dkrc Chapter 119 Li Cheng
Chapter 119 Li Cheng
the next day.
Xiao Chen picked me up early in the morning. Sun Xiaowei arranged for three companies that were transitioning to artificial intelligence (AI) midway through their business.
Fang Liao: "When did you start thinking about this? This isn't something ordinary people do; only people with money to burn would go into AI."
Me: "Are you aware that artificial intelligence (AI) is now mainstream?"
Fang Liao: "I know."
Me: "Did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used in all sorts of industries?"
Fang Liao: "I know."
Me: "Do you know how profoundly artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from 'tool assistance' to 'autonomous intelligence,' and how this will change technological innovation, industrial applications, and many other aspects?"
Fang Liao: "I don't know."
Me: "Huh?"
Fang Liao: "I know a little."
Me: "Then why don't you give it a try?"
Fang Liao: "I don't understand it, and I feel like this thing isn't something ordinary people can afford to play with."
I looked intently at Fang Liao. He was just like me before, dreaming of transcending social classes, but only daring to struggle within the scope of my understanding. AI, drones, robots—these were things I could clearly access, but because of insufficient knowledge, I didn't dare to bravely move forward.
There's no need to offer advice.
He succeeded, and he only felt that he had been insightful at the time.
If you fail, he will think you betrayed him.
DCPAI Technology.
Sun Xiaowei: "The boss is a strong woman and also my best friend. Her husband received us. Lanlan is basically no longer involved in the company's management."
Me: "So that means her husband is very shrewd."
Sun Xiaowei: "Well, it's a long story."
As soon as I entered, I understood the meaning of the phrase "too complicated to explain in a few words".
Sun Xiaowei introduced, "This is President Li, the general manager of DCP."
I rarely see such a short man.
Li Cheng is about 1.5 meters tall? His nostrils point to the sky, and his beard grows backwards—can you believe it? It actually grows into his nose.
Li Cheng smiled and shook my hand, then opened his mouth to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth, some of which were chipped.
"Hello, welcome."
He was wearing a suit, but for some reason, I felt a bit disgusted with him.
Me: "May I have a tour of your company?"
Li Cheng: "Of course."
DCP was originally a software outsourcing company. Due to the rise of AI, its software outsourcing business declined sharply, so it switched to developing its own artificial intelligence (AI).
That's wise; if you can't beat them, join them.
Ten minutes later, in the conference room.
Sun Xiaowei: "President Li, Mr. Shen is very capable in the VC field (venture capital), and of course he is also very interested in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. I have arranged for him to meet with three companies. Because of my relationship with Lanlan, you are the first one, so President Li, you must seize this opportunity."
Li Cheng: "Understood, thank you very much."
Li Cheng opened the PowerPoint presentation, and perhaps because the conference room was warm, he actually took off his wig.
Well, I should have known better. Programmers shouldn't have hair; baldness is their destiny.
It has to be said that Li Cheng is quite something. In his PPT, he not only amplified the advantages of DCP, but also painted a very big picture for VC, punching ChatGPT and kicking Deepseek. Doubao, Gmini, and Yuanbao are all targets he is looking to surpass.
After Li Cheng finished his performance, he smiled and asked me, "Mr. Shen, what did you think?"
I clapped my hands: "That's brilliant. You've considered almost all the AI software on the market as your competitors. But you've overlooked one thing."
Li Cheng: "What is it?"
Me: "The whole presentation was a PowerPoint slide, but you didn't say how much it would cost?"
Li Cheng's eyes widened, his already ugly face becoming even uglier, and he grinned obsequiously, revealing his large teeth: "How much do you think we should bet on this?"
Me: "What do you think the DCP value is?"
Li Cheng was taken aback by my blunt question and was speechless for a moment.
Me: "Let me put it this way, if I acquired DCP, how much do you think you could sell it for?"
Li Cheng frowned; he was seriously considering it, and finally came up with a number: "200 million."
Me: "So little? Is there any point in investing in your company then?"
Li Cheng: "Mr. Shen, please give me three minutes."
I nodded. The fancy PPT was useless to me. What I needed was the future market positioning of the AI I had developed, and the phased goals for market share.
Li Cheng took out another PPT, which was an unfinished one.
It provides a detailed description of the current AI market, as well as the animation and film industries that DCP will be entering in the future, and outlines the difficulties, timelines, and goals of entering these industries.
Furthermore, it provides a detailed analysis of the current labor and filming costs in the industry, benchmarks the cost advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) in the animation and film industry, and even shows that the finished product is more refined than that made by humans!
I leaned back in my chair: "Now that's more like it."
Li Cheng: "How are you feeling, Mr. Shen?"
Me: "How much do you want?"
Li Cheng glanced at Sun Xiaowei: "The pandemic has almost emptied our savings over the past few years. I still have loans from ICBC. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the only way for the company to transform, and all of our employees and I are very confident about it."
Me: "Is your technology open source or self-developed?"
Li Cheng kept his head down, deliberately ignoring this information. He didn't expect me to bring it up myself: "Self-developed."
Me: "Since it's self-developed, the funding gap must be huge. You should understand that my requirement is that I must obtain a seat on the board of directors and have the authority to directly participate in major company decisions, strategic planning, financing plans, and the appointment and removal of senior executives. Control can be relative or absolute; for me, it's just a matter of how much money I have."
Li Cheng: "I'll think about it."
Me: "Let's postpone it until tomorrow. After all, there are two other companies coming up, and who knows which one might be better than you?"
Everyone says there are too many pitfalls for investors.
Little did they know, there were just as many who had swindled investors.
I saw him off at the company gate and got him into the car.
Sun Xiaowei: "Actually, I look down on Li Cheng. He's short, ugly, poor, and bald. He lives off my best friend, but he doesn't even realize he's living off her. He brags about how well he's doing.
Me: "On the contrary, I admire him. He is very smart and has a keen intuition about the artificial intelligence (AI) market. Judging from the second app, I know that he is a very ambitious person."
Sun Xiaowei: "Do you have a positive outlook on DCP?"
Me: "I only favor promising individuals. If someone is capable but lacks technical skills, I abandon them. If someone has good technical skills but lacks the ability to be a good person, I also abandon them."
Fang Liao: "What company is that perfect?"
Me: "VC is inherently risky. If you don't do your due diligence from the start, what's the difference between that and throwing money away?"
Fang Liao: "Investing also requires management, which is too troublesome."
Me: "Investing and obtaining a board seat gives you significant decision-making power, but it's not about directly participating in management. It's about protecting your own interests and maintaining the company's future development direction. There are just too many temptations and difficulties a company faces in its growth. You've never seen a good project get poached halfway through, leaving behind an empty shell. There are plenty of cases where VCs end up doing the work for others halfway through."
Sun Xiaowei: "Let's go, next place."