King of Capital

Chapter 88 Old Ma can do it, Xiao Xie can do it too

Kuaidi was the first to announce that it would spend 50 million yuan, and Didi doubled the amount by 100 million yuan.

The two parties joined forces and used just one round to remind the entire domestic venture capital circle of the fear of being dominated by the group buying war two years ago. The media ran a sensational headline of "Two Heroes Fighting for Supremacy". Alibaba and Tencent have revealed their wandering spirit temperament that can be seen everywhere in the entire Internet industry.

However, as we all know, there are five people in the Four Heavenly Kings, so it is reasonable that there are actually three heroes fighting for supremacy.

Bumblebee, which took money from Baidu, has quietly followed the subsidy rhythm of the main battlefield in Shanghai, and has silently increased its spending in Guangzhou. It seems that it wants to take Guangdong and Guangxi first and then fight from south to north.

Xie Jingxing didn't care about it at all, and he didn't even understand why Mr. Robin Li wanted to take over Bumblebee, which had less than one-tenth of the national market share. He came in and gave it a hard time, feeling like he had eaten smart beans.

Tencent and Alibaba must fight to the end for mobile payments. Does Baidu have the motivation to fight to the end? Is it still obsessed with its dream of local life?
If he were Robin Lee, he would probably go completely crazy and turn into...

"Mr. Xie, we are here."

A familiar delicate voice interrupted his thoughts, and Xie Jingxing got out of the car and took the initiative to walk towards the leaders who were standing at the entrance of the office building to greet him.

Song Anli came closer and followed him half a body length behind him, introducing him with a standard smile: "This is Professor Zhang."

"I often hear Mr. Liu Qiming mention you. Xiao Xie is indeed a promising young man."

Professor Zhang, who holds two positions, namely, Vice President of the School of Economics and Executive Vice President of the Institute of Finance, is obviously not just a scholar with bookish spirit.

He was elegant and easy-going, pulling Xie Jingxing aside and jokingly saying something polite: "You've been interning at Juntai for a month, and not only have you seduced two of Juntai's top generals, you've even poached your internship partner. You're quite charismatic!"

Song Anli wore a double-breasted peak-lapel suit today, paired with a 40mm men's watch on her wrist and sparkling earrings that occasionally showed through her neck-length hair. She looked elegant and capable, yet also had a dash of heroic personality.

Standing side by side with Xie Jingxing, they are fully worthy of the evaluation that they are a perfect match.

They just laughed at Professor Zhang's teasing. There was nothing they could do. The age gap was there, so the topics for a first meeting were really limited. He was in his fifties, so it was impossible for him to say, "Your cross-border merger and acquisition case is a pioneering one. Old Zhang, I admire you from the bottom of my heart..."

Fortunately, Xie Jingxing came to investigate and discuss cooperation as a financial sponsor. After a few pleasantries, the two sides entered the office building for a tour.

The online car-hailing industry will have to proceed step by step for a while. The previously shelved plan to cooperate with universities to set up a financial research institute has been restarted. Taihe’s headquarters is in Shanghai, so Fudan University and Jiaotong University are inevitably the first choice for cooperation.

There are roughly a few models of cooperation between enterprises in various industries and universities. Taihe is currently in the most basic stage. It has no idea what industry to invest in or what new technologies are available, so it goes to a university in its personal or company name to ask an expert professor for advice.

The so-called technical service support means you will be paid for each order.

On this basis, further forms of cooperation can be found, such as the development of quantitative trading models, financial data and other long-term projects.

A deeper level of cooperation would be for financial institutions and related colleges and universities to jointly establish financial research institutes to provide comprehensive business support such as investment decisions and policy analysis.

Taihe didn't do these things before, partly because domestic peers didn't pay much attention to them. The buyer only needed to control the general direction, and the seller would naturally do the basic research.

The remaining half of the reason is that industrialist Old Xie has a natural distrust and vigilance towards finance. Taihe was originally just a large account book to isolate private wealth risks. It was only because of Xie Jingxing's old mother who lived far away in New Zealand that she slowly turned it into a serious family office with a professional level comparable to its European and American counterparts over the years.

Moreover, a financial research institute is too expensive for a single family office (FO). It cannot be managed with funds of tens of billions of RMB. It requires a scale of the Luo family or the Rockefeller family.

But Xiyou is a standard asset management institution funded by investors, and is equipped with a full range of research businesses in the areas of macro strategy, quantitative trading, fixed income, and industry research, with the highest specifications directly set up at the research institute.

"Xiao Xie, we have a lot of room for cooperation and we don't have to stick to formalities. We have a series of industry-university-research projects, such as talent training and enterprise incubation. Fudan University welcomes social enterprises and opens its doors to them."

After the visit ended at noon, Professor Zhang hosted a meal at the North Canteen in the community, during which he continued to talk and introduce the situation.

"To be honest, a small institution like us is really powerless in terms of talent training."

Xie Jingxing listened carefully and sighed with an apologetic look on his face: "But if it is possible, within our capabilities, we are very willing to cooperate with Fudan University in campus recruitment, salon lectures, forums, etc."

"Don't be modest. You young people and young companies are powerful and have more advantages than industry leaders in transforming research results." Professor Zhang was not going to let it go easily and emphasized again.

There are only a few top private equity teams, and almost all of them are recruited from society. Even campus recruitment can only provide a few vacancies every year.

Fudan’s existing Institute of Finance has the People’s Bank of China’s head office as its backer, and its partners are all industry tyrants such as top securities firms. If Grapefruit Capital wants to come in and cooperate, it cannot just have money, it must also show sincerity.

