Chapter 45

Chapter 45

The original capital of OTK Company was 672 billion won. Of this, 70 billion won was invested to establish a subsidiary K Company in Korea, and the remaining capital was 602 billion won.

Even when I first started investing in startups, I was worried about whether I would be able to invest all this money.

But that was just a fluke.

Each time an investment contract was signed, the account balance decreased rapidly. Money is hard to earn, but easy to spend.

Investing billions of dollars at a time made my sense of money dull. If you call five million dollars over there, you say, ‘Isn’t that too little? To the point of thinking, ‘I need $10 million to do business properly.

When did I get this big?

At the time of the meeting, the investment was a known fact.

Nevertheless, the reason for having a meeting is not to decide whether to invest or not, but to meet in person to discuss and coordinate details.

The two most important parts of this detail are:

The first is equity, and the second is management.

No matter how good the word finance is, the essence of it is to make money with money. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that this floor is a gathering place for scammers.

There are those who set up a plausible company and attract investors to steal only the investment money, and there are those who approach the company pretending to invest and steal only the technology and patents, or take the company entirely.

Therefore, the most worrying part of startup founders receiving investment is management rights.

Even if you don’t want to leave the CEO position, if an investor with a stake starts to interfere, it will inevitably hurt your business.

Almost all the founders I’ve met had an entrepreneurial mindset rather than an entrepreneur. They wanted to make their products or services successful in the market, not just making a lot of money.

Therefore, it was their wish to receive investment but not to be involved in management.

I was happy to give them the answers they wanted.

“We will invest, but we will not interfere with management.”

After conceding management rights, it was decided how much stake to secure, and other details were decided in a snap.

We signed an investment contract with each other, and those who found investors from distant Korean lands returned to their home countries with joy.

* * *

The founders I met this time were young Asians and black women.

Peter Kazuyo, an Englishman of Japanese descent, and Janelle Jackson, an Englishman of Jamaican descent. Peter is originally an architect, and Janelle is a computer engineer.

“ArcIt is a company that aims to design architecture with artificial intelligence.”

The following explanation was as follows.

Architecture is an art and an engineering. Architecture is a work of art that composes a city and a space where people live.

Therefore, architecture is the domain of professionally trained architects. However, he is planning to throw a challenge by incorporating IT technology here.

Janelle displayed designs and drawings designed by Ark (artificial intelligence who designs architecture) on a projector.

“Currently, we are designing a simple one- or two-story building. But Arc continues to evolve with machine learning.”

Taek-gyu asked me as if curious.

“What is Machine Learning?”

“It’s literally machine learning.”

“Can artificial intelligence learn?”

Artificial intelligence is a machine that replaces human thinking.

It sounds like a grandiose thing to say, but the computer is a prime example of that.

Computers have completely replaced human computing power. However, although the computer can do the most difficult calculations, it cannot tell the difference between a dog and a cat.

Because there is no algorithm that can classify it.

What is the difference between a dog and a cat? Dogs look like dogs and cats look like cats?

However, the appearance of dogs is very different, and the appearance of cats is also very different. How do you know which of these animals is a dog and which one is a cat?

It is very easy for humans. Even if you put a cat-like dog and a dog-like cat in front of you, you can quickly tell them apart.

It is the result of learning experienced in life. We have seen thousands of dogs and thousands of cats, either in person or through various media. A rule was created in the head through the accumulated information, and according to the rule, it automatically distinguishes between a dog and a cat.

Then, just like humans, can machines learn? If tens of thousands of dog pictures are recognized in advance, wouldn’t it be possible to form a rule that can determine whether or not a picture of an animal is shown when it is shown?

“It is still in the early stages, but we plan to continue to recognize the blueprints and designs to Ark and make it possible to design increasingly complex buildings in the future.”

The introduction of machines to production sites was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. After that, machines continued to develop through the 2nd and 3rd industrial revolutions.

However, it remained only to replace human simple labor, and creative and active work was the domain of human beings to the last.

“That’s a thing of the past now.”

Now, artificial intelligence is going beyond the design field. Is this the industry trend?

Taek-gyu asked Hyun-joo’s sister.

“How do you feel about your sister?”

“It’s good enough. Good items, good vision,”

I have met several companies (typically Faceit) that are planning unheard-of projects, so it sounds very reasonable to say that they are designing buildings with artificial intelligence.

