Chapter 137 Operation Codename: Spring Offensive
This is the world of the Internet.

——In Beijing, Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street, there is a sentence written on the sign of a street-side coffee shop called '3W'.

Su He straightened her scarf and pushed the door open. The coffee shop was doing good business. Most of the tables were occupied by various office computers. People were conversing in a mixture of Chinese and English with different accents, but they all mentioned the word "entrepreneurship" over and over again.

"One cup of espresso, hot."

She couldn't help but let out a breath of cool air. The northwest wind in Beijing was particularly cold in late November.

The waiter at the bar placed the order as instructed. The gentle male boss sitting next to the bar, wearing a pair of half-frame glasses, was stunned when he saw Su He, then lowered his head to compare with his phone.

After a slight hesitation, he stood up and walked to the bar, heated up a croissant and some snacks: "Boss Su, this is for you."

"Are you Mr. Xu?" Su He smiled politely and nodded in thanks.

The male boss adjusted the frame of his glasses and said, "Yes, it's me. Why are you here today?"

"Wang Xing from Meituan invited me here to have coffee." Su He said without any reservation.

The male boss had a rough guess and was secretly at a loss as to what to say. He managed to answer with a few words and personally helped to bring the snacks and coffee to the empty seat in the corner, then found an excuse to run to the second floor of the cafe to take shelter.

Su He smiled knowingly. The male boss was called Xu Dandan. The Internet job search platform "Lagou.com" founded by him in July this year received angel round investment from Taihe.

3W Café was his entrepreneurial project a few years ago. After a low-intensity competition that was insignificant compared to the competition in the online car-hailing industry, it stood out from many "maker" coffee brands.

This is where the most ambitious entrepreneurs in Beijing gather. A coffee table that costs a few hundred yuan a month to rent is an office space, and a computer is all the company's assets. Together, they make up a startup company.

Venture capitalists often come here, trying to pick out the shining gold from the garbage dump. There is even a closed startup incubator on the third floor of the cafe...

maxmara wool coat, Burberry scarf, Fendi commuter bag.

An entrepreneur carefully looked at the middle-aged woman sitting alone in the corner with delicate makeup and outstanding temperament. She was most likely a venture capitalist and should be from Shanghai.

Beijing is full of sandstorms and smog, so it can't support such gentle and peaceful female investors. Instead, there are more women who write what they want on their faces and are not stingy with their sarcasm and harsh words when they dislike founders wasting their precious time.

"Brothers, are you going to charge? I'll charge first."

Some entrepreneurs could not wait any longer and wanted to go up and discuss their business plans that had been rejected by more than a dozen investors.

Another entrepreneur looked at him askance: "Take a break, that's Su He."

"How to say?"

"Xie Jingxing from Taihe Capital."

“…Then we must try it even more!”

Rumor has it that Xie Jingxing of Taihe Capital is very aggressive and doesn’t treat founders as human beings. However, as long as they can get his investment, Didi, Toutiao, Kuaishou, etc. all invest heavily and never less than 10 million RMB. They don’t care about being scolded a few times…

The entrepreneur who had failed many times but never gave up had the courage to do so. He came closer and handed over the business plan with both hands: "Hello, Mr. Su, I have a project in the field of education. Would you like to listen to it?"

"Sorry, I have an appointment. Can you please tell me the main point in one sentence?" Su He sat with her legs crossed, her posture dignified and her tone gentle.

The entrepreneur was nervous: "Yes. My project is to hold a talent competition for teenagers and children online. It mainly makes a profit by collecting registration fees and training fees. The total cost for one child is 38888. If 20 children sign up for an event, I can make a profit."

"Do you have any official certification for organizing competitions and events?" Su He grasped the key point.

The entrepreneur said shamelessly and vaguely: "Parents don't care who organizes the event. As long as they can win a prize, their children will have an advantage in the transition from primary school to junior high school."

"Can you get a prize by paying training fees?" Su He continued to ask.

The entrepreneur coughed lightly and sweat formed on his forehead. “The competition is divided into different groups, and there are separate special awards.”

Su He picked up the coffee and took a sip without comment, then lowered his head to open his phone to check the time.

The entrepreneur walked away angrily, looking back every three steps. It was one minute and thirty seconds, and someone was timing him.

Granted, hosting a student talent show isn't exactly a great venture, but it does make money.

A duck knows first when the river water warms in spring. The positive economic trend is fiercely driving the venture capital industry. Such shady gray industry projects are emerging in an endless stream, and it is easy to make tens of millions every year.

As a result, it was cut off in one minute and thirty seconds, breaking the historical record. Last time, people from Jinshajiang looked at the project for ten minutes before rejecting it.

All I can say is that for the top domestic venture capital institutions, reputation is above all else. If they become notorious by doing such bad projects, it will be difficult for them to make further progress.

Just when many venture capitalists were feeling respect and considering whether their business plans would be rejected within a few minutes, a bald man wearing glasses walked into the store and attracted everyone's attention.

Wang Xing of Meituan is a role model for Beijing’s entrepreneurial circle.

"Boss Su, I've heard of your great name for a long time."

