Chapter 214 Are you there, brother? Help me cut a knife
. I have to say that Li Qin is a very easy girl to please.
When I first met Meng Bai, I was full of resentment, and when he left, I was reluctant to leave.
After dinner and farewell, Meng Bai did not rush to the airport, but came to Jinhongqiao first.
He also has an investment project of 30 million here. It is a rare visit, just to see how Huang Zheng is doing.
"Mr. Meng, have some tea."
In the office, Huang Zheng poured a cup of tea in front of Meng Bai, and his attitude was very enthusiastic.
After all, which company boss would not like an investor who only invests money and never interferes with operations.
"Just now I saw outside that the scale and staff have expanded a lot." Meng Bai took a sip of tea, "and everyone seems to be very busy."
"It's not busy anymore. The order volume of fruits in winter is a little smaller. If you came a few months earlier, I might not even have time to say hello."
Huang Zheng smiled bitterly, and seeing Meng Bai's curiosity, he explained to him.
Since Meng Bai and his angel round of financing arrived, Pinhaohuo has also begun market development.
Just in time for the ripening of lychees in June and July, Pinhaohuo, which mainly deals in fresh fruits, wanted to take advantage of this wave of popularity and make a big move.
At the beginning, Huang Zheng was full of confidence, thinking that there would be at least 80,000 to 100,000 orders a day.
But the actual transaction volume was somewhat different from what was expected, but it was not less, but more.
And it was very large, with the daily order volume directly reaching 200,000 orders, far exceeding their inventory and delivery speed.
So the entire company had to start purchasing, packing, and subpackaging for delivery day and night.
But even so, many customers who placed orders still had to wait three or four days to receive them.
Fruits are different from other commodities. They are eaten fresh, and if they are delayed for a long time, they may go bad.
So the warehouse kept shipping, and the platform on the other side had to deal with various complaints and refunds.
In short, everyone from top to bottom was busy and exhausted.
"At that time, even I went to the warehouse to help pack the boxes."
Huang Zheng sighed with an expression of "I've worked so hard", but the boastful tone from the inside out could not be suppressed at all.
In fact, it is normal. After all, in front of investors, you always have to brag about your achievements.
"How is it now?" Meng Bai asked in cooperation.
Huang Zheng said: "It's fine now. We have built 20 new warehouses in several major cities across the country and added eight logistics and transportation channels, which can fully guarantee sufficient inventory and logistics speed."
"In addition, we also found that self-operated e-commerce does have a lot of basic needs. So we launched a new comprehensive e-commerce platform, using the name you suggested before, called Pinduoduo."
Huang Zheng handed his mobile phone screen to Meng Bai to take a look.
Pinduoduo has an independent APP, which is also connected to WeChat to facilitate users to share group purchases. In addition, a special function called "cut a knife" has been added.
"It's very simple. I bought something and sent the discount link to my WeChat friends. As long as they click in, they can give me a certain price reduction." Huang Zheng said that this function allows users to get discounts and the platform to be promoted, which can be said to be a win-win situation.
Meng Bai thought about it and thought it was indeed a good innovation. The only problem may be that the people who are shared with the link will be disturbed.
However, whether to disturb or not is something that users have to consider for themselves, and has nothing to do with capital like these.
"Are there any problems now?" Meng Bai asked.
"There are many problems." Huang Zheng said, "The main problem is the lack of money."
Building warehouses, expanding the staff, and incubating new platforms, the more than 10 million US dollars in the angel round have basically been burned.
"It's a good thing that you are here, Mr. Meng, I plan to start recruiting new A round financing." Huang Zheng said.
"Are there any VCs willing to lead the investment?"
"Gao Rong Capital is quite interested and intends to invest 10 million US dollars."
Pinduoduo has developed rapidly in the past six months, with monthly transaction volume exceeding 10 million and the number of paying users exceeding 20 million.
Although it is still far behind its predecessors such as Taobao and JD.com, its growth rate is far ahead of others in the start-up e-commerce platform.
Huang Zheng had contacted Gaorong Capital before, but the other party was hesitant at that time. Now that he has seen the potential of Pinduoduo, he finally plans to join.
"What about Tencent? Have you talked to them?"
"I have talked to them, and they are also very interested, but they are still a little hesitant." Huang Zheng spread his hands, "My funds are almost burned out, and I can't wait for them to consider, so I can only raise A round first."
Venture capital is a job that gets lower and lower in the future.
This is the advantage of large companies like Tencent. They are not afraid of high costs, they just need stability, so they can wait until the B round or even the C round to get on board.
Unlike "new players" like Qiming Venture Partners, they can only rely on the high-risk angel round to enter the market.
Of course, if you can bet on the right target, the rewards will also be amazing.
"Are you interested in investing more?" Huang Zheng asked in a tempting tone.
Unfortunately, Qiming Venture Partners has already invested all its funds in Pinduoduo, and Meng Bai has no plans to continue investing, so he can only miss the A round of financing.
Anyway, the financing amount is only 10 million US dollars, and the shares will not be diluted much.
After chatting with Huang Zheng about the financing situation and looking at the financial statements, Meng Bai declined the other party's dinner invitation and returned to Beijing North.
The next day, time entered December.
The casting work of the "Jingjue Ancient City" project was officially launched.
If we talk about the core of "Ghost Blowing Light", it is naturally the "Gold-touching Trio". And Hu Bayi, as the first male protagonist, is the core of the core.
According to the setting of the original work, Hu Bayi was born on the Army Day of August 1, 1950. The timeline of "Jingjue Ancient City" starts from 1982, so he was about 32 or 33 years old when he appeared.
At this age, it is destined that the "Ghost Blowing Light" project cannot use young traffic actors like "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", and can only be found from the middle-aged male actors.
"In fact, if this project could have been done ten or eight years earlier, there would be no need to look for a male lead candidate, as there would be a ready-made one."
In the office, Meng Bai and Li Muge, who had just returned from location selection, said.
"Ready-made? Who?"
"Liu Huohua. Tianxia Bachang said that the prototype of Hu Bayi was Zhong Yuemin in "Blood Romance."
Li Muge thought about it and realized that Hu Bayi and Zhong Yuemin were similar in terms of growth experience and personality traits.
In fact, Meng Bai had actually asked Liu Huohua before - when they were filming "All Quiet in Peking", the two had met once.
Unfortunately, he is now in the film industry.
Even if he is filming a TV series, it has to be a serious drama like "All Quiet in Peking".
"Ghost Blowing the Light", a fantasy-themed web series, obviously cannot hire him.
Of course, if he is willing to spend 30 or 50 million yuan on the film, he can definitely come, but that's not necessary.
"In fact, I think Jiang Wen is also quite suitable." Li Muge said on the side.
Explain to me what the hell is tomb robbing!
It sounds pretty exciting.
"..." Meng Bai glanced at him, "Old Li, there are many ways to resign, no need to be so euphemistic."
Li Muge was stunned for a moment, then reacted.
Yes, Jiang Wen is also a director now, and a big director at that. If he really comes, why use me?
"Well, just pretend I didn't say anything."
(End of this chapter)
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