Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Around 9 a.m. the next morning, a convoy of luxury cars drove past the East Gate of Xuyuan, heading toward Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

There were few buildings on either side of the street. Aside from the school and the commercial street opposite it, the area was mostly vast fields of winter wheat stretching as far as the eye could see.

”Shouzhi, Orange Technology’s headquarters is actually in a place like this?”

Yuri asked Zhou Shouzhi in English.

He had been to Hua Country before and met many founders of tech companies. Without exception, their office buildings were all located in bustling Electronic Ports or Software Parks.

Orange Technology was the first he’d seen to set up its headquarters in the suburbs of a third- or fourth-tier city.

”Boss, Hua Country has been developing rapidly in recent years. The supporting infrastructure around here is a bit lacking, but there’s a university nearby, which allows for a steady supply of low- to mid-level employees. Moreover, the salaries Orange Technology offers its R&D engineers are 20-30% higher than the market rate. In terms of high-end talent, they’re not losing out to top-tier second-line phone manufacturers.”

Zhou Shouzhi, sitting to Yuri’s left, gave him a detailed introduction to Orange Technology’s organizational structure and employee origins.

When Yuri learned that most of Orange Technology’s R&D staff came from places like Huawei, ZTE, OPPO, and Xiaomi, and that they even had researchers from Microsoft and Motorola, he immediately dropped his dismissive attitude.

”Orange Technology and the Orange Phone Factory are two separate entities. Judging from Chen Yansen’s actions after receiving funding from Lotte and Augusta, I feel his business focus is more on manufacturing rather than communications product R&D.”

Yuri frowned, inwardly cursing Chen Yansen for being so cunning.

The man had separated the R&D and production divisions. Digital Sky Technology was only investing in Orange Technology.

In truth, Yuri wasn’t very interested in the Orange Phone Factory. Digital product assembly plants had low technical barriers to entry and high investment costs, offering extremely limited returns for Digital Sky Technology.

”I believe that’s precisely what makes him so clever. From his moves to build his own factory and supply chain, it’s not hard to see Chen Yansen’s immense ambition in the communications industry.”

Zhou Shouzhi offered a positive assessment.

After all, since its expansion, the Orange Phone Factory’s employee count had approached 6,000, with an annual production capacity of up to 30 million smartphones. The equipment costs alone amounted to nearly 2 billion.

He was clearly treating phone manufacturing as the core of his future business!

”Shouzhi, I’m not against investing in Orange Technology, but as for the specific valuation, we’ll have to wait for the assessment from our financial and industry analysts before making a decision.”

Yuri glanced at the desolate scenery outside the car window and gave a faint smile.

This investment case had been pushed forward entirely by Zhou Shouzhi.

Initially, the investment target he had recommended was Xiaomi, but over the past three months, Zhou Shouzhi had completely set Xiaomi aside and turned his attention to Orange Technology.

Yuri was very curious about what kind of business model Orange Technology had used to win over this investment genius from Harvard Business School.

Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park was less than ten kilometers from the East Gate of Xuyuan. After chatting for a while, Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi saw the office building complex in the distance.

On the facade of one of the six-story buildings hung a prominent Orange logo.

Yuri knew they had arrived.

After receiving a call from the front desk, Chen Yansen went downstairs with Gao Weilin, Ye Qiuping, and Wang Teng.

Everyone was dressed very formally today. Even Wang Teng, who was usually casual, had put on a suit and combed his hair neatly.

By the time they reached the ground floor, Digital Sky Technology’s convoy was just arriving at the park’s entrance.

Yuri got out of the car with Zhou Shouzhi right behind him. They were followed by more than a dozen staff members, including financial and legal advisors, as well as several burly foreign bodyguards.

”Mr. Yuri, President Zhou, welcome to Orange Technology. Please, come in.”

Chen Yansen smiled and walked up to greet them in fluent Russian.

Yuri was taken aback. He hadn’t expected a man from Hua Country like Chen Yansen to speak such authentic Russian.

Things were different now than they were thirty years ago; the number of university students fluent in Russian was extremely small.

”Mr. Chen, your accent is perfect,” Yuri couldn’t help but praise.

”You’re too kind, Mr. Yuri. Shall we head to the R&D department first, or the industrial design department?”

Chen Yansen asked with a smile.

He had learned his pronunciation habits from watching original-language films. Besides Russian, English, and French, he had also mastered several other languages like Spanish and Arabic.

For Chen Yansen, learning a new language was a trivial matter he could handle in a day or two.

