Ordinary Road 2010

"No problem, you make arrangements."

Lin Yi accepted this opinion graciously. He still trusted Liu Jianni's vision and accumulation over the years, otherwise he would not have invited her over.

In any case, as long as he can get financing, let alone pretending to be mature, it is not impossible to ask him to perform a backflip.

As soon as Lin handed over the financing to Liu Jianni, she quickly produced a lot of detailed information such as detailed process plan, road show itinerary, and list of investors to be met, which was very efficient.

But Lin Yi didn't expect that before they set off for the United States, the person they had been talking about before would commit suicide in person, like a huge black ship crashing into the remote pier of Wanli Travel.

Because Liu Jianni told him: "Uber's Kalanick said he wanted to see you."

Chapter 439 Celebrity Lies

Travis Kalanick, born in Los Angeles, USA in 1977, is well known as the founder and CEO of Uber, a taxi-hailing software.

Some public account articles claim that he can write code at the age of six, which is probably false, because there is no credible news that Kalanick himself has boasted so much.

He did say that when he was a child, because of his high level of mathematics, which was obviously higher than the level of students in the same grade, he was once bullied on campus.

I didn't get beaten either, probably because I was isolated and ridiculed as a nerd, which is a very American campus culture.

Perhaps because of this, there is a certain withdrawn, withdrawn, and paranoid aspect of his personality.

Kalanick's good math performance is due to his father's teaching, and their family used the highest configuration computers at the time.

However, this does not mean that he was born into a wealthy family.

Kalanick's father was a civil engineer and his mother was a newspaper advertising salesman, a middle-class family living in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

There is another evidence about his family background. Kalanick studied at the famous UCLA, which is the University of California, Los Angeles.

This university is well-known in China, because it recruits a large number of international students, and it is indeed very good among public universities in the United States.

Focus on public universities.

In the United States, the real top schools are all private.

Good old Stars and Stripes - the sort of school that upper-class gentlemen don't usually send their kids to.

Because they go to university not to get a diploma to find a job, but more importantly, to make contacts and potential alumni resources in the future.

In the eyes of the old men, it is a waste of life to mix with a bunch of nerds and "beggars from other places" who don't know whether they can stay in the United States after graduation.

When Kalanick was at UCLA, he still worked very hard, preparing to study for two degrees, namely computer science and business, but unfortunately he didn't get either.

Because he dropped out of school.

UCLA's geographical location is unique. Kalanick often hang out in the school's Computer Science Association at that time, and found a group of like-minded buddies.

They came up with an idea and came up with the world's first P2P file download resource search engine, called Scour.

In all the stories about Kalanick, this project is regarded as his first venture. In fact, although he is not a marginal role in this team, he is not a major figure either.

Because Kalanick himself was still an intern at Intel when the project started, he was already the seventh member of the team when he joined.

People put the Scour project on Kalanick's head, of course, because many years later he became the most successful one in the entrepreneurial team.

Although Kalanick is a computer major and can program, his role in the team is not a siege lion, but responsible for financing.

This laid the foundation for his later career.

Kalanick is quite talented in financing. Scour had raised $400 million in financing when it was most promising, but it went bankrupt in the end.

The reason for its failure is usually scribbled as follows: copyright infringement was jointly sued by a group of major Hollywood companies, and the claim amount was an outrageous 2500 billion US dollars.

The implication of these words is that a group of young people with ideals were bullied by Hollywood giants.

However, the actual situation is that Scour started out as a music company, but was copied by another website of the same type. Then it turned into a video, stepped on Hollywood's thunder, and exploded.

It may be contrary to the truth that "successful people are always right", the media often selectively process the facts independently, as if they are afraid that it will damage the "wiseness and martial arts" of successful people.

After failing to start a business and not even getting a degree from UCLA, Kalanick fell into a trough in his life.

Afterwards, the dropout started his second entrepreneurial project, but wasted years. At the worst time, he was the only one left in the company.

However, Kalanick's talent in finding money was not wasted. He sold the project for $2007 million in 1870, and pocketed about $300 million himself, sweeping away years of decline.

Then his luck came.

By 2009, at this time, he had gotten rid of the difficulties in his previous life. While working as a part-time job in the big company that bought him to get a salary, he was working on a side job in the open.

