Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Hu City, Yiyuan Office Building, Longcao Road No. 200.

At four in the afternoon, it was tea time at Kuai Pao. A woman from the administrative department would deliver pre-portioned fruit platters and milk tea to each employee’s desk.

At this moment, employees from the operations department gathered in small groups, eating fruit and gossiping in low voices. ”I heard the company is starting its B-round financing. The investors this time include Penguin, Ah Li, Gao Ling Capital, and Jinsha Venture Capital.”

”What’s that got to do with us?”

”You don’t know shit! Boss Kou from the Investment Attraction department said everyone is getting stock options this time. With the big boss’s generous personality, even the customer service reps will probably get a few thousand shares.”

”Brother Quan, tell us, how does this stock option reward work in terms of money?”

A young man in the crowd asked Li Quan, who was standing opposite him.

”To put it simply, it’s like they’re giving us a withdrawal slip. When the company goes public or starts a stock option buyback plan, we’ll be able to cash in!”

Li Quan, holding his fruit platter, speared a piece of pineapple and popped it into his mouth as he explained with a smile.

Whether the stock options could be successfully cashed out involved exercise conditions, exercise prices, and IPO plans—it was definitely not as simple as Li Quan made it sound.

But from what he knew, even though the big boss’s first company never went public, after it was sold to Ah Li, the big boss still paid out of his own pocket to buy back the vested options with cash.

Furthermore, for all subsidiaries under Senlian Capital, the exercise price was a uniform 0.01 US Dollar per share, so Li Quan’s explanation wasn’t wrong.

After the company went public, the employee’s profit from the options would be the difference between the stock price and the exercise price, minus the corresponding taxes.

The lower the exercise price, the larger the profit margin!

So, an exercise price of 0.01 US dollars was no different from a free giveaway!

Meanwhile.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, and Deng Ye sat under an awning in the rooftop garden, their faces beaming with the joy of having joined Kuai Pao.

”I confirmed with President Pei. The financing is real, and so is the stock option incentive for all employees,” Wang Yuan said, his expression full of excitement.

Currently, Kuai Pao only operated in Luzhou and Hu City, but its valuation had already reached one billion US dollars.

Even with just a few tens of thousands of shares per person, their future value wouldn’t be less than several million US dollars.

You have to understand, the housing prices in many of Hu City’s outer-ring residential complexes were less than twenty thousand Hua Yuan per square meter. Once these shares were successfully cashed out, one could at the very least buy a large-floor-plan apartment or a standalone villa.

”Does the delivery department get them too?” Kang Jia couldn’t help but ask.

”Of course. The riders, just like us, signed labor contracts with Kuai Pao Technology,” Deng Ye said with a light laugh and a shrug.

”Sigh, it’s really no surprise that Eleme lost to Kuai Pao. We couldn’t even compare when it came to salary and benefits alone.”

Kang Jia sighed and lamented.

”Old Kang, Eleme is in the past. Stop saying ’we’ and ’us’ all the time. If President Pei or President Kou overheard, they might think the three of us are corporate spies.” Deng Ye raised a thumb to his lips in a hushing gesture.

Kang Jia’s expression froze for a moment before he caught on, grinning apologetically. ”Shit! It just slipped out!”

”Brother Hao went to Nuomi Network. I wonder how he’s doing,” Wang Yuan said quietly.

”Nuomi Network gave him a decent position and salary—Operations Director for the North China Region. I just don’t know who will be the final winner of this Group Buy war,” Deng Ye said in a neutral tone.

He was now the finance director for Kuai Pao’s Hu City Branch, and the mystique of Zhang Xuhao’s status as a food delivery founder had long since faded for him.

”Who cares about him! All I care about is how many shares I’ll get from this stock option incentive plan,” Wang Yuan said, waving his hand dismissively.

To be frank, all of them, including Kang Jia and Deng Ye, held a grudge against Zhang Xuhao.

If Zhang Xuhao had accepted Gao Weilin’s financing, or even his acquisition offer, the fates of Kuai Pao and Eleme might very well have been reversed. They would be the ones sitting in the general manager seats of various departments today.

When a project goes from boom to bust, every team member bears some responsibility, but the one most responsible was undoubtedly Zhang Xuhao.

He had taken Senlian Capital’s offer and used it to try and leverage a higher valuation from other venture capital firms. Not only did he offend Chen Yansen and miss the best financing window, but he also provoked a powerful competitor.

