Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next day, Chen Yansen arrived in Luzhou around noon.

The Kuai Pao Headquarters building was located in the northwest corner of Luyang District, which happened to be quite close to the factory plot Meng Yuanzhi had allocated to him—only five or six kilometers away.

Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, Kou Zhen, and a group of Kuai Pao’s senior executives stood at the main gate of the complex, watching a silver Bentley slowly approach from the intersection.

Once Xiaoli brought the car to a stop, Chen Yansen pushed the door open and stepped out.

”Boss!”

Pei Yi was the first to react, taking a few quick steps forward to greet him.

Although Kang Guodong had lost his position as CEO and harbored a trace of resentment, he still acted with great respect when facing Chen Yansen.

Before accepting funding from Senlian Capital, he had held 70% of the equity, with an annual income of only three to four hundred thousand yuan. After receiving two rounds of funding and securing a resource slot on Pinbei’s homepage, Kuai Pao’s valuation had soared, reaching a high of 1.4 billion.

Although his equity percentage had shrunk, its value was much higher, approaching the 60 million mark.

Furthermore, Penguin, Redwood Capital, and Gao Ling Capital were still vying for Kuai Pao’s Series A funding. Perhaps on the day that funding round opened, his own net worth would surpass one hundred million.

Thus, Kang Guodong’s feelings were extremely complex.

Kou Zhen was an executive hired from outside the company. He understood Chen Yansen’s operational methods better than Pei Yi and Kang Guodong.

Back when he was at Lashou Network, he had witnessed the fawning expression on their Market Department Director’s face while trying to curry favor with FoxTao during an investment pitch.

”You’ve all worked hard. It’s cold out here, let’s go inside to talk! You are all the pillars of Kuai Pao. You need to stay energized so we can win the eradication campaign after the New Year.”

Chen Yansen patted Pei Yi’s shoulder and exchanged pleasantries with the group, smiling.

As for the ”eradication campaign,” the name said it all: it meant going to Hu City to eliminate their competitor, Eleme!

Pei Yi nodded in agreement and introduced a few of the colleagues standing beside him to Chen Yansen.

The group headed into the building, chatting as they walked.

It was a four-story office building that had originally been a clothing factory’s production workshop.

Faded advertising slogans still clung to the exterior walls. Only the newly renovated interior gave Chen Yansen the feeling that he was visiting a tech company.

Each floor spanned a vast 1,600 square meters, filled with densely packed rows of desks as far as the eye could see.

”Boss, we originally only rented one floor, but our expansion over the last month has been so rapid that we’ve rented the other three floors as well. The location is a bit remote, but the office costs are low. The rent is only 0.7 yuan per square meter per day.”

Pei Yi explained, gesturing toward the office area on the first floor.

”How many people are at headquarters now? Where does everyone live, and how do you all handle meals?”

Chen Yansen asked casually.

The building Pei Yi and Kang Guodong had chosen was truly a bargain. The money they saved was all spent on new-customer subsidies, offline promotions, and delivery riders.

He was very pleased with this!

”There are around 400 people in total, but only a little over 300 work in the office each day. The rest are all part of our ground promotion teams, working out of the commercial centers in the Luyang, Yaohai, Shushan, and Baohe Districts. They come back once a week.”

Pei Yi replied.

He paused before adding, ”The employees mostly live in the nearby Rongfeng Garden complex. There’s a food street at its southeast corner, and a shopping mall three kilometers away.”

”This used to be a clothing factory, so it should have a cafeteria. We can hire our own chefs. The employees will eat well, and they’ll save a lot of time that can be used for a proper lunch break.”

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, then gave the instruction.

After all, running their own cafeteria would create a dozen or so jobs, which could contribute several hundred wisps of Human Dao Fire to him over a year.

”Okay, Boss. I’ll arrange it as soon as possible.”

Pei Yi quickly agreed.

”Guodong, we’re now getting over 100,000 orders a day. As the head of the technology department, you need to handle order processing and dispatch properly. You have to ensure the income of our full-time riders while also considering delivery timeliness. By the way, have any of you ever delivered food? Especially the colleagues on the route planning and time-efficiency optimization teams?”

Chen Yansen stopped and looked at Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, and the others.

