With Ge Mengshi recruited, Chen Pingjiang was in a great mood, and his long-standing worry was instantly cured.
He believed that with Ge Mengshi joining the catering sector, it would be greatly enhanced.
Walking out of the bedroom, Chen Pingjiang was a bit puzzled:
"This isn't your home, is it?"
Ge Mengshi nodded:
"Certainly not. You drank so much, how could I dare to take you home? It would be even harder to explain to my parents then. This is another one of my apartments."
When the two parted ways, Ge Mengshi said:
"I'll rest for half a month, travel around the country, and start work after half a month."
......
After returning to the company, Chen Pingjiang convened a board meeting.
"Renren.com's Series A fundraising plan is officially launched."
This short sentence seemed to have a magical power, energizing everyone in the company and filling them with drive.
Prior to this, although Renren.com's valuation was rising daily, no actual capital had come in, making it impossible to establish its market value.
Receiving money also meant that the capital market affirmed Renren.com's value.
Renren.com's executives and the first batch of employees who received stock options were naturally the happiest.
Other employees were also excited; after all, the more the company developed, the benefits to them were also obvious.
Not to mention salaries, bonuses, and options, even if they switched jobs later, their experience working at Renren.com would make their resumes more impressive.
Unlike other companies, after Renren received funding, it didn't need to explore directions and constantly iterate through trial and error, but rather use the money to accelerate development, buying the opportunity to scale up; and even more, to use the money to deal with the upcoming social networking war, buying a ticket to victory.
With the backing of key external resources from investment institutions, Chen Pingjiang could deeply optimize strategies, expand Renren.com's business capabilities, and further promote its advertising business.
The news spread quickly.
Renren.com's company phone and even Chen Pingjiang's personal phone were almost overwhelmed by calls from enthusiastic VC/PE firms and even individual investors.
SoftBank was the most proactive.
Masayoshi Son did not come in person, but rather Xue Cunhe, the founder of SoftBank China.
True to SoftBank's previous bold and aggressive style, they immediately demanded a 30% stake.
It was a hard limit.
Generally speaking, the maximum percentage for a single Series A financing round does not exceed 30%.
If this percentage is exceeded, it will, to some extent, be detrimental to subsequent fundraising plans.
In order to allow the founding team to retain control of the company after subsequent fundraising, avoid agency problems, and reserve shares for future employees, the best proportion for Series A financing is between 10% and 20%.
Regarding this, Chen Pingjiang neither nodded nor shook his head, only saying he would consider it.
In the following days, Chen Pingjiang met separately with Wu Shangzhi of CDH Investments, Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital, Xiong Xiaoge of IDG, and a series of other investors, big and small.
Essentially, the first meeting was for both sides to get acquainted and to sound out Chen Pingjiang's stance—regarding Renren.com's valuation.
Chen Pingjiang was working non-stop, basically meeting 6-7 investors a day.
Even so, after five days of meetings, there were still forty investors in line.
Right after meeting the head of GSR Ventures, Song Xinyue quickly handed him a glass of water.
She had been temporarily appointed as Chen Pingjiang's personal assistant, and Wan Yuqian was already recruiting a permanent candidate.
Otherwise, Chen Pingjiang wouldn't be able to handle it all; he couldn't possibly liaise with each investor individually to confirm appointment times.
Chen Pingjiang took the water and drank it in one gulp, and asked,
"Who's next?"
Song Xinyue quickly opened her notebook and read,
"3 PM, Tencent, Liu Chiping."
"Oh? It's him."
Chen Pingjiang nodded, then sat down in a chair, closed his eyes to rest, preparing to meet this future President and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Tencent Holdings.
At two fifty, Liu Chiping arrived as scheduled.
As soon as they met, both sides subtly sized each other up.
Liu Chiping wore black-framed glasses, had a square face, and was dressed appropriately.
He showed considerable surprise at Chen Pingjiang's youth; although he had already seen the information, his inner shock was still strong when they met.
