Chapter 242: Doing It Myself Is Enough
Wei Kai sat in the office, facing several other equally young partners, looking at each other in silence.
After a moment of silence, he said, “That Mr. Wang has already arrived and will be here shortly.”
Another partner asked, “Aren’t we going to the airport to pick him up?”
Wei Kai shook his head: “He said it’s not necessary, no need for superficial formalities. Organize all the company’s data; he said he wants to see that.”
The little partner had a face full of worry: “Our data is so terrible, and he still wants to see it?”
Another little partner doubted, “That Mr. Wang looks too young, feels even younger than us. Is he really reliable?”
Wei Kai: “He gave us one hundred thousand without interest. Do you think that’s reliable?”
The office immediately fell silent.
“Isn’t that Mr. Wang from the Penguin Investment Department? It’s not enough that he thinks highly of us; he needs to convince the higher-ups inside Penguin…”
“Penguin is so big and powerful; would they even look at us?”
Watching the two partners arguing, Wei Kai slapped the table and said, “Everyone calm down. The issue now is whether we can still convince Mr. Wang. In the past two months, we’ve visited quite a few investment institutions, and what kind of looks did they give us? If even Mr. Wang loses confidence in us this time, forget Penguin—we might as well just disband right away, it’d be more straightforward.”
Recalling the experiences of this recent period, Wei Kai truly didn’t dare to hold too much hope. Those angel investors weren’t real angels; they were sharp-tongued without a single dirty word, piercing straight to the point and hard to refute—really ruthless.
“Have you really thought about how to profit? Have you considered the business model?” This was relatively straightforward and still somewhat polite.
“Classmate, did you walk into the wrong door? This is venture capital, not a talent show—what dreams are you talking about?” This was more ruthless.
As for even more humiliating ones, there weren’t any; after all, they were all doing commercial projects, no need to talk like little thugs and make it too absolute. But the contemptuous gazes and cold attitudes—Wei Kai had seen plenty.
By comparison, Wang Heng’s initial kindness and friendliness naturally seemed all the more precious.
————
When Wang Heng arrived downstairs of fof’s office building, Wei Kai was already waiting there.
“Sorry about this, Brother Wang,” Wei Kai said with a cautious smile, bowing slightly, “You came all the way from afar, and I didn’t even pick you up…”
Wang Heng waved: “No need. Let’s get straight to the point. How much money do you have left?”
Wei Kai immediately lowered his head, seemingly embarrassed to say.
Wang Heng: “I can roughly guess; no need to hide it.”
Wei Kai was silent for a moment, then suddenly sighed: “To be honest, I’m afraid you can’t guess. In our account, there’s only about one hundred thousand left exactly.”
This answer slightly surprised Wang Heng. After all, in his impression, before fof truly started doing shared bicycles, it seemed there had been a desperate situation where the account had only a few hundred left.
So he asked: “Isn’t this one hundred thousand enough to keep you going?”
Wei Kai gave a bitter smile: “We could force it to hold on, but at most it would just let us organize two more cycling projects. Last month’s two projects both lost money, and quite a bit at that. If we use up this last one hundred thousand and can’t recover, how do we repay you?”
Wang Heng sized up this young entrepreneur, the pride of the bicycle industry in the first playthrough, and recalled fof’s eventual outcome of a total mess with countless deposits owed—suddenly feeling somewhat emotional. He was actually ready to quit just because he didn’t want to default on that one hundred thousand debt?
Entrepreneurs who haven’t even left the newbie village are truly innocently cute.
“Have you ever thought about…” Wang Heng said carefully, “changing your train of thought.”
Wei Kai: “What train of thought?”
Wang Heng: “The cycling project does have very limited prospects and no good profit model. Organizing it in school is fine, but actually operating a company is too difficult. Think carefully: for most people, what is the real need?”
Wei Kai couldn’t help but frown: “Brother Wang, do you mean for me to re-analyze the market pain point?”
Wang Heng: “Right, analyze it: regarding bicycles, what is everyone’s demand?”
By now, the two had arrived at the office doorway. Wei Kai pondered silently, led Wang Heng into the meeting room, and then closed the door.
Sitting across the table, Wei Kai said: “I get what you mean, Brother Wang. The market pain point is the hard demand for most people. But if that’s the case, we have even less reason to do cycling—this project doesn’t seem hard at all now.”
Wang Heng smiled faintly: “But you can make it hard.”
Wei Kai: “?”
Wang Heng: “Think about it: what is everyone’s hard demand? Can you use bicycles to meet that demand?”
Meeting that meaningful gaze, Wei Kai racked his brains in deep thought and finally had a sudden inspiration.
“I get what you mean! Cycling isn’t a hard demand, but travel is! Everyone needs bicycles, but they get stolen too easily, and it’s not convenient to store one in the dormitory…”
Seeing Wei Kai finally become enlightened, Wang Heng couldn’t help but feel somewhat gratified: “Then remake a business plan and show it to me. If it’s good, I’ll invest.”
Wei Kai couldn’t help asking: “You’ll invest? Wait, no need to seek the Penguin Investment Department’s opinion?”
Wang Heng shook his head: “No need for them; I have money myself.”
————
A day later, Wang Heng came to fof’s office again, sitting in the meeting room facing all the partners—quite an impressive lineup, but including Wei Kai, there were only six in total.
These six sat on one side of the meeting room, while Wang Heng sat alone on the other. The side with more people was clearly more anxious, their expressions and eyes showing careful caution.
Wang Heng finished reading the business plan they had rushed out overnight and pondered for two minutes.
During these two minutes, the six didn’t even dare breathe loudly, just waiting quietly and obediently.
Finally, Wang Heng showed a satisfied smile: “This shared bicycle plan makes sense in terms of profit model. If everything goes smoothly, it can expand quickly in the early stage, and start profiting after occupying first- and second-tier cities in the mid-to-late stage.”
While saying this, he silently added in his mind—unfortunately, profiting requires not too many competitors and no money-burning war. But once capital enters and starts a price war, profiting becomes a pipe dream.
Of course, many things collapse once hot money floods in, turning perfect blueprints to ruins. Even as a reincarnator, Wang Heng couldn’t change much—just help the still-infant fof, get some shares, and sell them for a good price in the future.
“I can put in six hundred thousand first, plus the previous one hundred thousand to you, for 20% shares. Use this money to roll out shared bicycles in various universities in the Imperial Capital. What do you think?”
Taking shares that would later be worth billions at such a low price, Wang Heng still felt a bit uneasy. But as soon as he finished speaking, he saw surprise on the faces of the six across the table.
Wei Kai couldn’t help standing up: “No problem!”
————
Due to some matters affecting energy and creation mentality, I’m a bit off today. Just one chapter tonight; alliance leader extra chapters start tomorrow.
