Chapter 110 GC Fund

Chapter 110 GC Fund

Chapter 110 GC Fund
At night, Stars & Stripes Bar on the inner street of Itaewon.

With a brown jacket draped over his arm, An Rushong walked briskly across the street and came to the sidewalk outside the main entrance of the bar.

Mike, who arrived first, was talking to a burly, bearded foreigner and did not notice An Rushong walking behind them.

"Hey, Mike," An Rushong walked closer without interrupting their conversation. He waited until the conversation came to an end and the bearded foreigner looked at him in surprise before he smiled and greeted him.

"Hey, Ann," Mike turned around and smiled when he saw him. Then, while greeting him, he walked over and hugged An Rusong.

"Come, let me introduce them to you," he said to the bearded foreigner, holding An Rusong's shoulders after the hug. "Macauley, Macaulay O'Leary, the boss of GC Fund. An Rusong, my friend, is also the chairman of NGN, the company you are following."

Mike is such a good friend. Listening to what he said during the introduction, it is equivalent to telling An Rushong clearly that Macaulay, whom he brought today, is very interested in his NGN company.

When introducing Macaulay, Mike used the abbreviation "GC Fund". To be honest, this fund is not very famous in Korea, but An Rusong knows it.

The so-called "GC Fund" is actually the "Growth Catalyst Venture Capital Fund." This fund itself is not well-known, and few people have heard of it, but its parent company, that is, its parent company, is very famous - DFJ.

Recently, as NGN companies have invested heavily in advertising, the number of registered users of NGN software has increased rapidly. Three days ago, NGN software made a major version update, adding personal space, file sharing and email services to the software. Subsequently, the number of registered users officially exceeded one million.

For an Internet company, the product it sells is software, and the number of its users is the key to measuring whether a software has prospects and is worth investing in.

A million-level app may not be considered outstanding in the Chinese market, after all, the number of Chinese netizens is too large. But in South Korea, where the total population is only 40 to 50 million, a million-level app is considered very successful.

The most important thing is that NGN users are not only concentrated in South Korea. Its Japanese version is also popular in Japan. However, since the company's advertising push does not cover Japan, the number of users in Japan has increased more slowly.

Although there are many similar instant messaging software in the world today, and many people are not optimistic about the prospects of NGN, but in view of the significant upward trend it has created today, there are still venture capital institutions extending olive branches.

In the past two days, An Rushong received many calls, and some venture capital institutions contacted him directly, but the prices offered by these institutions were simply unacceptable to An Rushong. To put it bluntly, the valuation of NGN by venture capital did not meet An Rushong's psychological expectations.

Now, he still has some money in his hand and is not so hungry for funds, so he can hold on for a while. The most important thing is that NGN will have another minor version update in the next two weeks. In this round of minor version update, NGN will add a brand new and original personal space application. An Rusong believes that the emergence of this application will not only bring a large number of new registered users to NGN, but also enhance the user stickiness of the software itself.

By that time, I believe venture capital institutions will have a completely new price for their valuation of NGN.

Although he didn't think Mr. Macaulay could offer a reasonable price for his company, the other party was introduced by Mike after all, so An Rushong still had to show enthusiasm.

"Hello, Mr. Macaulay," An Rushong said with a smile, extending his hand towards the other party.

"Just call me Macaulay," Macaulay shook his hand and smiled, "Mike and I are friends. We are friends, right, Ann?"

"Yes, we are all friends," An Rushong laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Let's go in and have a couple of drinks," Mike said, holding their shoulders in one hand each, "We can talk over a drink if we want to." As usual, there was a long line outside the Stars & Stripes Bar. Of course, the people queuing were all young girls with heavy makeup or pretty faces, because this bar was not open to Korean men. Interestingly, in Itaewon these days, the more such bars there are, the more Korean women they can attract, as if Korean women also look down on Korean men.

From this point of view, the high degree of opposition between Korean men and women in the world that An Rusong once lived in does not seem to be difficult to understand. Of course, it is understandable that Korean women look down on men in their own country. After all, what else can you expect from him if his spine is broken?
However, after the last conflict, An Rushong now has the right to enter Stars & Stripes Bar freely. Although the security guard at the entrance of the bar is no longer the burly black man, the new security guard still has no intention of stopping him.

So, under the surprised gazes of a row of pretty girls, An Rushong, Mike and Macaulay walked into the bar chatting and laughing.

Unlike the last time they came, this time the three of them did not go to the bar, but sat down at a booth far away from the bar. An Rusong took the initiative to call the waiter, asked Mike and Macaulay to order drinks, and he himself ordered some dried fruits, fruit plates, etc., and then took the initiative to pay the bill and the tip for the waiter.

An Rushong knew why Macaulay came, and Macaulay also knew that he knew why he came. However, after they sat down, neither of them talked about business directly. Instead, under Mike's guidance, they chatted about some irrelevant things first.

During this time, Mike suggested going to the bathroom. An Rushong took his lead and went with him.

While going to the bathroom, Mike privately told An Rusong that Macaulay had a very good relationship with his brother. In addition, this person was not only the head of the "GC Fund", but also one of the partners of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The reason why he came to Korea was to expand business in Asia, and his main target was the Internet field.

What Mike meant was that after coming to Korea, Macaulay was generally pessimistic about the IT companies related to the Korean Internet sector because he could not see any bright spots, and there were no opportunities for him to get involved in several major game manufacturers. Therefore, although he was not optimistic about the development of NGN, he still planned to make a trial investment in it.

Of course, considering Macaulay's views on NGN, even if he invests, he will make a large investment, and the conditions may be relatively harsh. Therefore, Mike clearly told An Rusong that he was just helping the two parties to connect, and he had no personal position or interest in it, so An Rusong could talk to Macaulay according to his own intentions.

With Mike's frank words, An Rusong felt relieved. In fact, he was self-aware and knew that NGN's current development status would not be worthy of the attention of those large venture capital institutions. Most of those who came to him were just trying to get a taste of the potential, so even if they decided to invest, they would not invest too much.

Macaulay was also a smart man. He knew that Mike and An Rushong used the excuse of going to the bathroom together, and they must have something to explain. Therefore, when the two returned to the booth, he got straight to the point.

"Ann, as a venture capitalist, I am very interested in your NGN software," Macaulay said calmly, leaning back in his chair, folding his hands on his abdomen, "I want to know what plans you have for the future development of NGN, especially in terms of profitability. Are you ready to accept advertising business? Or are you ready to develop related membership service business like Tencent in China? In your estimation, what kind of growth trend will NGN users show in the future? We can talk about questions like this."

"Macauley, before I formally introduce NGN, I need to first state that as an instant messaging software, NGN is not exactly the same as Tencent, MSN, and ICQ," An Rusong said after a moment's thought, with his hands on the table. "We have our own core content."

An Rusong will make a statement like this in advance when facing any venture capitalist. This is not only to highlight his own differences, but also to avoid future copyright disputes.

Macaulay smiled and didn't interrupt. He himself was an investor in the Internet, so he was naturally familiar with many of the rules in this regard.

"NGN's future development plan does not include advertising business, at least in the short term," An Rusong said, "After all, the ICQ experience is a warning enough."

Two years ago, ICQ had been promoting advertising for a while, but it caused widespread dissatisfaction among users, and ICQ had to remove the related business. However, An Rusong left a tail in his words, saying "at least in the short term". How short is this short term? It depends on whether NGN will have the opportunity to become a monopoly giant in the future.

"As for membership services, NGN will naturally have them," An Rusong continued, "but rather than discussing a simple profit issue, I would rather talk about a completely new concept."

(End of this chapter)