Vol 4 Chapter 5: It's so effortless

ps: I'm very sorry, I thought it was posted this morning, but I just found out that it was in the draft box.

I have to say that sometimes, God is Chi Guoguo's preference. This is the conclusion that Feng Yiping came to after reading the information of two people for two days.

Niklas Zenstrom, born in 66, graduated from Sweden’s top Uppsala University. This is a university established in my country during the Ming Dynasty. It is now one of the top 100 universities in the world. The ranking is even better than the best universities in our country.

In his last year of university, he also went to the University of Michigan as an exchange student, and later graduated with a double degree in business management and engineering physics.

The first job was Tele2 in Sweden, a start-up telecommunications company with only 23 employees at the time. Now it has developed into a pan-European telecommunications giant with offices in dozens of countries around the world.

However, Nicholas graduated from the Department of Computer Science. After reaching a senior level, he was quite disapproved of some of the company’s strategies at the time. For example, at that time, the telecommunications company wanted to develop a fee-based e-mail system. Russ has always believed that the core theme of the Internet should be free sharing. Later, he and the company were probably a little disgusted with each other and eventually parted ways.

After leaving tele2, he has been working in the Internet industry and has held positions such as the ceo of the portal. In 1999, he saw the rapid development of an online music service provider in the United States, Napster, which is based on p2p technology, allowing people to share and download freely. He was greatly inspired by the music website, and felt that this was what he should do.

He quickly gathered a group of buddies and officially launched his own free music sharing and downloading software, kazaa, in 2000. As a result, he succeeded again and was still quite successful. The download volume quickly exceeded 10 million, over 100 million.

However, the good times did not last long. He was very satisfied, and the users were also very satisfied. However, those who own the music copyrights were very dissatisfied. Finally, under the joint siege of the recording industry associations of various countries, he had to close kazaa.

However, the software he launched at that time has been downloaded more than 370 million times, which is one of the most downloaded software at that time.

It seems that after this guy, he was determined to go down the p2p road. He immediately thought of his telecommunications industry for many years, and then at the beginning of this year, he founded skype. According to Mike’s data, this The software should have entered the late stage of testing and will be launched soon.

Niklas’s trip was to negotiate with another well-known venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, DFJ.

Anyone who knows a little about the Internet will know that this is a very profitable venture capital company in my country’s Internet field. It led all three rounds of investment in Du Niang, and in the end it has been Du Niang’s single major shareholder, with a return on investment. Extremely high.

Its global venture capital fund invests in early-stage entrepreneurial projects in Europe and Asia. It is believed that Nicholas has successfully received the investment.

Prior to this, because of the success of kazaa, he had already received investment from a number of well-known venture capital, including Baishang Investment, etc., and the estimated financing amount was nearly 20 million US dollars.

All in all, in short, this is also a great man. Feng Yiping was a bit impressed. His Skype seemed to have been sold at a high price. Therefore, this is a guy much luckier than Martin.

So, what is this kind of guy who insists on seeing himself at the critical moment when his new product is about to be launched?

Although he thinks he might be looking for cooperation or investment with himself, to be honest, Feng Yiping, who is not young enough, is not convinced that such a good thing may come by himself.

In short, it will be clear in a few hours.

…………

At 2:30 in the afternoon, Feng Yiping met Nicholas Zenstrom for the first time in the conference room. He was a thin and tall man with narrow-rimmed black-rimmed glasses. He seemed to be the same as Bill Gates. Dichotomy.

Although wearing a suit, hairstyle is still standard for programmers, a little messy, "Hello Feng, nice to meet you, I have read your masterpiece more than once, which inspired me a lot."

The excellent programmers from Page and the others that Feng Yiping came into contact with, when communicating with you in private, speak very fast, but Nicholas is different. He does not speak quickly or slowly, and his voice is gentle.

Feng Yiping and the others collected his information, and he must have done the same thing. This opening remark can easily make Feng Yiping feel good.

"I also like the music software you developed. I want to say that it is with talented engineers like you that the Internet has made our lives more and more abundant, and the cost of living has also become lower and lower."

What Feng Yiping said is really sincere. It is precisely because of the launch of these p2p-based free sharing software that our lives are more enriched and convenient.

For example, he has been paying close attention to the development of the Internet in China. He is very happy to see that at the beginning of this year, a company called Sandai Technology Development was established in Shenzhen. This name may be unfamiliar to many people, but its products are extremely large. Most people must have used it before, and that is the thunder that can't cover the ears and bells.

For most people, this is good news. From then on, you can easily download some famous "teacher" works on the Internet, and you no longer need to sneak in the computer market or sneaky vendors in some places. If you buy a disc in your hand, you don’t have to worry about paying ten dollars to buy the discs. The result is just three pirated game discs for ten dollars.

Well, it's a bit far, but in short, he is grateful from the bottom of his heart for those who develop free p2p software.

Nicholas also felt his sincerity. He was naturally happy when others mentioned his most successful thing, "Thank you!"

Mike has also greeted Nicholas’s entourage to sit down, “In the past ten hours, there have been some bad schedules, so I’m very sorry to let you wait until now.”

"I can understand," Nicholas nodded, "I asked for it presumptuously."

"Not at all. I really hope to have the opportunity to communicate with geniuses like you. I have also met many geniuses like you in Silicon Valley. Every time I communicate with them, I can gain a lot."

"You have passed the award. I believe there are many people like me who are very happy to have the opportunity to talk to you."

The first time they met, both sides were able to calm down, and it could be considered equal.