Kang Jia and Deng Ye exchanged a look and smiled, full of anticipation.

At the same time.

In the banquet hall on the top floor of the Pullman Hotel, representatives from five parties—Penguin, Ah Li, Jinsha Venture Capital, Gao Ling Capital, and Kuai Pao—were gathered in one room.

Chen Yansen was making small talk at a table with Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu, and the others.

The negotiation work had been left to Gao Weilin and Pei Yi.

”You’re really different from other entrepreneurs your age. Young people prefer asset-light business models, but you’re the complete opposite. You invest in whatever industry is the hardest to make money in.”

Liu Zhiping teased.

Chen Yansen smiled and said, ”Well, didn’t Penguin invest too? It seems great minds think alike.”

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei smiled but said nothing.

The food delivery track might not seem very profitable, but you couldn’t argue with the volume. According to data forecasts, once Kuai Pao fully tapped into the market potential of Luzhou and Hu City, the daily order volume would reach as high as two million.

If this model were expanded nationwide, the daily order volume would exceed one hundred million!

By then, the number of daily active users would also be no less than one hundred million!

You have to realize, this was a consumer app with one hundred million daily active users. The revenue it could generate each day would be an astronomical figure.

Furthermore, it could leverage its massive traffic to expand into categories like hotels, movies, leisure and entertainment, and ticketing, thereby widening its own moat.

It wasn’t that Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei hadn’t considered backing a new platform.

But first, could its operational capabilities compare to Chen Yansen’s?

Second, Kuai Pao not only had the electronic navigation advantage of Gaode Map but was also far ahead with its intelligent delivery dispatch system.

Even Eleme, which had been developing for over three years, was no match for Kuai Pao in order matching and route planning.

Of course, they didn’t believe a brand-new food delivery platform could surpass Kuai Pao in these two areas and break through its technological barriers.

Unless one of the BAT companies got involved, there was still a slim possibility.

But Penguin lacked the e-commerce DNA, Ah Li was busy preparing for its IPO, and Qian Du was focused on cloud computing and cloud storage services.

Looking across the country, Kuai Pao had virtually no rival.

”By the way, I heard that Fast Taxi is recruiting full-time private car drivers in the Jinling and Hang City areas, and they’re even paying for their social insurance and housing fund, plus offering a base salary?”

Liu Zhiping couldn’t hold back and finally asked.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xiaohu immediately perked up his ears and fixed his gaze on Chen Yansen, waiting for an explanation.

If Chen Yansen started acting recklessly as soon as he got the funding, Jinsha Venture Capital would not only pull out of Fast Taxi’s B-round financing but also sell off the shares it currently held.

”Yes, that’s true. But the related benefits policy only applies to a small number of dedicated drivers. In fact, so far, only a few dozen people have joined.”

Chen Yansen, of course, wouldn’t tell the truth, so he just made something up on the spot.

Under his explanation, this measure became a key strategy for Fast Taxi to improve service quality and increase dispatching flexibility.

First, it could rapidly expand the driver pool, alleviating the pain point of finding a ride during peak hours. Second, by adding dedicated drivers and private vehicles, the order response speed in remote areas had increased by 40%, and the average passenger waiting time had been reduced to three minutes.

”Compliance is a big issue, but you can act first and worry later!” Liu Zhiping nodded, not thinking much of it.

Who said you can’t do something just because you don’t have the paperwork or authorization?

After all, no one who succeeds as an entrepreneur is a simple, by-the-book character.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei quite agreed with this view. As long as you became big enough, what was non-compliant could be made compliant.

It wasn’t until the last rays of twilight had faded from the window that Lin Chenfeng from Penguin, Ji Gang from Ah Li, and the investment managers from Jinsha Venture Capital and Gao Ling Capital finally reached an agreement with Gao Weilin, setting Kuai Pao’s B-round valuation at 1.2 billion US dollars.

In his past life, when Eleme accepted its D-round financing, its daily order volume was around 100,000, with a valuation of 400 million US dollars. By its F-round, the daily order volume was around one million, with a valuation of one billion US dollars.

Overall, although Kuai Pao’s 1.2 billion US dollar valuation was a bit inflated, neither Penguin nor Ah Li raised any objections.

