After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 54: Are You Talking to Me About Fairness?

"Mr. Lu, do you perhaps have a good plan?"

Dawei's attitude was sincere, filled with genuine admiration, and his manner of addressing Lu Liang also kept changing.

"You're lacking funds, a large amount of funds," Lu Liang said with a smile, as if stating the obvious.

"Mr. Lu, please give us ten minutes, we need to discuss this."

Dawei understood what he meant; a 10% financing stake wasn't enough to move Lu Liang—they needed to offer more.

With a faint smile, Lu Liang watched as Dawei whispered to his classmates for a few moments before a few of them went to the reception room door to talk.

Liang Juntao, with a smile on his face, walked over to Lu Liang and offered him a cigarette: "Mr. Lu, where have you been lately?"

He had checked Tianxing Investment; it had just been registered last week, with subscribed capital of six million and an investment of five million in a movie.

He had never heard of someone named Lu Liang before and found it strange why he would have a gold-edged invitation.

"I'm just doing a little business in partnership with Mr. Meng of Kunqian Trade."

Lu Liang pulled out Old Meng's name for cover, after all, even if he was wealthy, others might still suspect the legitimacy of his funds.

"So, you are Mr. Meng's friend, huh? Mr. Meng and I have been close friends for many years, so now we're all friends here."

Enlightenment dawned on Liang Juntao without asking further; if this was a friend of Meng Changkun, then everything made sense.

He also remembered that Tianxing Investment was registered in Yongfeng Building, in the same building as Kunqian Trade.

"Mr. Liang, has anyone asked you to take special care of this student Dai?"

Lu Liang suddenly inquired, noticing Liang Juntao's attitude toward Dawei, which didn't seem typical for a teacher's behavior toward a student from another school.

Liang Juntao neither confirmed nor denied, simply smiling and saying, "Mr. Lu, you needn't worry about that; in business, we talk business."

Lu Liang nodded, and the two of them chatted idly while smoking until Dawei and his partners finished discussing.

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He came over and said, "Mr. Lu, we're willing to give up 20% of our shares for financing."

"One million is still not enough."

Lu Liang's mouth twitched with a smile, not holding back, and stated his intentions directly.

He could provide one million in financing funds and a two-year interest-free loan of two million.

But the two million loan came with conditions.

"Mr. Lu, please speak," Dawei said, his expression unchanged.

While they were discussing, someone had come up with a new idea: increasing the share financing was maybe just the beginning.

According to what Lu Liang said, unless they sold the entire company, they couldn't raise enough funds.

So they had anticipated this demand.

"The average daily active users over the past seven days are 8,000; in two months, I want it to reach 80,000, and in three months, 150,000. That's my condition for lending you the two million."

Listening to Lu Liang's specifications, Dawei understood that this was an additional bet agreement.

A bet naturally came with winning and losing.

The two million two-year interest-free loan was the reward for winning, and he wanted to know what the penalty for losing was.

"If in two months the daily active users haven't reached 80,000, the one million is yours, and correspondingly, I will obtain another 20% of the shares."

"If in three months you don't reach 150,000, the entire two million is yours, and in total, I will have acquired 40% of the shares."

This progressive gamble agreement...

If they failed to meet Lu Liang's targets, when counting the financing he would have 60% of the shares, replacing Dawei as the largest shareholder of ofo.

After all, in three months, even if ofo pulled ahead, it couldn't just tread water with a five million valuation.

Losing didn't matter to him; it would just mean lending out two million, which wouldn't bother him a bit.

"This isn't fair."

Someone indignant at the side said they could develop slowly and didn't need to sign this egregious contract.

"Yu Xin, Yu's your name, right?"

Lu Liang still remembered his name and suddenly laughed: "You lack money, I have money; are you talking to me about fairness?"

There was never any question of fairness between investors and entrepreneurs; if they wanted the money, they had to pay the price.

Lu Liang thought he was being quite kind; he only wanted shares, not money.

Some investors required a full refund if the targets weren't met, and even demand interest on top.

That was also why many entrepreneurs found themselves with massive debts as they tried to build their businesses.

Initially, they had no assets, no steady income, and banks wouldn't lend to them.

Yu Xin's face shifted between shades, wanting to argue but unable to find a rebuttal.

However, they still had the right to refuse, but turning his head, he discovered Dawei was neither angry nor upset.

