Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After Lu Zhou left Mrs. Yang’s house, he thought for a long time.
A person’s energy was limited, not to mention, he had no interests in running a business.
He was an academic and he only had to do his own work well. As for product operations and management of companies, he could hand it over to someone who was good at them.
He felt like his battlefield was in the laboratory, not a meeting. It definitely was not in a CEO office.
Chen Yushan would be a good choice, but her management talents were more for mid to late stage companies, and his small [Campus Train] startup had no room for her. Not to mention, she was doing a master’s degree and she had no time to help Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou went back to his dorm and thought for a long time before he finally thought of a person. He then walked to the balcony and made a phone call.
When the other end picked up, a voice from the fat man came through, “Hey, Lu Zhou, what’s up?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Brother Wu, where have you been making bank recently?”
“Make what bank. I’m just doing some small projects for errands. I have to congratulate you. In the future, there’s going to be another god in the University of Jin Ling’s alumni list. Get straight to the point, do you still want to work part-time? I’m not hiring you!” snarled Fat Wu.
“No,” said Lu Zhou. He smiled and said, “I just want to ask, are you interested in making bank together.”
Fat Wu paused for a second and gave it a quick thought before asking, “… Campus Train?”
Lu Zhou, “Yes.”
“How about this? Let’s meet up. We should talk about this face to face.”
Lu Zhou thought about it and it made sense.
It was useless to talk about this kind of stuff over the phone as it would be in person.
“Ok, tomorrow at five o’clock. Let’s meet outside the fish restaurant near the school gate.”
…
The next day, at five o’clock in the afternoon, Lu Zhou arrived on time. When he saw Fat Wu who was wearing a black t-shirt and sitting on a bench, he waved at him.
Lu Zhou looked at his t-shirt and said, “You’re only wearing a t-shirt? Aren’t you cold?”
It was already the end of October and late autumn. Lu Zhou himself was already wearing a jacket.
“I’m fat, cold-resistant. I’m like this during the winter as well,” said Fat Wu with a smile. He pulled out a chair and said, “Come and sit down. I already ordered a grilled fish. Go and order whatever else you want. When the fish comes, let’s get some drinks and talk.”
Lu Zhou said, “Let’s drink tea. We should not be talking about business while we are drunk.”
Fat Wu smiled and said, “Sure, whatever you want.”
Fat Wu was a pretty great guy as he took care of Lu Zhou when Lu Zhou was still working part-time jobs. Therefore, when Lu Zhou had this good opportunity, he instantly thought of Fat Wu.
Of course, that was not the only reason why he thought of Fat Wu. The real reason Lu Zhou found him was that he fancied his abilities, specifically, his emotional intelligence and organization skills.
Those two skills were exactly what Lu Zhou lacked.
“Speaking of which, I also use your Campus Train app. It’s pretty useful for carpooling,” said Fat Wu.
When the food arrived, he poured tea for Lu Zhou and himself before he smiled and said, “The train station in our hometown… It’s impossible to get a DiDi cab there. Normal taxis don’t go there and unlicensed taxis are the only way to go. Now that I use your app to carpool, it saves me some money and I get to meet some cool friends. I’m pretty jealous of your brain. I could never think of something like this.”
Lu Zhou smiled and replied, “I just did it as a random practice.”
“Nutty randomly coded an app with hundreds of thousands of users. I get it now. When I compare myself to geniuses like you, I feel like I’m not cut for studying at all,” said Fat Wu as he shook his head and sighed. He filled his teacup and smiled before saying, “Say it, why are you here? Get straight to the point.”
“Are you interested in pursuing this project together?”
“You want me to join the company?” asked Fat Wu as he looked at Lu Zhou with an astonished expression.
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Yes.”
Fat Wu did not accept straight away. Instead, he asked, “Why me?”
“I’ll get straight to the point?”
Fat Wu smiled and said, “Just say it, we’re two guys here, stop beating around the bush.”
“It’s actually because I don’t have the energy for this and also I don’t have organization skills. Besides, not only are you not doing the graduate entrance exam, but you also have the experience,” said Lu Zhou. He smiled and continued, “Of course, my gut feeling is the main reason.”
“Gut feeling is your main reason?” said Fat Wu with a smile. He paused for a second before asking, “Then, tell me your plan. What do you want me to do?”
“Simply speaking, I want to expand the Campus Train project. Whether it’s to get financing and go public or just selling the app as a whole. A beautiful and sophisticated paper value is a must. I admit that business is not my cup of tea. I like to do research. Therefore, I need to find someone with strong organization skills and management experience to help me.”
Fat Wu nodded and said, “So you want to hire me to manage the company?”
“That’s right,” said Lu Zhou as he nodded. He then added, “I can offer you two choices.”
“The first one is after the round of angel financing, I’ll take out 5% of the shares in Campus Train from my shares and give them to you. When and if we sell the company, you’ll get 5% of the sale. We can write this into the contract.”
“As for the other option, I’ll pay you a salary. 8k per month, plus maybe a bonus.”
Lu Zhou stared at the guy and asked, “Which one are you choosing?”
Fat Wu was silent for a while. He then closed his eyes and began to think.
If you can’t get the round of angel financing, then there is no point talking about the 5% stake. Internet companies aren’t worth jack without capital and the equity would be a worthless piece of paper. However, if you do get angel financing, the company would be worth at least one million yuan and 5% of that is already 50,000 yuan.
As for the second option, it’s a lot safer. 8000 salary plus bonus commission. For a recent mathematics graduate, that salary is pretty good. Not every math student can transfer their knowledge into Wall Street. I know exactly how much I’m worth.
If I pick the second option…
That would be unlike me.
Fat Wu thought about it for half a minute. He then opened his eyes and said, “I’m someone that likes a challenge. I don’t want to work until I die. I’ll pick the first one.”
“I’d guessed that you would pick this one,” said Lu Zhou with a smile. He then reached out with a hand and said, “From now on, we are business partners.”
Fat Wu shook Lu Zhou’s hand and smiled cordially as he said, “I wish us happy cooperation.”
“Happy cooperation!”
