Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 391 Miraculous Xingjia

Leaving Twitter's office building, Jennifer Graves got in the car and went straight back to the hotel.

As the executive president of [Gale Capital] New York branch, business trips are naturally treated with high standards, and hotels must be five-star.

Generally, luxury hotels will have a car distribution service, as long as you can afford the US dollar, there is nothing you can't do.

So as soon as Jennifer left the office building, an extended Lincoln drove up to her.

When she returned to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel near the bay by car, the friends she had made an appointment with were already waiting in the lobby.

"Dear Jennifer, we haven't seen each other for more than a year." A thin middle-aged man with slightly curly hair and a sense of vicissitudes greeted warmly.

Jennifer smiled and replied politely: "One year, three months and 25 days, right, Mark?"

The middle-aged man in front of her is her old friend Mark Pincus (Mark Pincus), but he is not from the financial circle, but a serial entrepreneur.

If it's just like this, it's definitely impossible to deal with Jennifer, the key person is still an angel investor.

The most eye-catching achievement of Mark Pincus is to become an angel investor of Facebook.

And before investing in Facebook, Mark Pincus has already invested in Napster, eGroups and other technology companies, and the returns are quite good.

As an angel investor, Comrade Mark is much more successful than Twitter's Evan Williams.

But as an entrepreneur, he is currently one of the most tragic representatives.

On the bright side, Mark Pincus founded a total of 4 companies, but they either failed and went bankrupt, or were driven out of the company by capital.

Friends who are familiar with him know that he has suffered 15 to 20 project failures.

As a serial entrepreneur, this middle-aged man with stories written all over his face can be said to be a veteran who never dies, getting braver as he fights.

It was also because of his status as an angel investor that Mark Pincus had the honor to meet Jennifer, and they have met Jennifer a few times since then, so they have been friends for a long time.

"Jennifer, you are still the same, one word, precise!" Mark responded with a wry smile.

Jennifer turned her head and gestured not far away, and suggested calmly: "Mark, let's go to the coffee shop and order a cappuccino, and talk while drinking!"

"OK, that's my honor!" Mark Pincus happily agreed.

The two walked to the coffee shop on the left side of the hotel lobby, ordered two cups of coffee, and then got down to business.

Jennifer didn't waste any time, and asked straight to the point: "Mark, I just came out of Twitter and have already finalized the Pre-A round of financing, so you don't have to worry about the funding.

You have one hour, you can introduce your company's project in detail, I'm all ears!
As long as the project is good enough, I can make a big investment. "

"Really?" Mark Pincus was pleasantly surprised when he heard the words. "Actually, our project is not complicated. In one sentence, it is a social game."

He also has no choice. Although he is a very successful angel investor, he is also a prodigal serial entrepreneur.

The money earned from investment has been lost because of multiple entrepreneurial ventures.

So when starting a new business this time, although there is no shortage of small money, I still hope to have enough funds to support him to succeed once again.

If he continues to fail, he doesn't even know if he can cheer up again.

Jennifer asked curiously: "Mark, you used to start a business either as a software company or a pure network project, but you have never touched a game before."

"Yes, my current business, Presidio Media, is still really a dot-com company.

Just so you know, I worked with Reid Hoffman (the core member of PayPal and the founder of Linkedin) to buy the patent rights of the social network from Sixdegrees for $70.

And with this patent right as an angel investment, it obtained Facebook's early equity.

So my company has naturally become one of Facebook's technical service providers, and has enjoyed some social platform dividends.

It is because in the process of serving Facebook, I discovered a business opportunity.

That is social games, which will definitely have broad prospects in the future.So I decided to adjust the company's main business and transform into a company with game products as the development direction.

It's just that this requires financial support, otherwise our ideas will be difficult to realize. ”Mark Pincus introduced it in detail.

The reason why he has the confidence to make such a huge adjustment is that on the one hand, he sees a huge opportunity for the development of social networks, and on the other hand, it is because he and Zuckerberg have a very good personal relationship.

As long as the game product is developed, it will receive a lot of traffic support from Facebook.

This is where his confidence lies and why he is eager to find investment.

It's just that Mark Pincus was frightened by investment institutions before, and was kicked out of the company by capital several times, so this time he still wants to start with his acquaintances when looking for investment.

He wants to take full control of starting a business again, so that the control of the company will not be taken away by capital again.

However, according to the financing conditions he proposed, few investment institutions would easily agree.

If you really want to talk about it, this guy is more ruthless than Ma Liang.As soon as he came up, he forced to adopt the design of AB shares, and set special voting rights for the shares held by the founder.

The voting rights of the shares he holds must be 70 times that of the capital side.

According to this operation, in the previous rounds of financing, no matter how much capital is invested, there is no ability to intervene in the company.

Is this a scam? Which investor would be willing to agree to such an unequal treaty.

After all, you dare to be so arrogant before your company is established. How can investment institutions be so angry? You think your company is Google or Apple.

So after Mark Pincus hit a wall everywhere, he had to turn his idea to an acquaintance and found Jennifer Graves.

Jennifer didn't know what he was thinking at the moment, she just continued to ask according to the usual process: "Dare to ask, what is the form of your game product?

Is the DEMO out yet?Can you give it a try? "

"No problem at all, I will send you a trial link later.

As for the game form, it is actually very simple, it is a poker-like social game. "Mark Pincus responded confidently.

As an elite on Wall Street, Jennifer is not very familiar with popular entertainment like poker. She asked curiously, "Poker game? Are you sure there is a market for this?"

"Jennifer, trust me, the simpler the game, the better it is.

Although poker games can be seen everywhere, the pace of life in modern cities is getting faster and faster. It is very difficult for friends to join a poker game.

As long as we move the game online, friends can enjoy the fun of poker together no matter how far apart they are.

I'm pretty sure there's going to be a wave of excitement when the poker game goes online. ” Mark Pincus became more excited as he spoke, and it was easy to see that his blood as a serial entrepreneur had not yet subsided.

Then he elaborated on the details of the project, from product planning to business model, from game operation to the company's future prospects.

Jennifer listened carefully, and interrupted the question again when she heard the key point.

She only frowned when she heard about the design of AB shares and the 70-to-1 voting rights structure, and did not argue.

It's not uncommon for the two to talk like an investor and an entrepreneur in the venture capital circle.Especially in America, similar situations happen every day.

But in the end, although Jennifer was very optimistic about the project, she still couldn't make a decision on the spot.

Especially for the harsh financing conditions, she couldn't make the decision anymore, she had to report to Ma Liang, the boss.

But she also left a note for Mark Pincus and said she would get back to him as soon as possible.

After bidding farewell to the other party, Jennifer did not stay. After returning to the room, she emailed the project information to BOSS Ma Liang as soon as possible, and then made an appointment for the next entrepreneurial project.

After all, this trip to San Francisco is not in vain. After finalizing Twitter’s investment, it’s also necessary to chat with a few more entrepreneurs along the way.

A few hours later, when Ma Liang rushed to the office and turned on the computer, he immediately saw the email from Jennifer.

He hadn't felt much just watching Mark Pincus and Presidio Media.

After all, I was not an investor in my previous life, so it is impossible to be so familiar with all entrepreneurial projects, and it is normal to react slowly.

But when he saw that Comrade Mark was an angel investor of Facebook, and that he was about to launch a poker game product and was about to transform into a game company, he was shocked on the spot.

That's right, definitely didn't run away.

What the hell is this Presidio Media company? It is clearly one of the miracle companies - Zynga.

(End of this chapter)