Delivering food?

The question stumped them.

”Boss, Brother Dong and I delivered food before in Jade Lake University City,” Pei Yi answered.

”Boss, for its order allocation algorithm and real-time tracking, Kuai Pao mainly uses GPS positioning and push notification mechanisms to assign orders to riders quickly and accurately, and to update order statuses for users in a timely manner. The initial results have been pretty good,” Kang Guodong followed up.

Chen Yansen understood. The people on the route planning and time-efficiency optimization teams had never done deliveries themselves. They didn’t have a clear, fundamental understanding of the delivery process.

”The people in those two positions must be scheduled for at least one week of hands-on delivery experience. The timeliness of food delivery doesn’t just depend on improving the algorithm; it also relies on the number of riders and our ability to dispatch orders.”

Chen Yansen said in a low, serious tone.

To put it bluntly, if there weren’t enough people, they should just hire more delivery staff. There was no need to squeeze delivery times to the absolute limit just to increase per-person efficiency.

He didn’t want to see ”order kings” earning twenty or thirty thousand a month, nor did he intend to market the job of a delivery rider as some dream profession that everyone wanted.

After hearing this, the director of the rider department, Xia Xiangyu, mulled over Chen Yansen’s words. Faintly understanding the subtext, he nodded heavily and said, ”I understand, Boss.”

”Guodong, I’ve read your work report. The biggest problem hindering route optimization right now is our inability to get real-time traffic conditions, congestion data, and accident reports from Qian Du Map or Gaode Map. I’ve spoken with Shen Nanpeng from Redwood Capital about this, and I’ll have it sorted out for you by mid-February at the latest.”

Chen Yansen said to Kang Guodong.

Because Kang Guodong had tactfully given up the CEO position, Chen Yansen was quite courteous to him. The man’s management skills were average, but his programming ability was truly solid.

The order dispatch system that Zhang Xuhao and his group of top students from Jiaoda had spent two years building was actually inferior to the product Kang Guodong had whipped up in just six months.

Chen Yansen’s solution was simple and direct: he would have Liu Zhiping arrange a dinner party for him. In attendance would be Shen Nanpeng from Redwood Capital, as well as Cheng Congwu from Gaode Map.

An O2O platform like Kuai Pao was a natural fit with the mobile-centric nature of map and navigation apps.

In early 2012, Ah Li had not yet gone public, and Meituan had not yet emerged victorious from the ”Thousand-Groupon War.”

Gaode Map’s role in the industry was more that of a traditional map software provider, and its partners were mostly automobile manufacturers.

Although it was already transitioning toward the internet industry, it had failed to attract significant attention from investors.

Two years ago, Gaode Map listed on the Nasdaq. Its stock price rose by 1.39 US dollars on its first day, peaking at 13.89 US dollars.

But two years had passed, and Gaode Map’s stock was still hovering around 12 US dollars per share. This indicated that in the eyes of investors, its potential was already exhausted, valuing it at 1 billion US dollars at most.

After all, the mobile internet was still in its infancy. Take Taobao, for example: of its 600 billion in total sales last year, Mobile Taobao accounted for just over 10 billion. The PC platform still generated the lion’s share.

Therefore, it was perfectly understandable that Gaode Map was not favored by internet tycoons and investors.

When Shen Nanpeng heard that Chen Yansen of Senlian Capital was planning to make a strategic investment in Gaode Map, he got the idea to mediate a deal and, in the process, sell some of the shares held by Redwood Capital.

Chen Yansen’s reasoning boiled down to three points:

First, Gaode Map possessed Class-A surveying and mapping qualifications for navigation, aerial photography, and internet map services. It held a 26.3% market share, putting it ahead of Google Maps and completely crushing Qian Du Map. The product quality itself was not an issue.

Second, it was a strategic move for the mobile internet. The growth of Fast Taxi, Cloud Speed Express, and Kuai Pao all depended on map and navigation technology. Rather than paying massive service fees to Ah Li in the future, it was better to act before Ma Liyun and acquire Gaode while its stock price was depressed.

Third, Gaode’s data capabilities were highly complementary to the businesses of Pinbei, Cloud Speed, and Orange Pay, which would help build a complete O2O closed-loop ecosystem.

