Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

He swiped the screen. The second news item was about the death of Apple CEO Jobs. Apple was about to enter the Cook era.

The rest of the news focused on the fierce competition among group-buying websites. Lashou, WoWo Group, Nuomi, Dianping, and Meituan were in a chaotic battle, poaching each other’s staff and offering huge subsidies, all vying for market share.

What surprised Chen Yansen was that in this life, Lashou and Nuomi Network had exceptionally strong momentum. Their online marketing was excellent, and they could even compete with Meituan’s prized ground promotion teams.

If this trend continued, the ”war of a thousand groupons” would not be decided anytime soon.

Chen Yansen frowned. After selling FoxTao, his influence in the group-buying industry was virtually zero.

He didn’t care who would ultimately win the group-buying competition.

Anyway, between 2011 and 2013, both group-buying and food delivery were money-losing ventures.

After Eleme secured a $1 million financing round at the beginning of the year, it had barely made a ripple in the industry.

Venture capitalists seemed to have forgotten the food delivery track entirely, showing no interest in initial or follow-up investments.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen called Old Gao and told him to try and contact Zhang Xuhao.

On one hand, by investing early, he could make a huge profit in the future regardless of whether Ah Li or Meituan acquired Eleme. On the other hand, it would allow him to participate in Eleme’s daily operations.

He was making preparations for his next move.

After listening, Gao Weilin immediately agreed.

After joining Senlian Capital, he originally thought his job would just be buying things and making investments. Instead, he had ended up as the CFO of Orange Technology, and from time to time, he even had to help the boss pay the final installments on cars and houses.

This was nothing like being the head of an investment firm; he was practically Chen Yansen’s butler.

This time, he could finally put his professional skills to use. But after doing a deep dive into Eleme, he was instantly dumbfounded.

’Who the hell came up with such a fucked-up business model?’

’There was no hope of profitability in sight!’

The platform managed to displease both buyers and merchants.

To make a profit, merchants had no choice but to increase their online prices, since packaging, delivery, and platform commissions added to their costs. Buyers, on the other hand, were unwilling to pay more, feeling that the platform was just passing the costs on to them.

Founded two and a half years ago, Eleme had only ever received a single round of funding. With just over 3,000 orders per day, after deducting management and technology costs, Eleme was actually losing money.

Gao Weilin wanted to talk Chen Yansen out of it, but in the end, he sighed and chose to trust his boss’s judgment.

’When it comes to business, ten of me wouldn’t be a match for the boss. I should just do my job. If I overstep my bounds, I’ll just end up making him unhappy.’

Two days later, Zhang Xuhao received a call from Gao Weilin.

”One hundred million, and Senlian gets 30% equity,” Gao Weilin stated the offer upfront.

”US Dollars?” Zhang Xuhao asked tentatively.

”Hua Yuan,” Gao Weilin sneered. ’This guy is dreaming,’ he thought. ’At Eleme’s current scale, even a valuation of 200 million is generous.’

Zhang Xuhao fell silent. He had been wondering lately if he should change the product’s name.

Eleme?

He really was hungry now!

In the past two years, aside from the $1 million in financing from Jinsha Venture Capital, he hadn’t received a single penny from any other VC.

He wanted to expand the market, but he had no money!

’This damned name is like a curse!’

He wanted the 100 million in funding, but he was reluctant to give up 30% of his equity.

After some thought, Zhang Xuhao said he needed to consider it. After hanging up, he immediately researched Senlian Capital’s background and discovered that the boss behind it was Chen Yansen.

An idea immediately struck Zhang Xuhao. He took Senlian Capital’s offer and went to talk to Jinsha River Venture Capital, Redwood Capital, and Gao Ling Capital, using it as leverage to drive up his company’s valuation.

This greatly puzzled Zhang Lei of Gao Ling Capital. He had studied Eleme’s business model before and, frankly, wasn’t impressed.

In his view, Chen Yansen had good business sense; logically, he shouldn’t be interested in Eleme.

So, Zhang Lei called Chen Yansen.