Before signing the contract, Boss Ma and Rongcheng had a conversation like this: "A customer is coming to visit us in a few days. Can we sign the contract around the 14th?"
"Either you come earlier, before the 14th, or you can only come after the 17th..." Zhao Qing responded, "Mr. Cheng and his classmates at No. 10 Middle School are having their final exams during that period."
Boss Ma laughed in silence, "I almost forgot about this."
The high school student invested 30 million in them, and Boss Ma still feels it is a little unreal when he thinks about it now.
But the words that Zhao Qing heard from the other side of the microphone were true. "Or we can send the contract to you, and you can send it back later?"
"There still needs to be a sense of ceremony, and reaching an agreement in person can save a lot of steps... Then I'll prepare in advance, come on the 10th, go back on the 12th to deal with some things, and make an appointment with the client on the 14th." Boss Ma paused and smiled shyly, "Then can the first payment from the agreement be deposited into the account immediately? To be honest, I need money right now."
Boss Ma is indeed very short of money. Including last month's salary, he told his employees, "Salaries will not be paid for now, and the money will be used as capital increase." But now that Cheng Ran and others want to come in, this is obviously not going to be easy.
"No problem. We can go to the bank and deposit it on the same day."
After a brisk conversation, Zhao Qing hung up the phone, thinking that if Boss Ma was not so short of money, he would not have been so late in receiving customers and would have gotten the first round of funding before Cheng Ran's term ended. To be honest, although Boss Ma was ugly, he was a very thoughtful person. However, if he only relied on ideas and the outline of a blueprint, Zhao Qing felt that if he had so much money, he would not invest.
To a certain extent, Cheng Ran can be considered his benefactor.
Boss Ma went to Chengdu for the second time, signed an investment contract, and received a first installment of 5 million yuan. The subsequent funds will be deposited into their account within one month. The two parties reached an investment contract to avoid equity dilution.
The so-called no-dilution agreement is also known as an anti-dilution agreement. There was probably no precedent for technology investment in Asia during this period. Of course, there were few Asian technology companies that received large amounts of U.S. dollars. Cheng Ran had learned from his past life experience and was the first to formalize the investment process and provide terms that fully guaranteed the value of his shares.
It’s not about guarding against Boss Ma, but adding a layer of insurance. In the future, all investments made by Tianxing Holdings will be made in this way with multiple insurances.
For some start-ups, the agreements initially reached by the founding partners are actually rather rough and full of bugs. When the company structure is initially established, the agreement is reached based on enthusiasm, but there is no sound institutional guarantee, which leads to many problems.
Just like one of the founders of Facebook had his equity diluted and was expelled when additional shares were issued. There are many such founders or partners who, during the company's development and financing process, become enemies and attack each other due to greed or disagreements, and engage in power wars.
The equity dilution-free clause between Cheng Ran and Mr. Ma is that when Mr. Ma's company needs to increase capital again, the valuation of the company by the new shareholder before the capital increase should not be lower than the valuation after the last investment is completed, to ensure that the value of the equity held by Tianxing Holdings in the company is not diluted. Secondly, if the valuation of the new shareholder's capital increase is lower than the investment valuation, then Tianxing Holdings' full ratchet clause has the right to adjust the equity ratio in Mr. Ma's company and allow the preferred shares held by itself to be issued accordingly according to the value of the newly added common shares.
Of course, Cheng Ran knew that if he continued along the trajectory of his previous life, Boss Ma’s company would hardly be valued lower than the previous valuation after this round of investment, and the no-equity-dilution clause was more like a gentleman’s agreement.
On the day of signing, Cheng Qi of Lianzhong and Boss Ma held a signing ceremony. They rented a hotel conference hall for the ceremony. There was a red carpet on the floor, various flower baskets were placed around, and the background promotional boards were very professional. Cheng Qi also invited local reporters from Chengdu, and Tonglang.com also sent reporters as a representative of the portal. In fact, the scene was not big, but the final effect of the film was very good. Anyway, whether it was put on paper media or on the big red financial headlines and layout pictures of Tonglang.com, it was definitely very effective.
