Chapter 274 Standard Post-Investment Services

"We are young, let us light a fire in the world, and shine brightly to make the sun fade away~"

The tattered car stereo was blasting with passionate drum beats, the tires were leaving marks on the remote dirt road, and dust was blowing back into the car windows.

Xie Jingxing turned off the music and picked up his phone to answer the call. Cui Aliu sat in the passenger seat with her skin completely covered by her long sleeves. She raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose while listening with her ears tilted.

Late in the night a few days ago, she proposed a deal for a peaceful breakup, and then the two of them hit the road, from their own tea garden in Wuliang Mountain, Nanjian to the long-term supply tea garden in Xishuangbanna for procurement and sales, and traveled all over the company's business to summarize what kinds of talents they needed to introduce.

This job is not easy. For example, I was almost fired when I went to the logistics provider’s base yesterday afternoon.

It wasn't directed at them. A few employees of the logistics partner were playing mahjong outdoors and complained that the firecrackers set off by a newly opened store next door were too big. After a few insults, the two sides went back indoors to get out their half-meter-long weapons and started fighting.

Xishuangbanna is a very complicated place. There are preferential policies in the household registration book, and you will always encounter such weird things when doing due diligence work on the front line.

"Wang Dongyue agreed to meet, we have to go as soon as possible to prevent her from changing her mind." Xie Jingxing hung up the phone and restarted the car.

Cui Aliu's eyes lit up: "Should we prepare in advance?"

"No, you book the tickets and we'll go directly. Many headhunting companies are eyeing them now, and the news will easily leak out." Xie Jingxing decisively changed the navigation destination and stepped on the accelerator to drive straight to the airport.

For venture capital firms, searching for talent for invested companies is a standard post-investment management service, and it is a reflection of the resources of a venture capital firm.

It sounds inexplicably high-end, but the actual situation cannot be said to be very low-end, but it is also very miserable.

The low-level VP in charge of the project at a low-level venture capital institution checked the list of registered executives of Baidu, used Weibo to find specific individuals, and used a variety of methods to get the client contact information of a headhunting company.

The more advanced ones would ask around in their circle of friends, go to other companies to count heads under the guise of due diligence visits, and some even go so far as to secretly hire headhunting companies out of their own pockets without letting the invested companies know, in order to maintain the reputation of themselves and their own institutions having deep resources.

Xie Jingxing was no exception, he posted on WeChat Moments and called his friends one by one, using the same tricks over and over again.

Yunhe's resources are very powerful. Yu Congxin used his various connections to help contact Wang Dongyue, a senior executive of the long-established chain hotpot restaurant brand "Xiabu Xiabu".

This person has only done one thing since joining Xiabu Xiabu six years ago, which is to carry out drastic reforms in the supply chain system and to build internal cold chain logistics and a central kitchen.

A typical catering back-end supply chain talent template, suitable for Yinshanbudu’s nascent supply chain business.

“It’s good, but it’s too expensive.”

Rushing all the way to the airport to sort out the relevant information, Cui A Liu was not very optimistic and sighed quietly.

Xie Jing Xing glanced at her and pretended not to hear her, then took out his phone to pay the difference for the ticket upgrade.

He could tolerate the company spending money wisely during its development period, renting an eighth-hand Toyota to experience the nostalgic hard-core off-road driving experience through due diligence, but he couldn't tolerate having to transfer during the eight-hour flight from Xishuangbanna to Hong Kong Island.

"Since she is willing to meet, she must have a general understanding of us. Don't bring up the topic of position and salary. Talk about vision and future development. Just act according to the situation and look at my eyes."

The flight took off, Xie Jingxing asked the flight attendant for a blanket and took a rest with a calm mind.

Cui Aliu stretched comfortably. She had no problem staying in first class before, but now no matter what she did, before spending money, she would unconsciously think about how many cups of milk tea it would cost, and try to save as much as possible.

