You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 288 Investment
The next morning.

Liu Yuanrui and two other coal bosses waited early in the reception room of the campus network, watching people coming and going outside through the glass door.

The three of them arrived before nine o'clock and were brought here by the front desk. Apart from someone bringing them some tea and cakes, no one paid any attention to them.

Song Daorong couldn't help himself and stood up and walked around the reception room.

The small reception room was filled with Old Song's fat body swaying back and forth, making people feel particularly anxious.

But Liu Yuanrui had no time to scold him because he felt even more uneasy.

Liu Yuanrui has been thinking about it since he received Qin Shaoyan's text message last night.

What is Qin Shaoyan's intention in calling me over?

He guessed that it was most likely because of the artificial intelligence project.

He also didn't think about how big a splash this project would make.

The people at IDG had even traced the case back to Liu Mingzu, and it seemed that they had obviously conducted a detailed investigation into his background.

Although the fact that Liu Mingzu was his illegitimate son was no secret in the local area, not everyone knew about it.

Besides, Liu Mingzu has been living in Beijing since he started college and has not been back for many years.

IDG was able to find us in such a short time, obviously they had done a detailed background check beforehand.

But this is easy to understand. Venture capitalists are afraid of encountering scammers, so they will naturally check the background of their partners.

Otherwise, once the funds arrive, the entrepreneur will run away with the money, and the venture capitalists won’t even know where the entrepreneur’s hometown is. Wouldn’t that be very embarrassing?

Liu Yuanrui did the same thing before lending money to others.

But what puzzled Liu Yuanrui was that IDG was obviously very interested in artificial intelligence projects and was collecting information everywhere.

It seems that IDG doesn’t know as much about the project as they do, which is very intriguing.

In Liu Yuanrui's view, the artificial intelligence project is a bundled benefit of their investment in the film and television company.

And they had obtained Xiong Xiaoge's permission to invest in the film and television company. It stands to reason that IDG could not have been unaware of the artificial intelligence project.

But the current situation is completely different from what he imagined.

IDG was clearly excluded from artificial intelligence projects.

When Liu Yuanrui was thinking hard, the door of the reception room was pushed open, and Qin Shaoyan's secretary Xiao Chen poked his head in, "Three bosses, President Qin wants to see you."

As soon as he entered the president's office, Qin Shaoyan asked directly with a straight face: "Did you find the reporter?"

Liu Yuanrui was stunned and said quickly: "Boss Qin..."

Qin Shaoyan interrupted him, picked up the newspaper, shook it, and asked, "Did you ask the reporter to write this article?!"

"Uh." Liu Yuanrui took the newspaper and took a look, then nodded and admitted honestly, "We found it."

"We just want to find a newspaper to promote artificial intelligence and hype it up."

Qin Shaoyan seemed a little angry. He held it in for a while before he sighed, "How stupid!"

"How can we easily tell others about this artificial intelligence project?!"

We were not the first to release the news about artificial intelligence. We just expanded the publicity. You can't put the blame on us for leaking the information.

Liu Yuanrui looked at Qin Shaoyan silently and did not dare to refute.

"I have a detailed plan for the artificial intelligence project. What you are doing is simply nonsense." Qin Shaoyan said angrily, "Now my plan has been disrupted."

"If the project goes wrong, can you take responsibility?!"

“The artificial intelligence project needs to apply for a national project!”

Qin Shaoyan waved a stack of official documents in his hand and slammed the table angrily.

Liu Yuanrui took a glance and vaguely saw the large characters "863 Plan". He was moved and silently memorized them in his mind.

Just when Qin Shaoyan was getting angry, there was a knock on the office door.

Qin Shaoyan shouted angrily: "What's the matter? Can't you see I'm receiving guests?!"

Secretary Chen timidly pushed open the door and whispered, "Boss Qin, Boss Xiong is here."

"Which Mr. Xiong?!"

"It's Mr. Xiong Xiaoge."

Qin Shaoyan took a deep breath, calmed down his emotions, glanced at Liu Yuanrui and the other two, and said, "Wait for me here for a while. Xiao Chen, help me entertain the guests."

After saying that, Qin Shaoyan opened the safe, locked the red-headed document in his hand inside, and then hurried out of the office.

Xiao Chen stood beside them with a smile on his face. "What would the three bosses like to drink? I'll ask someone to prepare some."

"No, just drink tea." Liu Yuanrui smiled and took a sip of the teacup. "Hey, it's authentic Longjing tea. Good tea."

As Liu Yuanrui spoke, he praised Mr. Qin's tea to Jiang Mingsheng and Song Daorong.

Then he casually took out his cell phone and quietly sent a text message to his son Liu Mingzu, "What is the 863 plan? Go check it out."

……

When Qin Shaoyan entered the conference room, Xiong Xiaoge and his assistants were already sitting on the chairs, looking expressionlessly at Xing Wenqiang and others who were dismantling computers.

