stjorthotic Chapter 93 Lei: My Last Startup - Let's Call It Rice
Chapter 93 Lei: My Last Startup - Let's Call It Rice
The attitude of seeing the guests off was quite obvious.
As Lin Bin left Meizu, he sighed in the car: "Huang Zhang is too stubborn. Because he was in charge of design, I was in charge of software, and you were in charge of marketing, such a good opportunity..."
"As expected." Lei Jun remained calm, even with a slight smile. "I never expected to close the deal on the first try. This was more about learning, and..."
"What should we do then? Should we look for other companies? Lenovo or ZTE?"
But Lin Bin quickly realized: "You're trying to poach people."
After saying this, Lin Bin clapped his hands in sudden realization. No wonder! No wonder Lei Jun was so much more enthusiastic about the engineers than about Meizhu Company during the visit.
As for the camphor tree, its status drops another notch!
"That's right, we're not looking anymore." Lei Jun's eyes held a knowing smile. "Let's activate Plan B and do it ourselves."
…………
Upon returning to Kyoto, Lei Jun immediately met with a headhunting firm.
"I want to recruit these people."
Lei Jun handed over a list.
Before reading it, the headhunter was confidently assuring everyone that there would be absolutely no problems. But after reading it, his eyes widened immediately.
Zhou Guangping – Chief Engineer of Motorola Kyoto R&D Center.
Liu De – Head of the Department of Industrial Design, Kyoto University of Technology
Hong Feng – Senior Product Manager, Google China
Li Wanqiang – General Manager of Kingsoft PowerWord.
Looking at the list, the headhunting director said with considerable difficulty, "Mr. Lei, are these people... even achievable?"
"Money is no problem," Lei Jun said, patting his wallet. After all, he was the cash king of Kyoto!
"It's not about the money. They're all senior executives at large corporations or university leaders. We really..."
"You don't need to worry about the negotiations. You just need to invite them out, and I'll handle the rest."
"Then let's give it a try!"
"And there's this other group..."
This is a thicker list, containing the specific developers.
Lin Bin, who followed, was also very surprised to see the names on the list.
If all the people on this list were actually poached, Huang Zhang would be furious if he found out.
After all, there are more than 400 people in total, but more than 80% of them are from Meizu Technology. You should know that Meizu's total R&D staff is only more than 400 people... This investment failed, so they have to move?
…………
On the way back, Lin Bin suddenly asked, "What's the company's name?"
"It's not decided yet, Lao Lin, what are your thoughts?" Lei Bus asked.
Lin Bin shook his head!
Lei Jun was also stumped by this problem; he was so focused on building a strong team that he neglected the company's name...
This is also very important!
It should not only have the style of a tech company, but also a sense of approachability that makes people feel that it is reliable at first glance.
Achieving uniformity is still quite difficult.
Suddenly he spoke up: "How about we call it Rice Technology? Rice plus rifles, we're going to use the internet to disrupt the traditional mobile phone industry."
……
Over the next two weeks, the headhunting team began their work.
Lei Jun personally took charge, meeting with five people a day, from morning till night.
He chatted with people in cafes, teahouses, and even university offices, telling them about his plans and the blueprint for internet-enabled mobile phones, and as a result, some people were persuaded.
Zhou Guangping worked at Motorola for 15 years, but he felt that the glass ceiling in foreign companies was very obvious. People like him were clearly not valued and had far fewer opportunities for promotion.
He decided to take a gamble!
Liu De has a strong passion for industrial design. He thinks that domestically produced smartphones are too ugly and wants to create truly beautiful products!
Hong Feng saw the potential of Android when he worked at Google, but he also felt that Google did not pay enough attention to the Chinese market.
He planned to leave his job and join a new company, but he felt that the rice company was a bit unreliable, so he decided to wait and see.
Li Wanqiang was a former subordinate of Lei Jun, who joined the company without pay after sending a message. After all, Lei Jun still owned shares in Kingsoft, so even if the company failed, he would simply be reinstated...
But if he succeeds, he will be credited with helping the emperor rise to power!
The other members of the headhunting team also began recruiting on a large scale, according to the names on the list.
The rice company's team gradually expanded from the initial two people to a hundred. As the team took shape, Lin Bin had some concerns.
He approached Lei Jun and asked, "Mr. Lei, we have neither money nor products right now, and we're just trying to poach talent with a single PPT presentation... Isn't that too risky?"
"Adventure?" Leibusi smiled.
"Transsion Technology was almost unable to survive in the domestic market last year, relying solely on Shenyang Aircraft Corporation's (SAC) rhetoric. And look at the state of things now?"
He looked again at the design sketch on the table, which showed the first generation of rice and some of the MIUI specifications...
"What this era has no shortage of is money, what it lacks most is dreams," Lei Jun said softly. "A dream that makes working people believe in dreams, that makes them believe they can change the world."
This will also convince investors that they can use their money to incubate our products.
Lin Bin nodded. At this moment, he understood that Lei Jun was probably going to use his connections again.
But thanks to his work experience at Kingsoft, as long as he was willing to ask, there were a lot of people willing to give him money!
At this moment, the headhunter sent a message: "Hong Feng has agreed. He can join Dami Company and help build the corresponding system development team."
But he wants to speak with Lei Jun personally to determine the investment level and technical roadmap for the system, saying he greatly admires Lei Jun as a tech guru.
Lei Jun immediately replied: "Schedule for tomorrow."
"Also, use your channels to help me make an appointment with Shen Fei of Transsion and Huang Tianya of Huaxin Investment."
After Lei Jun hung up the phone, Lin Bin asked, "Shen Fei and Huang Tianya. Will he meet with us?"
"Let's give it a try." A calculating glint flashed in Lei Jun's eyes. "As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Transsion and Apple are going head-to-head with Apple; we need allies."
And their chips are indeed different.
As he spoke, Lei Jun took out a MediaTek MTK6572 chip that he had taken from a Mate processor and examined it carefully for a while.
"If we can meet, we might be able to get a cheaper supply chain and lower the price a bit."
After Lin Bin left, Lei Jun began to formulate plans for the rice company.
In his plan, after dealing with Hong Feng, he would immediately develop a deeply customized UI based on the Android system, which he would call MIUI.
The goal is to resolve some issues with the current Android system, such as lag and limited playability, and to open up the market with an operating system. This process is planned to be completed within 6 months.
If we're going to do it, let's make it number one on Android.
As word-of-mouth spread about the system, we immediately began manufacturing the first phone. The project proceeded in parallel, and considering the need to address supply chain issues, the first phone was expected to be completed within 12 months.
Then we began to explore online sales models and strive to solve this problem within a year and a half.
After writing down these goals, Lei Jun picked up a Transsion S1 and its twin brother, the Mate1, once again.
He was envious of Huawei's sales, but he knew that Huawei relied on offline operators, a route with no future.
The online world is the future.
No one understands marketing better than him!
So he wrote another line on that plan: Goal: Become one of the top three in the Chinese smartphone market within three years.