"They say heroes emerge young; Mr. Chen truly embodies this saying."
Chen Pingjiang politely exchanged a few words with a smile and invited Liu Chiping to sit down.
"Actually, that you, Mr. Liu, could come, I'm quite surprised."
"Oh? Why surprised?"
Chen Pingjiang gave Liu Chiping a deep look, then smiled and said:
"Because I'm very clear that if I refuse Mr. Liu's cooperation today, Tencent's version of Parking Wars might go live tomorrow."
Liu Chiping was momentarily surprised by Chen Pingjiang's "frankness" and "directness."
At first hearing this, he even thought Chen Pingjiang had some connections within Tencent and had received information in advance.
"That's not the case, Mr. Chen. Even if a deal isn't made, goodwill remains. And besides, Tencent doesn't intend to develop similar games, because even if we did, Renren.com might have already dominated the market."
Real business battles are not like dinner parties where one talks about face and morality.
Liu Chiping, without batting an eye, deflected the statement.
Chen Pingjiang remained smiling and didn't dwell on this topic.
Everyone was well aware of Tencent's style at the moment; it wouldn't become benevolent until after the 3Q War.
As Chen Pingjiang expected, discussions broke down shortly after they started, due to differences in valuation.
Tencent valued Renren.com at 800 million, wanting a 20% stake, which meant an investment of approximately 20 million USD.
Chen Pingjiang believed Renren.com's valuation should be 2 billion.
Liu Chiping immediately disagreed upon hearing this, finding it too exaggerated.
If calculated based on a 2 billion valuation, 20 million USD wouldn't even buy back an 8% stake; with that money, Tencent might as well develop it themselves.
"Frankly speaking, even the most confident investment institutions evaluating your company wouldn't estimate it beyond 1.2 billion. Mr. Chen, this 2 billion valuation, are you not being sincere in your negotiations?"
Chen Pingjiang spread his hands:
"Mr. Liu, you're wronging me here. It's been less than a month, and Renren Parking Wars' daily active users have already reached 2.9 million. In another month, breaking 5 million is a sure thing. Our Renren.com's registered user count has also reached 3 million. Most importantly, it is currently in a period of explosive growth. I think 2 billion is a suitable figure."
Liu Chiping gave a dry laugh twice, feeling that a deal was impossible and that Chen Pingjiang was truly confident to the point of being arrogant.
Chen Pingjiang didn't mind.
Renren.com currently didn't want to be branded with too deep a factional mark.
Watching Liu Chiping's receding figure, Chen Pingjiang was already considering whether to coincidentally seize the agency rights for DNF, intercepting Tencent and snatching a third of its luck.
Compared to other internet companies, Renren.com was undoubtedly fortunate.
It didn't need to prepare business plans in advance, didn't need to travel north to find investors everywhere, and even less, didn't need to attend various cocktail parties for roadshows.
It only needed to sit at home, waiting for investors from all quarters to come knocking for individual meetings.
Similar to how Kaixinwang shot to fame with "Friends for Sale" and was pursued by 80 investment institutions, capital also showed Renren.com sufficient tolerance.
There was no other way, because the data was too good.
In the following days, Chen Pingjiang met with all the remaining investors.
Even investors he didn't plan to collaborate with, Chen Pingjiang received them very politely.
These were all resources, and there was no harm in meeting and getting to know each other.
After all this was done, at the request of Shen Nanpeng from Sequoia Capital,
Sequoia Capital funded and designated a due diligence team composed of experts, including well-known lawyers, accountants, and financial analysts, to conduct pre-financing due diligence on Renren.com.
Renren.com and the members of the due diligence team signed a "confidentiality agreement."
Then the relevant departments collected all related materials and prepared an index, all prepared according to the due diligence team's checklist.
Additionally, a dedicated due diligence room for storing relevant documents was prepared.
Furthermore, a procedure was established to allow potential acquiring institutions the opportunity to raise other questions about Renren.com and obtain copies of disclosable documents in the data room.
(End of this chapter)
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