He was a well-known angel investor on Twitter at the time. Specifically, he paid tens of thousands of dollars for some projects.

In addition, he often "points out the maze" to those bottom-level entrepreneurs who are not successful, which is a bit like a copycat version of the godfather.

The origin of Uber also has a little story.

In 2008, when Kalanick and his friends were attending an industry conference in Paris, they encountered difficulties in getting a taxi, so the idea of ​​​​making a car-hailing software was born, and Uber was born.

Unfortunately it is fake.

The truth is that the Uber business model was conceived by Kalanick's friend, who had registered Uber's earliest domain name several months before the meeting.

The friend shared the idea, and then invited friends in the entrepreneurial circle, including Kalanick, to brainstorm and create a company.

But at this time, the shareholders of the company are all participating part-time, which can be regarded as a round of crowdfunding.

It wasn’t until Uber received its first financing that Kalanick felt that the project had a good prospect, so he decided to leave other jobs to join full-time and became Uber’s CEO.

For this reason, his friend, Uber's real father, gave up part of the equity in time to make him the largest shareholder.

Since then, Kalanick has appeared as the soul of Uber, but Uber's plan is not his idea, so how can it work!

So there is the story mentioned above, which can be said to be very routine, and it is the standard configuration of almost every successful company in Silicon Valley.

As trite as it may sound, at least the existence of this story makes Kalanick a coherent presence at the very beginning of the Uber saga.

After that, his life was like a rocket without knowing how many boosters were tied. As Uber became popular in the capital market, his net worth also skyrocketed.

Judging from the current situation, this momentum has no signs of stopping.

Lin Yi knew that now should be the "sweet period" in Kalanick's life, and he has not yet reached his most glorious apex.

After Kalanick became popular, the media, which has always been belatedly aware, began to discover some kind of "inevitability of success" in him.

The Title they came up with was "The Unluckiest Entrepreneur in History", and the vague explanation for the failure in the early years was just because of bad luck.

Liu Jianni reminded Lin Yi not long ago that entrepreneurs also need their own personality. Kalanick’s personality is as follows:

Rebellious, flamboyant, wild and unruly, but also persevering; enjoyment, profligacy, emptiness, and then a melancholy older literary youth.

Summary: schizophrenia.

The nonsensical parts above may just be the self-play of the stupid media, not the rumors spread by Kalanick himself.

But he may not be displeased to see that his reputation is getting louder and louder in rumors, so that he is gradually mythized by people who don't understand it.

The so-called celebrity means that the whole body is covered with layers of camouflage, which are either all kinds of embellished conjectures or elaborately woven lies.

Don't take their stories too seriously.

But Lin Yi knew that what Liu Jianni wanted was to give him such an identity.

Chapter 440 Bastard Kalanick

No matter who this guy is, we still need to see each other.

For Kalanick's uninvited visit this time, Lin Yi paid the utmost attention. He, Jianni Liu and his senior sister came forward to receive this entrepreneurial star who is in the limelight in Silicon Valley.

Kalanick is not tall. When Lin Yi shook hands, he found that he was a bit shorter than himself, and he had nothing to do with being tall and mighty.

And this guy who wasted in the early years is 37 years old this year, and standing with the 20-year-old Lin Yi is completely the visual effect of two generations.

His eyes lit up when he saw Li Moyan. This small gesture made Lin Yisan and the others have a bad first impression of him. Fortunately, that guy didn't do anything rude.

Kalanick apparently still remembered what he was here for. After the two groups got to know each other briefly, he said loudly:

"Lin, you and your partners, these two beautiful ladies, Li and Liu, both look younger than I thought, which really surprises me."

"My team told me that the taxi-hailing software company you founded has just experienced a round of extremely rapid growth and is now No.1 in this country. I should congratulate you."

"I am very pleased to find that the business model pioneered by Uber can be widely spread and developed in this country."

"It's an amazing achievement and I really appreciate what you guys are able to do at this age."

"But I would say that you should have paid attention to Uber's announcement a few months ago."

"We will come with years of operating experience in major cities around the world and an invincible team. The era of you and your competitors playing house on this isolated island is over."

"I'm here today to give you an opportunity to join Uber's global team of rockets that are launching into space."

