This community is indeed very old. There are basically five-story brick buildings inside, which should be from the 1980s.
The floor where Liu Mingchao's office was located was on the top floor, and there was no elevator, so they had to climb all the way up.
When going upstairs, Liu Mingchao probably introduced the company's situation to Xu Yiyang.
This company was launched by him, and the people in the team are all alumni of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and they all study computer software development.
They have been working at Zhonghai for two years. When they first started, like the first generation of entrepreneurs in China Internet, they developed their own products.
However, the direction they chose was a bit strange, and they developed a MUD game, which is an online game with no pictures and only text.
This kind of game has been popular for a very short period of time, but it has never become a big hit. It itself is a thing with little development.
In Xu Yiyang's eyes, the current development of text-based online games is no different from the current development of Famicom games, because there is no market space in either case.
Liu Mingchao's subsequent development was indeed as Xu Yiyang expected. After the game was developed, no interested operators were found.
Several classmates were unable to do publicity and promotion, and several people tried their best to promote it everywhere but failed to attract many players. In the end, they had to give up treatment.
Making this MUD game burned through the savings of more than 100,000 yuan that the five people had pooled together. As the major shareholder, Liu Mingchao borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from various places to make up for it, but it was all in vain.
Their entrepreneurial experiences perfectly prove one point: on the road to entrepreneurship, direction is always more important than hard work.
As Lei Jun said, standing on the wind, even a pig can fly.
If you can't stand on the wind, you may not be able to fly even if you have wings.
For example, the now-famous Nokia did not choose the right direction when the smartphone era was budding, and went all out to build the Symbian system, but it ended up in a mess.
It cannot be said that Nokia is not working hard.
It's just that their efforts are in the wrong direction.
People are trying to move towards new life, while it is trying to move towards death.
Liu Mingchao and his team were struggling after the game failed.
But none of them were willing to give up their dreams, so everyone put it together and decided to do outsourcing development to support the company, and wanted to take on customized work from outside to maintain survival.
It's a pity that in the past few months, they have attracted several customers who are interested in software development through the online yellow pages, but in the end they have not negotiated.
Liu Mingchao is still very troubled by this. He feels that although his team has a small number of people, they are all masters and first-class talents in development. Moreover, his quotation has always been about 20-30% lower than the market level, but why does everyone Can't even negotiate? This unscientific.
As Xu Yiyang climbed the stairs, he thought to himself, whoever comes here might not be willing to cooperate with you, and there is a sense of irregularity everywhere.
In the eyes of outsiders, the Internet industry and software development industry are high-tech and trendy technology industries. However, when I went to the other party's "company" to take a look, I found that five young men were responsible for it in a dilapidated house in a dilapidated community. , this psychological gap is really too big.
Once the psychological gap widens, the first thought that comes to most people's minds is disappointment, and the second thought is to turn around and leave.
Under such circumstances, it would be strange to be able to negotiate cooperation.
If I hadn't asked Zhang Xiaolong and discovered that Liu Mingchao actually knew Zhang Xiaolong, I wouldn't have been able to cooperate with him at ease.
…
Arriving on the fifth floor, Liu Mingchao opened the door. Xu Yiyang felt a wave of heat hitting his face before he could even enter.
It is on the top floor. The temperature in mid-August was not cool at all. The sun had been shining all day, and the room was like a steamer.
As soon as he entered the door, in addition to the strong smell of smoke, there was also a smell of sweat, which made Xu Yiyang feel very sour...
It's just that there is no air conditioning in this house. There are four old men sitting at the computer desk in the living room, and five computers are turned on. It is no different than turning on a few electric heaters.
There were no effective cooling measures in the room, just a squeaking ceiling fan.
Liu Mingchao said very embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, Mr. Xu, our conditions are a bit difficult..."
Xu Yiyang said in his heart, this is not a bit difficult, brother, it is much more comfortable to just take a line and go to the underground passage to work.
However, Xu Yiyang did not say it out loud. Starting a business itself is a hard job that can kill people. Although most people survive, those who survive are, without exception, the best among people.
Liu Mingchao introduced to Xu Yiyang the four people inside who were in front of the computer. These people were similar in age to Liu Mingchao, but they looked somewhat dull. They nodded and hurriedly went to work on their own.
Liu Mingchao added: "Our living room is the office area, and the two bedrooms are dormitories, with several bunk beds in them."
Xu Yiyang nodded, but he didn't expect that these five people would not only work in a two-bedroom apartment, but also live here.
Liu Mingchao said with an embarrassed look: "Mr. Xu, if you don't mind, let's go to the bedroom to talk."
Xu Yiyang felt that this was indeed not an environment for discussing serious business, so he said: "Mr. Liu, let's do this. You come with me, and we can find a coffee shop to sit down and chat slowly."
"Okay!" Liu Mingchao suddenly realized that the environment here was not suitable for cooperation, so he nodded hurriedly and said, "I'll treat you to coffee."