It is an unshakable truth that the head follows the butt. A year ago, I would never have been so rational in doing business with Xie Jingxing.

As the company has grown to where it is today, she and Dr. Wang, the core entrepreneurial team, are often overwhelmed by their shortcomings, with many areas of supply chain, finance, and IT technology lacking.

It's not a loss to exchange Xie Jingxing for all these, so the new round of financing will be led by Today Capital. Cui Aliu looked at the man sleeping quietly beside her and made up her mind.

…………

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

Wang Dongyue is a woman in her late 40s, with neat short hair, a plump appearance and a generous temperament. She took the initiative to meet in an ordinary teahouse.

The box was cramped, so after saying hello and closing the door, we sat opposite each other across the table, so close that we could see the hair on each other's arms.

It is understandable that land in Hong Kong is extremely expensive; Xiabu Xiabu will be listed on the Hong Kong stock market in a dozen days. At this time, the company's executives are frequently traveling to Hong Kong Island. Many law firms, headhunters, and accounting firms are eyeing this fresh fat sheep client. With so many eyes and ears, Wang Dongyue needs to keep it confidential.

Every angle makes sense, but it can't dilute the oppressive feeling brought by the initial sight of the environment.

"This man is not someone you can easily get rid of."

Cui A Liu poked at him calmly with her hand hanging under the table. Xie Jing Xing picked up the cup and drank tea to comfort her: "Don't worry, play with her."

Wang Dongyue was interested and left enough space for the two young men to finish their little tricks. He coughed and said, "Compared with the relationship between the traditional catering industry and freshly brewed milk tea, Mr. Xie and I are more like colleagues." "Mr. Yu introduced to me that the core cold chain center of Xiabu Xiabu's supply chain system in Beijing is under your leadership from the initial site selection, land purchase, preparation and construction to the later operation."

Xie Jingxing nodded in agreement: "We do have more topics to talk about in this regard. Yunhe is planning to build the largest 100,000-ton cold chain center in Asia in Chuncheng, Yunnan. President Wang is welcome to visit and provide guidance at any time."

"Yunhe is a very professional leading logistics company. It has a strong reference value for traditional catering companies to learn from and build their own supply chains. If I have the opportunity, I will definitely go and take a look."

Wang Dongyue's face showed no fluctuation, but his inner feelings were quite complicated.

I don’t know how Yunhe’s cold chain logistics network will be laid out across the country in the future, but I can be sure that at least in the entire province of Yunnan, the Yinshanbudu brand supply chain business already has a very practical and reliable support foundation.

Whether it is e-commerce or catering brands, building basic logistics while doing supply chain is almost a last resort. If they can make money easily, who would be willing to cross over and do heavy asset logistics?

In short, the cost-effectiveness is far lower than that of the main business. It is purely strategic considerations that forced Haidilao's cold chain and JD's warehouses to emerge. It can be seen that this is something that industry-leading companies should consider.

It is very interesting not to cross the hidden mountain. In the short term, it is completely possible to travel light.

If other competitors want to build a supply chain and transport tea out of the mountains of Yunnan, they have to go through a lot of trouble to contact local logistics companies, then contact cold chain warehouses, and finally find local warehousing and distribution companies when they arrive at the destination.

It would be troublesome if problems occurred in any of the countless steps from procurement to sales.

Of course, they can seek cooperation with companies that have local logistics and transportation, cold chain warehousing, and a full set of services at the transportation destination in Yunnan.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find it. A logistics company of this size is not open to just you. The poor founder came to our door in person and said earnestly that it is only 50 kilometers from Beijing to Langfang, and your company only needs to arrange a cold chain transport truck to make two round trips per week.

The Beijing regional manager, who was invited for the sake of Moutai, sighed with embarrassment, holding a toothpick in his mouth, and said that this was a new business line and that a report had to be submitted to the company headquarters for application. It would take half a year from the initial due diligence to the later implementation to complete it.

