Chapter 371: Capturing the $3.2 Billion WebEx Project Gives Impetus to Continue Writing

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan met Zhu Min, chairman of Cybernaut Investment Group, when he went to Hangzhou to attend an entrepreneurship forum in the fall of 2018. After being introduced by an elder brother, he met this well-known investment tycoon and fellow from Mingzhou and added WeChat. Then Chairman Zhu Min pulled him into a WeChat group called "Cybernaut Crowdfunding F".

In the group, Dr. Wang Yang, former vice president of IBM Global and general manager of China Development Center, and then president of Cybernaut Investment Group, and a group of senior executives of Cybernaut Group were all in the group...

Born in 1948, Zhu Min was already 70 years old at the time, but he was still holding an IPAD and playing WeChat groups happily.

The suffix "F" of the crowdfunding group added by Li Xiaofan indicates that it is the sixth group established by Chairman Zhu Min. There are already five groups before, and each group has a maximum of 500 people.

At that time, Cybernaut Group claimed to create 100 Cybernaut "Internet +" crowdfunding buildings in key cities in China to form a Cybernaut innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Introducing advanced operational experience from Silicon Valley and Europe, relying mainly on first-tier cities in China, creating a crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and crowd-wisdom maker space, focusing on cultivating innovative talents, and achieving a successful transformation from a nursery to a pillar...

Although Li Xiaofan failed to come up with a project for Cybernaut to invest in in his previous life, he learned a lot of messy knowledge in this group.

This knowledge seemed useless in his previous life, but it is a treasure now.

"Mr. Li, please be polite. Although you are younger than me, you are more famous than me now! If you are on Wall Street, who doesn't know you when you mention Yahoo's angel investor!" Zhu Min said politely.

Zhu Min in front of him is 48 years old, in his prime, and still has a thick head of black hair.

Looking at Zhu Min, Li Xiaofan suddenly remembered that when he first met and chatted with Dr. Mao Siming, Dr. Mao Siming said that he had met Zhu Min and talked to him at a gathering of Chinese engineers in the Bay Area. Zhu Min said at the time that he seemed to be working on a multi-point data collaborative processing software project called FutureLabs...

"Mr. Zhu, do you know Dr. Mao Siming?" Li Xiaofan asked.

"Yes, I know him. Dr. Mao from Seagate is a technical expert! We have met several times at SCEA Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association events and have discussed some cutting-edge technical issues..."

When Li Xiaofan heard the words "SCEA Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association", he couldn't help but feel excited. Wow, I found the organization!

The Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association mentioned by Zhu Min is called Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association in English, abbreviated as SCEA. It was founded in 1989 by engineers from mainland China in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is the largest, most prestigious and most influential professional organization of Chinese engineers in Silicon Valley and the United States. At that time, it had more than 2,000 members.

I will come to the Bay Area to start a startup incubator in the future. This SCEA Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association is a treasure trove!

At present, most of the members of the SCEA Association work in well-known institutions and high-tech companies in the United States. Almost all of them are elites who studied in the United States. They are an inexhaustible talent think tank.

Because every year, a large number of outstanding mainland students come to the United States, and every year a large number of students stay in major institutions and companies in the United States after graduation...

At this time, Li Xiaofan suddenly slapped his thigh, and there is another resource library that can be used in the future.

That is the alumni association of well-known domestic universities in the United States! Like Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, etc., especially the Tsinghua American Alumni Association.

Last time, I heard from Dr. Mao that Tsinghua alumni in Silicon Valley also established an alumni organization called Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network in 1994. There are nearly 1,000 registered members and it has obtained the qualification of a US 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization.

In addition, there is the Tsinghua Alumni Association of Boston, which was established in 1976, the Tsinghua Alumni Association of Greater New York, which was established in 1979, and the Tsinghua Alumni Association of Northern California, which was established in 1982... These are all potential projects and talent pools for their own incubators in the future!

Thinking of this, Li Xiaofan suggested that he should send Gu Qijun, who graduated from Tsinghua University, to Silicon Valley to work for a period of time, so as to play the alumni relationship card...

"Mr. Li, are you familiar with Dr. Mao?" Zhu Min asked when Li Xiaofan was lost in thought.

Li Xiaofan came back to his senses and said, "Yes, Dr. Mao is my partner at present. He has left Seagate. Now we are working together on a magnetic sensor chip project in Singapore Science Park."

Zhu Min was surprised after hearing this: "Ah, Dr. Mao has left Seagate to start a business with you? No wonder he has not been seen in recent activities for a long time."

Li Xiaofan smiled and asked, "Mr. Zhu, what entrepreneurial project are you working on now? Maybe we can also cooperate..."

Speaking of the project at hand, Zhu Min took a sip of the iced Coke in his hand and smacked his lips:

"Don't mention it. Five years ago, I founded a company called Futurelabs with several partners to develop a multi-point data collaborative processing software project. When the product was first launched, it was a little popular for a while, and many investors came to us. Previously, our biggest competitor for this project was IBM, but later even Intel, a giant company, announced plans to invest $100 million to develop similar products, making our Futurelabs project difficult!" Zhu Min smiled bitterly and said, "A while ago, we sold this Futurelabs project to Quarterdeck Systems for $12 million. According to the acquisition agreement, I have to work at Quarterdeck Systems for a year. Now I have to work at this company half of the time, working for the new boss..." In his previous life, Li Xiaofan only knew that Zhu Min was working at 1bEx, a US WebEx company. Later, WebEx was successfully listed on NASDAQ in 2000, with a market value of more than 1 billion US dollars. Later in 2007, WebEx was acquired by Cisco for a whopping $3.2 billion.

This WebEx project in his previous life brought Zhu Min fame and fortune, and his personal wealth soared. After cashing out a huge fortune from this project, he returned to China and founded Cybernaut (China) Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd., focusing on venture capital...

"Haha, it's not bad to sell it for $12 million, at least I didn't lose all my money..." Li Xiaofan smiled and comforted.

"Yeah, I think so too, at least none of us partners lost money. Anyway, I'm working at Quarterdeck now, and no one cares about me. I just need to help the new boss with some technology."

"Then, Mr. Zhu, have you considered developing another new project?" Li Xiaofan asked.

"That's true. I'm now free and developing a video software with interactive functions based on the Internet client. Simply put, it's a software that uses the Internet to hold online video conferences..."

Oh my god!

Li Xiaofan was overjoyed after hearing this: Isn’t this the famous WebEx online communication project?