American Peanuts

Chapter 221 Investors, Deadlock
In a theater in Chicago, Charlie and Ivanie walked out of the theater among the crowd.

"Apart from Edward's good looks, I can't find anything outstanding about the whole film! Especially the Sima face of the female lead."

"The beautiful love between man and vampire, why are there such clichéd movies in the 21st century?"

"As a reader of the original work, I feel that the restoration is so-so, and it barely falls into the category of being able to read..."

Audiences nearby who have just watched "Twilight" are expressing their opinions on the movie. Most people feel that the movie is very cliche and full of boring Mary Sue plots. Another group of people are neutral, but it is more about men and women. I am very interested in the protagonist's beauty.

"As a commercial movie, it is almost difficult to satisfy everyone." Charlie shook his head.

As the masterpiece of PB Films this year, Charlie, as the producer, naturally paid special attention to this film. Since the film was just commercialized, he began to observe the evaluations of various film media, and the results were unexpectedly poor. This can also be seen from the IMDB's opening score is only 4 points.

But corresponding to this is the popularity of the movie.

The freshness of Rotten Tomatoes is as high as 100%, which beats the release at the same time. Starring Cameron Diaz, "Affair in Casino" produced by Fox, "National Superman Hancock" under Sony, and "League of Assassins" by Universal, It has become the most discussed movie at the moment.

Premiered in more than 4000 theaters throughout North America, the box office reached 7000 million US dollars on the first day, achieving the best result since the establishment of PB Films.It can be said that the audience watched while scolding.

"You say no, but you're honest in your heart." Charlie looked at the crowds of people leaving the cinema.

Even though the two of them were wearing hats, it was just because of their outstanding looks, especially Yvonne's dazzling appearance, that it was difficult not to attract the attention of the people around them. Many people looked over subconsciously, and then the two of them were recognized by the sharp-eyed audience. come out.

"It's Charlie Rossi!" I don't know who shouted, and soon Charlie and Ivanie were surrounded by people. They were watched like rare animals in the zoo. Many people had already taken out their mobile phones. iPhone camera.

After a year of sales and distribution, Apple’s mobile phone market share in North America has now exceeded 15%, and its global share has reached 2.3%. At first glance, this number does not seem to be much. In fact, Apple has surpassed Sharp to become the global market share. The eighth largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Charlie took Ivani and left immediately. Under the protection of heavy bodyguards, the two left through the back door of the theater.

"Bob Friedman called me this afternoon and said that starting tomorrow, major theater chains will increase the screening rate of this movie. What do you think of this movie? Is it enough to attract today's young audiences?" Charlie While in the car, Ivanie was asked about the reaction of the female audience member.

"You know I've passed the age of watching this kind of movies." Ivanie laughed and looked at Charlie sitting next to her.

In the movie: A young girl is involved in the battle between werewolves and vampires, and has an affair with two handsome guys with very different styles.

In reality: A woman competes with other women for the boss of a film company, and the other woman smiles and says I want them all.

The gap between reality and the story is too big.

"Women obviously do as many things as men, but in the end it is often the other person who takes the credit." She sighed subconsciously.

"By the way, are you sure you don't plan to take over the investment institution? You are losing money every day now." Ivani was very concerned about this matter.

The performance of the "Palace" project has not achieved unexpected results. From this point of view, Charlie is not omnipotent. At least this time he failed, and the current operating costs remain high, and the WEB experience is ugly and bad. , being pulled away by more than one position from competitors.

Think about it... How can we make a good website by hiring technical staff who were previously responsible for websites in that industry?
Charlie opened his mouth, looking a little impatient.

In the past few days, he has taken the trouble to explain the value of the "palace" and the broad prospects for the future to many people, thus proving that the current persistence is very necessary, but in fact, no one cares about the future, but only cares about the present.

In fact, their perspective is not wrong. If they don't have any memory about the future, they may hesitate to think about these issues.

"I know, I will try to find an investment institution." Charlie nodded. This time he did not stubbornly stick to it, but agreed to Ivanni's proposal.

"Why did you suddenly figure it out today?" Ivanie approached Charlie.