After a few minutes of greeting, Niklas slowly introduced the topic, "I have been following the website you founded and I admire it very much. I think you have created a new model again, which is very worthy of our reference."

"Thanks to the award, the main work is done by Mike and the others," Feng Yiping pointed to Mike and the others, "I played a very small role in it."

"The most rare thing now is such a brand new model," Niklas said sincerely, "I also noticed that nextdoor is always adding new sections."

Feng Yiping nodded, and said that this is finally the point, "Yes, around users, we will provide more and more service sections,"

"I took the liberty to come this time, just hoping to have a chance to cooperate," Feng Yiping did not ask, Nicholas had to raise it himself.

"We are deeply honored. I don't know how we can help you?"

"After kazaa, I am still developing p2p-based free shareware. Now, there is already a software we named skype that will be launched soon."

"Oh? Then it must be a very great software. I don't know what Skype does. What are the main functions?" Feng Yiping asked knowingly.

"This is a VoIP software,"

"Internet phone software? By such a coincidence, our company is also developing such a project," Feng Yiping glanced at Mike.

"Really? I really didn't expect this, don't you know if you have a mature product now?" Nicklas asked.

Feng Yiping would not believe that he didn't know, he must have heard some wind, and then he took the initiative to come to the door, "Well, to tell you the truth, we started the project not long ago. Although we are making good progress, we don't know much about the telecommunications industry, oh , This aspect happens to be your advantage, so it is expected that the future development difficulty will not be small,"

"Yes, I still know the telecommunications industry," Niklas nodded, "Then, if I license our software to the nextdoor website for free, I wonder if you can accept it? Of course, your software is still available. Continue to develop, but our software can provide a new service to registered users of your company’s website as soon as possible."

So, who says these programmers are not shrewd?

Please, your software is originally free. If you license it to me for free, it is better to say that I provide you with tens of millions of users who will use your software for free.

This is like Penguin said to Ali, I develop a version for Taobao for free, so you don't need to invest in another set, how great! But, what do you think Ali can do?

"If I can, I would like to understand the function of skype,"

"I have a detailed explanation here," Nicholas took out a folder, "This is the version we are about to launch. It will be upgraded continuously in the future, and the functions will become more and more powerful. Moreover, skype uses an open mechanism. You can develop your own proprietary plug-ins,"

Feng Yiping read it in detail. From time to time, he discussed a few words with Jack, or asked Nicholas for advice. It took about ten minutes to understand the basic functions of Skype. "It is indeed another very good software," he praised. One sentence.

"However, you must also know that our website, bound with our own VoIP software, will add value to the website. If you use skype, you know,"

Feng Yiping spoke more euphemistically, but he believed that Nicholas could understand what he meant.

"Our purpose should be the same. We all want to use the Internet to create a convenient, low-cost, and excellent call quality Internet phone product for the majority of users. Under this premise, I think we can find opportunities for cooperation."

"Moreover, I believe you also know that the most critical point in this process is the cooperation with various telecom operators. This is a very difficult and cumbersome task. We have already cooperated with telecom operators in many countries. Reached a cooperative relationship,"

After Feng Yiping exposed his intentions, Nicholas did not blush at all and instead emphasized his own advantages beyond technology.

"I personally believe in your development ability, and I believe that Skype will have more and more functions in the future. I also believe in your ability to manage the enterprise. It is not impossible to bind our website to Skype. I can even stop our research and development of the same product. ," Feng Yiping said.

"Feng," Mike shouted after hearing this, and Feng Yiping waved at him.

"Then what do you want?"

This is exactly the result Nicholas hoped, but he knew that the shrewd young man in front of him would not do it unconditionally.

"Only one thing, I hope to invest directly in Skype, and I have better investment conditions than other venture capitalists."

Feng Yiping said these words with great confidence and feeling very good. Finally, I not only gained a reputation, and I am no longer a pure financial investor. What about internationally renowned venture capitalists? Now in some aspects, I still have an advantage over you!

He was very happy. The company executives who accompanied him were very happy to hear such a domineering request ~www.wuxiaspot.com~, but Nicholas and his entourages were not happy.

"In principle, I welcome you to invest in such a genius who has an outstanding vision and can always create a new business model." Before coming to nextdoor, Nicholas was ready to accept Feng Yiping’s investment. For start-up companies, the funds are The more the better.

"It's just that the conditions are better than venture capital. I am afraid that this requirement is difficult to meet."

"Not only can we provide funds, but we can also provide at least tens of millions of loyal users immediately, Nicholas, you said, under such conditions, which venture capital company can do it?"

Especially for skype, the tens of millions of registered users of nextdoor is a ready-made, very large and stable user group, far exceeding the support that venture capitalists can provide him.

"I think I need to discuss with other investors," Feng Yiping said, which is exactly what he values, tens of millions of users! He couldn't even ignore it.

Listening to this, at least, has he agreed to his investment? Feng Yiping's excitement, there really is such a good thing that you can't find anything to find out of the iron shoes!

…………

Tens of millions of users are waiting in the front. Nicholas is very active. Three days later, the skype financing management team, which has just signed an investment agreement with DFJ, signed a new financing agreement with nextdoor. Nextdoor binds skype software and invests 8 million at the same time. The dollar, accounting for 9%, is better than those of venture capital.

Feng Yiping recalled for a moment, his investment will probably get a return of at least 20 times soon. For the first time, he felt that he also seemed to be God’s darling. Sitting at home, some people took the initiative to take the opportunity. Sent up.