Li Mu really wanted to take Sequoia's money. This was not only because of Sequoia's strength, but also because of Sequoia's unique Internet genes.
There were many more powerful capitals than Sequoia, but there were too few companies that could have such a strong influence on the Internet like Sequoia.
In the future, Sequoia's shadow could be seen in half of Hua Xia's Internet business. It was the kind of person who invested in almost all the Internet companies that could be invested in. If they felt that it was not enough, they would invest again. It was not only more efficient to cooperate with such a capital that understood the Internet, but it was also more worry-free.
However, capital itself was ruthless. Even if Li Mu was more inclined to Sequoia, it still depended on money. Now that Makino Technology was developing too fast, he had enough initiative in his hands. There was no need to express goodwill to Sequoia alone.
The only advantage of Sequoia in Li Mu's mind was that when no one offered a higher price than Sequoia, he would definitely choose it. Even with this advantage, Li Mu did not want Sequoia to know. Therefore, he did not publicize the news of him coming to the United States. Secondly, he did not have any clear communication with Sequoia in advance. It was to catch Sequoia and the United States capital market off guard.
From the beginning of his business, Li Mu treated capital coldly, unlike most founders of start-up companies. The degree of desire for capital even exceeded the desire for the opposite sex, nature, and hormones.
In the eyes of Li Mu, cooperation with capital was like a marriage with interests as the core. If one was not strong enough or not strong enough, and lacked that bit of backbone, one could only bow to the other party and lose the initiative in the future marriage. It was his own business, but he lived a life of marrying into the other party's family.
But for Li Mu, he didn't look at anyone's face, and he didn't need to bow down to anyone for the sake of capital, because his financing was not as passive as a marriage. The C series financing of Muye Technology was like a marriage between royalty and nobility. It was very powerful, so it had enough confidence to challenge the other party. No matter which family's young lady wanted to marry into, she had to first put away her young lady's temper and prepare a heavy dowry. He didn't need to look at anyone's face, because there were many girls who wanted to marry into his family.
Senior Vice President S, a member of the board of directors of Sequoia Capital, was the person in charge of Makino Technology's financing project. It was he who accidentally discovered the office artifact, YY, and then strongly recommended Makino Technology to the CEO. Later, Makino Technology's YY became popular in Silicon Valley and even among the global elite, which proved S's unique vision, so the group handed this major task to him.
S had been looking forward to Li Mu coming to the United States to meet him. He was still waiting for Makino Technology's feedback in advance about Li Mu's visit to the United States. He did not expect Li Mu to appear in Silicon Valley quietly.
Just as S was considering whether to take the initiative, the group's CEO also received the news that Li Mu had arrived in Silicon Valley and immediately summoned S to his office.
As soon as S entered the office, the CEO asked him, "Eric, did Li Mu make an appointment with you before he came to Silicon Valley?"
S shook his head and said, "I don't know anything about Li Mu coming to the United States. Makino Technology did not inform me of any relevant information in advance."
When the CEO heard this, he immediately frowned and said, "So it seems that Li Mu will be staying in the United States for a long time this time."
S understood the meaning of the CEO's words and smiled helplessly. "That should be the case. Li Mu wants to get the best offer, so he will probably be in frequent contact with major investment banks in the near future."
The CEO said, "Although I don't know much about Li Mu, I have heard about his style of doing things. In this case, let's not hide anything from Li Mu. You take the initiative to contact Li Mu and be sincere. Make an appointment with him as soon as possible. It doesn't matter if he wants more money, but the key is to sit down and let him talk first."
S nodded and said, "I understand. Then I will go and tell my assistant to contact Makino Technology immediately."
He said, "We have talked about the situation of Makino Technology many times. Given that it has been developing at an amazing speed, and the current market value of PayPal is growing too fast, we can estimate that Makino Technology is valued at 16.5 billion US dollars at most. You have to control the pace. It would be best if you can negotiate within this range. If not, we will have a board meeting."
"Understood!"
…
Li Mu sat in the Silicon Valley branch of Makino Technology for the whole noon and half the afternoon. During this time, China and Lin Ching-ah received 23 requests to meet with Li Mu, but Li Mu said that he was busy and the meeting was pending. The Sequoia was even more interesting. After the request for a meeting at the company level was declined by Lin Ching-ah, S privately found Ding Zhenglin, who was with Li Mu, and expressed the hope that he could help to invite Li Mu to dinner.
