Chapter 068 [The Rhythm of the Media]
This time, Luo Sheng stayed in the United States for more than half a month. When he returned to China, it was already January 14.
Youtube's three founders actually joined the North American branch of Blue Star Technology by such a coincidence, which surprised Luo Sheng quite a bit. It can be seen that it is right to set up the branch in the Silicon Valley area of the Bay Area.
During the period of business trips in the United States, news of the B round of financing had already been circulated back to China. After receiving US$325 million in financing, it only sold 10%, with a valuation of about 27 billion, becoming the first unicorn-level startup in China.
These figures accompanied by the news published by the media made people in the domestic Internet industry suddenly realize that their financing amount and equity transfer ratio both shocked the eyes of industry insiders.
Bluestar Technology was established in February last year, and it has not yet been established for the first anniversary, only about 11 months. In less than a year, four rounds of financing have been made from angel round financing to this round of financing.
The first time is $120,000, the second time is $9.3 million, the third time is $72 million, and the fourth time is $325 million. In less than a year, Luo Sheng has taken away $400 million in financing.
Its financing history is a myth, and there is absolutely no second one in the industry.
For colleagues, they were extremely shocked when they heard this news, and even suspected their authenticity for a while, but after it was confirmed to be true, they simply filled with envy, jealousy and hatred.
Just very angry!
Are you also an Internet entrepreneur, so the gap is so big?
Here you can break your legs to raise some money, but you may not get it. You can just take a few hundred million dollars for a trip there.
When the news just came back to China, major media were reporting on Luo Sheng’s trip to Wall Street, and at the same time, the eyes of all parties were also focusing on the startup Bluestar Technology.
With this, many industry insiders have the same questions: Why is Bluestar Technology worth $3.25 billion, or $27 billion?
As a startup company that has been established only one month before it has been established, it is not only young, but has not yet generated a penny of profit.
Why can it be so popular with capital?
In less than a year, four consecutive investments were made, one more exaggerated. If you invest in Luo Sheng, you won’t be afraid of playing with it?
The key is that those investment institutions that endorse Luo Sheng and Bluestar Technology are one of the biggest names, idg, venture capital, Huajin Securities, Sequoia, SoftBank, Morgan (an investment bank), and Goldman Sachs. Any one of them is well-known in the capital circle.
If it were another startup company, as long as any of the investment institutions gave the company a financing endorsement, they would be very happy and could be widely publicized.
However, while the outside world was shocked by the birth of this huge financing, when they saw that the investors of Blue Star Technology were almost all Wall Street Capital, a new doubt or rhythm suddenly appeared in the industry.
...
"Please come in."
In Luo Sheng's office, today is the second day after he returned to China. After taking a day off yesterday, he turned the jet lag in reverse and started working today.
The person who walked into his office was Zhang Bowen, the company's chief operating officer.
"Mr. Luo, there have been some negative news from the company in the past few days." Zhang Bowen said as soon as he came in.
"Negative news?" Luo Sheng couldn't help but look up at the other party.
"Yes, many media and online public opinion are questioning whether Bluestar Technology is a domestic company or a foreign company? Why not look for domestic investment institutions and so on?" Zhang Bowen said.
Hearing this, Luo Sheng shook his head with a chuckle, sighed softly, and said, "This question is probably something that domestic VCs have to be asked. In the early days of the company's business, I personally went to more than 30 institutions and almost ran all over the country. Unfortunately, no one voted for me."
As he said that, Luo Sheng spread his hands. When the company was founded, he actually wanted to introduce domestic venture capital. Only at that time had the opportunity, and the reason was very simple.
First, there will not be much money in the early stage, but the equity will not be small. Tengxun spent 1 million to get 8% in the angel round financing stage; Second, domestic VC institutions are not very strong and cannot compete with foreign capital such as Goldman Sachs and SoftBank.
In fact, Luo Sheng still opens the door for all capital, but the problem is that there is only one Huajin Securities, or the national team. It is too late for domestic capital now. 90% of investment institutions are no longer able to get involved. Now a financing is at a sky-high price of hundreds of millions of dollars. How many venture capital investors in China have such strong capital? How many capital institutions dare to invest in Blue Star Technology with so much money?
In Luo Sheng's initial vision, Blue Star Technology's financing history, the initial angel round and pre-a round, led or followed up by domestic capital. At this time, the valuation was relatively low.
Starting from the A-round financing, we must actively introduce external capital, mainly Wall Street Capital.
First, the valuation of subsequent financing is high and the money is paid more. Second, there are certain requirements for venture capital itself, which requires both background and strong capital. Wall Street's capital is the best choice.
Because this is also related to the company's global layout. Without introducing Wall Street Capital, it is hellish to go overseas. Even if Wall Street Capital is introduced, the company will still face many obstacles and various difficulties from Americans when it becomes bigger and stronger in the future.
But Luo Sheng will never give up the global market because of difficulties. If Bluestar Technology does not introduce Wall Street capital, the global market will definitely have nothing to do with you, and in the end it can only stick to the Greater China market.
Even if the company's income can be 10, it is all for one's own income; if half of the company's equity is sold, it will be obtained in the global market in return, and the company's income can be 100, and even half of it can be shared 50 of it. Although half of the profit is given up, it actually gets several times the profit and still has absolute control over the company.
How to choose? This is a vote with your feet.
It is precisely because of this that the saying of a community of interests emerges in this world.
Even if the company goes public in the future, whether the stocks will be distributed, how much or how much is distributed, as long as the company's control is firmly in the hands of the founder, the founder has the final say.
Apple's cash reserves once reached 100 billion or 200 billion US dollars, but Jobs set a tone and insisted on not paying dividends for more than ten years, and the shareholders had no temper at all.
"Don't pay too much attention to these public opinions, but keep paying attention." Luo Sheng thought for a while and said in a deep voice. So far, Blue Star Technology's total external capital accounts for about 29%, of which 10% are held by Tengxun.
Obviously, this is the act of some media leading the pace and cheating click-through rates in order to attract attention. Luo Sheng and his team still account for nearly 70%. He has no less than 51% of the shares in his personal shares, so the media said that Blue Star Technology Company belongs to foreigners.
This external doubt has not had any impact on the company. This time, he raised $325 million and he will not be idle even if he gets the money. So much money is lying in the company's capital pool, depreciating every day, and it must be effectively utilized.
...
Chapter completed!