The reason why Goldman Sachs' initial investment in Boss Ma is enough to be replaced by Cheng Ran is that, by investing in Boss Ma in the name of Lianzhong, both parties will benefit and will enter the vision of the industry and financial circle. Although the 519 market is over, this wave that only lasted for more than 30 trading days has a greater significance in boosting the domestic A-share market that has been sluggish for several years. This market has hyped up Internet concept stocks and high-tech fields, and now it has made Internet companies that play a pioneering role hot. The country has also ushered in the Internet trend of chasing the Nasdaq craze.
Lianzhong, currently the number one gaming platform in China, and Ma's e-commerce website serving small and medium-sized enterprises both appeared on the show.
Whether it was Lianzhong, Boss Ma's e-commerce network, or his own 30 million, Cheng Ran felt that it was like a hunter with a gun throwing out bait.
After this wave of media exposure, what we are waiting for is investors who can provide higher valuations and more funds to enter the hunting ground.
Cheng Ran, who holds the power behind the scenes of Lianzhong and has a veto over key decisions from Boss Ma, can find the juiciest prey and pull the trigger.
…
However, Cheng Ran's silent investment of 30 million still shocked CQ and Lianzhong. As the eldest brother, Cheng Qi didn't understand why Cheng Ran not only paid back the money but also invested 30 million after Boss Ma visited Lianzhong when they were worried about the millions of equity pledged some time ago.
Of course, the more puzzling thing is that since Cheng Ran had 30 million, why didn’t he use it to prepare for the development of Lianzhong and CQ, but instead gave it to Boss Ma, an outsider
This doubt has always accompanied Cheng Qi. It was only after he and Boss Ma went through the motions and appeared in front of the reporters invited to the conference hall, and the amplifying effect of the exposure gradually appeared, that he began to understand Cheng Ran's approach.
On the day of the signing of the agreement, Li Mingshi and Lin Xiaosong, who were present, were watching the heated discussions of the reporters invited to the conference hall. The two and the CQ employees were also very impressed that Cheng Ran, at his age, could come up with 30 million!
"I can't say whether this investment is good or bad..." Lin Xiaosong said, "Although I agree with Boss Ma's concept, Hong Kong City is a springboard and can serve as an entry and exit for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. They will make a fortune once and for all by being a middleman, but 30 million is too much, right? If it were me, I would invest a maximum of 5 million!"
Li Mingshi said, "So you are not Mr. Cheng."
Lin Xiaosong smiled at Li Mingshi and said, "You are quite blindly agreeing with others. To put it bluntly, it is a kind of personal worship. What's the matter? This doesn't look like the solitary technical expert Li Mingshi in college. Where is your cool and handsome senior brother demeanor that attracted countless junior high school girls?"
Li Mingshi said, "You know the system I developed to prevent meteorological and geological disasters, right?"
"Of course I know. This is your masterpiece. It has done you a great service." Lin Xiaosong said, "At the class reunions I attended, no matter if they were big bosses or academics, they would give you a thumbs up when they mentioned your contribution as a former classmate."
"This is the inspiration that Mr. Cheng gave me." Li Mingshi said, "I also went to the flood front to repair the system. You can't imagine the scene I saw. I saw villages and towns were flooded, plains turned into lakes, homes were destroyed, people were heartbroken facing life and death, but many people were saved because of this system... I stood on a high ground that day, facing the storm, and the flood was raging below, but do you know how I felt at that time? I felt fearless, as if I had the power to fight against nature. All these ideas came from him, so I had an idea at the time that someone could fight against nature through vision and strategic deployment. Cheng Ran was like my backup and comrade-in-arms."
"So I got on his boat. He took the helm while I maintained the boat, trying to turn it into a bigger one, and then try to form a fleet that could sail across the oceans. I don't force you to have the same idea as me, but... let's wait and see."
