At the reception, Li Mu and Anne Hathaway were thought to be a surprisingly good match, as was Steve Johnson, CEO of Sequoia Capital.
Steve Johnson, who had been chatting with several big names in the capital circle, had an idea in his mind after seeing Li Mu and Anne Hathaway unknowingly making intimate moves from a distance.
Steve Johnson had been paying attention to Li Mu and saw that he had finished chatting with Spielberg and Anne Hathaway. After leaving several people, Steve Johnson walked up to Spielberg with a wine glass in his hand. He smiled and said to him: "Steven, my friend is missing!"
Spielberg looked up and saw him. He smiled in surprise and said, "Hello Mr. Johnson, it's been a long time! I didn't expect you to be here today."
Steve Johnson smiled slightly and said: "Makino Technology is a partner of Sequoia. How can I not support such a big event?"
After saying that, Steve Johnson looked at Spielberg and asked, "I heard that you have been filming movies in China recently?"
"That's right." Spielberg nodded and said, "I have been busy filming movies recently."
Immediately, Spielberg introduced to Steve Johnson: "Leonardo, Tom Hanks and Anne Hathaway, you should know them all, right?"
"Of course." Steve Johnson said with a smile: "The three are very famous in Hollywood, and they are all actors I like very much."
Spielberg hurriedly introduced to the other three people: "Steve Johnson, CEO of Sequoia Capital."
While Spielberg was introducing himself, Steve Johnson shook hands with the three of them one by one. People from Hollywood know politicians and capitalists very well, so all three of them have heard of Steve Johnson.
Unlike most corporate CEOs who are professional managers, Steve Johnson is also one of the shareholders of Sequoia Capital. In addition, he also owns several private equity funds with outstanding results and is very prestigious in the capital market. Like him This kind of person, simply looking at his own worth, may only be a few tenths of Li Mu, but the key is that he has strong resources in the capital market. As long as he opens his mouth, a large amount of hot money will actively gather at him, and he can gather it anytime and anywhere. To hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in cash, no one dares to look down upon it.
Several people greeted Steve Johnson one after another, and Steve Johnson responded very politely, and then focused his attention on Anne Hathaway.
"Miss Anne, can I have a few words with you in private?"
Anne Hathaway didn't know why Steve Johnson wanted to chat with her privately for the first time when they met, but out of politeness, she nodded slightly.
Steve Johnson apologized to the other three people, and then walked to a deserted corner with Anne Hathaway. Then Steve Johnson asked her: "Miss Anne, I wonder if you are interested in coming in the middle to late next month?" An intimate party in London?”
"Party?" Anne Hathaway looked at Steve Johnson in surprise, with a confused look on her face.
Steve Johnson explained: “This party is held every three years by members of the British royal family and some famous British aristocrats at Black-Tie Castle. In addition to royal aristocrats from all over the world, some well-known celebrities are invited. For families and entrepreneurs, this party usually lasts about five days, and we will be responsible for arranging all the food, clothing, housing and transportation.”
Black-Tie literally translates as black tie, but in the upper class society, it represents a party standard. Generally, both men and women have to dress up to attend Black-Tie. In the upper class society, except for public occasions, this The species party is the highest level.
As for the Black-Tie held by the British royal family and aristocrats, Anne Hathaway had heard about it when she was in Hollywood. It is said that this kind of party can be called the top upper-class gathering in the world. She has never heard of it in Hollywood. Movie stars were invited to attend.
After all, the European royal families themselves were somewhat incompatible with the American culture. The former had looked down upon the latter for centuries. Steve Johnson suddenly invited her, which really made her feel incredible.
However, Steve Johnson himself is British. He comes from a powerful old aristocratic family in the UK. He has been participating in the world's top Black-Tie since he was an adult and has never failed to do so. With his status, he has enough qualifications. Invite his friends to the party, so if he invites Anne Hathaway, Anne Hathaway will get the chance to attend the party.
Seeing that Anne Hathaway was very surprised, Steve Johnson explained: "Miss Anne, to be honest with you, the reason why I want to invite you is because I am also planning to invite Li Mu, and I think if you will be there, , Li Mu’s chances of accepting the invitation will be higher.”
Only then did Anne Hathaway realize that Steve Johnson was a drunkard who was not interested in drinking.
However, instead of feeling disappointed, she felt joy in her heart. The meaning of Steve Johnson's words seemed to be that he thought Li Mu would accept the invitation because of him. Could he have some basis for saying this that he didn't know
When Steve Johnson saw that Anne Hathaway was silent for a while, but her face turned red, he knew better and struck while the iron was hot: "Miss Anne, you don't have to be too embarrassed. I have a meeting with Li Mu tonight, if you are willing." , I can tell him that you will be there first, and if he still refuses, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to go, I can totally understand, and I will keep it 100% confidential.”
Anne Hathaway hesitated for a moment, nodded shyly, and said, "Mr. Johnson, if Li Mu agrees, I have no problem..."
…
Li Mu didn't pay attention to Steve Johnson. He was holding a wine glass and found Mark Zuckerberg who was alone in the corner.
