Chapter 121 The King of Venture Capital and I Miss You...

In his previous life, when Li Xiaofan was studying for an MBA in Shanghai, the first CASE STUDY case study taught by the investment professor was the legendary story of Sequoia Capital's investment in Yahoo. In 1995, Sequoia Capital invested $2 million in Yahoo, and later this investment magically turned into a market value of $4 billion after Yahoo went public.

The success of Sequoia Capital's investment in Yahoo at that time opened the door to Silicon Valley's capital's enthusiasm for the Internet, and it was out of control!

This case impressed Li Xiaofan very much, and he studied it more than dozens of times.

Later, in 2010, Michael Moritz, a senior partner of Sequoia Capital who led the Yahoo investment, visited mainland China and shared some of his investment stories and experiences with some entrepreneurs and fans in mainland China in the International Conference Hall of Tsinghua Weilun Building.

Michael Moritz, known as the "Godfather of Silicon Valley Venture Capital" and the "King of Silicon Valley Venture Capital", has successfully discovered and invested in a number of Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo and PayPal.

Li Xiaofan was sitting in the audience at the time, and Michael Moritz's wonderful speech made him excited.

Michael Moritz introduced himself as a former journalist, and in 1986 he finally stepped into the door of Sequoia. Since his previous reporting direction as a journalist was in the field of science and technology, Moritz's investment was also in this direction, and he focused on projects related to technological innovation. His first successful investment was Flextronics in Singapore, the first EMS manufacturer in the United States to go abroad and set up factories overseas. Flextronics later entered the ranks of the Fortune 500. Flextronics Group can be regarded as Li Xiaofan's old employer...

After completing his MBA, Li Xiaofan and a group of classmates felt that they had become well-educated, well-versed in ancient and modern times, well-versed in Chinese and Western learning, and well-educated. He took out his savings over the years and set up a small-scale investment fund with several classmates in the class, and let a classmate who was engaged in investment be responsible for the operation and investment in the primary and secondary markets. At the beginning, the fund made a small profit. Just when everyone was discussing how to distribute the dividends, in the stock market crash in the summer of July 2015, all their investments were wiped out...

The past life has been turned over, and I will be reborn to reshape the glory!

In Li Xiaofan's memory, in March 1995, Yang Zhiyuan and another partner David Filo registered and established Yahoo! in California.

Then in April 1995, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital went against all odds and invested 2 million US dollars in the first round of venture capital in Yahoo.

Li Xiaofan was thinking: It's only early March now, and the Singapore dollar deposit in the Singapore Savings Bank is about 400,000 US dollars when converted into US dollars. If I can go to Stanford University in Silicon Valley to find Yang Zhiyuan and convince him and David Filo to invest in Yahoo together with Sequoia Capital, it will be perfect! Even if I could invest a small amount of 100,000 US dollars, it would be enough...

However, I think about the fact that I am still working in a factory and cannot go to the United States all of a sudden. Even the visa is a problem. Also, even if I find Yang Zhiyuan, will he pay attention to me? What resources do I have to give him? Will Sequoia Capital agree to a small, unknown company like you to invest in Yahoo together? Will they have an exclusive investment agreement? I remember that there were also giants like AOL that wanted to invest in Yahoo...

Just when Li Xiaofan was thinking about it, bus No. 2 had arrived at Tampines Station.

After getting off the bus, Li Xiaofan withdrew his thoughts that drifted to Silicon Valley and went to a roadside grocery store to buy five 10-Singapore dollar phone cards.

That era was an era when cross-border phone charges were extremely expensive. If you use a 10-Singapore dollar phone card to call back to mainland China, you can basically talk for less than five minutes.

If you use a mobile phone to call back to China, it is even more expensive. Unless you have no choice, Li Xiaofan will use a mobile phone to make overseas calls.

When the overseas call came to Wu Xiuli's home, Wu Xiuli was still sleeping in.

"Who is it? Why are you waking me up so early?" Wu Xiuli answered the phone with sleepy eyes. It was not easy for her to sleep in on the weekend, but she was woken up by the noise. She was very unhappy.

"Hello, it's me, Li Xiaofan, an international call from Singapore!"

"Xiaofan! What's the emergency?" Wu Xiuli half woke up when she heard Li Xiaofan.

"Xiu Li, I have good news for you. Yesterday I met two merchants from Dubai in the Middle East and signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding for the purchase of daily-use plastic products with them. To make a long story short, you will help me find the best daily-use plastic product manufacturer in the county right now, preferably one with export experience, one that has used No. 5 PP polypropylene plastic particles to produce microwave-use plastic products, and preferably one whose products have been tested and certified by the FDA!"

"There are many manufacturers of daily-use plastic products in our county, but there seems to be no one that directly exports... Hey, I think there seems to be one, but they seem to supply to foreign trade companies in Mingzhou City, and the data is not counted in our county..."

"Oh, so long-winded, who cares who the data is counted! If there is no such company in the county, please help me find it all over the body! This time my order can be placed with the foreign trade company in your county, and it would be better if this manufacturer has the right to import and export on its own!"

"Okay, Afan, I know. Don't worry, international long-distance calls are expensive, you get to the point!"

"So, tomorrow I will send you some daily plastic product samples via DHL, the most important of which is a set of seven-piece lunch boxes that can be heated in a microwave oven. Remember that because it is a food contact material FCM, it is best to find a company that has FDA testing and certification and has export experience!"

"Then what?"

"I will indicate the various material requirements and parameters of various plastic products in the express package. After you find the manufacturer, ask them to make molds and trial samples! I will wire a deposit for making molds. Xiuli, I have a hunch that this order may be very large in the future! Because the goods are directly supplied to large supermarket chains in the United States, once our business is established, future orders will definitely be very stable, and I estimate that the orders will be very large!"

"Really? Great!"

"So you must convince the manufacturer that this may be a huge business opportunity! Ask them to make the mold carefully and carefully, and choose the best imported PP plastic particles. , the samples we make should be the same as the samples from the Taiwan factory I sent back, or the quality of our products should be better than the samples produced in Taiwan! We should strive to make a big hit! "

"Afan, I understand! Don't worry, I will do my best! This is a good thing both in private and in public!"

"Well, if you are too busy, I will call Ayong and ask him to run errands for you!"

"Afan, don't worry, we will make this happen! If there is a big order from the United States, our manufacturers should not be too enthusiastic!"

"Okay, then I'll leave it to you! I'll come to thank you in person next time I return to China!"

"Why are you being polite? We are old classmates!"

When Li Xiaofan came to the class of Tampines ITE Institute of Technical Education, after the class started, he had no intention of listening to the class at all. His thoughts flew to Silicon Valley in the United States again: Yang Zhiyuan and another partner David Filo, those two guys, I don't know if they have registered Yahoo now...

When he was thinking about it, he received a text message on his mobile phone, sent by Tang Xinyi: Dear, are you in class? I miss you!