I thought through the plan.

Korea’s construction capacity is the best in the world. World-famous landmarks such as Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands were also built by Korean companies.

However, there is still a long way to go in terms of design.

Even for the recently completed high-rise building, Rete Tower, the construction was done by Reite Construction, but the design and supervision were all handled by American, Japanese, and German companies.

The reason is that there was no company in Korea with such design capability.

I asked Peter.

“Is it possible to design skyscrapers with artificial intelligence?”

Peter answered boldly.

“of course. The advancement of technology is endless.”

I nodded my head and said to Hyunjoo noona.

“Invest.”

Hyunjoo’s older sister told the two of them.

“We will invest in ArcIt.”

* * *

The next meeting is at 7pm.

Hyunjoo noona went out of the hotel for a while to smoke.

Ellie asked me.

“I’m going to squash, would you like to come with me?”

I quickly shook my head.

“Oh, no. I had a sore throat because I didn’t sleep well yesterday.”

Then Ellie looked worried.

“It’s okay?”

“Yes. I think I should just rest for a while.”

In fact, her body is fine.

Still, she said this because she followed her once a few days ago and almost vomited in half an hour.

At the hotel squash court, you will feel the limits of your physical strength that you never felt even when you were in the military.

“Then let’s go together next time.”

“······Yes.”

Squash doesn’t seem right for me.

Ellie went to exercise, and she was left with only me and Taek-gyu.

It must be frustrating because he can’t understand English, but he attended the meeting without exception. He wanted to know whose pockets his money was going into.

This guy, surprisingly, has a strong sense of responsibility.

“But is it really possible to make a lot of money by doing this?”

I asked a question instead of an answer.

“Do you know Song Masayoshi?”

“Who is that?”

“I am a Korean-Japanese, and the chairman of the Japanese softbox.”

Taehyung nodded his head.

“Ah! That bald-headed man?”

“answer.”

Masayoshi Song is a master of investment and business. He has great management skills, but his vision for the future goes beyond that.

“I have a famous anecdote about that man. Don’t you know?”

“Chinese online shopping mall?”

Alijiny is currently the best IT company in China. However, like most companies, in the beginning, it was just a company with nothing to see.

At that time, the Chinese e-commerce market was dominated by American Abei, and small businesses were swarming. Alizini was just one of them.

Ma Won, the founder of Alijini, immediately rushed to ask for a meeting when Masiyoshi Song, the chairman of Softbox, visited Beijing on business.

The two ate and talked for about two hours.

“Song Masayoshi invested 20 million dollars on the spot.”

Everyone was skeptical of the investment. Alizini’s competition against Abe was like hitting a rock with an egg.

Even Masiyoshi Song faced harsh criticism from the Softbox board.

Nevertheless, he did not give up his will.

What was the result?

Twenty years later, Aligeny has grown into a global company, dominating the Chinese e-commerce market. On the other hand, Abe could not handle the deficit and withdrew from the Chinese market.

After that, Alijiny was listed on the New York Exchange (NYSE). Its current market cap is $330 billion, or about 360 trillion Korean won.

Taehyung widened his eyes.

“It’s bigger than Seosung Electronics.”

“This is a continental scale.”(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

Alijiny dominates the Chinese e-commerce market. Currently, it ranks first among Chinese IT companies and ranks in the top 10 in the world market capitalization ranking.

Considering that China’s Internet users make up about half of the population, the future growth potential is limitless.

“The important thing is that Softbox invested $20 million and got a 30 percent stake in Alijini. In terms of return, 500,000 percent.”

Taek-gyu opened his mouth wide in surprise.

“Wow! It’s amazing.”

“right.”

It is a jackpot beyond imagination and a myth of startup investment.

Well, anyway, it’s a consequential thing. If Alijini had been wiped out by Abei, they wouldn’t have saved a single penny.

Let’s think soberly.

Out of thousands of startups, only one in 10 will survive five years later. And among them, only one in ten companies will grow tens of times.

In short, the probability of success is less than 1%.

But these companies are what I found with my foresight. If the hologram you see in front of you is correct, it will all be within that 1%.

Masayoshi Song earned 110 trillion won with 22 billion won. How much can we really make with 670 billion?