"Boss Xiong is here." Qin Shaoyan greeted with a smile, "It's not even ten o'clock yet, Boss Xiong is a little early."

"What, you're not welcome?" Xiong Xiaoge asked back.

"That's not the case." Qin Shaoyan explained, "We are in a mess here and we are not ready yet."

"It's okay, I can wait." Xiong Xiaoge looked at Xing Wenqiang.

Xing Wenqiang was holding the power cord of the computer chassis very awkwardly. He was debugging the system when Xiong Xiaoge came in. He subconsciously unplugged the power cord.

Qin Shaoyan soon eased the awkward atmosphere, "Director Xing, don't just stand there, quickly demonstrate it to President Xiong."

Xing Wenqiang immediately and skillfully reinstalled the power cord and then turned on the "artificial intelligence image recognition system".

"What we are seeing now is the 1.0 system of AI intelligent image recognition, which is currently just a demo version," Qin Shaoyan said. "Its functions are not perfect, and it only has basic image recognition and classification capabilities, and its accuracy is not high."

Xing Wenqiang opened the system interface and took out a picture to upload.

"Wait a minute." Xiong Xiaoge interrupted Qin Shaoyan, "What kind of pictures can this system recognize?"

"Ordinary photos are fine." Qin Shaoyan replied.

Xiong Xiaoge looked at Xing Wenqiang and said, "Go find another picture online and I'll choose it."

Xing Wenqiang looked at Qin Shaoyan hesitantly.

Qin Shaoyan smiled slightly, "Since this is Mr. Xiong's request, then try to meet it. You don't need to search online, just search directly on the campus network."

Users upload a large number of photos and images to the campus network every day, so the image resources can be said to be quite rich.

Xiong Xiaoge personally selected a photo, a group photo taken by ordinary people, with Mount Tai as the background.

There are tourists, pine trees, stones in the picture, and thick clouds hanging in the sky. The picture contains very rich elements.

The photos were quickly uploaded to the system interface, and then a long progress bar appeared on the system interface.

In less than thirty seconds, lines of recognition results appeared on the system interface.

Trees, rocks, clouds, etc. can all be matched one by one. The system can even recognize how many people are in the photo and whether they are men or women.

Looking at the lines of text on the interface, Xiong Xiaoge squinted his eyes and compared them, and suddenly asked: "Can it be recognized manually?" "Yes." Xing Wenqiang replied, "Manual recognition has the highest accuracy and the recognition time is short."

Xiong Xiaoge walked forward, pushed Xing Wenqiang aside, sat in front of the computer, and started operating the computer while holding the mouse.

When the mouse arrow points to any area of ​​the image, a red circle will appear and the identification information will pop up immediately.

This time the recognition is more detailed, and the system can recognize tops, hats, watches, backpacks and even colors.

Not only is the recognition accurate, but it is also very fast, usually completing the recognition within two or three seconds.

Of course, this thing is not without flaws. When Xiong Xiaoge pointed the mouse at an area of ​​the sky, it could only recognize white and light blue, but not the sky and white clouds.

But Xiong Xiaoge is already very satisfied with the performance of this system.

He clearly saw the powerful recognition and analysis capabilities of the image recognition system, but he also saw the rigidity and limitations of the AI ​​system, which was just the right amount of stupid.

Xiong Xiaoge sat back in his seat and said straight to the point, "Tell me, how much is it?"

"This system is not perfect yet, and we cannot provide services to the public for the time being." Qin Shaoyan looked embarrassed, "We will consider the possibility of charging after we improve it."

Xiong Xiaoge laughed and said to Zhou Dao, "Boss Qin is obviously a master at pretending to be confused."

Qin Shaoyan laughed and said, "Boss Xiong, I am rarely confused."

"Hurry up, I'll invest in your project." Xiong Xiaoge said directly, "How much is it? Name your price."

"This..." Qin Shaoyan looked embarrassed. He hesitated for a moment and looked back at Xing Wenqiang. "You guys go out first."

Xiong Xiaoge knew that Qin Shaoyan wanted to talk to him alone, so he signaled Zhou Dao to go out as well.

Soon, there were only two people left in the meeting room.

Qin Shaoyan sighed, "Boss Xiong, I won't hide it from you. I haven't planned to look for investment for this artificial intelligence project yet."

"You don't plan to look for investment?!" Xiong Xiaoge asked, "What's wrong with those coal bosses?"

"Oh, you mean Boss Liu." Qin Shaoyan sighed, "Boss Liu invested a lot of money in our film and television company before."

"They also like to invest in Internet high-tech projects, thinking that these things can make money, and that investing only in film and television companies is not profitable, so they begged me to do a high-tech project and bring them in."

"I thought about it and felt embarrassed not to bring them along. After all, they spent a lot of money on the film and television company, right?"

"But I can't get them to invest in high-tech. There are no good projects right now. These are all current projects."

"Entrepreneurs outside are all boasting a lot, but no one knows their true level."

