King of Capital

"Morning, sir."

"You came so early today."

"Yes! I will attend the project discussion meeting today."

It rained heavily last night, and the accumulated water under the sycamore tree reflected the morning light. The breeze blew gently, but the water was still, and the tender green branches on the trees swayed gracefully.

Zou Jingyi ignored the several founders waiting in the reception area, just smiled sweetly at the female colleague at the front desk, walked briskly through the lobby and took the elevator upstairs.

The company's working hours are 9:00, so interns can arrive at 10:00.

But today is already the second Monday of the internship period, and the front desk investment department has a mid-month project meeting, and the first week's internship assignments must be submitted.

Time passed quickly, and she adapted quickly in a passive manner, imitating the old employees and trying to integrate into the place.

"There are still two interns who haven't arrived yet? No need to wait, let's get started."

Colleagues from the department gathered in the conference room. Miao Nan, MD of the Cultural and Entertainment Group, sat in the upper seat on the left to preside over the meeting, while Zhou Wei, VP of the Internet Innovation Group, sat opposite him in the upper seat on the right.

There were several regular employees in front and four interns behind them, a total of ten people.

Zou Jingyi slowly made a cup of coffee, pushed the door open with her computer in hand, found a place to sit, and whispered hello to Liao Yan and Zhang Youzhou, whom she was familiar with.

"Who's going first? Let's talk about the game companion project."

Miao Nan asked politely and named his employees without waiting for a response.

The man with eye bags who had caused a misunderstanding last week stood up, projected a few simple data analysis charts and long text contents on the screen, and orally explained the progress of the project.

Zou Jingyi was a little confused, and Zhang Youzhou happened to give her the same look and raised his eyebrows. Liao Yan listened attentively and took notes of the key points based on what was said.

The other three interns were in a similar state, either typing away at the keyboard or looking confused. During their graduate studies, teachers all emphasized the importance of PPT for homework.

All the companies where I have interned are the same. Excellent visual charts represent basic aesthetics and logical thinking and expression - just like it is hard to convince people that you are a normal person if you can't speak clearly.

There are many analysts who have worked for two or three years in the top investment banks on Wall Street, and they were scolded by their bosses for not being professional enough in making PPTs.

What was displayed on the screen in front of them could only be described as pictures and documents. It was very difficult for the interns to extract important information from the narration of the man with eye bags. Fortunately, everyone gradually got used to the anomalies.

It’s different, Director Daisy mentioned it in the first training class.

Zou Jingyi tried her best to keep up with the rhythm, but suddenly her arm was poked. She looked in the direction Liao Yan pointed.

I saw a regular employee in front of me leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed, playing with his mobile phone leisurely. I could vaguely see the screen of the phone lighting up with various colorful patterns from time to time, like a game passing animation.

"In general, the accelerated growth in the ratio of single young men and women at the macro level has created socialized 'collective loneliness', and the social rigid demand market has grown exponentially."

"At the micro level, with the rapid development of the e-sports industry, and the development of the pan-entertainment sector that is closely related to live broadcasting and short videos, BiXin, as a startup company in the top three of the game companionship industry market, has good development prospects."

The man with bags under his eyes spoke for only a few minutes before he finished. He stood in front of the long conference table and looked around, ready to challenge his colleagues.

Collective loneliness.

This term was coined by a Harvard alumnus in a book he published two years ago. This alumnus has currently pioneered a new interdisciplinary research field at MIT that integrates science and technology, social culture, and human psychology.

It can be seen that Grapefruit's investment theory covers a wide range of topics, and at least he can talk about it a few words. Zhang Youzhou nodded repeatedly and straightened his back unconsciously.

“How to control the legal compliance risks of this project?”

The employee who was crossing his legs put down his phone and was the first to question: "I just downloaded and registered an account, and spent 12 yuan on gifts in a voice chat room. Within five minutes, I received private messages, four of which asked for my WeChat account, and one of them asked if I was in Shanghai."

