Chapter 145: Open during the Spring Festival

Jim's schedule was very tight, and he finally said that he needed to reconsider the follow-up email contact, and hurried to the airport from Jiaotong University to catch a flight to Beijing.

Xie Jingxing had no objection. Ele.me had just received US$3000 million in financing and would start burning money next month, which would last for a while and there was plenty of time for Sequoia to consider.

Furthermore, apart from the project itself, whether Jim can bring Sequoia into the game cannot be avoided without Shen Nanpeng, and his attitude is crucial.

Just like Taihe Pomelo, the interests of Sequoia and Sequoia China are not completely consistent. It is a bit similar to Alibaba's middle-office architecture, where fundraising, finance, compliance and risk control and other middle and back-end businesses are shared, and front-end investment decisions are basically independently operated by each region.

Since Shen Nanpeng was unwilling, Sequoia Capital could not openly come to China to invest in projects, so Jim naturally had concerns.

"There's a chance to meet Shen Nanpeng, no need to make special arrangements." Xie Jingxing's tone was indifferent and it was hard to tell whether he was good or bad.

Song Anli thought for a moment and replied, "Dianping is planning to hold its annual meeting this year. Mr. Zhang should invite Mr. Shen to attend."

"It has to be held at the end of January. Take a look and make sure it doesn't conflict with Yunshan's annual meeting." Xie Jingxing tacitly agreed.

Taihe and Sequoia have no grudges against each other, and they occasionally introduce projects to each other. However, in the past six months, the start-ups invested by both sides have had many head-on and high-intensity clashes. It would be awkward to invite them to meet directly and have nothing to talk about, so it is better to be more tactful and take a detour.

Song Anli was thinking clearly about how to hint to Zhang Tao to invite Shen Nanpeng to the event. When she heard the second half of Xie Jingxing's words, her thoughts were instantly disrupted. This year's Yunshan Group Annual Meeting...

Since Li Yan drove Jim to the airport, the two did not leave in a hurry and walked along the main road on campus.

While I was waiting outside the school gate for the online taxi, a horn sounded behind me and a BMW mini drove up from the side road and stopped next to me.

"Mr. Xie, nice to see you again. I see you are waiting for the bus here?"

A handsome middle-aged man with sparse stubble pushed the door open, got out of the car, walked up to me and introduced himself, "Mao Wenchao, she is my partner Zhai Fang. We received angel round investment from the 'Grapefruit-Jiaotong University' Entrepreneurship Incubation Fund last month."

"I've seen your project, 'Little Red Book Shopping Guide', right?"

Xie Jingxing resolved his doubts. No wonder this person mentioned Meituan casually during the free question-and-answer session of the lecture. It was just a trick to attract his attention. The founder was full of tricks.

Sitting in the main driver's seat of the BMW mini, a young woman with ordinary looks and friendly temperament said at the right time: "Mr. Xie, where are you going? The road is congested at noon and it's difficult to wait for a car. Let us take you there."

"Mr. He said a few days ago that you have a lot of ideas about the positioning of 'Little Red Book'. This is a rare opportunity to learn from you," Mao Wenchao added.

"Let's go to Songjiang University Town. We'll talk on the way." Xie Jingxing simply sat in the back seat.

Concubine Pei has finished filming the TV series "Heart Flower Road" and came to Shanghai today to shoot an advertisement for Ele.me.

Previously, he had to rush back to China because of a fight with a Didi driver in New York, and his collection was stood up. This time, he had to find time to be affectionate with her. After all, it was the time when the flowers were blooming, and it would not be good to let her be a widow.

By the way, it’s okay to say a few words to Mao Wenchao. Xiaohongshu did have serious problems in its early development. In a nutshell - it was too early to catch the train.

Xie Jingxing thought about the entry point: "Have you paid attention to 'Yangmatou'?"

"In fact, 'Yomao' gave us a lot of inspiration for our early 'Overseas Shopping Guide' ideas, but their core business model is an e-commerce platform."

This is a rare opportunity. Mao Wenchao said frankly: "Overseas shopping guides are more of a means of attracting traffic for them, while our core is an Internet company and a graphic community platform."

"I think your biggest problem is that you two don't have the right mindset. If you consider yourself an Internet graphic and text community, why can't you let go of the e-commerce business?" Xie Jingxing asked a soul-searching question.

Yangmatou is one of the first generation of cross-border e-commerce platforms in China. Its founder even boasted that the concept of "cross-border e-commerce" came into being after we founded it.

At that time, domestic milk powder companies joined hands to bury the entire industry in the coffin, and the market had a strong demand for overseas purchasing. The former took advantage of the information gap caused by the underdeveloped Internet and summarized some overseas purchasing strategies to attract a lot of traffic.

This is the core business of Xiaohongshu as mentioned by Mao Wenchao. It is different from Yangmatou's working-class consumer positioning for daily necessities. The latter mainly shares overseas shopping guides for high-end duty-free goods such as cosmetics and luxury brands.

