Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 501 Follow My Rules
While Jennifer kept teasing Ma Liang, I don’t know how many investment tycoons were thinking about Twitter.

Among them are investors from Twitter’s previous round.

Gene Sabet, a partner at Spark Capital, and Fred Wilson, a partner at Union Investment, are plotting Twitter's Series B financing in a private club in Silicon Valley.

"I didn't expect that that magical oriental boy actually succeeded."

Gene Sabet couldn't help but sigh when he thought about Twitter's recent incredible performance.

"Who says it's not the case? If I had known earlier, I should have bought more shares."

Ryder Wilson also complained. He should have raised the valuation in the first place and fought for more investment shares. Why should he care about the face of other investors?

Now I'm fine. Seeing that Twitter's valuation is about to increase more than ten times, I invested so little money. I really regret it.

Capital pursues profit, and as an investor, money should come first. How could I have forgotten this?

Jean Sabet asked directly: "What should we do next?

Should we drag Marc Andreessen and the others together to put some pressure on Twitter and let Ivan and the others start Series B financing as soon as possible? "

The reason why we are so eager is because the sooner we start financing, the lower Twitter’s valuation will be, and everyone will be able to take advantage.

"But don't do that. The more people there are, the worse things will happen.

Don’t forget how tough Twitter’s angel investor is.

If he were to forcefully force the palace, it might backfire. " Ryder Wilson quickly dissuaded.

He still clearly remembers how rude Ma Liang was to their investors on the day of Twitter’s Series A financing.

Such an arrogant tone has the attitude of "if you like to invest, you will get out if you don't".

You must know that Twitter was still in a dormant period at that time, so the young angel investor dared to be so tough.

Now that Twitter is taking off, investors like them are even less jealous.

Force the palace together?

Then you shouldn't offend people to the point of death and deliberately have trouble with money.

Gene Sabet was immediately worried when he heard this: "That kid Marlon must be even more out of control this time. What do you think we should do?"

“We might as well hook up with that guy Ivan again and see if we can find a breakthrough.

As long as Ivan can handle everyone and open a separate financing window for us, at worst, we can promise him some benefits in private. "

Ryder Wilson, the old fox, has another crooked idea of ​​​​Ivan Williams.

Jean Sabet became excited immediately after hearing this: "What valuation is appropriate for us? You can't still quote us at US$30 billion, right?"

The B round of financing is US$30 million, with a valuation of US$[-] billion, which is exactly the number Ma Liang initially set in the last round of financing.

"Let's talk to Ivan first. If that guy can help us invest in it at a valuation of 20 billion US dollars, we will each contribute 1000 million US dollars and give him 2000 million in benefits."

Ryder Wilson's abacus is quite precise. If he can invest at a valuation of US$20 billion, he can get at least a 5-10 times return.

In this way, even if their two institutions only invest 4000 to [-] million US dollars, the return on investment will be hundreds of millions.

Offering Ivan $800 million in benefits is not a big deal at all.

Gene Sabet quickly clapped his hands and praised: "No problem, what are you waiting for? Let's go talk to little Ivan right now."

As soon as the two of them joined forces, a small conspiracy of the Capital Bureau was worked out.

In fact, the two old guys' plans were all basic operations in the venture capital circle, and it was nothing new at all.

Not to mention the United States, where capital is prevalent, even in China, where the venture capital industry has just started, such PY transactions are not uncommon.

It's just that Gene Sabet and Ryder Wilson were destined to make the wrong calculation. They simply didn't know that Ivan can no longer make the decision on Twitter.

In the past, Ivan Williams might have been able to convince Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone to force the situation together.

Even if [Dale Capital] has a veto power, there are still ways to fight for it.

But now Twitter's fate-changing plan is all planned by Ma Liang, and the core of it is also controlled by Ma Liang. How can the other three giants of Twitter listen to his little Ivan.

So Gene Sabet and Ryder Wilson were doomed to nothing, just working in vain.

……

Thousands of miles away from Silicon Valley, in Moscow, in a mysterious villa, an old man with a bare head and a thin body was discussing a special plan with his partner in Russian.

"Grigory, we have almost raised the funds, and now we have to go big."

The speaker is Yuri Milner, a new big shot in the Goose Feather Kingdom venture capital circle in recent years.

When he was young, Yuri was a super academic, and his parents were both celebrities in academia. He successfully became the first Chinese student to be admitted to Wharton School of Business with a full scholarship.

After graduating from Wharton, Yuri worked briefly in the financial department of the World Bank for a period of time before finally deciding to return to the embrace of his motherland.

After returning to China, he used his background from a prestigious American school to join Bank Menatep as a senior executive, responsible for the bank's investment branch business, and truly came into contact with the venture capital circle.

In 1998, Bank Menatep collapsed after a series of accusations including money laundering, and Yuri, who became a free agent, began to play private equity.

He and co-founder Grigory Finger founded a venture capital fund called NetBright to invest in potential Internet companies in China.

But the timing of NetBright's establishment was not very good. Shortly after the establishment of the organization, the global Internet bubble burst.

NetBright's valuation plummeted by 97%.

Under heavy pressure, Yuri and his partner Grigori had no choice but to make the decision to merge NetBright and Port.ru, the largest email service provider in the country, to form a new social company Mail.ru.

