On the plane back to Yanjing, Li Mu had been thinking about Zhao Xianliang's advice and reminder.
Before he talked to Zhao Xianliang about this, Li Mu always had a slightly pretentious "grand wish": Makino Technology would not raise funds after the B series and would directly find an opportunity to go public in the United States. But now that he thought about it, his idea was indeed naive on the capital level.
Going public was indeed very attractive, but the number of financing before going public had no practical impact on the fundamental result of going public. It was also meaningless. Choosing to raise funds less was equivalent to increasing the difficulty of the game, and there would be no extra rewards after clearing the game. At most, it could be exchanged for people saying, "F * ck, so awesome!"
In his previous life, many domestic Internet companies developed extremely fast, and the number of financing rounds was uncountable. Powerful companies could raise funds three times a year, one at the beginning of the year, one in the middle of the year, and one at the end of the year. Such rapid financing was like constantly turning on the afterburner of a fighter jet. The fuel consumption was extremely fast, so the frequency of fuel replenishment was extremely high. However, the biggest advantage was that it was fast. It was constantly advancing at an extremely fast speed, exchanging shares for development funds, and ultimately pursuing a higher market value and a higher market share.
At present, the domestic Internet industry was still a bunch of small saplings, and he was the stronger one among the small saplings. But thinking about it carefully, he must not underestimate these small saplings, because most of them had strong capital connections behind them, and without exception, they were all overseas capital.
At present, Li Mu did not even have any overseas capital to cooperate with. If he wanted to open the overseas market in the future, how many more detours would he have to take if he did not have an outsider to lead the way and open the door? Thinking about it again, if he had strong overseas capital connections, once he wanted to enter the overseas market, these profit-seeking investment banks would definitely do everything to help him conquer the market. This feeling must be very satisfying.
Moreover, as Zhao Xianliang said, capital was not just a matter of money. Capital was a strong ally. Not only could it provide guns and ammunition, but it could also provide fire support in the air, land, and sea. There would be tough battles to fight in the future, and it would be somewhat hasty to find allies before the war.
After thinking about this, Li Mu had the intention to go back and systematically study and discuss the corporate financing plan. Not only Makino Technology, but also Taobao and Taobao logistics.
Taobao was now profitable on paper because he had arrived at the battlefield one step ahead. His enemies were still buying equipment in their own blood spring, and they had not attacked for a while. Once the battle of e-commerce officially began, the money-burning mode must be activated quickly. Otherwise, how could he deal with so many domestic entrepreneurs, as well as the invasion of overseas capital and overseas enterprises?
Taobao logistics had now begun to enter the stage of large-scale procurement, and all kinds of purchase orders were placed non-stop. Liu Xiaodong was also actively promoting the construction of the six major logistics and warehouse bases in the country, and the volume of 500 million began to gradually provide food for all kinds of needs. In addition, the investigation team that Taobao logistics sent to Germany had also established an excellent personal relationship with Germany's Berman by showing off their wealth and throwing money. In the end, whether to use Berman's automatic sorting and automatic warehouse solutions or not was a matter of money.
To a large extent, the Internet industry played a game of capital. In fact, it could even be used to perform magic. Take out 100 million yuan and put it in front of the audience and burn it. When the sky was filled with ashes, the magician could snap his fingers and this pile of ashes could turn into 1 billion yuan in front of the audience.
Instagram had sold a billion US dollars in a year and a half since it was launched. As a person who had been reborn, Li Mu had brought out so many advanced products and operational thinking, and worked hard to build this business. However, the real money that he had now was very little.
Although the valuation was high, in the absence of finding capital to take over, the valuation was just an imaginary number.
Since the industry was saying that the valuation of Makino Technology had exceeded ten billion yuan, then he might as well finance a C series and really sell part of the shares at a valuation of ten billion yuan, so that the rumor of breaking ten billion yuan could be completely confirmed!
…
Therefore, on the second day after returning to Yanjing, Li Mu came to Makino Technology. Before he arrived, he had already asked Lin Ching-ah to gather the core team in the conference room to prepare for a meeting.
For the core team members of Makino Technology, it was very rare for Li Mu to disappear for two consecutive days on Monday and Tuesday. Usually, no matter how busy Li Mu was, he would take time to come every Monday and Tuesday, even at night. However, two days had passed this week, and he did not show up even once.
When Li Mu arrived at Makino Technology, all the core team members were already waiting in the conference room. They intuitively felt that since Li Mu disappeared for two days and did not show up, there should be a very important matter that he called for a meeting.
Sure enough, after Li Mu walked into the conference room and greeted everyone, the first thing he said was, "In fact, I called everyone here in a hurry today because there is actually a very important decision that needs your help."
