My Age of Investment

"Daren, I'd take the liberty to ask, if Tesla's business plan impresses you, what's the most you can invest in us?"

Eberhard was still a little worried about Xia Jingxing's strength. After all, building an electric car is not a simple project.

If it is a small website, rent a few servers and hire a few people to start it.

The electric vehicle project will not work, which involves considerable investment, especially in research and development, which is simply a bottomless pit.

Of course, even if Xia Jingxing invested several hundred thousand dollars, he would not dislike it.

It was just that he still needed to find another lead investor, and Xia Jingxing could only act as a follower investor.

The amount of investment involved his positioning of Xia Jingxing's identity and the adjustment of the follow-up financing plan. He felt that it would be better to ask more clearly.

Tarpenning also looked at Xia Jingxing eagerly. Like his partner, he was also very concerned about this issue.

"I see that your business plan says you want to raise $7.5 million, right?"

Xia Jingxing did not directly answer the question of Eberhard, the "father of Tesla".

He listened to the other party's question, and also knew that his strength was underestimated.

But he also understands that, after all, in the eyes of the outside world, Facebook is just a start-up that has received $500,000 in angel round financing.

It has been rumored that Facebook is valued at US$500 million, but in the eyes of many people, most of the media are playing catch-up and exaggerating reports. After all, there is no definite evidence to release.

As for him personally, he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars each in Scape and LinkedIn, which is so small that many people don't even know that he has made such two early investments.

LinkedIn is in Silicon Valley, and there may be information circulating about his personal participation in the co-investment.

Scape is amazing, and the confidentiality is absolutely top-notch.

Eberhard nodded, "Yes, because we want to use the $7.5 million to make a prototype.

As long as we have a prototype car, we will carry out the next round of financing and start the mass production plan with the money raised. "

Xia Jingxing leaned against the chair and said lightly, "Show me your current results first. If it is ideal, I can give out all of the $7.5 million."

"You all came out alone?"

Tarpenning was surprised that his partner Eberhard, like him, also looked at Xia Jingxing in astonishment.

Xia Jingxing felt that it was still necessary to show his family wealth, otherwise he would always be looked down upon, which would be detrimental to the next negotiation.

"Facebook is about to complete a series A financing of tens of millions of dollars. The pre-investment valuation is 500 million US dollars. I personally hold more than 60% of Facebook's shares."

"I also invested in a VoIP company called Skype, which has now completed the second round of financing, with a valuation of $72 million, and I personally hold 8% of the shares."

"I personally also like to invest in securities, and currently hold nearly 30 million US dollars in securities assets."

LinkedIn has not yet opened the next round of financing, and its shareholding is only three points, which were directly ignored by Xia Jingxing.

Just what he revealed was enough to surprise Eberhard and Tarpenning.

Eberhard asked: "Facebook's Series A financing is about to be completed? And Skype, you actually invested? Recently their Internet phone is very popular, it's really cool."

Tarpenning asked: "30 million US dollars in securities assets? Is it a listed company in the United States? Didn't the news report say that you came from an ordinary family in China?"

There are a lot of questions, but Xia

continue reading! Jing Xing patiently gave answers one by one.

"Facebook's financing will be officially announced in about a week, and you can pay attention to it."

"Skype is relatively low-key. Recently, they just completed the due diligence for the second round of financing. I personally continued to follow the investment. Andrew just returned from Estonia today. Some time ago, he was entrusted by me to work for more than half a month."

Andrew nodded slightly, acknowledging this.

"As for securities assets, I made my own investments after I came to the United States to study. Netease and Amic, the trends of these two stocks,

You can pay attention, one is up 50 times, the other is up 10 times..."

Hearing what Xia Jingxing said, they were not as suspicious as before, but they still decided to check the stock software after Xia Jingxing was gone, to see if it was so mysterious, Buffett is a younger brother in front of you.

Eberhard laughed and said in order to resolve the embarrassment: "Okay, Darren, you don't need to explain more, we are not doubting your strength, but our Series A financing is not small, it is better to ask more clearly.

Then let's talk about Tesla directly! "

He looked at his partner Tarpenning and instructed: "Mark, go and release the PPT."

Tarpenning nodded, walked aside, and started debugging the projection equipment.

Although Tesla's office is simple, there is still a curtain wall hanging in the corner, which can project PPT.

Tarpenning sat on the side and controlled the computer, while Eberhard walked to the curtain wall and began to explain.

"Tesla Corporation was established on July 1, 2003, and the name is mainly to commemorate the physicist and electrical engineering pioneer Nikola Tesla...

We currently have 5 employees in our company, and Mark Tarpenning and I are the main founders. "

On the other hand, Eberhard also released his resume on the PPT.

This action, he has done many times in recent meetings with investors and roadshows, and he can't slip any more.

"I was born in 1960, I have a BS in Computer Science, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and I became an electrical engineer after graduation...

Tesla is the third time I started a business, the first time I started a computer network terminal equipment company...

The second venture was relatively successful, and it was with me and Tarpenning.

We made an e-reader called Rocket in 1998, which was one of the first e-readers at the time.

Although Sony launched its first e-reader in 1991, it was very heavy, weighing a full kilogram, and sales were not good. It only achieved a small range of success in the Eastern market.

The e-reader market didn't fully open until we introduced the lighter Rocket reader.

But unfortunately, in March 2000, the company was sold to Jimstar International Group by major shareholders for $100 million.

Tarpenning and I each got a few million dollars to end this not-so-successful start-up. "

After that, Eberhard released the resume of his partner Mark Tarpenning.

The resume is also gorgeous. Born in 1964, he is 40 years old this year, 4 years younger than Eberhard. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Berkeley, California, and currently serves as Tesla CFO Chief Financial Officer.

Xia Jingxing watched with relish, and the world thought that Musk was the founder of Tesla.

In fact, the real founder should be introducing his resume

continue reading! This one, Martin Eberhard.

Tesla's first model, the Roadster, was developed in the hands of Eberhard, and the take-off was in the hands of Musk.

And Eberhard's success did not come for no reason. He has a master's degree in electrical engineering from a famous school and has worked in the field of electrical machinery for many years. He has also done things related to electronic equipment in two startups. He has rich industry experience and entrepreneurial experience.

Eberhard took a sip of water and continued: "This second venture, we did not gain anything except money, we paid attention to lithium-ion battery technology.

Later, when I saw the pure electric car launched by AC Drive on the Internet, I went to visit them in Los Angeles and visited their workshop.

But unfortunately, they are reluctant to mass-produce electric vehicles, which is just a business hobby for them.

Later, we decided to do it ourselves, explore the true potential of lithium-ion batteries, and produce a high-performance electric supercar. "

Speaking, Eberhard released a picture of electric vehicle technology model through PPT.

He introduced: "After the company was established, we drew technical models of electric vehicles one by one in a spreadsheet.

And make theoretical fine-tuning of various car components, and observe how such adjustments will affect the shape and performance of the car.

We can adjust weight, number of batteries, tire and body resistance, and ultimately come up with different designs and how many batteries are needed. "

He pointed to the pictures drawn by the PPT and said, "This is almost what we have achieved in half a year."

Speaking of this, he pointed to the pile of dismantled cars not far from the office area, "By the way, those are also one of our successes."

Before Xia Jingxing could speak, Andrew couldn't help but speak, "You haven't talked about setting up a workshop for the past six months, but have been using PPT to build cars?"

Eberhard spread his hands, "What's wrong with that? You don't think of us as those guys in Detroit.

This is Silicon Valley, and we are building cars with the concept of IT. "