Zhu Xiaohu and Zhang Lei remained silent, which was taken as their approval of the price.

Everyone knew very well that if they gave up on this round of investment, they would have to pay more than three times the cost to get the same percentage of equity in the next round.

When Pei Yi heard the price of 1.2 billion US dollars, he felt as if he were walking on clouds, completely unmoored.

Six months ago, he was a graduate student at Luzhou University of Technology. Six months later, he was the CEO of a unicorn company with a net worth of over a hundred million.

Kuai Pao exchanged a 15% equity stake for 180 million US dollars in funding.

Pei Yi needed to use this money to quickly break into the food delivery markets of Hang City and Jinling, and then expand from the provincial capitals to surrounding cities, striving to reach a daily order volume of over one million as soon as possible.

Although Hu City wasn’t exactly Chen Yansen’s home turf, he was still perfectly at ease as he took Liu Zhiping, Zhang Lei, Zhu Xiaohu, and the others to a ”second round” after the dinner banquet.

At 11:30 PM, he finally left a private clubhouse.

Half an hour later, his driver, Xiaoli, parked the car in front of No. 116, Yun Jin Villa.

Chen Yansen got out of the car and walked straight into the bright and spotless living room.

The TV was playing *Empresses in the Palace*, and Song Yuncheng was curled up on the sofa, her eyes slightly closed, fast asleep.

’This girl’s a really deep sleeper.’

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, turned off the TV, and then scooped Song Yuncheng up and carried her to the bedroom upstairs.

...

...

「The next morning.」

The Kuai Pao HR departments in the Luzhou and Hu City branches, holding thick stacks of documents, began one-on-one meetings with employees. They first introduced the stock option incentive policy, then explained that the options would vest at a rate of 25% each year, fully vesting over four years.

If an employee left before the four years were up, they could only take the number of options that had already vested.

Everyone from customer service and riders to the operations, finance, and marketing staff at headquarters got a share; it was just a matter of how much.

Executives like Kou Zhen, who hadn’t received stock options before, couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction after seeing the numbers on their option agreements. Their sense of belonging to Kuai Pao grew even stronger.

Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye, and even the more than two hundred new employees who had recently left Eleme to join Kuai Pao all received a generous stock option incentive.

In front of the Triumph Business Building on Yishan Road, Li Zhou and a few of his colleagues were discussing the new stock option incentive policy.

”Brother Zhou, how many did you get?” a colleague asked curiously.

”6,000 shares. At 1.2 US dollars a share, that’s over ten thousand Hua Yuan a year. I’m planning to save it up for my son’s future college tuition,” Li Zhou said with a chuckle.

”Once our company’s valuation hits 10 billion US dollars, forget tuition—you could afford several new homes!” a colleague beside him laughed heartily.

In the riders’ eyes, Kuai Pao was their own company.

The remaining few riders also received options ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 shares, their minds filled with fantasies of how much cash their options would be worth once the company’s valuation grew to 10 billion US dollars.

But after trying to calculate it for a long time, they couldn’t figure it out and eventually gave up.

They only remembered one thing: ”Either way, it’ll be enough to buy a house in Hu City.”

Could country bumpkins like them, who worked day in and day out, rain or shine, really settle down and buy a home in Hu City?

Li Zhou and the others didn’t dare to get their hopes up too high, but the smiles on their faces were wider as they made their deliveries, and the quality of their service kept improving.

After finalizing Kuai Pao’s B-round financing, Chen Yansen wasn’t in a hurry to return to Xucheng. Instead, he took Song Yuncheng to meet with brand owners from Hu City’s fashion industry.

Led by Zhou Jiancheng of Meiters, more than a dozen brand owners from companies like Semir, La Chapelle, Esprit, and Pellomont were invited to host a banquet for Chen Yansen in a private room at the Peace Restaurant.

After all, Pinbei’s influence in the e-commerce industry was already faintly surpassing that of Jingdong. Within the industry, more and more merchants were regarding Pinbei as their second most important online sales channel.

Chen Yansen expertly handled this group of old hands from the business community. After a few drinks, he had secured the marketing budgets from each company for the second half of the year.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Chen Yansen politely declined Zhou Jiancheng’s arrangement for a ”next round” and left the restaurant with Song Yuncheng to stroll along Jinling East Road.

Xiaoli drove in circles nearby, waiting for his boss’s call.