At this time, tea farmers in the mountains of Yunnan had already sold their tea to others. Half a year later, they concluded that the Beijing-Langfang line could make money, but not much, so it could be done or not.

Startups with the support of top venture capital resources are in an advantageous position compared to their competitors. Many times, they can always get a "yes" result among the options that can be done or not.

One "yes" is insignificant, but when dozens of "yes" are accumulated, the gap is as big as the sky.

Wang Dongyue has been working in the supply chain industry for 20 years and has a deep understanding of the details involved. For a moment, he wanted to express himself with pride but found it difficult to do so.

"I have worked at Xiabu Xiabu for six years, and the supply chain is my child that I brought up."

All this and more can prove her ability, but how to explain her decision to give up her child?
She bluntly said that her current employer is an unscrupulous family business, and that the options given to her when the company went public were too few. She has just finished figuring out the supply chain system, and she is about to take over to set up a completely new sales channel. It can be seen that her boss thinks highly of her and that she has a promising future!

Wang Dongyue felt that if Xie Jingxing hadn't personally come forward to recruit her, she would never have considered the possibility of changing jobs on the eve of the IPO.

Try to open up sales channels. If you succeed, you can completely control the entire procurement and sales. It is still unknown whether you will be judged as being too successful or as having great power over the government.

"At present, our 'Yinshan Tea Language' sub-brand has 193 self-operated and franchised stores, and the entire back-end supply chain accounts for about 64% of the revenue. From the upstream of the supply chain, from the source of tea and fresh fruit production to product development and processing and the final sales terminal, we have formed a stable business framework."

Cui Aliu saw that the unruly talent was inexplicably hesitant, so he seized the opportunity to output as much as possible: "However, this revenue share is not because our supply chain business has been squeezed for development space. The performance growth of our three direct-operated stores of the 'Bu Du' sub-brand is too outstanding."

"We will launch a new round of financing next year, and the overall valuation will not be less than 50 billion yuan. We plan to invest 4-5 million yuan in a promotion budget for the entire brand, and will expand 500 franchise stores next year. In addition, we have major layouts in the retail of finished tea and beverages." Xie Jingxing began to paint a picture.

Budu has three direct-operated stores in Dali, Chuncheng and Modu, with an average annual revenue of 1200 million yuan per store, accounting for 17% of the total revenue. The fourth direct-operated store will open in Guangzhou next year.

The brand value of this sub-brand is over 20 million yuan, so a valuation of 30-0 times is not excessive. Coupled with the business model of finished tea and zero-sugar sparkling water, Today Capital is willing to lead the investment at a valuation of 50 billion yuan.

"Supply chain business has always been our core driving force. We hope to make it an industry barrier, so the new round of financing will introduce Yunhe Logistics as a strategic shareholder."

Xie Jing Xing dropped the last chip and changed the subject: "How about this, Mr. Wang, it's getting late today, let's talk another day. By the way, I know a senior partner of Heidrick & Struggles' Shanghai office. Let's add him as a WeChat friend and I'll recommend him to you."

"What is this?" Wang Dongyue raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Xie Jingxing explained seriously: "Their career planning consulting business is pretty good. Let's make friends anyway."

Wang Dongyue was speechless. He knew that it was not convenient for her to easily find a headhunting company for consultation, so he took the initiative to help introduce her to a reliable one. It was quite considerate of her.

Xie Jingxing smiled but said nothing. To recruit high-level talents and discuss their salary and benefits face to face was too rough, lacking in professionalism and leaving no room for maneuver. Even if the deal was finally reached, there would still be a gap in everyone's hearts.

The highest salary that Cui Aliu is willing to give Wang Dongyue is to make him the head of supply chain business, buy out his restricted options in Xiabu Xiabu, and give him a milestone option reward of up to 1%, which was also the work of a professional headhunter.

They search and select talents in the early stage, help contact and even directly participate in communication in the middle, and provide corresponding services to both parties to match transactions. This is why venture capital practitioners often jokingly call themselves nannies.

(End of this chapter)