Lin Xiaosong nodded, "Let's wait and see."
At that time, Lin Xiaosong was looking at the person in the first row of the audience who was actually the driving force behind the scenes, but was not under the flash lights at that moment. He wondered if the talented people who were deployed to fight against natural disasters would reappear in the Internet torrent when this era is facing great changes
…
June 14th.
It's Monday.
This was actually an ordinary day. Cars were flowing on the road and the sun was rising as usual. But for the students, it seemed as if the school year had come to an end. Amidst the excitement, they also felt like they were in a disaster movie because of the arrival of the final exams.
As for the college entrance examination, it is not that serious. It is just a concept that you watch every year without feeling deeply. It seems that they know that they will welcome that day next year, but this so-called next year is more like a ship that cannot see the horizon in everyone's impression. After all, even the half year before the New Year to receive the New Year's money seems so long and unbearable.
The final exam for midterm is this Monday.
On the eve of the exam, Cheng Ran received a CQ message from Qin Xizhen, saying that she would come to Rongcheng to see him after Cheng Ran finished the exam, as a way to thank him in person. Cheng Ran smiled, and could still think of Qin Xizhen's calmness when he received the income. He must have been shocked, and finally chose a solemn way to come and thank him. Thinking of how she was initially fussy about making money, she was really not used to this ladylike behavior.
But I didn’t think too much about it. It seemed that my friends from Shanhai would come to Chengdu one after another next year, and then they would go their separate ways after another year.
After many years, you may be very happy to meet each other, or old friends may be like old dogs who are tired of each other.
Life is about moving forward quickly, not stopping.
I have Chinese in the morning and Mathematics in the afternoon.
Chinese is no longer a difficult subject for Cheng Ran, and he has a good basic skill. The subject that pulls up his score actually lies in composition. There is no shortage of students in No. 10 Middle School who can write eloquent and brilliant articles by citing classics. Most of them have been admitted to No. 10 Middle School with excellent grades from elementary school, junior high school to high school. They are all masters and are familiar with the accumulation of composition and the excerpting and using of classic poems. However, the teachers who mark the papers are adults. In fact, looking at the students' articles from an adult's perspective, even if the words are gorgeous, one can still see a lot of immaturity.
But Cheng Ran is different. He believes that his perspective is different from that of most current teachers. So even if his writing does not contain so many classic quotes, it is still to the point. With his information ability, this final essay is basically written from the perspective of an adult like the teacher. I believe that any teacher who reads this essay will not just glance over the text as usual, but will be unable to put it down.
There is no need to worry about mathematics. Cheng Ran usually uses his brain to do math problems.
On the 15th, I took English in the morning and Physics in the afternoon. English was not difficult for Cheng Ran, and Physics was also Cheng Ran's weak subject. As Jiang Hongshao expected, the test paper was written by Zhao Zhonghua, the gold medalist of No. 10 Middle School. The idea was similar to the questions in the National Physics Competition last year, so that everyone was generally impressed by the difficulty, especially the last two application questions. Fortunately, they were answered in steps, with three solutions for each question. Although there were two questions, there were actually six scoring points. Most people could get one or two of them. As for the higher scoring points, they were the watershed that distinguished the best students at the top of the pyramid. It was a dispute over the upper position. It was not that there were some who could get all the answers right, but the tricky thing about this set of test papers was that there was generally no tricky place to solve the problems, and there were many places for large-scale verification. If you were not a really strong player, it would be difficult to complete the test paper within the specified time while ensuring the correctness of the two application questions.
When we got downstairs, the corridor was filled with countless students checking their answers.
Because each student had his own desk, the class was basically separated into two classrooms. Cheng Ran and Jiang Hongshao were not in the same classroom. After leaving the examination room, the two of them, carrying their schoolbags, just looked at each other tacitly.
Then Lao Jiang walked down the teaching building and left.
The setting sun is beautiful.
Like her smile.
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Easy to read