"I applied to register for a companion account last week. 'Bi Xin' adopts the live broadcast platform management model, with a three-level structure of platform-guild-expert, and tries B2B procurement on the supply side to simplify the platform's compliance control costs."

The man with bags under his eyes cast his phone on the screen to show the homepage of the expert account. The song he sang last week was to apply for the guild assessment task, as well as the intuitive operation process on the supply side.

The platform manages the guild, and the guild manages the experts, shifting the compliance and regulatory costs to the middle end, but the platform still bears the main compliance and regulatory risks.

The employee with crossed legs shook his head and did not elaborate further. In fact, there were two messages including private photos, asking him if he was in Shanghai. The content used a non-mainstream font to recruit Park.

The man with bags under his eyes waited quietly for a few seconds without further explanation. Everyone understood that this industry was just starting out and regulatory policies were not yet clear. If they wanted to talk about it, they would have to raise the level of the entire industry.

Since we stop at the project itself, to put it bluntly, it is nothing more than the platform's operation and management mechanism and cost. Compared with other platforms, BiXin is among the top three in the industry.

Zou Jingyi was half relieved and half disgusted while listening in. Last week, the man with bags under his eyes wanted to use her image to register a female shemale account, which was obviously easier to test the boundaries of vulgar content on the platform than a male account.

"If a companion provides good service, I will often request her, and over time we will naturally become personal friends. Objectively, it bypasses the platform intermediary's commission, and the transaction terminal model is still C2C." Zhou Wei switched angles and put forward his point of view.

When individual sellers meet individual buyers, the information between the two parties is unequal and the platform matches the transaction and earns the difference.

Then, when a stable, balanced and equal relationship is established, sellers will not worry about buyers defaulting on their payments and buyers will not worry about sellers running away. Then, what is the point of an intermediary?

Brand marketing on WeChat Moments for e-commerce platforms, fixed-route ride-sharing drivers for online ride-hailing platforms, and especially game companion products have emotional attributes.

"BiXin's companionship business is divided into technical needs and emotional companionship needs. For example, if you can't log into League of Legends, you need to find someone to play with you, or if you are bored, you need to find someone to play games with. The two needs correspond to two consumption scenarios."

The man with eye bags switched to the projection screen chart: "Users with emotional needs have switched from low-frequency consumption to high-frequency consumption, while users with technical needs are low-frequency consumption."

"It has both business attributes. Low-frequency users have less motivation to bypass the platform for transactions. The platform designs money-swiping levels, account privileges and other methods for high-frequency users to build a platform service environment."

Artificially creating an imbalance between buyers and sellers, high-frequency users are the big brothers on the platform, complaining about their companions while chatting and laughing. Leaving the platform with a combination of WeChat deletion and blacklisting, he is the king of dogs among the most unfortunate.

Although C2C transactions are highly uncontrollable due to the large amount of sunk costs invested, the positive side of the emotional attributes of commodities is aggregation.

Buyers and sellers have a strong sense of identity and belonging to the niche subculture of companion play. It is a common convention that whoever spends more is the boss, and the amount of consumption is determined by comparison.

According to this logic, there is no need to discuss separately that social identity significantly affects consumer decisions. The platform itself is a small society, just like Bilibili and Siba Media.

"Moreover, the supply-side products have the ability to be mass-produced. Taking my account as an example, I can register, sing a song, and join a guild to 'test the sound' and receive orders. The entire production process is convenient and low-cost."

The man with bags under his eyes skipped over the principles that everyone understood, jumped from the service environment to the product supply, and ended the problem in one sentence.

When new tea is on the market, in the eyes of old customers (high-frequency users), trying new things is the key to a store's rating; and as BiXin is among the top three in the industry, it can make money by playing games with others, and can almost provide an unlimited supply of new tea.

The positive cycle is achieved, with both high and low frequencies being killed.

"OK, got it."

Zhou Wei nodded slightly. If the business model works and the industry prospects are interesting, the key lies in whether the investment can be exited later - project listing/mergers and acquisitions - and supervision.