Professor Zhang continued, holding up his chopsticks, "You came back from abroad, so you should have an international mindset and get closer to your peers in Silicon Valley. Why is YC, an entrepreneurial incubator, doing so well? One reason is that it is backed by Silicon Valley, and the other is that it is close to Stanford University."

"In these two aspects, our resources in Shanghai are no worse than YC. The best universities, the best technology startup environment and the best financial center are all gathered together. You have to learn to make use of them."

As he spoke, his words had a hint of instruction: "You seemed to be very idealistic in your speech at the Juntai seminar. It is not enough to just do a project to keep up with international standards. In education, we often spend ten years to cultivate trees and a hundred years to educate people... Young man, you can't just talk and give up halfway, you have to persevere..." Xie Jingxing kept a smile on his face and nodded slightly occasionally, but he didn't say a word and just listened to him quietly.

Professor Zhang’s conditions were very straightforward. Xiyou had to set up a seed incubation fund for college students’ entrepreneurship at Fudan University before he could cooperate with the Institute of Finance.

To be fair, the gameplay is quite interesting. Ele.me obtained its first RMB 100,000 in financing from the Jade Buddha Temple University Student Entrepreneurship Fund. However, it is not real venture capital, but rather a funding award for university student entrepreneurship.

If Xiyou were to engage in seed incubation, he would certainly not be as merciful as the monks and would have to seek profits in a practical way. So the question is, Fudan...is it worth the effort to engage in seed incubation?

Money is not a problem. 180 million is enough for college students to play with. The main thing is to act as a nanny and devote energy to providing entrepreneurial guidance to the invested companies. From the perspective of conventional venture capital, even if Peking University and Tsinghua University do not like Xiyou, Xie Jingxing would rather play this game with Jiaotong University.

Before he came here today, he was prepared to be ignored by Fudan University. After all, the social power of a top university is far beyond ordinary people's imagination, but the fact is just the opposite.

Professor Zhang thought too highly of him, so much so that he wanted to use him as a political achievement, so the visit was destined to end with a few polite words exchanged.

“Will you keep in touch with Fudan University?”

On the way back to the company, Song Anli asked while sitting on the passenger's lap with a notebook under her.

Xie Jingxing’s smile disappeared and his face was expressionless: “Let’s do this for now.”

For no reason, he recalled the story of the founder of Sequoia that Jim had told him on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. If the colleges he came into contact with in the future were as good as Fudan University, he would look for a second-tier professional college to cooperate with.

If Lao Ma can organize the Eighteen Arhats of West Lake University's Dharma Academy, why can't Xiao Xie do the same.

"We have to go to the Shanghai branch of Yunhe Logistics, a subsidiary of Yunshan Group, for a meeting this afternoon." Song Anli knew that he was in a bad mood, so she stopped talking and changed the subject.

Xie Jingxing took off his glasses and threw them to her: "I didn't eat enough just now, let's find a place to eat something first."

"Well, I remember there's a pretty good Hunan restaurant nearby."

Song Anli gave her prepared suggestions, and when Professor Zhang took advantage of his seniority and acted as if he was giving a lecture to his students, she was wondering if there were any restaurants nearby.

Xie Jing Xing was stunned for a moment and gave a thumbs up without hesitation: "Excellent, you have adapted to the new job very quickly."

Song Anli pursed her lips, raised her hand to smooth her bangs, and used Gaode Navigation to give Li Yan directions. She had signed the confidentiality agreement last night, so her best friend took a leave of absence this morning and helped her move house for the whole morning.

The high-rise apartment has a dressing room that is larger than her previous bedroom. It is only a ten-minute walk from Grapefruit's office, but she still has a top-of-the-line Porsche Panamera for transportation.

If nothing else, she had no reason to refuse the benefits.

"When you are free, go to a tailor shop to have your measurements taken." When they arrived at the restaurant, Xie Jingxing looked at Song Anli and instructed.

The reason he chose this girl as his assistant was that she was easy to use and required no adjustment, and he trusted her, and she was also pretty.

It doesn't matter whether she has the ability or not, she must be able to show it off. He can't expect a young girl who just graduated from graduate school to be able to do a good assistant job. The existence of some things is just flashy and empty.

Xie Jingxing thought for a moment and said, "I'll enroll you in an MBA program at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in a while. You can get to know the other people there. There are many female entrepreneurs there."

"..."

Song Anli remained silent. She heard from Mr. Tang that there were mistresses, gold diggers, and socialites in the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, but no female entrepreneurs.

"I should buy a few more watches and bags from different brands. It's like buying Patek Philippe and Hermès in bulk. I feel sick of it. It's almost the end of the year so I can do some shopping."

"As for shoes, you probably won't have the chance to wear flat shoes in the future, so it's best to order a few pairs that fit your feet. I heard from them that the Jimmy Choo brand is good, you can try it."

Xie Jingxing's mouth was not idle while eating. He chatted about all sorts of things and played the little assistant as a game of Miracle Nikki according to his own preferences.

You know what, after playing for a while, my mood improved and I even ate two bowls of rice. Song Anli didn't want to talk anymore and got up to pay the bill.

When the two of them walked out of the restaurant after eating and drinking, a middle-aged uncle at the next table sighed repeatedly: "The world is going downhill. Girls nowadays are too naive. How can they only look at the face when looking for a man?"

"What Patek Philippe and Hermès? They made such a smooth promise, but in the end the meal cost 163 yuan and I had to let the girl pay for it. What a boast!" The boss rolled his eyes indignantly while standing at the cashier counter.

How come a good and honest man like him can't meet a blind girl? Of course, she has to be as beautiful as the one that costs 163 yuan?

(End of this chapter)