It's unclear whether it was fortunate or not, but He Zhengcheng, led by Khosla, met many Silicon Valley founders, such as those from AOL, Netscape, Compaq, and Amazon, and of course, this included the venture capital godfather, John Doerr.
At this time, Netscape had already been acquired by AOL last month, and the company was in turmoil, with people from AOL and Netscape going back and forth, causing some chaos.
Compaq acquired DEC this year. He Zhengcheng listened to the introduction for a long time but still didn't understand what kind of company DEC was. Forget it, it was an old technology company anyway.
It was once glorious, but now it's in decline. Compaq's CEO was named the best CEO in the world this year. Fortunately, due to KPCB, the two had many opportunities to communicate. Of course, He Zhengcheng mainly listened to the other party boast.
Amazon, that's not simple. If he hadn't had the opportunity, or rather, if he hadn't had the money, he would have bought Amazon's stock a long time ago.
At this time, Bezos was still unusually calm, knowing what he wanted to do. Haha, what he wanted to do was definitely not Cloud Computing. In fact, Bezos had no awareness of such a thing as Cloud Computing.
A large amount of capital poured into the internet market. Not to mention venture capital, the amount of money raised through NASDAQ IPOs was around 40 billion US dollars. Where did this money go? Of course, it was used for fireworks. Bah, bah, it was used for investment, educating the market, and attracting traffic and customers.
As soon as Overture began to show its potential, internet companies approached it to discuss traffic exchange.
Among them were even listed companies, which shows the mentality of investors, entrepreneurs, and internet company managers at this stage.
Out of consideration for user experience, He Zhengcheng rejected this suggestion. Of course, even if he agreed, Shi Hongwen's little friends would also object.
Music, what a wonderful thing, how could it be ruined by all those messy advertisements?
He had originally planned to return to Hong Kong, but Khosla's wave of emotional attacks broke down his defenses, leaving him in Silicon Valley to meet elites from various technology companies, big and small.
He had no choice but to entrust a well-known patent law firm in Silicon Valley to handle all matters related to patent applications. After all, international patents were the most important. Patent applications in Daxia Country were handled by a law firm in Hong Kong, which once again made his funds tight. Whether in America or Hong Kong, lawyer fees are really expensive.
Unfortunately, Shanhai Capital did not plan to pay dividends this year, nor did it have any intention of selling eBay stock, so there was no money, only some basic management fees.
In recent months, Shanhai Capital already had quite a few employees in Hong Kong and Daxia. These management fees were just enough to maintain the company's normal operations. All of He Zhengcheng's expenses in America were reimbursed by the company.
Unfortunately, he didn't keep the saved salary; he used it to regularly invest in Lenovo's stock, earning some pocket money. He didn't know why, but even with Shanhai Capital's participation, Lenovo's stock price still hadn't exceeded 3 hong kong dollars.
Only his income as an eBay consultant in America was considerable, surprisingly not less than his regular salary, amounting to about 15,000 US dollars a month after tax. The income from these four months seemed just enough to cover his personal legal fees.
As Christmas approached, Miss Lin Zhiling decided to come to Silicon Valley to vacation with him. He Zhengcheng had to take stock of his income and unexpectedly discovered a simple truth: he was a miser.
In recent months, despite the explosive growth of his wealth, his personal quality of life had not improved. Uh, that's not entirely true; at least the hotel-style apartment he lived in was more comfortable than his home.
"You're finally here!" He Zhengcheng saw Lin Zhiling getting off the plane and enthusiastically went to greet her.
"Am I delaying your time?" Lin Zhiling
"No, all my time today is for you." He Zhengcheng
"Is that so?" Lin Zhiling
"Of course, several friends from Google and Overture are waiting for us to gather. If you don't want to go, we won't go." He Zhengcheng
"Hmph, I knew you weren't being honest." Lin Zhiling
"How can you say that? I've been working like a dog these past few months, and I only have time to think about you." He Zhengcheng
"Who knows!" Lin Zhiling said as she followed He Zhengcheng into a taxi.
"You still haven't gotten your driver's license?" Lin Zhiling
"If I had that time, I'd rather fly to Canada to see you." He Zhengcheng
"You just know how to sweet-talk me!" Lin Zhiling
"Really, I've developed a habit now where I have to think about problems even with my eyes closed, afraid of being cheated by others. I also have to babysit several highly educated individuals, which is very annoying. You know, I still need someone to take care of me." He Zhengcheng
"How are those two companies doing?" Lin Zhiling
"One of them is probably getting closer and closer to bankruptcy!" He Zhengcheng said, referring to Overture. The company's Music Player was very popular and widely recommended for download on several major forums in America. The number of users was actually approaching 5 million.
This growth rate, even in the internet ten years later, would be a very good achievement. Perhaps only Tencent's software has such a powerful promotional capability.
"Music Player?" Lin Zhiling
"Of course, music companies are already threatening to sue." He Zhengcheng
"Alas, they are so pitiful." Lin Zhiling
"I'm the one who's pitiful. They're almost running out of money. I don't know whether to continue investing or just let them go bankrupt." He Zhengcheng
These days, with the rapid growth of Music Player, he had contacted Khosla and Yang Zhiyuan. Although formal financing negotiations had not yet begun, they had already expressed their willingness.
"So what are your thoughts? Are they really beyond saving?" Lin Zhiling
"In the short term, the problem isn't big. You should know that Overture itself isn't breaking the law; it's the people who use the software to download pirated music who are." He Zhengcheng
...As the two chatted, they arrived in Silicon Valley. There was no choice; even though it was Christmas, the company couldn't do without people, so these founders weren't resting.
"Hello, I'm Brin. It's a pleasure to meet you." Brin
"Hello, I'm Zhi Ling. It's a pleasure to meet you too." Lin Zhiling
"Hello, I'm Shi Hongwen." Shi Hongwen
"Hello..." Lin Zhiling
Everyone came forward to introduce themselves, and Lin Zhiling handled it gracefully and appropriately. Of course, even if she hadn't done well, no one would have cared. These people hadn't been corrupted by society yet and weren't so particular.
The cooperation between Overture and Google was very smooth, promoting the development of both sides. The only problem was the high capital consumption. Overture was fine, mainly due to server and bandwidth resources, and the number of employees hired was not large. Google was different; it already had twenty to thirty employees, and its server bandwidth demands were not much smaller than Overture's.
In fact, Google was about to launch advertising services. Profitability was secondary; the important thing was to demonstrate its business model to investors and strive for better terms in financing negotiations.
Overture's problem was more troublesome, and resolving copyright issues was also more complex. He lacked confidence.
"What are you thinking about? Come help!" Lin Zhiling quickly integrated into the group.
"Okay, I'm coming..." He Zhengcheng moved closer!