The user group naturally has a young and female tone. The chemical reaction when the two words "young" and "female" are combined in the field of social platforms is no less than the explosive status of Coke and soybeans in the fart world.

Since starting their business in June this year, Mao Wenchao and Zhai Fang have made it onto the Apple Store download list with just a simple PDF guide to overseas shopping. They also used this text to obtain a 500 million yuan angel round of financing from the Xiyou Jiaotong University Fund.

It is difficult for the entrepreneurial duo who have tasted the sweetness to make up their minds to embark on the road of "cross-border e-commerce". The server they rented for 500 million yuan for the graphic and text social platform is enough to increase the valuation tenfold, and the overseas warehouse they rented for 10 million yuan for the cross-border e-commerce can allow them to sell their houses and cars.

To put it bluntly, cross-border e-commerce is a money-burning business. The industry leader, Yangmatou, focuses on offline operations and actively learns from JD.com, allocating as much resources as possible to the merchant side and logistics services.

Taobao and other giants in the same field are gearing up to join the market at any time. In this situation, Mao Wenchao and his duo are reluctant to give up the fat piece of "cross-border e-commerce" that is visible to the naked eye, but are also afraid of not being able to eat the meat and getting beaten, and losing the track of the graphic and text community.

At one point, they considered whether to imitate Mogujie and simply become shopping guides on a cross-border e-commerce platform.

"My suggestion is that it is not easy for you to accurately enter the picture and text community track. Whether you are an e-commerce shopping guide or a cross-border e-commerce platform, you must seize the bonus period to burn up the user scale."

After listening to the various thoughts that Mao Wenchao and his duo were struggling to death, they arrived at their destination. Xie Jingxing was too lazy to talk nonsense and gave them a final reminder. As for how much of it they could listen to, he had no idea.

Mao Wenchao wanted to ask more questions but was too embarrassed to say it out loud. So Zhai Fang used her gender advantage to ask for her contact information and agreed to come back for advice after their cross-border e-commerce business was launched on a pilot basis in Hong Kong Island.

“So your judgment is that the trend of the picture and text community track is only a period of time from the popularization of 4G network to the rise of the short video track?”

After getting off the car and walking into Magic City University of Foreign Languages, Song Anli put a baseball cap on Xie Jingxing's head and asked casually.

There are 20 million college students in the country. Even if Ele.me shifts its strategic direction, it cannot ignore the school market. There will be a lot of school elements in its subsequent advertising promotions.

The campus environment of Shanghai University of Foreign Languages ​​is unique among the many universities in Shanghai. The various foreign architectural styles with a full sense of petty bourgeoisie are very suitable for filming. The advertising shooting party rented a practice room here.

Concubine Pei was much more popular than Xie Jingxing, and even during the final exam week, it did not stop students from coming to watch.

Along the way, he met a few students jogging and chattering as they ran towards the filming site. He couldn't help but press the brim of his hat: "Four to five years."

"I feel that they are a bit like Mr. Chen whom we met in the second exam of our internship. They want this and that." Song Anli's tone was quite emotional. I don't know whether she was not optimistic that they could succeed or she missed that experience.

Xie Jingxing was silent for a few seconds and then said: "In fact, many successful entrepreneurs are not much better than ordinary people. They just happened to make the right choice at the right time."

"for example?"

Song Anli looked at the crowds of people in the distance, slowed down her pace and asked softly.

"You don't need to get a perfect score on a 100-point test. If others get 60 points, you can get first place with 61 points."

Xie Jingxing stopped and said, "The first place is equivalent to various opportunities to make a fortune in this society, such as the online car-hailing trend, food delivery trend, and graphic social trend."

"They are there in response to the times. Successful entrepreneurs don't need to get full marks. As long as they get one point more than ordinary people, they will have a better chance of seizing these opportunities."

Song Anli was lost in thought for a moment, and Xie Jingxing continued to speak: "Mao Wenchao is such a person, and so are you and me, so don't have unrealistic and beautiful expectations for any so-called successful person."

"Anyway...if it's a project you don't value, I won't have high expectations." Song Anli has her own way of solving problems.

Mao Wenchao is an alumnus of Jiaotong University. He barely meets the investment requirements of the "Grapefruit-Jiaotong University" entrepreneurship incubation fund and took the initiative to seek investment.

Zhai Fang was in his twenties and was originally a white-collar worker in a foreign company. Both of them had ordinary resumes and no special family background.

The most important thing is that Xie Jingxing only spent five minutes flipping through the business plan, threw it to He Chuan and told him that he could invest, and then he never cared about it again. It was obvious that this was an ordinary project for him.

If he doesn't take it seriously, then she won't take it seriously either. Sometimes blindly following others can solve many problems.

Song Anli's lips curled up slightly, secretly feeling proud of her smart choice.

