Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Yanjing, Digital Valley, the DiDi Dache workshop.

Cheng Wei picked up a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Li Guangping, who was sitting across from him, a hint of embarrassment on his face.

The place was utterly spartan. Cheng Wei knew that if it weren’t for the novelty of the ride-hailing model, plus the explosive popularity of Fast Taxi attracting investment bank attention, the Vice President of Today Capital would never have deigned to visit his workshop-style startup.

”President Cheng, your conditions here are certainly harsh,” Li Guangping said with a teasing smile as he took the water, his gaze sweeping over the small, cramped space.

Previously, Today Capital had missed the opportunity to invest in Fast Taxi. Now, Fast Taxi’s valuation had already exceeded 600 million US dollars.

The big boss, Xu Xin, believed that rather than investing in the already-established Fast Taxi, it was better to turn their attention to DiDi Dache.

This way, Today Capital’s potential for profit would be much greater.

Cheng Wei gave an awkward laugh. Although Li Guangping’s words stung, he didn’t dare refute them.

This was the first—and only—venture capital firm to proactively show interest in investing in DiDi Dache since the project’s inception.

When you’re out of money, you can’t speak with confidence.

Seeing that the balance in his account was nearly gone, he knew that if he couldn’t secure funding, he would have to tuck his tail between his legs, declare his startup a failure, and go back to being an employee.

”President Li, this is DiDi Dache’s business plan. Please take a look.”

Cheng Wei pushed a thick document across the table to Li Guangping.

Li Guangping gave a faint smile, opened the business plan, and began to read it as if no one else was in the room.

In Cheng Wei’s vision, there were 1.3 million taxis in the country with daily operational revenues as high as 300 million, which translated to over 100 billion a year. Even if DiDi Dache took just a 10% commission, its annual revenue would be 10 billion.

At that point, DiDi Dache’s valuation would exceed 100 billion!

”When can DiDi Dache go live?” After a long moment, Li Guangping put down the document and looked up at Cheng Wei, his gaze sharp and piercing.

”By the end of the month, at the latest,” Cheng Wei said through gritted teeth.

In reality, he had realized long ago that the outsourcing company he’d spent ninety thousand on was completely unreliable.

He couldn’t say for sure whether they would be able to launch on schedule at the end of the month.

But in order to secure funding, Cheng Wei had no choice but to bluff.

”That’s too slow! Fast Taxi has already entered the Luzhou market. Including Hang City and Jinling, they have a potential user base of 20 million people within their operational range. DiDi needs to speed things up.”

Li Guangping shook his head, his expression grave.

’I want to be fast, too!’

’But I’m fucking broke!’

Cheng Wei gave a bitter smile, screaming internally.

He had suffered immensely lately. Most of his team members were originally from the business side of Wealth Treasure’s B2C division and knew absolutely nothing about technology.

The slow pace of R&D made him so anxious he couldn’t sleep, night after night.

On one hand, there was the powerful rise of Fast Taxi, which had secured 90 million US dollars in funding and was aggressively seizing the ride-hailing market in places like Hang City and Jinling. On the other hand, the nightmare of his startup failing constantly haunted him.

He had resigned from his general manager position at Ah Li. If he failed to produce results, not only would his old colleagues mock him, but even his parents and relatives would question his decision.

Cheng Wei took a deep breath. ”President Li, I know that compared to Fast Taxi, DiDi Dache is at a disadvantage in terms of technology and funding. But I firmly believe that a domestic ride-hailing market this large can support at least two or three unicorn companies.”

The implication was: ’Even though I have no money and no tech, if Today Capital invests in me, I can leverage a first-mover advantage to secure second or third place without much difficulty.’

Li Guangping smiled freely. He appreciated Cheng Wei’s honesty.

In his view, DiDi Dache was not without its merits. The entire team, including Cheng Wei, consisted of core members from Wealth Treasure’s sales team. When it came to market development, they were absolute experts.