Ignoring the many people who wanted to say hello, he strode straight to the corner, looking down at them with a tense expression.

Su He stood up slowly and held out his hand: "It's rare to see Mr. Wang."

"You guys at Taihe are not doing things in an honest way. I don't want to deal with you." Wang Xing sat down without hiding his hostility.

Su He waved to the waiter to place the order without thinking, and then sat opposite him and explained helplessly: "We really hope to cooperate with Meituan for mutual benefit. Maybe we were too enthusiastic and made Mr. Wang misunderstand us."

"Misunderstand?!"

Wang Xing was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. He half-seriously and half-jokingly glared and raised his voice: "Meituan doesn't want your investment, so you want to destroy my founding team. Is this a misunderstanding?"

"That's wrong. We offered a 5 to 10 times premium to acquire your company's original shares. If this is defined as destroying the founding team, then I think many entrepreneurial teams want to be destroyed." Su He looked around and said calmly.

The two of them talked at a level neither too loud nor too quiet for everyone around them to hear. For a moment, the room fell into dead silence.

The four words "hostile takeover" emerged in everyone's mind at the same time. This usually occurs in the secondary market. The acquirer forcibly buys the shares of the acquired party without the acquired party's consent in order to achieve the acquisition purpose.

However, such an operation is unrealistic for unlisted companies. There are publicly tradable shares in the secondary market, and the acquirer can force the acquisition.

The equity of unlisted companies can only be traded through the primary market and cannot be traded publicly. It is also absolutely impossible for a normal founder to allow venture capital institutions to sell the new shares at will.

In short, except for some of Meituan's original old shares, the transfer transactions of subsequent newly issued shares will inevitably be restricted and bound by various preconditions. Wang Xing can stop the transaction by raising his hand at the board meeting.

Therefore, Taihe has set its sights on Meituan’s old shares, with a 5-10 times premium, which means that Meituan’s valuation must increase 10 times for Taihe to recover its investment and avoid losses.

Barbarian, black knight, capital gangster, all the words used to describe hostile takeovers are not enough to define Taihe's operations.

It’s not that no one in the market has written a research report that Meituan’s valuation could increase tenfold based on its current valuation in the future. However, when Taihe used its money and actual actions to vote that Meituan has unlimited prospects, everyone thought it was trying to kill Meituan, rather than being really optimistic about Meituan’s future…

It's like a gangster with explosives tied all over his body, hugging Meituan and wanting to die together with him. What kind of deep hatred is this?
"Would you like to go down and persuade them?"

On the second floor, 3W Cafe co-founder Chen Gan was watching the surveillance footage of the first floor on his phone.

Xu Dandan sat nearby and scratched his hair dejectedly: "They are all veteran actors, I can't afford to offend any of them, they can do whatever they want." "Wang Xing's trick is quite vicious." Chen Gan lowered his voice jokingly.

Xu Dandan thought for a moment and asked, "Then why do you think Su He was willing to cooperate with him?"

"Just take advantage of the situation. Anyway, I think a bad reputation is still a reputation. It's fine as long as it's useful." Chen Gan smiled so hard that his face was almost broken, and he almost had a handful of melon seeds in his hand.

Unlike the wild grassroots entrepreneurs in the store, anyone with some connections in the Beijing venture capital circle knew about Su He's operation of blocking the door and forcing his way into the woman last night.

After a night of discussion, everyone agreed that Meituan only needed to quickly complete a round of financing and share expansion to dilute its original shares, so that Taihe would not be able to carry out a malicious takeover.

For example, among Meituan’s 100 shares, 80 are new shares with transfer restrictions, and 20 are old shares that can be transferred. Even if Taihe buys all 20 old shares, it will not be able to gain actual control over Meituan.

Wang Xing has plenty of ways to kick Taihe out.

So the question is, if Taihe is not an idiot, why would he do this?
No matter what Taihe wants to do, Wang Xing obviously doesn't buy it. Today, he set the meeting at a landmark coffee shop in Beijing's venture capital circle. As soon as they met, he made public accusations, immediately seizing the moral high ground and labeling Taihe Capital as a gangster.

The entrepreneurs who just thought Taihe's investment style was upright and decent were all filled with righteous indignation and wanted to put a sign on it to criticize it. After this incident, Taihe's reputation has been ruined and I don't know how to save it.

Su He should have expected something, but he still came to the appointment, and even took the opportunity to admit that Taihe was being a hooligan.

Analyzing from the various information Xu Dandan has, Wang Xing made the matter public, which shows that he is determined to resist to the death. He uses public opinion to put pressure on the other party and finds an excellent reason for subsequent financing and share expansion.

Taihe has offended Wang Xing to this extent, and it is no longer possible for it to acquire shares in Meituan through normal means. Su He took the initiative to admit his "crime", most likely to use his bad reputation to put pressure on Meituan.

I'm here whether you like it or not. Let me invest and we can have a win-win cooperation. If you don't let me invest, I will make you suffer.

Xu Dandan suspected that there was an internal conflict within Meituan, and some leading party used Taihe as a supporter to get Wang Xing out of office...