Everyone looked at Li Mu and held their breath.
Li Mu paused slightly, adjusted slightly, and said word by word, "I am considering whether to start the C series of financing for Makino Technology. What do you think about this decision?"
Li Mu's words could be said to have stirred up a thousand ripples.
Financing? For any company, except the boss and major shareholders, no one would refuse financing.
For the company, financing meant more money. The people present were all core managers of the company, equivalent to the various generals of the army of Muye Technology. They naturally hoped to expand their military strength, have more soldiers, and have more advanced weapons and equipment, so that they could attack bigger opponents and fight bigger wars. After all, it was slow to recruit soldiers step by step. Financing was equivalent to injecting a large wave of mercenaries in one go, and the company's physical strength could be rapidly improved.
In addition, for these core leaders, financing was also an opportunity for them to cash out.
They only had a small number of options in their hands, and these options had not been cashed out. According to Li Mu's rules, the core team with options could cash out one-third of their shares every year. For example, Kong Lingyu and Lin Ching-ah could first cash out their shares this year. If there was capital coming in, the company would update the company's valuation. At that time, if they were willing to cash out, the company could naturally let them cash out a part of the cash.
Therefore, overall, the core team had no reason to refuse financing.
Although they were very approving of financing, the core team was still very surprised. Didn't Li Mu say before that after the B series, there would be no financing? Everyone was still waiting for him to lead everyone to directly go public after the B series. They did not expect him to start thinking about financing.
Li Mu let everyone express their opinions freely, and Lin Ching-ah asked the question in everyone's mind. "Li Zong, why do you want to start the C series financing now? With Makino Technology's current scale, product operation, and our influence in Hua Xia's internet industry, it is not difficult to start the NASDAQ listing now. Look at China.com, Sina, NetEase, and Sohu. We are much stronger than them in terms of product scale and revenue. "
Li Mu shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly, "Qing Ya, you're right. If we want to go to Nasdaq to ring the bell now, it won't be long before we can really stand in front of Nasdaq's bell. But we can't ignore a problem."
Li Mu sighed and said, "If we start the IPO now, no one will endorse us in the US capital market."
The theory of memorization was not popular yet, so everyone did not understand the meaning of Li Mu's words for a while.
Seeing that everyone was puzzled, Li Mu explained in depth, "Reciting, to put it bluntly, is like reciting a text. We describe our situation to others, including how awesome we are and how much potential we have. It is equivalent to sales promotion."
Li Mu paused for a while and continued, "There are many factors in the capital market. Book data is only one of them. But the market prospects and potential cannot be reflected by book data. I made 1 million this year, and the capital market believes that I can make 2 million next year. But if I say that I can make 20 million or even 200 million this year, will the capital market believe me?"
Everyone kept quiet.
Li Mu said, "From your expressions, I think you all will not believe me either."
Everyone nodded.
There is no proof. Can you tell how big a bubble can be just by looking at one's lung capacity? Of course not.
Lung capacity was only a minimum reference standard, but everyone knew that the bubbles blown up by lung capacity alone would not be big. However, if a gust of wind blew, it might blow up a bubble that was bigger than a person. However, the latter obviously could not be convinced by self-boasting. Who would believe it if it was said out loud? Zhuge Liang is such an amazing person. He said that he can borrow the east wind, but who will believe him before the wind comes?
At this time, Li Mu said again, "If we have a purpose first and find a strong investment bank from the American capital market to cooperate with, after the C series financing, we don't need to go around looking for people to brag about it. Just by relying on the endorsement of the investment bank we cooperate with, we can get the recognition of the capital market. At that time, the listing should be a matter of course. So the key we need to discuss today is: Do we bring in capital or not?"
Everyone basically understood Li Mu's intention. At this time, Ding Zhenglin, who he poached from Sequoia Capital, said excitedly, "Li Zong, if we really start the C series financing, there will definitely be a large number of investment banks swarming in with cash. At that time, you just need to consider whose money to take."
Li Mu said with a smile, "Old Ding, you came from Sequoia. What do you think if we take Sequoia's money?"
Ding Zhenglin said seriously, "I think Sequoia is the best choice at the moment. There are three reasons.
"First, Sequoia has been developing in Hua Xia for the longest time. Not only does it understand the situation of the Internet industry in Hua Xia, but it has also invested in many Internet companies in Hua Xia. It has enough experience.
"Second, Sequoia is directly the top venture capital organization in the United States. It has a strong influence around the world, and the most influential is in the United States. If we cooperate with Sequoia, with Sequoia's capital operation ability, we will be able to get the greatest recognition from the securities companies when we go public in the United States in the future, and achieve the best results.
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