Going back to supervision, Jin Xiu, VP of the consumer group, raised his hand and asked, "What are the assessment criteria for you to join the guild?"

"I'll play a song."

The man with bags under his eyes took a deep breath and connected the Bluetooth speaker to play music.

"You fell from the sky and landed on my horse!" The ghosts howled and the wolf howled loudly. Zou Jingyi put her hand on her forehead to hide her mood of grabbing the horse, and Liao Jing forced the corners of her mouth to rise. The interns who were in a fog and offline throughout the process regained their judgment ability. This is too bad.

"Okay, it's OK. The supply side can indeed produce in batches."

Jin Xiu smiled and changed the subject: "But the standardized quality of the goods cannot be guaranteed. What is the upper limit of the development of handicraft workshops that cannot be industrialized?"

“How will future regulators use this to determine the rights and interests of users and merchants, as well as the scope of responsibility of the platform?”

After two questions in a row, the man with bags under his eyes calmed down and organized his words to answer again.

All the interns, including Zou Jingyi, felt sad watching this debate among the scholars. Who could stand the graduation defense once a month?

Although I can't keep up with the pace and don't understand the content, I can summarize the general idea.

Industry supervision, platform business model, future development expectations, the entire project was quickly disassembled and clarified as everyone expressed their opinions.

One project after another, each taking about twenty minutes.

Zhang Youzhou felt like he was back to the state when he first watched a debate competition in college. When it was the turn of each formal employee to speak, he wanted to add a sentence - good brother is right!

"Okay, each group will come here today to discuss on their own, and send the projects submitted to the investment decision-making meeting to me before next Friday."

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

After discussing the three projects in total, Miao Nan announced the end of the meeting.

No colleague wants to be criticized and speechless. Each group is fully prepared internally, and only projects that are basically remarkable will be brought to the meeting. They only communicate with each other, learn from each other, and discuss investment strategies without making any resolutions.

The interns secretly breathed a sigh of relief; the mental exertion was more tiring than running a half marathon.

"Hold on a minute everyone, help me try the product, I'd be grateful!"

Jin Xiu struggled to slam the big box onto the table. Zhou Wei covered his head in pain, and Miao Nan was powerless to refuse.

The previous round of investors for the BiXin project was Wangyu Internet Cafe, which in turn received investment from Pusi Capital. It was Jin's last project before she changed jobs.

Even though she helped to introduce the business because she was not optimistic about it, she still had to accept the favor. Miao Nan led her two generals and rushed forward without hesitation. Each of them received three 500ml bottles of liquor with different flavors and filled in the questionnaire.

"Come on, come on, don't be polite. Go home and drink by yourself and enjoy the moon in the evening. Share it with your family and give it to your friends as gifts." Jin Xiu spoke beautifully with a smile.

The interns lined up to receive the bottles with doubts. Zou Jingyi frowned and observed the brand name "Jiang Xiaobai" printed on the bottle, and the word "cheap" came to her mind.

Then colleagues from the hard technology group distributed sports cameras and asked people to experience them and give feedback. Everyone wanted to try it, but it was said that the product cost was high, so only one was distributed per set.

"This stuff is all industrial alcohol. It's okay to taste it, but drinking too much will give you a headache." Zhou Wei reminded cautiously.

Last summer, I led the A+ round of investment in a project. I originally wanted to use Meituan’s channels to promote B-end restaurants, but after working on it for half a year, I found that I didn’t have the skills, so I was preparing to adjust the direction and move into C-end retail.

It's okay to send cameras and other products for product testing, but eating and drinking is really a pain in the ass.

"Our department has a lot of new and exciting experiences." Zhang Youzhou disagreed.

Thinking of the unforgettable loud and clear singing just now, I played with the bottle of wine with interest and planned to try it when I get home tonight.

"Good boy, I like your enthusiasm!"

Zhou Wei immediately slapped the table and said with shining eyes: "You don't have to wait until tonight, you can drink now."

"Uh, isn't that appropriate?"