At this cocktail party, besides Li Mu, the youngest person was Mark Zuckerberg, and his personality was not as outgoing as Li Mu, so he seemed a little out of tune with the surrounding environment.
Others were chatting in groups. Mark Zuckerberg was standing alone in a corner with a glass of soda water and a non-alcoholic drink, looking around with an awkward smile on his face while doing nothing.
For Mark Zuckerberg, he is like a child breaking into an adult club. His most obvious experience is that he is at a loss.
When Li Mu was chatting with Spielberg and others, he saw the dilemma of Mark Zuckerberg in the distance. After chatting with a few people for a while, he found an excuse to leave temporarily and came with a glass of whiskey. In front of Mark Zuckerberg.
When Mark Zuckerberg was bored, Li Mu suddenly appeared in his sight and asked him with a smile: "Hey Mark, what are you doing standing alone?"
Seeing it was Li Mu, Mark Zuckerberg hurriedly scratched his head and said with a shy smile: "I didn't do anything, I was just in a daze."
Li Mu asked him: "Why don't you go chat with other people?"
Mark Zuckerberg laughed at himself and said: "I feel like I shouldn't be able to talk to them."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Whether we can chat together or not, we won't know until we chat first."
After that, Li Mu added: "Many of the people here today are very famous people in Silicon Valley, as well as very famous big guys in the venture capital industry. If you get familiar with them, you may be able to get more information in many places in the future." Much help.”
Mark Zuckerberg nodded slightly and said, "Then I will try to talk to them later."
Li Mu advised: "When chatting with others on such an occasion, it is best not to drink non-alcoholic drinks. Bringing a glass of wine will appear more sincere and shorten the actual age gap."
Mark Zuckerberg said hurriedly: "Then I'll go get a glass of wine later."
Li Mu waved his hand, called a waiter over, and said to him: "Bring this gentleman a glass of whiskey."
"Okay Mr. Li." The waiter quickly came over with a glass filled with about a quarter of whiskey and handed it to Mark Zuckerberg.
Li Mu picked up the wine glass, touched it slightly with the wine glass in Mark Zuckerberg's hand, then took a sip and asked him: "How is Facebook recently?"
Mark Zuckerberg hurriedly took a sip of whiskey. He was choked by the alcohol and coughed for a long time. He coughed until his face turned red before he got better. He said to Li Mu: "Facebook has been developing very fast recently. According to your reminder, Mr. Li. , we have deliberately strengthened and emphasized the function of finding people on Facebook. This function has been greatly recognized by users. Now our registered users have exceeded five million, and our daily users have exceeded 600,000. Compared with the last time you went to Harvard , doubled five times.”
Li Mu smiled and said: "It seems that you have found a way to spread the virus. If you keep up your efforts, I think you will have at least 2-3 million daily active users before the end of the year."
Mark Zuckerberg said: "Rapid promotion consumes a lot of money. I am still exploring ways to monetize it. If there are no good monetization channels, then the speed of development must be appropriately rational."
Li Mu asked him: "How much money did you spend?"
Mark Zuckerberg said: "You and your fund have invested a total of 6.02 million. So far, 3.3 million have been spent, leaving 2.7 million US dollars."
Li Mu asked again: "How many employees are there at this stage?"
"Thirty-three." Mark Zuckerberg said: "Most of these people are promotion staff and technical teams."
Li Mu nodded and said: "If you are worried about money and feel it is completely unnecessary, I can add another round of investment as Facebook's Pre-A round of financing."
Mark Zuckerberg said: “If I keep burning money, I always feel a little unsure, because the larger the number of users, the higher the cost of the company. If the realization cannot keep up, it is easy to fall into a rupture of the capital chain. situation."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said: "The current Internet social network is just like the time before the real estate explosion. Not only is the business growing at a very fast rate, but the recognition of capital is also increasing rapidly. What you have to do now is to get money in and exchange it at all costs." To become a real estate developer, it doesn’t matter even if you spend all your money or if you are heavily in debt, because once real estate prices skyrocket, you can immediately make huge profits.”
Mark Zuckerberg hesitated for a moment, nodded, and said: "Mr. Li, please set a valuation for Facebook, and then increase capital according to the valuation. If I can't get cash, I will dilute the shares instead of investing."
Li Mu waved his hand and said: "In this round, I will directly invest an additional five million US dollars. You do not need to dilute the shares, and there is no need to make any changes to the share structure. You can just do it after you get the money. As for the realization, for the time being, Don’t worry too much yet.”
Mark Zuckerberg hurriedly said: "Mr. Li, this is really unfair to you. Since you have made additional investment, it is natural for me to dilute my shares..."
Li Mu smiled, patted his shoulder lightly, and said, "Don't talk nonsense. I control the company, so listen to me on this matter."
After saying that, Li Mu added: "Let's go, I'll take you to meet Larry Page. You two can get to know each other. In the future, Facebook will be able to accurately direct search engines directly from Google search engines. If you have any needs, just ask him." "
(End of chapter)