Reborn in 2014: A One-Man Tycoon

Everyone was stunned by Meng Chuan's decisiveness.

Zhang Erming, in particular, felt this most deeply.

In the past, when dealing with investors, we either offered too little money or asked for too much equity.

The two sides engaged in a fierce, back-and-forth verbal battle.

After several rounds of back-and-forth negotiations, a compromise was finally reached, and a deal was successfully negotiated.

This is the first time Zhang Erming has proactively offered Meng Chuan an additional 20% of the shares during negotiations.

It wasn't that Zhang Erming was generous; it was simply that Meng Chuan had given him too much.

Otherwise, Zhang Erming would feel uneasy holding Meng Chuan's 100 billion.

Until the contract was signed and the transfer was completed.

Zhang Erming counted again and again, making sure there were so many zeros in the bank text message before he was sure he wasn't dreaming.

Until today, he was still worried about the company's future.

With billions in hand, Zhang Erming feels much more at ease.

Even his hoarse voice seemed to have improved a lot.

Of course, the reason Zhang Erming was willing to give Meng Chuan an extra 20% of the shares was because...

Another important reason is that they want to cling tightly to Meng Chuan, their big financial backer.

Meng Chuan seemed too mysterious to him.

Young, rich, generous, and mysterious.

Perhaps he is a descendant of some prominent family.

Besides, it only costs 10 billion to acquire 50% of the equity, so Zhang Erming is clearly the one who makes the profit.

Liu Qian was equally shocked by this.

However, she was fortunate enough to witness Meng Chuan and his father's business negotiations once.

At the time, her father was also desperately trying to give Meng Chuan more shares.

But Meng Chuan refused to take it.

Perhaps this is Meng Chuan's negotiation style!

He politely declined Zhang Erming's invitation to dinner.

Meng Chuan led Liu Qian and Chen Yiyi out of the Yingdu Building.

Meng Chuan was also in a good mood at this moment.

It should be noted that 50% of the shares, and permanent shares at that, far exceeded Meng Chuan's expectations.

Only Meng Chuan knows that despite ByteDance's current near-bankruptcy, it's a different story.

ByteDance has a global expansion plan and is already valued at 1.56 trillion RMB even before its IPO.

Some organizations even estimate that ByteDance's valuation could increase tenfold if it goes public in the future.

That's 15 trillion.

Meng Chuan's current investment of tens of billions of yuan could yield at least a return of 7 trillion yuan in the future.

This is even more terrifying than printing money, so how could Meng Chuan not be excited?

Meng Chuan had originally thought he would be satisfied with acquiring 30% of the shares.

I wonder if Zhang Erming will regret giving him an extra 20% of permanent shares today.

"Come on, I'm in a good mood, I'll treat you to dinner."

Meng Chuan said with a smile to Liu Qian and Chen Yiyi.

"Hey, brother-in-law, are all your investments this extravagant?"

Chen Yiyi suddenly asked:

"Do you need another girlfriend? If you wanted, I'd be your girlfriend too."

Chen Yiyi's outrageous words left Meng Chuan completely stunned.

Liu Qian was stunned for several seconds before angrily chasing after Chen Yiyi and yelling:

"Yiyi, what are you doing calling him 'brother-in-law'? Are you trying to get yourself killed? You shameless slut, have you no shame? He's my student, ten years younger than you, and you want to be his girlfriend? Can't you act like an elder at all?"

Liu Qian truly regretted telling Chen Yiyi that they had gone to Beijing.

This little girl's mouth is like a cotton-padded trouser waistband.

They dare to blurt out anything.

Meanwhile, Zhang Erming, who was looking down from upstairs at Meng Chuan and his two companions playing around, couldn't help but sigh:

"Being young and rich is great!"

Zhang Erming was also in his early thirties at this time, still quite young!

But his years of entrepreneurship have allowed him to experience all walks of life.