”Mr. Chen, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go to the design department first,” Yuri said, this time in English.

After all, most of the staff accompanying him from Digital Sky Technology only spoke English, so communicating in Russian would be inconvenient.

”No problem.” Chen Yansen nodded and moved to Yuri’s right side.

The two men walked side-by-side into the ground-floor lobby and took the elevator straight to the third floor.

The office space in Building 8 wasn’t huge, but the workstations were spacious and not at all crowded.

In terms of office space per person, Orange Technology had at least three times that of Jingdong.

Of course, after securing funding, Handsome Dong was planning to buy a plot of land and build a brand-new headquarters himself.

”This is the industrial design team, the area ahead is the hardware design team, and the office space adjacent to it on the west side is the testing team.”

Chen Yansen explained as he walked with Yuri.

”I heard you have quite a few R&D engineers from Motorola and Microsoft here. Mr. Chen, why not move your headquarters to Hu City or Yanjing? It would be more advantageous for your company’s recruitment efforts.”

Yuri asked curiously.

”I’m waiting for the right moment,” Chen Yansen replied ambiguously with a faint smile.

Yuri pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, so he had to drop it.

Chen Yansen observed Yuri’s expression, subtle movements, and breathing rate—none of it escaped his notice.

With his extraordinary perception and reaction speed, he could easily see through Yuri’s thoughts and predict his next move during their conversation.

This would be a significant advantage in the upcoming negotiations. He was certain that as long as his asking price wasn’t outrageous, the other party would agree.

Afterward, Chen Yansen gave Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi a brief tour of the Aurora System R&D department.

Wang Teng took out an Orange Mobile Phone and gave a live demonstration of the Aurora OS 1.1’s theme designs, personalization features, and its core junk-cleaning algorithm.

Yuri took the phone, downloaded a game from the Orange App Store, and tried it out on the spot.

A 60Hz screen refresh rate would likely be criticized by users more than a decade later for its lack of smoothness and slow interactive response, but in 2011, it was still a mainstream specification.

Yuri didn’t feel the experience was poor, however. After all, he knew this phone sold for only 300 US Dollars in Hua Country, so its performance was a pleasant surprise.

An hour later, the group returned to the 5th floor.

Zhou Shouzhi and Gao Weilin coordinated their tasks and, along with their assistants, began verifying financial and business data in the outer office area.

Chen Yansen invited Yuri to his office for tea. He chose Keemun black tea.

Yuri took a sip and said, ”It’s a little weak. It would probably taste better with a bit of lemon juice and some sugar cubes.”

Chen Yansen just smiled. Tea has a wide audience, and how it’s drunk varies from person to person.

He signaled for Ye Qiuping to go get some lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Yuri was very curious about Chen Yansen. After sitting down, he had no intention of talking business at all. Instead, he started asking about Chen Yansen’s university life and entrepreneurial experience.

’I can just leave the document review to Zhou Shouzhi.’

Their thoughts aligned, and so they began to chat casually.

During their conversation, Yuri mentioned that his youngest daughter was studying for her MBA in Light Country; otherwise, he would have definitely brought her to meet Chen Yansen.

In his eyes, Chen Yansen was six-foot-one, fluent in English and Russian, and possessed outstanding business talent. He was definitely a standout among his peers.

’My Daria would surely like this kind of man.’

Upon hearing this, Chen Yansen joked with a smile, ”Well, I’d have to see a picture first.”

Yuri laughed heartily. He found Chen Yansen to be a very interesting person who radiated intense self-confidence.

He took out his phone and showed a photo of his youngest daughter. The young woman had delicate features, long, golden-blonde hair, azure eyes, and a tall, slender figure.

Chen Yansen glanced at it but didn’t say anything.

’A little foreign filly from Beibing Country? It wasn’t like I’d never ridden one before. Back then, Feiyu Technology had hired plenty of pretty girls from the north. By day, they worked hard in the livestream studio, slaving away to make money for President Chen; by night, they’d change into maid outfits to play a little ”carrot-pulling” game with him.’

Afterward, Chen Yansen took out a brand-new, unopened Orange Mobile Phone and gave it to Yuri.

”Thank you, I like this gift very much,” Yuri replied politely.

Chen Yansen didn’t really care. ’It was just a formality anyway.’

’I’ll have the brand department take some photos later and get a few media outlets to create a trending topic, saying the boss of Digital Sky Technology couldn’t put the Orange Mobile Phone down.’

