Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

He advocated for Penguin to abandon its strategy of developing e-commerce in-house and instead deepen its influence in the industry through investments.

He was very optimistic about the young Chen Yansen. After several interactions, he believed the man had what it took to carve out a niche in the e-commerce arena.

After all, the guy had barged right into the smartphone industry on a whim; there was no reason he couldn’t handle e-commerce.

Ma Wenteng was torn. Chen Yansen’s Pinbei Technology wasn’t a Penguin subsidiary, so on what grounds could it get a primary portal?

What would the heads of QQ Drive, QQ Notes, and QQ Weibo think? That a ’godson’ was being treated better than their own ’flesh and blood’?

If Chen Yansen were willing to give Penguin a controlling stake, Ma Wenteng wouldn’t hesitate to give him the portal.

But he understood the temperament of people like Chen Yansen. If he had been willing to agree to such terms, he would have just joined Penguin and taken over the Paipai Network back then, instead of starting his own company.

”Martin, have Chenfeng sound him out. If he’s willing to part with 30% of the equity, I’ll agree to give him the primary portal.”

After a moment of thought, Ma Wenteng made his decision.

”OK,” Liu Zhiping nodded, indicating he understood.

「Meanwhile.」

After hanging up the phone with Ah Li, Chen Yansen couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

He was creating Pinbei precisely to compete with Taobao and Jingdong for market share, yet Lao Ma was the second person to express interest in investing.

Zhang Yong had started with a 500 million US Dollar valuation, with Ah Li willing to put up 100 million for a 20% stake.

You have to understand, Pinbei was currently nothing more than a shell company with a name. It wasn’t worth a dime.

’Lao Ma really thinks highly of me!’

Unfortunately, Chen Yansen wasn’t interested. Ah Li, just like Pinbei, was a platform that consumed traffic and had to pay to acquire users.

’Follow Ah Li’s lead, and you’ll starve three times a day!’

Had any company acquired by Ah Li ever seen its business grow bigger and better?

The ones that didn’t go bankrupt were just barely hanging on!

All Chen Yansen wanted to say was, ’Sorry, but stay the hell away from me!’

After rejecting Ah Li, IDG, Siwei, and Redwood Capital all called one after another, with valuations ranging from 1 to 2 billion Hua Yuan.

’They all want to score a bargain, but where in the world do you find a deal that good?’

Chen Yansen rejected them one by one, using the excuse that the project wasn’t even operational yet.

Based on his predictions for the e-commerce industry’s trends, getting Pinbei off the ground was a foregone conclusion. He wasn’t about to sell his equity for cheap.

But Penguin was different. If they actually agreed, the advertising costs alone would save him billions a year.

October 8th, the first workday after the holiday.

「Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Building 6.」

Chen Yansen sat in the ground-floor conference room, watching people file in one by one.

Meng Xibo, Zhu Xiaopeng, Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, Xu Xingxing, Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Hu Yun, Zhuang Rui, Li Hui, Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Chen Xu, and Hu Li—only 14 people in total.

”Did you all have a good rest?” Chen Yansen asked with a smile once everyone had arrived.

”Brother Sen, let’s get to it! I’m all set to go!” Xiang Pengfei said, his face alight with excitement.

”Don’t you want to hear about the salary and benefits for your positions first?” Chen Yansen teased.

Xu Dan hadn’t come along, so Pinbei didn’t even have an HR manager. For now, the HR department of Orange Technology was helping handle recruitment.

”Brother Sen, let’s talk about the project first,” Zhang Yifeng suggested.

”Yeah, Brother Sen! No matter what you pay us, we’re going to work with you anyway,” Xiang Pengfei said with a grin.

’We already gave up million-yuan annual salaries, why would we care about a few details now?’

”Team lead compensation will be on par with an Ah Li P7. In addition, Pinbei Technology will adopt all of FoxTao’s benefits. Xu Xingxing and the HR department from Orange Technology will have you sign contracts this afternoon. Your monthly salary will be as stipulated in the contract.”

Chen Yansen understood the value of making a generous offer to attract top talent.

Besides, these hot-blooded youths had given up million-yuan annual salaries for him. If he acted stingy, it would be a huge letdown.