At this time, Gaode’s market cap was a mere 650 million US dollars. In the future, once the mobile internet became mainstream, its valuation could easily soar to 10 billion, or even 20 billion US dollars.

The prospect of a tenfold or greater return on investment, combined with the incalculable value of its user traffic, was enough to pique Chen Yansen’s interest.

Hearing Chen Yansen’s plan, Kang Guodong couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly responded, ”Thank you, Boss.”

”By the way, Secretary Tao from the Central Bureau will be coming to the annual party tonight. Find someone sharp to keep an eye out on the first floor of the restaurant. Make sure she isn’t slighted.”

Chen Yansen turned and instructed Pei Yi.

With Kuai Pao Headquarters located in Luzhou, a connection like Tao Jingwen naturally couldn’t be wasted.

The Central Bureau?

Secretary Tao?

Pei Yi obediently acknowledged the order. He clearly hadn’t transitioned out of his graduate student mindset yet and possessed an innate reverence for people like Tao Jingwen.

Chen Yansen glanced at him, saw right through his thoughts, and said with a laugh, ”Chin up. Don’t embarrass the CEO of Kuai Pao. She’s just a chief secretary. If I were to take you to see Meng Yuanzhi, would you feel the need to crawl there?”

”Boss, it’s mainly that I’ve never interacted with people like that before. I don’t know how I should talk to them.”

Pei Yi gave a dry laugh, feeling a bit embarrassed by Chen Yansen’s words.

It wasn’t that he lacked experience in handling interpersonal relationships; he just hadn’t ever dealt with people of Tao Jingwen’s caliber, which was perfectly normal.

Chen Yansen smiled, then gathered Pei Yi, Kang Guodong, Kou Zhen, and Xia Xiangyu, found a conference room, and sat them down. He began sharing tips on how to deal with bureaus like market supervision, fire safety, and industry and commerce.

After listening for a few moments, Kou Zhen’s pupils dilated involuntarily, and he stared at Chen Yansen in astonishment.

His business acumen could be explained away as talent, but even Chen Yansen’s experience in dealing with various industry and commerce bureaus was so extensive it left them in the dust.

Xia Xiangyu and Kou Zhen exchanged a glance, and both saw a look of utter shock in the other’s eyes.

”For a local lifestyle app like Kuai Pao, you absolutely must be prepared in advance when it comes to public relations. Otherwise, if a real problem arises, those people in high places won’t cover for you.”

Chen Yansen added solemnly.

”Understood, Boss. It’s getting late. Should we go get some lunch first?”

Pei Yi suggested.

”President Xia, please have a few Kuai Pao uniforms prepared for me. This afternoon, I’m going to experience our guys’ daily delivery work.”

Chen Yansen instructed Xia Xiangyu.

”Yes, Boss. I’ll have someone prepare them right away.” Although thoroughly surprised, Xia Xiangyu agreed without hesitation.

”Boss, it’s too cold today!” Pei Yi instinctively tried to dissuade him.

”Have any of Kuai Pao’s over eight hundred delivery guys complained that it’s cold?” Chen Yansen retorted.

His reasoning was simple. First, it would generate publicity for Kuai Pao. Second, he wanted to experience the company’s order dispatch and route planning functions firsthand.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to get a true feel for the actual state of Kuai Pao’s operations just by looking at data in a PowerPoint presentation.

「Meanwhile.」

Liu Qiangdong was driving a small delivery vehicle through the streets of Yanjing, dressed in a red Jingdong uniform.

He was an entrepreneur with incredible follow-through; once he decided to do something, he did it. He had already delivered several packages that morning, and not a single customer had recognized who he was.

As the number two player in the e-commerce world, even Ma Liyun wasn’t much of a household name at this point, let alone Liu Qiangdong.

In the process of making deliveries, Liu Qiangdong encountered a bizarre customer. The delivery address was unclear, and the person wouldn’t answer their phone. In the end, he left the package with the security guard at the residential complex.

Less than two minutes later, he received a negative review, complaining that he hadn’t delivered the package to their door.

It made Liu Qiangdong so angry he started cursing, suddenly struck by how treacherous people could be!