Hearing Old Horse Brother's words, Ye Chen couldn't help but marvel; as expected of Old Horse Brother, his offer was truly generous.
Although he was surprised, Ye Chen's face remained very calm.
Old Horse Brother was a shrewd businessman; if he invested thirty million, the shares he wanted definitely wouldn't be small.
Investing thirty million in one go showed that Old Horse Brother was very confident in the future of Shared Bikes.
Old Horse Brother smiled and said, "I think this project of your company has a very bright future. I'll invest thirty million, but I want to take a 60% stake in your company. You shouldn't have any objections, right?"
After speaking, Old Horse Brother looked at Ye Chen with a face full of confidence.
In his eyes, it was impossible for Ye Chen to object after hearing the terms he offered.
However, to Old Horse Brother's surprise, Ye Chen frowned.
Although Old Horse Brother's investment was substantial, the stake he wanted was too high.
Ye Chen could not possibly agree to a 60% share.
Seeing that Ye Chen didn't seem to appreciate the offer, Old Horse Brother continued, "As far as I know, the total investment in your company is barely fifty million. I'm offering thirty million for a 60% stake; that's very reasonable, isn't it?"
Old Horse Brother looked at Ye Chen confidently.
Li Li, who was on the side, was actually starting to feel tempted.
But Ye Chen responded decisively, "Sorry, I can accept a thirty million investment, but a 60% stake is a condition I cannot accept."
If Old Horse Brother took 60% in the first round of financing, Ye Chen would only be left with 20% of the shares.
A thirty million investment was indeed a lot, but for Ye Chen, this deal was still a loss.
Because in Ye Chen's heart, this Shared Bikes project was worth at least 1 billion.
Old Horse Brother was stunned for a moment and asked, "Then how many shares do you plan to give?"
At most, I can only give you 35% of the shares for 30 million USD. In this round of financing, we are only accepting a 35% transfer of shares."
Ye Chen's tone was very firm. If they gave up 35% in the first round, then he and Li Li would still hold 65% of the shares.
This way, they would still maintain control over the entire Shared Bikes project.
But if they gave up 60%, then Shared Bikes would no longer be under Ye Chen and Li Li's control.
Ye Chen didn't have any sense of trust toward capitalists like Old Horse Brother.
Once control fell into someone else's hands, Ye Chen would lose control over Shared Bikes.
By giving up 35% in the first round, even if they went through a second round of financing, he and Li Li could still maintain more than 50% control.
By the third round of financing, Ye Chen believed the value of Shared Bikes would have reached its maximum. At that time, Ye Chen and Li Li would sell their shares and make a clean exit.
As for the future development of Shared Bikes, it wasn't something Ye Chen needed to consider.
In this current first round of financing, Ye Chen could not lose his dominant control over Shared Bikes.
Old Horse Brother frowned, clearly unsatisfied with the share allocation Ye Chen offered.
"Ye Chen, do you really think your Shared Bikes company can reach a market value of 1 billion?"
Ye Chen said very confidently, "Of course. If you don't believe me, you can look at our company's data."
"After seeing it, you'll be able to judge for yourself whether our company is worth one billion yuan."
Ye Chen smiled slightly and then gave Li Li a look.
Li Li still felt some pressure negotiating with a business giant like Old Horse Brother.
But he hadn't expected Ye Chen to be so neither servile nor overbearing in front of Old Horse Brother, showing immense confidence.
Involuntarily, Li Li looked at Ye Chen with even more respect.
In fact, during this time, Ye Chen had already asked Li Li to find people from investment firms to begin preparations for the first round of financing.
Therefore, Li Li had already prepared the data favorable to the company.
Li Li took out a set of data and handed it to Old Horse Brother.
"President Ma, this is a report on the operation of Shared Bikes over the past month."
Currently, the 100,000 Shared Bikes deployed on the streets of Jiangcheng were running very smoothly.
So this data was very impressive. After Old Horse Brother looked at the data, the disdain in his eyes vanished instantly.
The more he looked, the more shocked he became. The data shown in this report was much better than what he had understood.
No wonder this young lad was so confident and could value Shared Bikes at around 1 billion. If this data was real, it was truly possible!
Ten minutes later, Old Horse Brother finished reading the data.
He handed the data to the analysts behind him, letting them verify the authenticity of this data.
Soon, a person in charge said, "President Ma, there are no problems with this data."
"Mm." Old Horse Brother nodded gently.
In his heart, he was also struggling with whether or not to invest in this project.
Signing today was impossible. After all, every company's financing was a very arduous negotiation process.
Furthermore, Alibaba Group didn't belong to him alone. Even if he wanted to invest, he had to discuss it with the other shareholders.
"President Ye, President Li, how about this: I'll take this data back to study it first, and while I'm at it, I'll discuss it with the other shareholders to see if it's suitable for investment."
In the end, Old Horse decided to take it slow. After all, the capital being invested in this project was not small, so he had to be cautious.
Ye Chen nodded and said, "No problem. However, please make sure you don't disclose this data to others, President Ma. We'll wait for your good news."
Ye Chen and Li Li stood up to see Old Horse Brother off, and then the two of them also left by car.
In the car, Li Li asked, "Ye Chen, do you think Old Horse Brother will cooperate with us?"
Li Li was actually unsure, feeling that the price Ye Chen asked for was a bit high.
Ye Chen said confidently, "He definitely will. After all, Shared Bikes and Alibaba Group's Alipay software can promote each other. With Old Horse Brother's business philosophy, he won't give up on investing in Shared Bikes. Next, it's mainly about whether the price can be agreed upon."
Ye Chen continued, "Since Old Horse Brother knows about this project, with his personality, he won't give up. Even if the negotiation with us fails, he'll start his own shared bike business."
Ye Chen was very certain about Old Horse Brother investing in Shared Bikes. Even in his past life, Old Horse Brother had secretly invested in Shared Bikes.
And in this life, Alibaba Group was in a development phase, and Shared Bikes were also a catalyst for Alibaba's bikes, so they couldn't possibly give up.
Li Li said worriedly, "What if Old Horse Brother leaves us aside and does it himself?"
Ye Chen laughed and said, "That's a possibility, but I think the likelihood is extremely low."
Ye Chen understood Alibaba Group's business logic very well; what they liked most was investing, not doing it themselves.
Moreover, Horse's business philosophy was that whenever he saw a good project, he would invest and participate."
In fact, compared to Old Horse Brother going solo, what Ye Chen worried about most was other companies following suit.
A project as hot as Shared Bikes wasn't just being watched by Alibaba Group.
By now, someone must have already caught the scent and might even be preparing to follow the trend.
What Ye Chen had to do was occupy the majority of the market share before they emerged.