In Li Mu's eyes, Mark Zuckerberg is a bug-like existence.
Not only because he is the youngest billionaire, but also because of his strong vision and ability in his entrepreneurial career.
Ordinary people start a business, and it’s all about creating an Internet giant like Facebook worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The key is that until 2013, Mark Zuckerberg’s shareholding ratio in Facebook was still around 30%. Compared with domestic These Internet giants in their 40s and 50s are much better than others, so he can surpass all the founders of domestic Internet companies in terms of personal assets. This is also where he is quite awesome.
Countless reborns who appear in novels will never miss hugging Mark Zuckerberg’s lap, and the ways of hugging his lap are also strange. Some people went to the other side of the ocean to invest in Facebook when it was first founded, and some even went to Facebook specifically. Go to the United States to find him and become friends with him before Facebook was established, but Li Mu didn't think so.
First of all, if you wait for Facebook to be founded and then go to the United States to invest in Mark Zuckerberg, it is logically unjustifiable. There are so many Internet companies in the United States, and there are so many companies and projects born in Silicon Valley every day. How can a Chinese come all the way to go there? Find a Harvard college student and actively invest money in him? Even Mark Zuckerberg would be shocked.
Moreover, it is not easy for Chinese people to invest in American businesses, especially when it comes to corporatization issues. It is very troublesome to invest money directly, and the other party may not be willing to accept it. The most important thing is to have a company in the United States with perfect registration and formalities. It is much more convenient and more formal for a complete company to have hundreds of millions of dollars lying around in its account. When it sees good projects, it will directly sign a contract with the investor in the name of the company.
Risky investment is not appropriate, and early investment is also very unsafe. Mark Zuckerberg was first a student at Harvard University, and then he had the idea of starting a business in school and became an entrepreneur. He started as a student , develop into an entrepreneur who gave birth to the idea of Facebook, this is the established route that history has long planned. If he does not intervene in advance, then Mark Zuckerberg on the other side of the ocean will definitely follow his original plan. If the rhythm advances, he will definitely establish facemash in 2003, and he will definitely birth the Facebook idea at the end of 2003 and start implementing it in 2004.
Then, the most critical part is finally here.
Since Li Mu did not interfere with Mark Zuckerberg's determined path, he would definitely try to buy the Facebook domain name at the beginning of his business. The holder of this domain name quoted a price of 10,000 U.S. dollars, but he was only one person who was scared off. Mark Zuckerberg, a poor student, if this domain name is in his own hands, Mark Zuckerberg will definitely contact him to try to buy the domain name by the end of 2003 or early 2004. Li Mu’s ultimate goal is not In order to sell this domain name to him at the end of 2003, I took this opportunity to directly invest in him.
Li Mu sorted out the timeline of Facebook's development in his mind.
In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook was launched. It started at Harvard and gradually spread to other universities. At this time, he was an ordinary student and ran Facebook as a small after-school entrepreneurial project.
In September 2004, Mark Zuckerberg received Facebook's first angel investment, $500,000 from PayPal founder Peter Thiel. At that time, Facebook had already demonstrated its extraordinary expansion. ability.
Li Mu couldn't help but conjure up a picture in his mind.
If we stretch the timeline to a certain day in 2003, Mark Zuckerberg, who was in a classroom at Harvard University and had deserted, finally thought of the Facebook idea when he chewed the end of his 58th pencil, and then The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this idea was really great and feasible, so he worked hard until the end of class, rushed to the dormitory, turned on the computer, and prepared to go to the domain name registration agency website to register first. He didn't know whether the domain name Facebook had been registered, but he must be secretly hoping that it was still pending registration.
When he filled in the top-level domain name facebook.com in the domain name query box, he discovered to his distress that he was in trouble! Such a genius idea of mine was actually discovered by others first. It seems that I was not the first to think of the phrase Facebook. Someone who was hoarding domain names with a dictionary had thought of this phrase before.
Then, he couldn't wait to see what the hell Facebook.com was.
After opening it, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, because there was nothing on this page, only one sentence: "This domain name is for sale." Then there was an MSN used as a contact.
"It turned out to be a ghost who saved domain names."
At this time, Mark Zuckerberg breathed a sigh of relief. He would not immediately think of registering Thefacebook. He would think: "A domain name with this kind of phrase cannot be sold for much money, right? It will only cost a few thousand dollars. If If you bargain for a lower price, you may be able to get it cheaper. He will definitely not be able to combine the concept of a high-end social networking site for college students with the slightly weird phrase Facebook like me!"