However, Li Mu simply refused on the grounds that he was going to have dinner with the staff of the Makino Technology branch today. Today was his first day at the branch of Makino Technology. As a competent boss, he naturally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to have a company-wide dinner, as if he was organizing a team building for the American branch.
S did not give up after being refused by Li Mu. He still hoped to make an appointment with Li Mu to meet. This time, Li Mu did not put on airs, but he still did not give up. He asked Ding Zhenglin to tell him that he had no plans for the 20 minutes from 10: 30 to 10: 50 tomorrow morning. If he was willing, he could meet him at the office of Makino Technology in Silicon Valley.
S was shocked when she heard the news. Twenty minutes? What the hell was Li Mu doing? This was a super large-scale financing of more than one billion US dollars. Did Li Mu want to settle the matter of more than one billion US dollars in 20 minutes?
Taking a step back, it was a matter of more than one billion US dollars. Not to mention settling it in 20 minutes, even discussing it in 20 minutes was too insignificant, right? What problem could be solved in 20 minutes?
However, although S was quite dissatisfied, he immediately agreed to the 20-minute meeting and confirmed with Ding Zhenglin several times. In any case, he had to meet Li Mu in person first.
So, after S decided on this time, he began to think about two things:
First, he would go to Makino Technology to meet Li Mu tomorrow. What kind of gift should he bring for Li Mu? He knew that Hua Xia was very particular about reciprocity. Bringing a small gift could sometimes have the effect of moving a thousand pounds with little effort.
Second, twenty minutes was too short. One minute to introduce himself, one minute to exchange greetings, one minute to say a few polite words of welcome on behalf of the United States and Silicon Valley, one minute to give gifts, and one minute to bring the topic to the point. Even if the efficiency was very high, five minutes would still be wasted. All in all, there was only 15 minutes to talk about the matter. How to talk about the main topic as much as possible in 15 minutes and make Li Mu have a deep impression of himself and Sequoia became the biggest problem for S at the moment.
Like S, there were at least a dozen investors from venture capital companies in the entire Silicon Valley who had set up a meeting with Li Mu the next day.
When S prepared the gift for Li Mu, he heard from some friends in the industry that Li Mu had an appointment with more than a dozen venture capital companies tomorrow, and each of them was a standard 20 minutes. It seemed very rushed, but even so, it would take at least a few hours to quickly chat with more than a dozen companies. If he arranged an appropriate amount of rest time in between, he could arrange all his work time for the day.
In this way, there were a few things that could be predicted for tomorrow's meeting. First of all, it would be very difficult to have room for flexibility in the 20-minute meeting, so he had to make good use of these 20 minutes. Second, there were too many investors who wanted to meet with Li Mu in the United States this time. Regardless of whether the initial contact tomorrow would go straight to the topic of financing, in the end, Li Mu's financing plan in the United States still had to be discussed with them one by one.
S had been investing for many years and was experienced. He knew that super high-quality investment projects like Makino Technology had rarely been seen since the beginning of the dot-com bubble. He knew that all his peers were determined to get Makino Technology. He also knew that once a company had to negotiate with multiple venture capital companies at the same time, it was easy for the person in charge of the company to have aesthetic fatigue. If there were too many negotiations, Li Mu might only be able to measure the price in his mind. In this way, if he wanted to break out of the encirclement, he could only rely on throwing more money, which was very stressful for him.
Early the next morning, Li Mu went from the hotel to the office of Makino Technology in Silicon Valley. At nine o 'clock local time, he began to meet the first wave of guests he had made an appointment with.
For today's intensive interview arrangements, Li Mu's biggest goal was to set the pace. Although the entire industry knew that he had a financing plan, he did not make his intentions clear to any venture capital company in advance. It was a bit like he was concealing the truth. The more he did this, the more nervous and pressured the investors would feel.
S had arrived at the Makino Technology branch in Silicon Valley before ten o 'clock. Because he arrived early, he did not rush to enter the door. Instead, he sat in his car and kept thinking about the various possible situations after meeting Li Mu.
He had never met Li Mu, but he knew that Li Mu did not follow the rules. This could be seen from Li Mu's silent visit to the United States. He guessed that Li Mu might play Tai Chi with him today, or he might go straight to the point and catch him off guard. He had practiced many times in his mind on how to deal with any situation. He was just waiting to meet Li Mu and fight with Li Mu.
…
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