"Believe me, kids, choosing Uber now is the same as you chose to imitate Uber's entrepreneurial path, and it will be the most correct decision in your life."

Almost every sentence of his begins with "I".

After he praised the young people here, he called them "children" very lightly.

He obviously threw out an acquisition proposal just now, but compared to Wang Huiwen who wanted to acquire Casual Waimai.com, this person's attitude is no longer "superior" enough to describe it.

Although Liu Jianni, who served as the translator, voluntarily modified Kalanick's words out of politeness, Lin Yi still felt the other party's arrogance.

Not to mention that he can understand, even if he has never learned a word of English, just from the other party's tone and body language, he can clearly feel how powerful he is.

What a Kalanick, if he hadn't been sitting face to face, he would have thought that this guy's eyes would grow on his forehead just by listening to the voice.

The three people here have different reactions.

Apart from fulfilling her duties as a translator, Liu Jianni did not show much emotion on her expression, and maintained professional restraint, while the senior sister frowned more and more as she listened.

Lin Yi was not too angry, since this guy made an appointment to meet at this time, he knew what the other party was going to fart.

"Mr. Kalanick, I must emphasize that Wanli Travel was never intended to be part of or be a vassal of any other company, whether it was Uber or anyone else."

Kalanick spread his hands: "Lin, don't be so absolute. As far as I know, your company is very dependent on a giant Chinese search engine company."

“The latest market capitalization of this U.S.-listed company is still several times that of Uber, but you should look at the world with dynamic eyes. It won’t be long before Uber will unstoppably overtake it.”

"In this case, why not listen to our proposal with an open mind?"

Of course he was talking about Bear Factory.

Although Lin Yi knew that Xiongchang would encounter its own bottleneck in the next few years, but the lean camel was bigger than the horse, and even if Xiongchang could not be named with AT, it was not something other companies could casually touch.

I really don't know where the courage to look down on Xiongchang in front of this guy comes from?

Kalanick didn't wait for Lin Yi to answer. He sat on the seat and raised his legs, and continued in a very stretched posture:

"Lin, I am proposing that Uber acquire your company, making you part of Uber's global operating network."

"Out of respect for the local market and the rewards for your hard work, I can allow you to retain part of the equity, but Uber must hold at least 40% of the equity and guarantee to become the largest single shareholder."

"In terms of business, you need to use the Uber brand and carry out in-depth integration, so that your users can conveniently use Uber's services in major countries and major cities around the world. Believe me, this is a great deal for users. Great convenience."

"On the team, I will continue to add several global elites to you to form a new Uber local management team."

"If the market is strong enough in the future, I am willing to reserve the opportunity for you to join Uber's global board of directors."

He actually didn't forget to skillfully draw a cake in the end. I really don't know when to say that he is full of confidence or has some serious illness.

Lin Yi didn't intend to bargain with this guy.

Because this thing can't be called a "plan" at all, and there is no need for any discussion. The purpose of meeting today is mainly to meet this person who will be dealing with for a long time in the future.

Although it was expected, Lin Yi was still surprised by the other party's performance.

He turned his head and asked Liu Jianni: "Has this guy always been so incomprehensible to people?"

The well-informed Liu Jianni also felt that it was outrageous, and she answered the wrong question: "Maybe I was spoiled by my American colleagues, Lin Yi, I guarantee that we will not meet such idiots when we go to the United States."

These two sentences were all in Chinese, but Kalanick also brought his own translation, obviously by now he should know that the other party did not take his "sincerity" seriously.

There was no quarrel between the two parties, and Lin Yi resolutely rejected his proposal:

"Mr. Kalanick, I don't think your proposal for Miles Travel is acceptable or worth exploring."

"Wanli Chuxing may have borrowed part of Uber's experience and business model, but we are two completely different companies, and there is neither the need nor the possibility of merging."

"Finally, I would like to say that if Uber is willing to join the competition of local taxi-hailing software, we are very welcome, and we are willing to work with you to promote the prosperity of the taxi-hailing market and create value for customers."

"Welcome to China!"

Lin Yi's attitude was very calm. Kalanick saw that this decision could not be changed, but before leaving, he said:

"Lin, it's a pity you made such a decision, but I'm not for Uber but for yourself, and you will regret it soon."