"Experiencing the project in person is an essential part of due diligence. You are really dedicating yourself to your work! There is salmon and ham in the tea room. Go get some to go with your wine."

Zhou Weile encouraged, saying that he must tear apart the umbrella of those who came after him after being caught in the rain. He was really looking forward to Zhou tasting industrial alcohol!

The atmosphere of the professional and high-intensity project meeting disappeared in an instant, and smoothly switched into a sloppy and chaotic state.

"Boss Zhou, this wine is choking my throat."

"Don't just drink and eat some food, wine tastes better with Sprite."

"Ahem, Mr. Zhou, burp, this wine mixed with Sprite is indeed delicious, but why don't I feel anything after drinking it? It's just that my forehead feels a little hot. Look, is my face red?"

Zhang Youzhou was reeking of alcohol, Zhou Wei was eating peanuts with a playful smile, and another male classmate with a side-parted hairstyle was holding a sports camera and taking pictures. It was a chaotic scene.

He even showed off his moves and the Hitchcock zoom technique!
"Photography is my hobby. I'll go find the war correspondent (Liao Yan) to discuss it with me." The male student with a 3:7 hairstyle shook his bangs and showed off his talent in a reserved manner.

Zou Jingyi was silent as she tilted her head to look out the French window. Suddenly, she felt that she didn't have a strong desire to explore. At least when she opened the door of this conference room and looked around, she seemed to be quite normal by comparison...

Mr. Tang was on a business trip to Beijing and had not returned yet. The teaching teacher in the group was not there, and the other interns had all returned to their respective groups. She and Zhang Youzhou had to continue to stay with the Internet Innovation Group.

And this Mr. Zhou looks particularly strange.

"Just drink a little, don't drink too much, and tell us about your homework from last week."

Zhou Wei thought it was time for a break, so he clapped his hands to shake off the peanut crumbs and started the conversation again: "The charts you made are all good, better than mine."

"Master, I actually feel that our company doesn't care about these paper things."

The male student in the 3:7 ratio sat back in his seat to support the main role. It was understandable that our master, who majored in civil engineering, was not good at clerical work as he was a latecomer.

"You're right. We don't need to show our professionalism to anyone. It's enough to explain things clearly. We must know how to use PPT, which is a basic task that consumes a lot of time, but we don't have to."

Zhou Wei restrained his expression and gave serious advice: "Try to make less PPT and send more emails. You don't have to know how to do this. Communicating in English is the basis."

"Got it, Mr. Zhou! To be honest, when I was writing emails, I had to sit in front of the computer for a few seconds before I could think of the corresponding Chinese versions of many professional terms and model calculation formulas." Zhang Youzhou agreed wholeheartedly.

Just now, three formal employees at the project meeting verified Zhou Wei's words with practice. Grapefruit is qualified to be practical first. No matter how beautiful the carvings on shit are, it is still shit, and no matter how primitive the jade is, it is still jade.

Zou Jingyi took it to heart and experienced a mixture of frustration and surprise when she first started working on the job.

Give gifts and pretend to be a prostitute... pretend to be a user, go into the industry to experience being a playmate, have a drink on the spot. In short, you can talk about the macro situation of the industry, or go deep into the garbage dump to look for the source of the products, which is an eye-opener.

"You can learn these details on your own. Pay attention to the main point: the reason why the first assignment is a research report is to make you understand one thing."

Zhou Wei cleared his throat and said, "80% of investors in the venture capital industry cannot give entrepreneurs positive feedback. What you spend a week writing, entrepreneurs can explain clearly in one hour. That is the summary of his life accumulated over many years."

"So don't try to imitate Mr. Xie's perspective. This is the first and last lesson of my pre-job technical training for you."

Zhou Wei looked serious and looked at Zou Jingyi with a scrutinizing gaze: "Have you ever seen Hong Kong gangster movies? There is only one boss, and the others are all disciples with their own duties."

"understood."

"get out of class is over. Youzhou will go home and sleep in the afternoon. Jingyi, would you like some wine?"

"..." (End of this chapter)