Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 273 - 268: Shining Appearance (7)

Host: Alright then, let’s take another look, what is the future development direction of Y·Y?

Yan Ling: To become a more comprehensive trend brand.

Host: Can you be more specific?

Yan Ling: You will know in two months.

Host: How many stores does Y·Y plan to open this year?

Yan Ling: You will know in two months.

Host: Does Y·Y have any plans to go public?

Yan Ling: You will know in two months.

When Yan Ling turned into a "repeating machine," the host knew he would not be able to get any new information.

Just because the host can’t get it out, it doesn’t mean the information is valueless.

Wherever there is a smell of money, you won’t miss the presence of Wall Street people.

Wall Street has always had many eyes coveting Y·Y, that chunk of fat. They created the myth of Shake Shack burgers but had yet to create a myth about trend brands.

A well-developed brand with many fans, a brand pursued by countless young people in the United States, if it’s ready to start the process of listing and accept Wall Street’s investment, that would definitely be something investors would scramble for.

People who have already accumulated initial capital, rarely want to continue swapping the surplus value of labor day after day for wealth.

Everyone wants to make money from their money.

In economically depressive times, good projects are even harder to come by.

The term "Investment Manager" has already lost its primitive simple meaning.

In this era, there are many fake investment managers.

They roam around deceiving others.

Whenever they see any "lousy project," they say, "Ah, your project is so good, I can definitely help you find investors."

Then, those entrepreneurs from the "lousy projects," feeling desperate, think they have grasped their last straw.

Excitedly inviting them for meals, hosting them in various ways, waiting for this straw to bring them investments to rescue them.

But once the meals are over, and everyone departs, in a few days, they tell you they have already found an interested investing institution, but you need to give them a "project activity fund" first.

Give me a little, maybe two or three hundred thousand, and I help you find investments in tens or hundreds of millions.

The desperate usually cannot fork out this amount of money.

So the stories end there, and the companies close down.

There are also those who are "green" and sell everything including the kitchen sink, borrowing money and selling properties to give to the "investor."

That’s from people who haven’t seen much of the world.

They don’t understand the bitterness and harshness of human nature.

If you believe such things, who else is left to be deceived?

Yet, a significant number of entrepreneurs are deceived by such low-level scams.

Why is that?

Most entrepreneurs don’t have enough understanding of their own projects.

They genuinely think their projects are irresistibly good - well, it’s "their baby"; no matter how ugly, it still looks beautiful to them.

The same goes the other way around.

Not every "Investment Manager" is smarter than the entrepreneur.

Investors who get deceived are definitely not fewer than the entrepreneurs who get cheated.

Many traditional industry success stories, once they have money, dream of starting an "investment firm," especially their children.

Too many hear how simply investing can yield profits thousands of times over upon listing—an unimaginable scenario in traditional industries.

People often mention SoftBank’s thousandfold return on Jack Ma or the tens of thousands fold returns by angel investors like Xu Xiaoping.

To court such newly minted "investment institutions and investors," many entrepreneurs claim themselves as "serial entrepreneurs."

It’s like I’ve successfully founded a company before, got a good price for it, and now I continue to create.

These people are very skilled at packaging their companies.

Naïve "investment managers" often get conned just like that.

After "serial entrepreneurs" secure several rounds of investment, they often stop, and numerous companies are left incomplete.

Return on investment?

Of course, it is mostly negative; if investing in such "entrepreneurs" doesn’t result in a loss, then who would suffer a loss?

The investment market is now full of mixed performances; it’s the same both domestically and in the United States. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

You need extremely keen eyes to truly find good projects.

Thus, big Wall Street investment banks no longer act as "angels."

They either join in the last round or at the IPO stage.

At this time, the company’s size is already very large, and your return on investment won’t be that high.

But for those who can invest billions, they’re not even thinking of thousandfold returns. A few times more is already astronomical.

And by entering at this stage, the future of the invested company is generally quite clearly evident.

Even if it’s just a small multiple, the amount earned is already "a basketful," but it’s just not enough to become an "investment myth."

The birth of an investment myth requires both, a good investor and a good entrepreneur.

Plenty of good investors exist, experience through primitive capital accumulation by large investment banks, many have some unique investment foresight.

Good entrepreneurs, however, are hard to find.

Generally, it involves taking some detours, experiencing some setbacks, and by the time their true capabilities are revealed, it might already be past the prime time for investment with many others competing for a piece.

For companies like Y·Y, where the future is very clear, banks of all sizes want to enter as early as possible.

Yan Ling hinted that there might be plans to list in two months.

But there had never been reports about Y·Y completing funding rounds like angel, PreA, or A rounds.

Y·Y is probably still far from listing, investing in Y·Y now is definitely the best timing.

Following enthusiastic reporters, many investors began to take an interest in Yan Ling.

Having lived in the United States for over a decade, finding Yan Ling through acquaintances wasn’t difficult.

Even if Yan Ling declines to meet others, when a Wharton classmate asks him to meet a friend, or his former sister-in-law asks him to see someone, he can’t refuse everyone.

Yet meeting in person turns out to be worse than not meeting.

When Yan Ling deals with media interviews, he just says, "You will know in two months."

When talking to investors, he only says:

"I’ve opened 36 stores in the past two years, and indeed, I am out of money.

I also think it’s time to seek financing for large-scale expansion.

But Y·Y’s creative director says she has enough money to open stores, and we temporarily do not need investment.

Give us another two months. After I discuss it with the creative director, I’ll give you a reply."

During his trip to the United States, Yan Ling intermittently used the nonexistent Y·Y creative director as a shield, playing tai chi.