Through drastic reforms, Mail.ru finally turned a profit and became a real commercial company.

Yuri Milner also took advantage of this and became a celebrity in the business world of Goose Feather Country. In 2005, Yuri and his partner Grigory established a new investment company and named the company Digital Sky Technologies.

This is DST, the famous venture capital company in Ma Liang's previous life.

A top venture capital fund that will become well-known in venture capital circles around the world in the next few years, but is kept secret from ordinary people.

DST has a very special background and has always been rumored to be a mysterious power broker.

Because it is backed by Alisher Usmanov, a steel billionaire from China and the third richest man in the world.

It can be seen from this that DST’s source of funds is so arrogant and even reaches the sky.

This also creates DST's wealthy investment habit. It does not invest in non-unicorn companies or companies with a valuation of less than one billion U.S. dollars. It only invests in leading companies that have already won in the field.

And it is acceptable for founders and core employees to cash out in advance and acquire their shares privately.

The most arrogant thing is that DST can even invest more than one billion US dollars in a company without having to win a voting seat on the board of directors.

It is such an outstanding venture capital institution that invested in all the global Internet giants in the next ten years.

Many years later, a big boss commented that DST could mobilize all Internet companies in the world.

Because DST invests in companies including Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Spotify, Alibaba, ByteDance, JD.com, Kuaishou, Xiaomi and Meituan and other Internet giants from various countries.

Facebook's investment alone brought them about $10 billion in returns.

The reason why it has been able to invest in so many giants has something to do with DST's investment strategy. The most distinctive thing about it is that it gives founders freedom, does not interfere in company affairs, and does not require board seats.

Another strategy of DST is globalization, investing in one track and investing all over the world.

Missed your Uber?

Don’t panic, you can still invest in Didi and Ola.

For similar events on the same track, as long as they are winners from different countries, DST will never miss them. They are experts at this trick.

The nouveau riche investment method of DST was once considered by countless people to be a very ridiculous approach.

The venture capital circle sneered that Yuri Milner was the stupid son of a landlord - a stupid person with a lot of money.

But later everyone discovered that it was themselves who were the slanderers.This is exactly what makes DST so awesome.

DST's violent investment philosophy is simply incapable of being learned or played by ordinary investors.

You are not afraid of losing money, and you can afford to invest no matter how expensive it is. The main theme is "I want it all."

Just like Ma Liang's previous life, DST voted for both Facebook and Twitter, not panicking about which one would fail early.

If he is not afraid of losing money, then who can play better than him?

Although it's only 2008, DST is already ready to go and has its sights set on America.

Yuri's plan is similar to Ma Liang's, he wants to take advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis to buy the bottom of Silicon Valley in the United States.

The economic crisis that has spread to the world has made most investment institutions strapped for funds and timid about investing money.

But DST is different. They have just completed fundraising and are at their most arrogant.

For the first time, Yuri Milner set his sights on the social track in the United States, focusing on Facebook and Twitter.

"Yuri, are you sure you want to do this?" Partner Grigory asked worriedly.

Yuri Milner nodded confidently: "I am very sure, no matter which of these two websites will become the king of the social track, I want them all anyway.

If it really doesn't work, the worst case scenario would be to let the two companies merge in the end. "

With a lot of money in hand, Yuri's inner confidence has never been as strong as it is today, and he can pull off any tricks no matter how cunning.

"Okay, you got the money, you have the final say." Although Grigory felt it was inappropriate, he had no choice but to agree in the end.

And Ma Liang, who is far away in China, is still carefully explaining that Jennifer should keep an eye on the Big Four of Twitter.

"You can help Jack, Ivan and the others. Don't worry about financing. You will have more capital to negotiate after it develops for a period of time.

For the next round of financing, the financing amount is no longer 50 million U.S. dollars. We will work directly towards [-] million U.S. dollars, and the valuation is reported to be [-] billion U.S. dollars. There is absolutely no big problem. "

It wasn’t that Ma Liang was too ambitious, but that he temporarily changed the target of Series B financing after seeing Twitter’s current situation.

Because he still had a few killing moves yet to be unleashed, he was confident enough to dare to shout like this.

"Five hundred million US dollars? Boss, did I hear you correctly?" Jennifer exclaimed when she heard this.

Ma Liang responded with absolute certainty: "That's right, just tell Twitter what I said.

It's not impossible if they insist on opening the financing window in advance, but everything must follow my rules.

Twitter’s Series B financing is US$10 million, with [-]% of the shares sold.

Moreover, shareholders holding less than 5% of the shares are not allowed to seek board seats. Even shareholders holding more than 5% must give up their veto power after entering the board of directors.

It's settled like that, no negotiation. "

The last link in Twitter's life-changing plan has not yet been completed, and he doesn't want so many cats and dogs popping up from the board of directors to interfere.

Especially for the gaming companies he has invested in, which are about to merge and exchange shares with Twitter, this matter must be firmly in his hands.

Otherwise, Boss Ma, who has put so much thought into his life-changing plan but can't get even a small amount of money, is just playing with it.

"OK, you are the BOSS, you have the final say." Jennifer obediently agreed.

At this moment, she didn't want to have any objection at all, and she even wished that Ma Liang could be more outrageous.

Because in that case, her own interests will also rise with the tide!
(End of this chapter)