Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Pei Yi stared at Chen Yansen. Seeing his faint smile and the slight upturn of his lips, he guessed, ’Is that a yes?’

”So you’re asking for over five million Hua Yuan, and you think Kuai Pao is worth fifty million? Eleme in Hu City was only valued at thirty million half a year ago, and their business volume is more than three times yours.”

Chen Yansen was noncommittal, retorting with a question of his own.

Five hundred thousand US dollars wasn’t even enough for him to buy a car. This question was also another test for Kang Guodong and Pei Yi.

When meeting investors, you can’t be timid and afraid to state your terms. As long as you have good reasons, there’s always room for negotiation.

If you don’t even have the guts to ask for money, how can you convince anyone you can make the project a success?

”President Chen, I believe Kuai Pao is worth fifty million. Eleme’s business volume is higher than Kuai Pao’s, but that’s only because they started earlier. It doesn’t mean they’ll go the distance. Kuai Pao’s biggest advantage is our independently developed intelligent order allocation system, which can find the optimal match based on information like the distance between the restaurant and the recipient, and the urgency of the order.”

Pei Yi picked up the conversation, speaking with immense confidence.

”President Gao, have someone from admin bring a laptop over.”

Chen Yansen had always been a decisive man, and he gave the order to Gao Weilin.

”Alright, one moment.” Gao Weilin got up and left, returning with a laptop in his hands.

”President Chen, this is Kuai Pao’s order-matching back-end. It matches merchant orders with the delivery personnel’s service areas to improve delivery efficiency.”

Pei Yi explained as he operated the laptop for a demonstration.

Chen Yansen smiled. ’This function is too simple,’ he thought. ’To put it bluntly, it just divides the Luzhou University City into a grid and assigns the merchant orders within each square to a fixed delivery person.’

’What kind of bullshit intelligent order allocation system is this!’

’It’s barely a step up from Eleme’s dispatch system, but its value is limited!’

Chen Yansen looked at Pei Yi, a little disappointed, and shook his head internally. ’This kid is full of hot air.’

”President Chen, as soon as the funding arrives, we can also use the delivery staff’s GPS data to match orders based on real-time location. We can also integrate information from Baidu and Gaode Map to plan the optimal routes for our delivery personnel.”

Seeing the disdain on Chen Yansen’s face, Pei Yi hastily explained.

In truth, he did have plans for optimization, but he was hampered by a lack of funds and manpower for R&D.

”If I give you this five million, how do you plan to spend it?” Chen Yansen nodded slightly and continued to ask.

”First, hiring. Mainly operations, tech, and delivery personnel. Preferably former employees from group-buy websites. The budget for that is one million.”

Pei Yi answered without hesitation, then paused slightly before adding, ”Another 1.5 million will be used for developing the website and mobile application to solidify our foundation.”

”1.5 million for merchant expansion and new customer subsidies, 500,000 to purchase delivery vehicles and insulated boxes, and the remaining 500,000 will be kept as reserve funds.”

”Which of you two is the decision-maker? I can give you thirty million, but I want 80% of the equity.”

Chen Yansen asked with a smile after listening.

To him, there was no real difference between five million and thirty million.

But investing thirty million would undoubtedly send a signal to the outside world: he was bullish on the food delivery sector.

Chen Yansen wanted to use his own influence to give the food delivery sector another push forward on the tide of the times.

When they first met, Gao Weilin had introduced Kang Guodong first and Pei Yi second, so Chen Yansen knew Kang Guodong was the majority shareholder.

But whenever a difficult question came up, it was Pei Yi who stepped forward to answer.

Clearly, of these two tech-background entrepreneurs, one was skilled in R&D, while the other had a better understanding of the market.

Kang Guodong and Pei Yi looked at each other in dismay. Chen Yansen’s response was completely unexpected.

First, the investment amount had jumped from five million to thirty million. Second, the man was demanding 80% equity. This was far beyond their bottom line.

With only 20% left, wouldn’t that make the two of them no different from regular employees?

”President Chen, the most we can part with is 20% of our equity,” Pei Yi said after a long pause.

”If that’s the case, then there’s nothing to be done.” Chen Yansen smiled, getting up to leave.

’At Kuai Pao’s current scale,’ he thought, ’I could achieve the same result with just a few million in costs. The only drawback would be wasting a few months on hiring and R&D.’

Seeing Chen Yansen’s resolute attitude, Pei Yi panicked. The negotiation had been going so well, and now it had suddenly collapsed. He found it hard to accept.

”President Chen, could you give us a day to consider it? We’ll give you an answer tomorrow.” Kang Guodong, who had been silent the whole time, quickly stood up and spoke when he saw the deal about to fall through.

”No problem. President Gao, please take good care of President Kang and President Pei for me.”

Chen Yansen instructed with a smile, then left the conference room and headed for the elevators.

Gao Weilin gave Kang Guodong and Pei Yi a tour of Orange Technology.

At noon, he took them to a restaurant at the East Gate of Xuyuan for lunch, after which they returned to the Science and Technology Park.

Kang Guodong and Pei Yi returned to their hotel, their brows furrowed, unsure of what to do.

They had a lead on the funding, but Chen Yansen wanted too much equity.

If they accepted Senlian Capital’s investment, they would lose controlling interest in the company.

”Old Pei, what are you thinking?” Kang Guodong asked Pei Yi as he sat on the sofa.

”Brother Dong, you’re the majority shareholder. I only own thirty percent. I’ll follow your lead on this.”

Pei Yi said after a moment of thought.

”Actually, I was inclined to agree from the start. I just felt Chen Yansen was asking for too much equity, so I deliberately stalled for a day.”

Kang Guodong explained slowly.

”You’re not serious, are you? Brother Dong, don’t you want to be your own boss?” Pei Yi was stunned and a little exasperated.

”We’re doing okay right now. We can make a few hundred thousand a year, and if we split that and work for another two years, we could buy a house in Luzhou. But you’ve said it yourself before: if Eleme starts to expand, we don’t have the money or the people, and we’ll most likely go under. That being the case, it’s better to find a powerful backer.”

Kang Guodong spoke his mind.

”Alright. Then first thing tomorrow morning, we’ll go find President Gao.” Seeing that his mind was made up, Pei Yi didn’t try to persuade him further.

In his view, working with Chen Yansen was the only way for Kuai Pao to develop at high speed.

If, in Chen Yansen’s hands, Kuai Pao became a ten-billion-yuan enterprise like FoxTao, wouldn’t he and Kang Guodong both become hundred-millionaires?

The next day, the two of them found Gao Weilin and readily signed the equity transfer agreement.

Gao Weilin was very pleased. This was the second investment project he had completed since taking charge of Senlian Capital.

”Next week, I’ll arrange for two accountants to be assigned to Kuai Pao. You two need to hurry up and secure an office space, and the corporate structure needs to be established as well.”

Gao Weilin was still worried, so he made a point of reminding them.

To put it bluntly, Kuai Pao was still a ragtag operation.

Now that they had taken Senlian Capital’s money, they had to accelerate their expansion and formalize the company’s operations, especially on the financial side.

Kang Guodong and Pei Yi nodded to show they understood and finally began their journey home, content with the outcome.

Two days later, Senlian Capital publicly disclosed that it had invested thirty million in a food delivery project called ”Kuai Pao,” but the specific equity percentage was not yet announced.

Everyone in the industry knew Chen Yansen owned a venture capital firm. Aside from the previous acquisition of Cloud Speed Express, this was his first investment in a new platform, and it immediately attracted the attention of the VC industry!