My Age of Investment

"I thought about it! I want to make Facebook a great company that changes the world."

Xia Jingxing's answer made Old John laugh a little. Today's young people always talk about "changing the world" when starting a business.

You change the world, he changes the world, is the earth still the way it is now?

However, he did not criticize Xia Jingxing for being too ambitious. As a young man, he had never experienced great winds and waves, and always thought that success was within easy reach.

"Mr. Hennessy, do you think I'm talking big?"

Old John waved his hands again and again, "I don't! It's gratifying to see you young people are so passionate about entrepreneurship.

The future of the world belongs to you after all. "

Xia Jingxing smiled, "Although our website is still very young, we have been moving towards our goal.

Aren't HP, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all born in garages?

Facebook was born in the dormitory, and the future will not be worse than the companies that came out of these "garages". "

Old man John felt that this Chinese boy was crazy and didn't want to continue discussing this topic, so he asked about Facebook's detailed development plan.

"After the promotion of the eight Ivy League schools is completed, we will set our sights on colleges and universities in the United States, and even colleges and universities around the world in the future..."

Xia Jingxing did not disclose any longer-term plans, such as "facing 6 billion people on the earth", "going out of the university campus"...

Hearing this, the old man nodded secretly. Although the Chinese boy is "crazy", he is not stupid, he does not expand blindly, and he always focuses on the areas he is good at.

Judging by the popularity of Facebook on college campuses, it is possible to create a campus social network with a large number of student users.

Of course, this is only possible.

There are too many difficulties and obstacles on the road to success, and the founding team of Facebook is all students. The shortcomings of company operation, management experience, etc., may cause the project to fail in the middle.

"Nice idea!"

Principal John boasted, and then said with a smile: "The school has always encouraged and supported students' entrepreneurship.

Did you encounter any difficulties? Schools can help. "

"We lack a venue."

Xia Jingxing explained, "Our current office space is in the dormitory, and there are female members in the team, which is very inconvenient.

In addition, the follow-up expansion may also need to recruit a certain amount of manpower.

Most critically, we still lack an angel investor who will help us reach out to Silicon Valley. "

"Venue", "Angel Investor".

John thought about these two questions, and after a while, he said: "There are several buildings in the school, all of which are used as office space for students to start businesses.

I'll talk to the Academic Affairs later, I'll grant you an office, and you'll be allowed to use it for half a year free of charge. "

"That's great, thank you Mr Hennessy and the school for their generosity."

Xia Jingxing just said that, he didn't take it seriously, but the old man actually agreed, he was really rich!

"As for angel investors..."

John paused, "In this way, I will give you the contact information of several angel investors.

They are all alumni who graduated from our school, you can contact them yourself.

As for whether you can get investment, it depends on the ability of you and your team. "

Xia Jingxing was a little disappointed, he actually wanted to pull the old man onto the boat.

As an angel investor, the president of Stanford is very eloquent when he speaks out!

"Mr. Hennessy, I heard that you are also doing angel investment, can you consider our Facebook?"

Old John smiled first, then shook his head and said: "To be honest, I don't understand the Facebook model, where will your future profit be?

Darren, I suggest you also better prepare yourself.

It's not a few years ago, when the stock price skyrocketed as long as the company was attached to the concept of the Internet.

But after the stock market crash, many VCs failed or became less active.

Just playing with the concept is no longer feasible.

In addition to "technical innovation" and "model innovation", if you want to get investment, you must have a bright future that can convince investors. "

"I know this, but we are still in the stage of developing users, and it is impossible to place advertisements when they come up. That will affect the user experience and be detrimental to expansion."

Xia Jingxing is very clear about Facebook's profit model, but it is not convenient to disclose it at present.

Good things have to be hidden and tucked away, and when they are exposed, they are not secret weapons.

In today's Internet world, everyone knows that "advertising" is a way to monetize, but monetization is done very crudely, just hang ads and you're done!

What "big data customer portraits" and "precise placement of advertisements" will have to wait a few more years.

"Yeah, advertising is a monetization model. But after advertising, will users still use Facebook?

How to balance profitability and user experience?

These are all questions that you need to seriously think about in your future development. "

Old John felt that Xia Jingxing had some insights into the Internet, so he said a few more words.

"Mr. Hennessy, you have invested in Yahoo and Google, and both have made good returns.

But have you thought about it? If you invested in them earlier, how many times the return would you get? "

Xia Jingxing didn't mean to make fun of the old man, he was just using this to provoke the other party.

The founders of Yahoo and Google were both Stanford students.

At that time, John was not the principal, just a professor, but he also succeeded in starting a business once and was very rich.

In such a "close to the water" situation, the old man did not "first get the month", and only earned more than 40 million US dollars from Yahoo and Google.

The market value of the two giants has reached the level of hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars. They only earn tens of millions by investing in them, which is really not much.

Old John was silent for a moment. It was not very early for him to invest in Yahoo and Google.

Google has not yet been listed, and its valuation is not particularly high, but Yahoo has a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars.

If he had joined Yahoo in the first round of financing and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, he would have made billions of dollars now.

He also regretted this privately for a long time, but he didn't expect the boy across from him to know these old events.

"In this way, you let me think about it, and I will reply to you when you officially start financing."

Old John thought about it carefully, and felt that he really couldn't be too arbitrary.

Looking at it for a while, if Facebook really has potential and invest a little money, for him, a billionaire, even if he loses all of it, it is not a big deal.

But if Facebook grows into a behemoth, it will really make money.

But reason told him: this kid in front of him is fooling himself, how easy is it to replicate Yahoo's glory, and it is a high probability event that it is completely lost.

But angel investing is like that, high risk, high reward!

Although the old man did not directly agree to invest, he was willing to wait and see and think about it.

Xia Jingxing's purpose was also achieved, and he did not say more.

And it was only at this time that old man John remembered, why did he find Daeron?

Dispute resolution?

Why is it sent to the office and invested?

Is this Chinese boy really only eighteen years old?

Putting away his thoughts, the old man John talked about the solution to Xia Jingxing's encounter with racial discrimination.

"What the school means is, let Phyllis and Lane apologize to you in the school newspaper, and then the school will give them some punishment.

After all, they are already senior year, and they will graduate in one year. They may be impulsive and say a lot of things that shouldn't be said, and we can't destroy their entire lives because of this.

Darren, by communicating with you, I can feel that you are a sincere, kind, and generous child.

Can you forgive their behavior? "

Xia Jingxing thought about it and said, "Stanford is an inclusive school, and it is great because of it.

I can forgive them, but I have to get them to stop copying Facebook.

Because of their plagiarism, Stanford's "original technology" has become a joke at other schools.

At the same time, I also hope that the school can take this incident seriously, and take this as a case to strengthen the relevant management and punishment system, so as to prevent similar incidents from happening again and hurt other international students. "

"No problem, your suggestion is very good, and we all take it."

John laughed heartily, feeling that so many "gifts" in front of him were not given in vain, this little guy is an interesting person.

He sits in the position of the principal, and it is not easy to deal with this kind of racial discrimination.

The punishment is too severe, and I am afraid that the white people will have another opinion. By then, there will be a lot of trouble, and it will be more difficult to end it.

The punishment is too light, the international students are dissatisfied, and the trouble will also damage the reputation of the school.

The best way is to punish neither light nor severe, so that both parties can accept it, and then slowly calm down the situation.