"The more money we have, the more leeway we have to do other things, such as recruiting a large number of technical engineers and optimizing the original experience, instead of being conservative, which will weaken the competitiveness of the palace."

Charlie said this, and his thoughts had changed at this time.

Taking a longer-term view, even if the intervention of other capital will occupy a part of the equity, if the valuation itself is too low, so what if it is [-]% sole proprietorship?It is entirely possible to introduce other investors without handing over controlling shares.

It is very normal in any country to introduce investment as a source of water for the development of start-ups. Since it is a tool, why not use it yourself?

After returning to the mansion, Charlie called Kayla non-stop and asked her to prepare a "Business Plan", "Investment Letter", and memorandum-related information, etc. This is what start-ups must prepare when facing potential investors. Material.

Then he started asking Kayla to contact potential investors, mainly including some investment institutions active in Silicon Valley today and several major investment banks on Wall Street.

·
Two days later, Menlo Park, California.

Doug Leone and Michael Moritz sat across from Charlie.

The two are the heads of investment in the Silicon Valley region at the famous Sequoia Capital.

Last year, Sequoia Capital invested $10 billion in Silicon Valley, investing in major technology companies such as Apple, Google, Oracle, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The two of them are also well-known in the industry, and Charlie was able to meet them thanks to Jobs' introduction.

After the necessary pleasantries, Charlie handed the business plan to the two of them.

It contains detailed introductions including team introduction, market analysis, product analysis, business model, main data, development plans and many other aspects, which can help investors understand all aspects of the company in the most time-saving and effort-saving way.

Doug Leone flipped through it casually, while Michael Moritz next to him looked at it very carefully.

In less than 2 minutes, Doug Leone put down the business plan, crossed his hands on his lap, looked at Charlie and said bluntly:
"There are many problems in the team. You need an expert, a qualified technical supervisor, and the market analysis is not complete..."

He has saved some face for Charlie. In fact, he feels that the market analysis of this business plan is not as good as that of the interns in his office. This is simply a gap in ability.

"The only thing that I think is interesting is your product positioning and consumer opinion decision-making. I think this is a more advanced business form than Amazon." Doug Leone said very pragmatically.

"Who gave you the advice?" He picked up the coffee cup.

"This is my own consideration." Charlie explained.

"Your own considerations?" Doug Leone repeated noncommittally, not sure whether he believed it or not.

Michael Moritz also raised his head at this time and looked at the partners working with him: "He is right, look at the time when the project was established internally, it was still in the middle of last year, and he did not make a name for himself on Wall Street at that time. "

In other words, no one would help Charlie Rossi at that time.

"Oh!" Doug Leone put down the cup quickly, as if he had been burned.

He suddenly realized that he underestimated this Charlie Rossi. This kind of business sense can be said to be ahead of the entire era.

Then he remembered that he bought Apple shares in large quantities. In fact, during that period, Sequoia also reduced some of its shares and made a small profit. But judging from the results, Charlie Rossi was the final winner.

Compared to Doug Leone, who was crisp and clear-cut, Michael Moritz was obviously more detailed and asked Charlie many questions, such as user retention rate, the number of core users who have been using it for a long time, user growth curve...

Charlie answered them one by one.

"I think it's pretty good. We can try to follow up on this project, Doug, what do you think?" Michael Moritz asked for the opinions of people around him. The two have worked together for many years and are full of trust in each other and have complementary personalities. Many important decisions at Sequoia Capital are made through consultation between the two.

"Michael, don't forget, we have already bet on another company, which will cause business conflicts." Doug shook his head and rejected the investment issue.

"You're right." Michael then looked at Charlie.

"Sorry sir, I'm afraid we won't have the chance to complete our cooperation this time."

"Okay, as for the remaining information, I will leave it here. If you have time, you may wish to continue taking a look." Charlie stood up without saying much. He already understood in his heart that what he had already refused would not change. As for the reason for the rejection, it doesn't really matter.

"That's unnecessary, this involves your company's secrets." Doug stood up and shook hands with Charlie.

"It doesn't matter, I have full trust in you two." Charlie said solemnly.

When she walked out of the office, she saw Kayla coming up to her with an expectant look on her face.

