Ma Huateng teaches you how to win a project that rejected you

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At the GGV 15th anniversary summit, GGV managing partner Fu Jixun talked with Didi's angel investor Wang Gang. Based on his experience in investing in Didi, he talked about his views on investment direction and how to "see people with wisdom". The conversation was very detailed and vivid, and there was a lot of information, but due to the length, I don't intend to present the full text to you here. Interested readers may wish to click here.

What I want to share with you is an interesting detail revealed in the conversation. We all know that Tencent is a major shareholder of Didi. After investing 15 million yuan in Didi in April 2013, Tencent continued to invest. After Didi and Kuaidi announced their merger this year, Tencent became the big winner. What you may not know is that Didi actually refused Tencent's money at the very beginning.

"We are an extremely insecure company," said Wang Gang. At that time, Didi was facing not only competitors but also policy issues. Under tremendous pressure, they rejected the invitation of Peng Zhijian, then general manager of Tencent's investment and mergers and acquisitions, saying, "We don't consider Tencent. We don't want to stand in line so early." Although the latter expressed a strong willingness to invest when they first met.

So, how did Xiao Ma Ge*** win this project? To sum it up, the four words "retreat to advance" seem to be quite appropriate.

• If we want to talk, we would like to talk to Ma Huateng.
• OK. So I made an appointment with Ma Huateng.
• We still don’t want to meet him because we know that meeting the big guys still has costs and prices.
• Then we don’t need the credit limit, just meet up and have a meal.

#Hey, are you too easy to talk to?

So naturally, I was "fooled" into eating this meal, and then, "as soon as we met and sat down at the table, the taste was wrong, and it became an irresistible offer."

Give you the initiative - "I like you, you negotiate the terms."

Wang Gang and Cheng Wei, who felt they had taken the initiative, talked openly about their concerns about not accepting the money:

***, you can't help me in any way. WeChat is still in the growth stage. The value of our cooperation will be in a year, and Zhang Xiaolong will not care about us at that time.

Second, taking your money means we are on your side. Alibaba will definitely be unhappy, Baidu will be unhappy, and the whole world will be unhappy, except you.

In response to the above two points, Pony Ma gave solutions one by one to dispel doubts. Aren't you worried that we control the company? Well, we don't want the board rights; aren't you worried about controlling the shareholders' meeting? Then we will halve the voting rights; aren't you worried that we won't help? Then we will write down the traffic commitment of WeChat to you. If you are still worried, Pony Ma gave you a special clause. "If your company fails, your shareholders can still sell their shares to me, and I will give you a guarantee."

***, in a foot massage shop, the rather nervous Wang Gang and Cheng Wei, based on the "central idea" of "give us a little and we'll ask for more resources", decided to give all the quotas to Pony Ma.

How to win a project that has rejected you, Xiao Ma Ge has given a model. But for more people, the more realistic meaning of this little detail is still how to be the one being pursued. Hmm~