Then, Mark Zuckerberg added this MSN.
At this time, Li Mu, who had been waiting for Mark Zuckerberg for two years, came online with a sinister smile on his face.
Mark Zuckerberg said on MSN: "Hello, sir, I would like to buy the Facebook domain name from you."
"Oh? How much are you willing to pay?"
"I think five hundred dollars for such a domain name should be a good offer."
Li Mu sent him a laughing expression: "I'm sorry, I'm actually not too inclined to sell this domain name. I'm more inclined to use it to build a social network. I'll start with college, and I've already started to prepare it. , in the early stage, be prepared to take out a few million dollars to play with."
"I'm so fucked!!!"
Think about it, what will Mark Zuckerberg think when he hears his idea spoken by someone who owns the Facebook domain name
It’s over, this person is ahead of him in everything, and the most important thing is that he has money and is willing to invest millions of dollars to test the waters.
There is a big difference between people with money starting a business and people without money starting a business.
If entrepreneurship is compared to wanting to start a large car rental company, then all a wealthy person has to do is buy a bunch of cars and then build an operations team;
What people with no money do is: first find the cheapest way to save a car, and then try to save one or two. Needless to say how laborious the saving process is, the purchase and purchase of various parts cannot be made or purchased. If you can't afford it, DIY it yourself, then match it and do various tests.
After completing this series of work, he finally proved that he could save one or two cars. At this time, if any investors recognized the cars they had saved, they would invest a sum of money to them and let them save another batch. This is the legendary angel round investment.
After getting angel investment and saving a certain amount, but it is far from enough to run a truly large-scale car rental company, you then find someone to invest in the second round. This is Series A financing;
I finally raised Series A and barely saved up enough. At this time, I started to build a better operations team...
This is almost half a century slower than the rich. That is, the tortoise and the hare are racing. If the hare does not make a big mistake, the tortoise will never catch up with him.
Although the metaphor is not very appropriate, the entire Internet entrepreneurship is like this. If Jack Ma had succeeded in the vacuum of the domestic market when he founded Alibaba, and if someone had directly spent tens of millions to do the same thing as him, he might have been successful from the beginning. has failed.
At this time, Mark Zuckerberg was probably discouraged. He didn't know what to do. He might need a few days to think about it, but he was more likely to give up on the idea of starting a business.
Just when he was not at a loss, Li Mu suddenly asked him: "By the way, can you tell me what you want to do with this domain name?"
"Me?" Mark Zuckerberg laughed at himself: "I also want to make a social networking site, but now, I think I may need to think about it carefully."
Li Mu suddenly said generously: "We all thought of going together. It's really fate. In fact, if we have the opportunity, we can sit down and talk about this common idea. If we have the same ideas, I can give you the domain name. , and then invest your money, and you will help me complete this plan. After all, I am too busy and want to do other things and leave it to others, but I am afraid that he will not understand my plan. "
"Really?" It's hard for Mark Zuckerberg to imagine that someone is willing to vote for a nobody like him who has nothing, but the other person's reasons are also very good. You can think of going with me, which proves that you and I The thinking mode is very close. If you have the ability to pass the test, I will feel confident investing in you.
Li Mu smiled and said: "Of course it is true, but I have something to do recently. I have to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wonder where you are? When I come back from Cambridge, we can make an appointment to meet at a place. Then I can ask my assistant to book a round-trip air ticket for you."
Mark Zuckerberg is actually at Harvard University, and Harvard University is in Cambridge. The reason why Li Mu said this is actually to make the fish more determined to take the bait.
Therefore, it is conceivable that when he hears this sentence, he will probably believe in fate like the Chinese people do, and he will go crazy with excitement...
"Oh my god, sir, I'm in Cambridge! In fact, I'm still a college student at Harvard! If you come to Cambridge, can we take the time to meet?"
"My God, this is really the miracle of the Creator! How come there are so many coincidences and overlaps between us? This is so destined! No matter what, I must meet you, so just wait for my news , I will contact you after I arrive in Cambridge."
"This is really God's will. Then I'll wait for you in Cambridge!"
"OK, wait for me, young man!"
This is Li Mu’s complete idea. To sum it up briefly, it can be called: Domain name sets the stage and fate sings the show.
Afterwards, Li Mu was certain that no matter where he was or what he was doing at the time, the first thing he had to do was buy a ticket to Cambridge, USA...
(End of chapter)