itself is not a car manufacturing company, but a research project that a few geeks got together to do. When they were doing technology research and development, they didn’t have much money on hand. Almost all the funds are spent on research and development, so they have no foundation in the industrial field. After they have a full set of technology patents, they still need to attract investment from everywhere, and then build factories and production lines brick by brick.
After Tesla has been developing for more than ten years, the number of mass-produced models can be counted on one hand, and the production capacity is huge. Orders are scheduled for N years. In this situation, even if you want to speed up, it is very difficult because every production line is It has to be built bit by bit from scratch, and the production capacity is also increased bit by bit. It is impossible to achieve it in one step.
On the other hand, BYD, a company with a solid background, is much more efficient in making electric vehicles than Tesla. It is itself one of the world's top battery manufacturers and has been making cars for ten years. It not only has battery technology and automotive technology, but also There are also battery production lines and automobile production lines. When the two are combined, they can immediately create a variety and large number of electric vehicle products. So much so that as soon as BYD started making electric vehicles, it made a lot of models one after another, including pure electric vehicles. vehicles, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, and even a variety of pure electric buses, pure electric forklifts and trucks.
If Elon Musk wants to upgrade Tesla's product line to the scale of BYD, it will take him at least ten years to achieve it. However, how much market has been missed in these ten years, as long as there is a certain Anyone with thinking ability can figure it out.
Just like China and the Soviet Union during World War II, China had no industrial foundation at that time. Facing a powerful enemy, it wanted to make weapons but couldn't. Even if all the technologies of the 99 main battle tank were given to the Chinese military factory of that era, They still can't build a tank that can run. Using Tesla's purely manual research and development methods, by the time the first tank was tested in the field, World War II was probably over;
But the Soviet Union was completely different from China at that time. They had a very strong industrial base. When wartime came, they could transport the turrets to the tractor factory that produced heavy-duty crawler tractors, and they could immediately produce tanks that could be put into war. This was the industrial base. importance.
Therefore, in Li Mu’s view, the industrial base is the most important issue in the development of Tesla. If you can get the Tesla project, you must invest a lot of money in the construction of Tesla at the very beginning. If Tesla and BYD can be brought together, and with sufficient financial support, Li Mu believes that the spring of new energy vehicles will be available in the 2008 Olympic Games. Come ahead of time!
At this time, Li Mu tentatively asked Elon Musk: "Elon, if there are any good experimental projects in Silicon Valley, you can learn more about them. I am quite interested in this aspect and can make some investments."
Li Mu has always regarded Silicon Valley as a sacred place in his heart. He knows Silicon Valley very well. Silicon Valley is not only home to a lot of Internet companies, but also a lot of emerging technology companies that focus on the future. Cisco is a super company born in Silicon Valley, and so is Tesla. Same.
However, most of these companies had to struggle to survive online for a long time when they were first founded. Because they were so experimental, most of them were not even considered companies, but just a few geeks. Just doing some research together, this is how Apple started.
Many similar small groups have very interesting technologies in their hands, but they can't even get a valuation of several million dollars. It's hard to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, so they can only move forward bit by bit. Many even died directly on the road to entrepreneurship.
If we can dig out a few good projects and invest in them at this time, we will definitely have great potential in the future.
When Elon Musk heard Li Mu's question, he smiled slightly and said casually: "Some time ago, a friend came to me and asked me to invest in a project. He said that they used a large number of laptop batteries to assemble an electric car. , and the overall performance of the car is pretty good, it sounds interesting, but I haven’t made an appointment with them yet... "
When Li Mu heard this, he was so excited that he almost shouted. The reason why he was so excited was because he knew in his heart that the project Elon Musk was talking about was the predecessor of Tesla!
(End of chapter)