After they finished the pot of tea, it was time for lunch.

A convoy of more than ten luxury cars drove majestically toward Sky Garden in the city center.

After lunch, the group returned to the Science and Technology Park.

Yuri suggested visiting Pinbei, and Chen Yansen readily agreed.

The two men strolled downstairs and into Building 6, followed by two tall bodyguards.

By this time, Pinbei already had over 100 employees. The tech department was busy with product development for the web and mobile versions, the design department was finalizing the product’s style, and the Investment Attraction department was contacting factories in industrial belts across the country, inviting them to join Pinbei.

When they found a capable and interested factory, the investment attraction staff would immediately apply for a business trip to conduct an on-site inspection and sign the contract in person.

”President Chen, does Pinbei need funding?” Yuri asked with great interest after looking around.

In his view, if Penguin dared to invest 300 million US Dollars and offer a first-level entry point without even seeing a prototype, it would be hard for him to lose money by following their lead.

After all, Penguin had already done its due diligence. By piggybacking on their sound decision, his chances of making a profit were naturally high.

”Not at the moment. When Pinbei opens its Series A funding round, I will definitely contact you, Mr. Yuri.”

Chen Yansen said with a smile, casually brushing him off.

’Unless Yuri can help me sell my products in Europe and America, I have no desire for Digital Sky Technology to get involved.’

The afternoon passed quickly.

Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi left by car and returned to their hotel in the city to conduct a comprehensive assessment based on the data they had collected and calculate a valuation that would be satisfactory to both parties.

Last time, Chen Yansen had rejected Zhou Shouzhi’s offer of 36 billion, which indicated his psychological bottom line was much higher.

Inside the hotel conference room, after a heated discussion, the finance and data teams came to a consensus based on a price-to-sales ratio valuation model.

They came up with a high valuation of 46 billion, equivalent to about 7 billion US Dollars—more than three times Xiaomi’s valuation.

Although Zhou Shouzhi felt this number was reasonable, Xiaomi, with only 700,000 units sold, was valued at 2 billion US Dollars, while Orange Mobile Phone, with nearly 5 million units sold, was only valued at 7 billion.

’This probably won’t meet Chen Yansen’s expectations!’

Of course, valuation couldn’t be calculated based on sales volume alone. Xiaomi’s low current sales were simply due to production capacity issues.

The price had to be negotiated slowly; it couldn’t be settled in one go. The investment team from Digital Sky Technology hadn’t expected to close the deal in a single day either.

The next day, when Chen Yansen heard Digital Sky Technology’s offer, he rejected it without hesitation.

Yuri discussed it with Zhou Shouzhi again, and after some deliberation, they raised the offer to 9 billion US Dollars.

He also promised to personally step in and help Orange Technology negotiate supply prices with manufacturers like Qualcomm, Samsung, and Sony, aiming for a procurement discount of 5-15%.

”Forget about Mountain Star. Orange Mobile Phone’s screen suppliers are Jingdongfang and Huaxing.”

Chen Yansen said with a wave of his hand.

In 2011, Mountain Star’s screen quality was indeed superior to domestic products, but those Koreans were treacherous and would restrict supply at critical moments.

Xiaomi often ran into this kind of problem in its first two years and only later resolved to switch suppliers. Huawei had also been burned more than a few times.

This was why Jingdongfang later became so popular with phone manufacturers; Huawei, Transsion, and OPPO were all major clients.

The next day, Yuri left Xucheng.

His next stops were Hang City and Yanjing to visit Ah Li and Jingdong, as both were key investment projects for Digital Sky Technology this year.

Investing in two companies in the same sector at the same time was a clear testament to the depth of Digital Sky Technology’s financial resources.

Two days later, the news that Orange Technology had completed its Series A financing round made headlines on major web portals.

At the top of the news article was a group photo of Digital Sky Technology’s boss, Yuri, its Huaguo District partner, Zhou Shouzhi, and Chen Yansen.

The round raised 1.35 billion US Dollars at a valuation of 9 billion US Dollars, instantly making Orange Technology a leader among the country’s second-line phone manufacturers.

Suddenly, Wang Xueting’s recruitment work became much easier. More and more R&D engineers were applying on their own initiative, and the entire HR department was busy scheduling back-to-back interviews every day.

Even Wang Teng, Ye Qiuping, and the others, acting as interviewers, had to participate in a dozen or so second-round interviews a day.

Xucheng, a small third- or fourth-tier inland city, was slowly starting to make a name for itself in the tech world.