"Is Taihe Grapefruit going to hold its annual meeting this year?" Xie Jingxing ended the topic and started walking towards the practice room again.

The annual meeting of the financial industry is lackluster. The ultimate serf, the law firm, takes photos and writes soft articles at the annual meeting to package itself in the hope of attracting more big clients next year.

I drank from morning to night at the brokerage firm's annual meeting. After sobering up in the middle of the night, I turned on my computer in the clubhouse and worked overtime, trying to finish the project before going to the hospital.

The annual meeting of venture capital and private equity funds is a great display of kowtow to LPs. They will continue to lose all the LPs' money next year...

Therefore, Xie Jingxing has no interest in holding an annual meeting. It would be better to give cash bonuses to employees. However, as the company has grown to the point where he doesn't recognize all the founders, LPs, and even employees of invested companies like Mao Wenchao, he should hold an annual meeting to get to know them better.

…………

"Come on, smile, look to the left... Very good, very beautiful, keep it up... Imagine you are here to bring lunch to your boyfriend, that's it, perfect..."

Several spotlights brighter than bathroom heaters emitted hot light that filled the entire practice room. The simple dressing table in the corner exuded a strong and pungent smell of cosmetics, and several rows of clothing racks filled with shooting costumes looked unclean.

The director's encouraging and praising voice beside him was so noisy that it made Xie Jingxing feel headache. He suddenly regretted why he had to come all the way here to suffer.

"The glamorous entertainment industry that the audience sees is the result of hard work behind the scenes. Please don't mind if the conditions are a bit difficult, Mr. Xie." Feng Guiyue greeted politely with a smile on her face.

She is Pei Fei's new agent. She has a working experience as rich as her figure. She has been working in the entertainment industry for more than ten years. She claims to be 160 meters tall and weighs kilograms. Every pound of weight is gained by caring for an artist.

Her professional ability is not that strong, but she is a good person in the circle and has good personal relationships with many celebrities. Therefore, some people say that she also works part-time as a pimp to earn extra money.

Xie Jing Xing didn't know why Concubine Pei asked her to be her manager. She looked around and found an empty corner. She sat down on the ground without even a stool. "How long will the filming take?"

"This shot will be finished soon, and the rest can be shot tomorrow. Please wait a moment, I will communicate with the director." Feng Guiyue found an excuse and left without changing her smile.

As soon as she left, someone immediately took her place. Mr. Xie announced that his girlfriend had taken on a commercial endorsement, and Kang Jia, the Chief Marketing Officer of Ele.me, took the initiative to personally coordinate the filming.

He was able to sit down, holding a thick stack of marketing plans in his hand, and asked half-seriously and half-pretentiously: "Could you please give us some advice, Mr. Xie?"

"I'm just here to visit the set today. You can't ask me to be the villain." Xie Jingxing was not interested in talking to him.

Kang Jia pretended to be confused: "Where did you get this from?"

"Your marketing department worked all night for more than ten days to come up with this plan. Now it's halfway through its implementation. If I say something bad is not good, Concubine Pei will have a temper." Xie Jingxing shook his head repeatedly, looking like a doting boss.

Kang Jia couldn't help but twitch his lips, thinking, who doesn't know who? Why weren't you so horny when discussing the plan?

Ele.me's marketing strategy this time is divided into two levels. One is the overall brand positioning and promotion online through TV, the Internet, etc.; the other is offline promotion through subway and elevator advertisements, which requires considering the conversion rate.

Zhang Xuhao, who slammed the table and cursed the marketing department for being bastards at a company meeting, is very concerned about the actual benefits of offline promotions. He announced that the store will not close during the Spring Festival and all riders will not be allowed to take leave during the New Year. The main idea is that Ele.me can deliver anything at any time and any place.

Xie Jingxing is completely different. From an investor's perspective, he pays more attention to the overall brand tone of Ele.me.

After listening to Zhang Xuhao's point of view at the meeting, I only said one thing: when you go home after the New Year, bring some dumplings made by your mother. Ele.me really can't deliver this.

My colleagues in the marketing department's eyes lit up instantly. Perhaps it was the stereotype of liberal arts students that made it clear that advertising planners all had a sentimental streak.

Zhang Xuhao disagreed with this. After several rounds of fierce debate, the two sides finally reached a consensus, grasping both sentiments and interests, and both hands must be strong.

It was precisely for this reason that the Ele.me founding team became increasingly dissatisfied with Xie Jingxing. It was unreasonable for an investor to have such wide-ranging control.

However, Xie Jingxing, in turn, particularly supports the plan of not closing during the Spring Festival. During the Spring Festival this year, not only the riders but also the ground promotion team will not have holidays. Each city will be divided into districts according to residential areas to maximize the development of working-class consumer groups outside of schools.

If the plan goes well, the Chinese New Year period will be an opportunity for Ele.me to thoroughly adjust its user base and widen the gap with Meituan.

　Send first and change later
　
(End of this chapter)