Moreover, working hard every day is nothing compared to Meng Chuan's carefree life with two beautiful women.

"Okay, brother-in-law, seriously, why don't you invest in me too?"

After playing around for a while, back in the car, Chen Yiyi suddenly turned around and asked Meng Chuan a question.

"Invest in you?"

Meng Chuan was taken aback.

“In March of this year, I and three partners founded a company called ofo. It is the world’s first ‘dockless bike sharing’ company, which is mainly dedicated to solving the last mile transportation problem on university campuses.”

Chen Yiyi said.

Meng Chuan was taken aback.

This little yellow bike became very famous in later generations.

It can be said that the emergence of Ofo (the yellow bike-sharing company) pioneered the sharing economy.

At its peak, its valuation even reached $30 billion.

Of course, the emergence of Ofo bikes was like a gust of wind, rapidly rising under the influence of capital.

It also declined rapidly.

Many customers' deposits were still not refunded by 2024, when Meng Chuan woke up from his dream.

The history of Ofo (the yellow bike-sharing company) is still talked about by countless people on Douyin (TikTok) in later generations.

What Meng Chuan never expected was that Chen Yiyi was one of the four founders of Ofo.

"Actually, your idea is quite good, but the prospects for this industry are not very good."

Meng Chuan shook his head.

Ofo (the bike-sharing company) is not worth investing in.

Putting aside the fact that Ofo's valuation is too low, there's the example of Douyin, a giant with a market value of trillions.

A mere 3 billion, even in US dollars, wouldn't hold much appeal for Meng Chuan.

Moreover, the bike-sharing industry itself is not competitive.

So-called valuation is largely just a matter of capital operation.

"Brother-in-law, I haven't even introduced you yet, and you're already saying the prospects aren't good. Actually..."

Chen Yiyi was somewhat unconvinced and wanted to argue.

“I understand your confidence in this industry, but as I said, a good idea doesn’t necessarily mean good returns.”

Meng Chuan quickly analyzed:

"Because your profit model is too simple. I guess you deploy shared bicycles, and customers pay about one yuan per ride by scanning a code."

"Even if you achieve scale in the future, you can increase advertising revenue, but advertising revenue is unstable. The main source of income will still be paid for rides."

"However, the maintenance costs are too high, which greatly limits the company's development."

Meng Chuan's analysis left Chen Yiyi speechless.

She hasn't said anything yet!

Meng Chuan was able to analyze the company's future direction by simply mentioning "dockless bike sharing"?

"So, according to you, brother-in-law, we're destined to fail?"

Chen Yiyi looked somewhat downcast.

"That's not the case."

Meng Chuan continued his analysis:

"Actually, you can be bolder and step out of the campus and into the city! Because for many office workers, the last mile is also a huge need."

Meng Chuan is certain that the sharing economy can still be profitable.

"You mean we can only grow and succeed by leaving the campus?"

Chen Yiyi pressed for an answer.

Because their initial intention was only to serve the campus, and they never thought about serving the wider society.

Do cities really need shared bikes?

"It's certainly possible to grow big, but whether it can become strong is another matter."

Meng Chuan shook his head.

"What do you mean?"

Chen Yiyi humbly asked for advice.

"Think about it! When you leave campus and achieve a certain scale, a large amount of capital will flood in, and the competition will increase."

"Moreover, cities and campuses are different. Students on campus are relatively civilized. But society is full of all kinds of people."

“When you deploy in cities, there may be problems such as loss or intentional damage. Moreover, cities are much larger, so the maintenance costs are naturally higher than those for campuses.”

"Conservative estimates suggest that the maintenance cost of a city is ten times or more than that of a campus."

"And because of competition among peers, the cost of cycling in the city is not higher than that on campus."

"Ultimately, the problem is that the revenue model is too simplistic and lacks sustainability."

After Meng Chuan's analysis, Liu Qian and Chen Yiyi both fell silent.