"After thinking about it, I think it is more reliable to do a long-term project. On the one hand, the initial investment is small, and on the other hand, the return of long-term projects is also very high, and it can also keep them hanging."

"After much deliberation, I chose artificial intelligence. It seems very high-tech, but the R&D cycle is also quite long."

Xiong Xiaoge immediately understood what Qin Shaoyan meant. He used the coal bosses' funds to set up a film and television company, and then tricked the coal bosses into bundling up with a long-term project to prevent these people from changing their minds and withdrawing their investment later.

Short-term projects are indeed not a good idea. Internet websites come up quickly and disappear just as quickly.

If you just build a website and it doesn't work after one or two years, it's basically hopeless. If you want to withdraw your investment before the filming of a TV series or movie is finished, that would be bad.

Xiong Xiaoge frowned, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Can I tell you this directly?" Qin Shaoyan said helplessly, "If I have a good project, I will definitely not forget Mr. Xiong, but I don't recommend you to invest in artificial intelligence."

"What if I have to vote?" Xiong Xiaoge asked back.

"This..." Qin Shaoyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "I'm just drawing a pie in the sky, why are you taking it so seriously, Mr. Xiong?"

Xiong Xiaoge didn't say anything, but asked directly: "Your image intelligent recognition can't be just an empty shell, right? You must have an application scenario. What do you plan to do with it?"

"That's true." Qin Shaoyan laughed. "A large number of pictures are uploaded to the campus network every day. Previously, manual review was simply not enough to check them all."

"I plan to use this system to assist in review first, and at the same time train the AI's intelligent algorithm for iteration."

“This process takes a long time. It will take at least two to three years to see the effect. No one knows whether it can be iterated in the end.”

Xiong Xiaoge was a little surprised, "I think your system is very mature."

"That's a single photo. Large-scale image recognition won't work." Qin Shaoyan said helplessly, "If it's really that easy to use, I'll go directly to Mr. Xiong and ask for investment."

Xiong Xiaoge pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "How much do you charge them for this system?"

"Twenty million per person, 5% of the equity." Qin Shaoyan replied.

"That means the valuation is 400 million." Xiong Xiaoge smiled, "Then in two or three years, the valuation of this thing will probably increase several times."

"About the same." Qin Shaoyan said nonchalantly, "It should be at least ten times."

"I'll invest two million dollars in you." Xiong Xiaoge said seriously, "Take me with you."

Qin Shaoyan was shocked. "No, Mr. Xiong, my project is not serious."

"Don't pay the two million dollars. Think about it carefully."

"I've thought about it." Xiong Xiaoge looked at Qin Shaoyan and said firmly, "Two million dollars, 5%, is that okay?"

"This..." Qin Shaoyan's expression was very tangled and painful, and finally he sighed, "Boss Xiong, what should I do if I lose money on this project?"

"The loss is mine," Xiong Xiaoge urged, "make your decision quickly."

"Since Mr. Xiong has spoken," Qin Shaoyan gritted his teeth, "then it's settled."

Xiong Xiaoge said with a smile, "Sign it."

……

"Sign it!"

Qin Shaoyan threw the three contracts in front of Liu Yuanrui and others and said expressionlessly.

Liu Yuanrui was shocked and picked up the contract and glanced at it.

This is the investment agreement for the artificial intelligence project, which indicates the amount of investment and equity.

"Money and equity distribution are not negotiable, but other terms can be discussed." Qin Shaoyan said firmly.

"This..." Song Daorong hesitated, "Boss Qin, this is not how you do business..."

"Then teach me how to run a business?" Qin Shaoyan snorted coldly, "If you don't want to do it, get out."

"If you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will!"

Liu Yuanrui was startled and hurriedly stepped out to smooth things over. "Boss Qin, Old Song didn't mean that. It's just that this agreement was a bit too sudden."

"Suddenly?!" Qin Shaoyan sneered, "Originally we had time to talk slowly. Money and equity are both negotiable."

"If you hadn't alarmed Xiong Xiaoge, would I be playing the villain here?!"

Liu Yuanrui was stunned for a moment. What does this... have to do with us?
"Sign it." Qin Shaoyan continued, "The money issue cannot be changed because it was decided by Xiong Xiaoge."

"Ah?!" Liu Yuanrui was stunned.

"Xiong Xiaoge came just now and said that he was interested in the artificial intelligence project and insisted on forcing us to invest." Qin Shaoyan sighed, "If I hadn't told him that you had already signed the contract, it would not have been your turn to invest money. You would have been kicked out by IDG long ago!"

Qin Shaoyan's face was gloomy. "Hurry up and decide whether to sign or not. If not, get out."

"Also, what I say to you today must be kept strictly confidential. No one is allowed to reveal it."

"Don't let the IDG people know that you haven't signed yet."

Liu Yuanrui flipped through the investment agreement and found that the date on the contract was a few days ago. He immediately picked up a pen and wrote his name on it.

(End of this chapter)