"What was the result?" Keira tried to ask.

Charlie shook his head: "It seems that we have to find another one."

He also knows that it is actually not easy to find investors at this point in time. The reason is very simple. With the spread of the aftermath of the financial crisis, all companies are tightening their belts to survive this cold winter. The selection is also extremely cautious.

In the car, Charlie asked who wrote the market analysis in the business plan?
Just now, Charlie saw that Doug's expression changed significantly when he was observing this part. It was obvious that he was not satisfied with this part.

This is understandable. After all, PB Company was previously engaged in the entertainment and cultural industry. As the saying goes, there is a gap between the industry and the research department of such professional investment institutions.

Once you know the gap, you need to make up for it to avoid similar problems from happening again.

Keira hesitated and said, it turned out that she did this part herself.

By the time we got to the next location, Kleiner Perkins' office on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, the relevant content had been changed.

The person who met Charlie was one of the partners, Tom Perkins. Compared with the two young leaders of Sequoia Capital, he has been in the Silicon Valley investment circle for more than [-] years. He once led the investment in Compaq Computer and Sagittarius. Mentec, Electronic Arts and other companies.

"We are indeed preparing to invest in the field of social networks. We have met with a number of related start-up companies and it is expected that the investment amount this year will be around US$7.5 million." Tom said.

"I wonder how the negotiation went? Has anyone obtained your approval?" Charlie tried to ask.

"It's not particularly satisfactory. As you know, this is a complicated and long process, especially in terms of valuation calculations." Tom explained.

For companies that are not listed, there is a lack of a common calculation method for company valuation, which often leads to disagreements between investment institutions and start-up companies in this regard.

After reading the business plan and memorandum, Tom did show interest in the palace project. He personally thought the idea was great.

"If you decide to invest in a social network project this year, I think it must be you." He spoke highly of it.

"But the valuation..." He flipped through the investment letter of intent, which detailed the conditions for investment.

"The valuation is more than $50 billion, which is too high."

“Compared to the other two social network giants, this is already a discount. You must know that Twitter’s total number of users is only 1000 million, and its valuation is as high as nearly 200 billion US dollars. Our number of users has also reached 100 million. people, and one-fifth of Twitter users have an annual income of less than 15.00 US dollars. This type of people only accounts for 35% in Palace. In Palace, customers under [-] years old account for the majority, and most of them have purchased PB derivatives and Relevant magazines have users with potential spending power." Charlie explained, but he did not expect that some of the knowledge he had just made up for in the course would come in handy.

Any social network platform hopes that its users will spend money and have the intention to purchase, and advertisers will be more inclined to serve ads to these users.

This is also the idea that Charlie has insisted on from the beginning. Focusing on the vertical consumption field, only in this way can we bring broad business prospects instead of being limited to the quagmire of user growth. In this case, within a few years, there will be a large number of robot users on the website, and with Twitter is exactly the same.

"I admit that this is your advantage, but you have to consider the objective situation. As a new business launched by PB Company, it will naturally attract the attention of original users. The current user portrait of Palace highly overlaps with that of PB Magazine. As for whether it is as you said They have potential purchasing intentions and need to continue to verify." Tom said bluntly.

The fundamental reason for the disagreement is that the two sides have different calculation methods. Charlie thinks this is the palace's current advantage, while the other side thinks this is only due to some objective reasons and does not prove that the palace project is unique.

The conversation with Tom soon reached a deadlock.

"Really no longer considering lowering the valuation? We are very sincere about this." Before leaving, Tom was still teaching.

If you are truly sincere, you won’t haggle over valuation.

"Thank you for the invitation." Charlie turned and left.

In the remaining days in small Menlo Park, Charlie went through discussions with several major investment institutions and investors, but the final results were not satisfactory.

The well-known investor Andreessen Horowitz is not optimistic about this project. Goldman Sachs opened his mouth and actually wanted Charlie to give up control, otherwise there would be no discussion. Axel was affected by the financial turmoil and decided to reduce this year's investment amount...

"It seems we can only find another way." Charlie dialed Victoria's phone number...

(End of this chapter)