Xu Yiyang smiled slightly and said, "I'm here to invite you. Let's go."
…
Xu Yiyang drove Liu Mingchao to the coffee shop of a star hotel in the city.
After sitting down in the coffee shop, Liu Mingchao was a little cautious about the surrounding environment. He looked at the price list and finally asked the waiter for boiled water with a blushing face.
Xu Yiyang directly ordered a latte for him and some desserts, paying in advance.
Liu Mingchao was a little embarrassed and hurriedly took out a small notepad from his pocket and said: "Mr. Xu, please briefly introduce your product requirements and what functions you want to achieve. I will record it here, then calculate the workload and give it to you. If you feel the quotation is suitable, we will start cooperating. If it is not suitable, just say so. It doesn't matter."
"Okay." Xu Yiyang said: "I run a chain training institution, so I want to put the management of daily work, student teacher courses and class fee records in the software, and there must be a backend, and all data can be transmitted to the backend in real time. It is convenient for the leadership to check.”
Liu Mingchao said seriously: "What about functionality?"
Xu Yiyang said: "Financial management, student management, teacher management, class schedule management and consumption balance management, while keeping all operation records."
After that, Xu Yiyang introduced his functional requirements in detail.
Liu Mingchao carefully recorded every item on his notepad. After Xu Yiyang finished speaking, he thought for a moment and said: "The whole work is divided into three parts. The first is to develop a client for each branch. "Then we need to develop a management backend. We can use the web page directly in the backend. There is no need to develop a client."
"The third part is after-sales. For any outsourced software development, considering that Party A may not have technical personnel, Party B must provide after-sales service for a certain period of time. After the development of these two products is completed and testing is launched, we will be responsible for one year's For basic maintenance, if there is a problem, please contact us at any time to solve it; if you have new product requirements that require upgrading or secondary development, we will price based on the workload."
Xu Yiyang nodded and said, "How long will it take to complete? I'm in a hurry."
Liu Mingchao thought for a while and said, "If you work overtime, it will take more than a month."
"So fast?!" Xu Yiyang was surprised.
Liu Mingchao nodded, and said to Xu Yiyang with a somewhat reserved and embarrassed expression: "To be honest, our company is in a difficult situation now and we have no ongoing projects, so if you are willing to cooperate with us, we will put all our energy into it." All of them will be used on this project. Based on your needs, more than a month should be enough."
After saying that, the other party asked nervously: "But Mr. Xu, to be on the safe side, can we sign the contract for two months?"
Xu Yiyang immediately agreed and said, "No problem, it's within the acceptable range."
After saying that, he asked again: "What about the price?"
Liu Mingchao thought for a while and said: "I will give you the lowest quotation directly. For the complete package, plus one year of basic maintenance, I will charge you 150,000."
"150,000?" Xu Yiyang was in disbelief.
Among the companies I visited today, the highest quote was 300,000, and the lowest was 200,000. Unexpectedly, Liu Mingchao only quoted 150,000.
Liu Mingchao thought that Xu Yiyang was too expensive, so he hurriedly said: "Don't think this is just more than a month's workload, but it really requires the brothers to work hard. Five first-class programmers, each of whom must work at least 12 hours a day, can ensure that it is completed. And it also includes basic maintenance for the next year. Even if you find a part-time technical maintenance person, it will only cost you 1,000 yuan a month."
Xu Yiyang smiled slightly and already had a rough idea in his mind.
Software development is different from buying and selling actual products. The cost of software development is basically manpower and energy, so the price fluctuates greatly depending on personal circumstances.
To use an inappropriate metaphor, it’s like a casual worker who works hard. When the market is good, he may not be willing to work for less than two hundred yuan a day, but when the market is bad, he may rush to work for a hundred yuan. Well, if I encounter difficulties and can't even eat, maybe he will be willing to take care of three meals so that I don't go hungry.
Liu Mingchao's situation should fall into the latter category.
In his opinion, it has reached a critical point where it can no longer survive. If we can't receive another project, our team may break up.
Therefore, he is willing even if it is a 50% discount on the market price. After all, this is a life-saving transaction and cannot be measured by the market price.
This means that there is still room for prices to drop.
However, Xu Yiyang did not want to take advantage of others' danger.
In particular, he would like to get acquainted with Zhang Xiaolong through Liu Mingchao in the future.
Thinking of this, Xu Yiyang suddenly had an idea. He said to Liu Mingchao: "Mr. Liu, I won't bargain anymore. Let's sign the contract for 150,000 yuan."
Liu Mingchao was overjoyed and said hurriedly: "Mr. Xu is so happy! Let's go back later, and I will prepare the contract! After the contract is signed, you pay 30% first, and then pay 30% when the project is halfway through, and wait until the project goes online Pay another 40% after delivery.”
Xu Yiyang waved his hand: "No need to go to such trouble, I will pay the full amount directly."
(End of chapter)