The onlookers upstairs were full of imagination, while the mood of the onlookers downstairs was ups and downs with the verbal confrontation between Su He and Wang Xing, and they fantasized about facing the arrogant and evil venture capital institutions.

"Sorry, I was late due to traffic jam. Let's talk somewhere else. Mr. Su, I don't think it's necessary to make things awkward. What do you think?"

When the two sides were at a stalemate, Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen arrived late and tried to smooth things over in a gentle manner.

Wang Xing tilted his head and glared at him: "What the hell are you talking about? I came here today to tell you, go back and tell Xie Jingxing that Meituan will launch an online taxi-hailing business within ten days. If you are awesome, then you can kill me with money."

"Hey, Brother Xing." Wang Huiwen stretched out his hand but found nothing.

Wang Xing shook off his arm and walked out alone, calmly and leisurely, like an army of thousands.

Wang Huiwen sighed, forced a smile, looked around and said, "Boss Su, listen to me, let's change the occasion and talk. Brother Xing is very angry."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wang, I have a project to look at later. Just tell me what you want to say." Su He was extremely unkind.

"It's not that we can't sit down and talk about investment, but Mr. Su, you guys are bullying me to the extreme!"

Wang Huiwen leaned over and approached her: "You can't be too overbearing, at least you have to show us your attitude first."

"Mr. Wang, what attitude do you want?" Su He stood up and asked.

Wang Huiwen took the initiative to help her carry the bag, and the two walked out talking: "You first invested in Dianping and Ele.me, and now you want to invest in us. If you were in Xingge's shoes, what would you think?"

"Once there is competition between you, we will take sides." Su He cooperated.

Wang Huiwen pushed open the door and said, "That's it. Actually, Brother Xing met Mr. Xie at the Global CEO Summit before, and he has been hesitant since he came back."

"This is not a problem. If necessary, Taihe can transfer its shares in Dianping to Xiyou Capital and invest in Meituan alone."

Su He was well prepared: "Taihe is Taihe, Xiyou is Xiyou, we are all independently operated. To be honest, I personally have a bad relationship with Mr. Tang Mantang, who is in charge of the Dianping and Ele.me projects at Xiyou Capital. You will know if you ask around in the financial circle of Shanghai."

"..."

Wang Huiwen was stunned and forced himself to swallow back the words that were about to come out of his mouth. How could this be possible? It would take a very bad personal conflict to be used as a legitimate excuse at work.

In order to make a project, he exposed his own dark secrets and didn't care about his face at all...

Su He smoothed the hair around his ears and added, "In fact, Taihe has already fought with Xiyou on the Ele.me project. Sequoia Capital is involved in the whole process. Sequoia is also your investor. If you are interested, you can go and learn more about it."

"Well, that's not necessary... I still say what I said just now. We can talk about investment. Give us a few days to think about it." Wang Huiwen brought the subject back and emphasized.

Su He looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds, then said after some consideration: "Three days, let's talk in another place after three days."

"No problem. How did Mr. Su get here? I'll give you a ride and we can chat on the way." Wang Huiwen agreed without hesitation.

Su He tightened his coat: "No trouble, I drove here."

"That's fine. Winter is coming, and it's more convenient to drive in Beijing because it's cold." Wang Huiwen said politely.

Su He curled her red lips and chuckled for no apparent reason: "Yes, winter is coming. But Mr. Xie is from the Northeast and likes winter the most among all the seasons. He told me the other day that spring will come after winter."

Wang Huiwen shuddered unconsciously when he heard these illogical words. The bright red lips in his eyes looked like blood. Poisonous snakes do not hibernate in winter. It must be a ghost.

…………

"How about it?"

After watching Su He walk away leisurely, Wang Huiwen just got into the car when he heard Wang Xing's question.

He hesitated to speak, and responded carefully: "I don't quite understand, she is a little steady."

"We will be lenient with our enemies and try to speed up the process." Wang Xing didn't care.

After the challenge plan meeting last night, he specifically asked someone about Su He. This woman is a well-known palace fighting expert in the Shanghai financial circle. Zhang Fei, who invested in Kuaishou 5Y Capital some time ago, suffered greatly from her.

He didn't expect to completely fool Su He, he just tried his best.

The plan consists of three steps. The first is to publicly point out the contradictions, put pressure on Taihe from the perspective of public opinion as Taihe’s behavior is too ugly, and then negotiate to stabilize Taihe.

Second, using the feud between him and Taihe and Cheng Wei as an excuse, Meituan made a feint to enter the online car-hailing market.

The first two steps are feints, delaying time and attracting attention, and the third step is the core.

Start a new round of financing as soon as possible and accelerate the establishment of a training and promotion team. It is expected that early next year, a money-burning competition for the takeout business will be launched in conjunction with the Lunar New Year holiday marketing.

This defensive counterattack plan was codenamed "New Year Offensive" within Meituan. By the time all the giants saw the prospects of the takeout market, the water would be muddied and Xie Jingxing, a little crocodile, would be insignificant.

If you don't let me be well, then nothing will be well...

Wang Xing thought viciously.

(End of this chapter)