Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2987: Personal Investment

"Ah?" Senior Sister Zhen Yu finally understood the truth. "Is that the Sam Ultraman you mentioned?"

"Correct."

Zhou Buqi followed behind Senior Sister Zhen Yu and helped her take off her gray-white coat like a little follower.

Zhen Yu turned to look at him and was surprised, "He has only been in YC investment for two months?"

Zhou Buqi said: "To be precise, less than two months."

Zhen Yu was somewhat helpless, "How can I not be angry?"

Recruiting has costs.

Especially for senior managers, YC Investment hired Sam Altman as president, which must have cost a lot. Not only did it cost benefits, but more importantly, it cost him a lot of time and energy.

Now that he hasn't even settled down yet, Zhou Buqi has already stolen his girlfriend from him. This is indeed a bit unacceptable from a moral point of view.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I'm not angry. I've talked to Paul Graham twice and he said he understands. People go up and water flows down. Sam Altman joined Purple Star, which is a promotion. We can't restrict his career development."

Zhen Yu slapped away his dirty hands that were on her chest and said angrily, "I feel uncomfortable these days and my chest is sore. Please don't touch me."

Zhou Buqi stopped making a fuss and said seriously, "I have some connections with Paul Graham. In the 90s, he was also an entrepreneur in the Internet wave. He founded an Internet company and did very well. Later, it was acquired by Yahoo for 5000 million US dollars. After getting this money, he started two more businesses, but both failed. He realized that he could no longer keep up with the times, so he retired from the technology circle. He raised 1500 million US dollars, founded YC Investment, and switched to finance."

Zhen Yu chuckled and said, "Yahoo!"

Zhou Buqi said shamelessly: "Yes, Yahoo is my company now. From this perspective, I am also his mentor!"

"Pooh!"

Senior Sister Zhen Yu rolled her eyes at him, changed into her home pajamas, took his arm and walked out of the cloakroom.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I have asked. Although YC investment has a great reputation, it is actually not valuable. Their annual investment amount is just over 1 million US dollars."

"Ah?" Zhen Yu blinked, "This much?"

Zhou Buqi said: "They are mainly engaged in angel rounds, so they are well-known. And their requirements are very low. They only ask for 7% of the shares of each project. Compared with many greedy Wall Street institutions, they are more like angels."

There are many types of venture capital.

YC Investment mainly focuses on angel round, which is seed capital.

Many entrepreneurs want to start a business when they have a good idea.

At this time, they had nothing.

No people, no team, no products, no market, no business model... just an idea.

  In this case, who would dare to give them money?

Not only are there too many scammers, but the probability of failure is extremely high.

If there are really some investment institutions willing to give money and pay for the entrepreneur's dream, it is really like an angel descending to earth, so it is called an angel round. It is also like planting a seed to see whether the seed dies or grows into a towering tree in the future, so it is also called a seed round.

Venture capital firms that dare to play the angel round usually have a great social reputation because they are so rare.

All beginnings are hard.

The angel round is the first step. Because the risk is too great, the funds in the angel round will not be too much.

YC Investment is not venture capital from Wall Street. Its founder Paul Graham is a technology person from Silicon Valley and has started several businesses. Therefore, he understands Silicon Valley better and has developed a complete angel investment system for YC Investment.

Every month, YC Investment will look at 1000 startup projects, and then "select one out of ten" and invest in 100 projects.

For each project, angel funds of US$12.5 are invested, accounting for 7% of the shares of the entrepreneurial project.

Relying on this fixed mechanism, without discriminating against entrepreneurs, treating them fairly and impartially, and not bullying entrepreneurs, YC Investment has grown rapidly and accumulated huge social reputation. Over the years, it has become the most popular venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.

However, the probability of success for this type of investment is too low.

Even if there are some successful ones, the angel round only holds 7% of the shares, and after the subsequent rounds of financing, the shares are diluted very little. Even if some successful projects such as Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, etc. have been invested, they will not make much money in the end.

After all, this is not a Wall Street capital institution.

Paul Graham is a technology man. He has passion and love for technology and pursues a greater sense of career and mission.

So for him, he has to find ways to attract investment every year.

Without more external funding, YC’s investment will run out and it will no longer be able to support those entrepreneurial projects in Silicon Valley.

Zhou Buqi decided to help.

Give him some money.

It doesn't need to be too much, 1 million to 2 million US dollars is enough.

This little money is nothing to Zhen Yu. She chuckled and said, "It's just a small amount of money. It's nothing. Selling Panda Mobile brought $20 billion. This year-end dividend of Pluto and Neptune is $30 billion. And the dividends of Ziweixing Global, Changyou, Jieyu Media, Yuanwei Group, and Taizun Real Estate are estimated to be $7 million to $8 million."

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up, "So many?"

Zhen Yu stretched lazily and took a long breath. "Now the global economy is thriving and the economy has recovered. Our family has also survived the most difficult period of cash flow. From now on, we will never be short of money again. With this money, we can even basically solve the debt pressure of our family."

"Why is there such a rush to pay back the money..." Zhou Buqi was not interested in paying back the loan in advance. With the cash in hand, he could earn back the interest on the loan by doing anything. "Then it's settled. You can go back in the next few days and deliver the money to Paul Graham."

Zhen Yu nodded slightly, "After paying, how many shares can we get?"

Zhou Buqi said: "I don't know, I guess it's about 10%. You can evaluate it when the time comes. YC Investment attracts investors every year. They have a set of algorithms, which must be well-founded. They dare not cheat with me. Paul Graham is from Silicon Valley, unlike those bastards on Wall Street."

"That's fine."

"This is mainly an investment of favors. Whether it makes money or not is not important. However, this may also be a good opportunity to be close to the water."

"I knew it!"

Zhen Yu glanced at him reproachfully.

The man in my family never suffers any loss.

It sounds good to say that he is giving money to others in order to maintain a good relationship with them and to repair the rift that appeared after Sam Ultraman was taken away. But in fact, he always keeps a backup plan in various matters and takes a longer-term perspective.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "YC Investment doesn't have much money, and all it does is angel round investment. Even if it encounters some good projects, it doesn't have the strength to follow up and continue to provide development capital and growth capital for startups. This is a bit of a waste of resources. YC investment has fostered good projects, but they can't follow up. You can serve as a director in YC Investment and get this information. When you encounter a particularly good project, you can follow up and invest in rounds A, B, C, and D."