Yu Xin was shocked, his face changing color: "Dawei, you're not seriously considering agreeing, are you?"

Dai Wei looked up, his eyes revealing determination, "Mr. Lu, please give me a little more time, I can persuade them."

Lu Liang nodded, a hint of surprise flickering in his eyes.

Liang Juntao, all smiles, chimed in again, "Mr. Lu, Dai here is pretty good, don't you think?"

"Quite bold," Lu Liang commended.

To 'discuss' was actually to agree.

If anyone disagreed, Dai Wei could completely initiate a vote and force through the decision.

Because he owned 70% of the shares and was also the general manager.

This was one of the reasons why Lu Liang was optimistic about this team; there was only one voice internally.

Like some teams he had just met, no one in the company owned more than 50% of the shares.

The main creators, three or four people, divided the shares equally among themselves, like playing house.

An instant flop.

Ten minutes later, the ofo team concluded their discussion.

Dai Wei made a reply, agreeing to the supplementary agreement, asking when the contract could be signed and when the funds would be in the account.

He had compelling reasons to agree, as Mobike's Hu Weiwei, bolstered by Yiche's Li Bing, was coming on strong.

Ofo, born from humble beginnings, lacked the support of big names in the automotive circle and had to bet on themselves to get that development fund of three million.

"Come to the office to sign the contract on Monday, and the funds will be transferred immediately once the contract takes effect."

Hearing Lu Liang say this, Liang Juntao hurriedly suggested, "Mr. Lu, why don't we sign a letter of intent first?"

As the person in charge of this year's entrepreneurship expo, he was obliged to safeguard the cooperation rights and interests of both parties.

Verbal agreements were unreliable; it was best to sign a letter of intent in black and white, and better still, include a penalty for breach of contract.

"That's fine," Lu Liang said with a smile, indicating no problem.

Dai Wei also quickly nodded in agreement.

"Then you talk for a bit, I'll go prepare the contract."

Liang Juntao left the reception room beaming with joy and hurriedly reached out to the faculty of law.

Shangcai had been organizing the entrepreneurship expo for many years and was well-prepared in every aspect.

Shortly after, he came back with three copies of the letter of intent, the terms clear even to a layperson.

If one party breached the contract for the financing agreement and supplementary agreement, they would pay the other party 30% as penalty.

Both parties kept one copy each, and the institution held on to one. If either party defaulted, Shangcai would testify.

"Mr. Lu, there's something I still don't understand, would you mind clarifying for me?"

Dai Wei was puzzled about how precisely ofo was to be treated as a financial product.

"The hallmark of a financial product is leverage."

Lu Liang spoke softly with a smile, "Borrowing is one kind of leverage, and so is delaying payment to suppliers."

Once a contract was signed, the two parties would be allies, and he didn't mind sharing some unique insights with Dai Wei.

The biggest issue facing the ofo founding team was not knowing how to use their current assets flexibly.

In his view, such enterprises should not consider applying the brakes once they start growing.

Find every means to raise money, find every means to grow, keep sprinting without ever stopping.

As long as you don't stop, all roads lead to Rome.

Dai Wei was stunned; listening to him was better than ten years of study, it was like opening the gates to a whole new world.

But he still couldn't help asking, "What if it stops?"

Lu Liang just smiled without answering and turned to look at Liang Juntao, "Mr. Liang, where's the Shangwai entrepreneurship team? I think I saw a familiar face."

Getting to Rome, there will be someone to take over.

If you can't make it, it's a wreck.

"Shangwai is in area B, Mr. Lu, shall I take you there?"

"Thank you, Mr. Liang."

"No problem."

Watching the two leave, Yu Xin couldn't help saying, "Dawei, you're trying to negotiate with a tiger for its skin. It's been half a year and you only have 8,000 daily active users, and you aim to reach 80,000 in two months?"

When he heard Lu Liang's words, the capitalist from his textbooks seemed to take on a concrete form.

"It used to be impossible, but now it's possible."

A glint flickered in Dai Wei's eyes; Lu Liang's discussion on financial leverage had given him new ideas.

With the right approach, reaching 80,000 daily active users in two months was not difficult, nor was 150,000 in three months.

Everything is hard at the start, but with a good beginning, the number of daily active users would grow like a snowball, getting bigger as it rolls.