Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 681: The Plan to Become Poor

October 13th, Thursday...

Tengda Headquarters...

Assistant Xin led Qiu Hong to the guest room and poured him his drink.

“Please have some tea; Boss Pei will be here soon.”

Qiu Hong nodded hurriedly. “Sure, sure.”

Qiu Hong drank his tea while yearning for the Tengda Games after Assistant Xin left the guest room.

Qiu Hong had been preparing to contact his friends in the circle, wanting to regroup and start another company to develop new projects after he gave his lectures to ‘Boss Ma’.

However, he had yet to decide what project it should be, which naturally could not convince any investors to invest in the projects.

Qiu Hong did accumulate a lot of wealth through Krypton Gold Online Games, but he had basically exhausted everything when he failed in his own business previously.

The cultural industry was highly subjective, especially more so in the game industry.

When one succeeded, one would be smug, and they would feel right in everything. However, when one failed, one would fall into deep self-doubt and feel worthless.

Qiu Hong was now struggling with that. He would like to re-open a company and develop a successful game, but he felt like he wasn’t prepared enough so he felt lost.

‘Boss Ma’ called again at this time exactly to invite him to Jingzhou, saying that there was cooperation with Tengda, which needed face-to-face discussion.

They did not say what was wrong over the phone.

If it was another company, Qiu Hong may not think much about it since there was a feeling of relying on someone else’s charity after his entrepreneurial pursuit.

It was the Tengda Corporation after all, and Qiu Hong had a relationship with Boss Ma—which was why he decided to come.

He had always gone straight to the cafe near Handong University when he came to Jingzhou previously. This time, Qiu Hong finally entered the Tengda Corporation.

Spacious workstations, enviable benefits, the employees’ great mental state...

All of which made Qiu Hong envy from the bottom of his heart.

He started a company himself and knew the hardships and difficulties it must have been to build Tengda to the state it was today.

It was incredible to be able to guarantee the enthusiasm and combat effectiveness of all employees of the company on the premises of providing such a favorable working environment and relaxing working atmosphere.

In short, Qiu Hong felt that he did not come in vain after seeing the environment in Tengda.

As to what sort of cooperation to be discussed...

Qiu Hong really could not tell.

Qiu Hong was very clear about his position. He might have some reputation in the domestic game industry, but it was only limited to the field of Krypton Gold Online Games. He might have made some money, but it was incomparable to Tengda.

Tengda did not need him.

Light footsteps were coming from outside the guest room while he was thinking about it. He could vaguely hear Assistant Xin saying ‘Boss Pei, Boss Qiu is already waiting in the guest room.’

Qiu Hong sat upright subconsciously.

Boss Pei was here!

Qiu Hong had only heard news about such a legendary character and had never seen him. For some reason, he felt a little expectant.

Qiu Hong hurriedly said ‘please come in’ after hearing a knock from the reception room.

Assistant Xin opened the door, and ‘Boss Ma’ walked in.

“Boss Pei, do call for me if you have any problem.” Assistant Xin closed the door and left.

Qiu Hong was on his feet, ready to shake hands with Boss Pei; however, he was stunned when he saw Pei Qian.

Question marks filled his head.

???

Boss Pei smiled at the stunned Qiu Hong. “Boss Qiu, long time no see.”

Qiu Hong had yet to react.

Wasn’t that Boss Ma?

Then, why did the assistant who seemed to have a very high status in the company address him as ‘Boss Pei’?

Qiu Hong vaguely realized something, but he found it unbelievable because he could not figure out the reason and logic behind it.

Pei Qian sat down on the sofa. There was no need to let Qiu Hong continue guessing now. He prepared the remarks and got right down to the topic.

“Boss Qiu, I have to apologize to you first. My true identity is not Boss Ma of Dream Realization Ventures, but Pei Qian himself.

“As to why I called myself Boss Ma... the main reason is to contact you with a different identity, exchange and discuss, understand each other, and decide whether there is any possibility of cooperation between us or not.”

The confusion on Qiu Hong’s face obviously lessened considerably, with some form of realization.

In other words, Boss Pei was not actually listening to my lecture previously but conducting an anonymous inspection and interview?

Just like how the principal would sit in and listen when the teacher was teaching to understand the teacher’s level?

That actually explained why Boss Pei wore the ‘Boss Ma’ persona to contact him.

However, Qiu Hong still had questions.

He was a very ordinary game designer—though with a little fame, but there was a huge bunch of them in the domestic game circle that had similar backgrounds.

What virtues and ability did he have to make Boss Pei go to such great lengths to test the possibility of cooperation? Boss Pei even paid tuition by then!

What sort of cooperation was he looking for?

Pei Qian did not want to keep mum on it so he quickly proceeded.

“Boss Qiu, I’ll talk a bit about our cooperation proposal, please consider it.

“The project that I want to embark on is called ‘Destitution Plan’.

“This is a support plan for domestically-produced standalone games and independent game developers. It is committed to finding them and supporting them with the necessary support funds.

“I would like to invite you to be the person-in-charge of this ‘Destitution Plan’ and become an executive of Tengda Corporation. Your salary and benefits will be on the same level as the other departments, but there is one point to be emphasized: Your bonus will not be linked to the profits of the ‘Destitution Plan’.

“Your bonus will be dependent on the ratio of profitable projects to the total number of projects. The lower the ratio, the more your bonus will be.

“I cannot disclose how much that will be, but I can guarantee that it will not be lower than your previous bonus income when you acted as the chief planner of a successful project. Of course, I must also say frankly that it will not reach the income of a successful entrepreneur.

“Of course, we can discuss in the future if you feel dissatisfied and want to leave or want a salary adjustment.

“That’s roughly all. Please fire away if you have any questions, Boss Qiu.”

Pei Qian took a sip of water and smiled at Qiu Hong.

As for why it’s called ‘Destitution Plan’, not ‘Angel Plan’ or ‘Savior Plan’, was obviously because Pei Qian hoped that this plan would end in despair so he named it for good luck.

Qiu Hong was silent.

It wasn’t like he didn’t have any question, but more of... he had so many questions he did not know where to start!

There were many companies doing something like this locally.

There were two types of companies that did this the most. One was investment firms or so-called ‘incubators’ specifically targeting the game industry while the other was the gaming channel and platforms.

The official ESRO platform might be the largest and most authoritative platform, but it did not mean the other games platform did not exist. For example, the application store of Shenhua cell phone could also be regarded as a kind of games channel and platform.

These two types of companies carry out similar support programs, obviously, because it was profitable.

Many startups in the game industry exploded in their popularity overnight especially in the past two years when mobile internet became widely popular. The myth of game companies becoming rich overnight repeated. If one really invested in a successful mobile game company, then the return on investment would have been something that stung the eyes of other investors.

There might be many investment firms, but there were also many thresholds they had to overcome. They generally did not understand the game industry and naturally did not dare to invest in these small game companies.

Therefore, specific investment firms targeting game companies were born.

The platforms would support some start-up game companies basically for the same purpose. A nice front for it would be to say that it was to get better and more games for their platforms, but in the end, it was all for profits.

Therefore, these companies had one characteristic. They had indeed invested in and supported many companies, but most of them were online companies and mobile game companies.

The reason was simple: that made money!

Investing in these companies was high-risk, high-return.

Investing in standalone and independent games was high-risk, no-return.

Investment firms had the instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. It was a normal phenomenon to invest in online games rather than standalone games and to invest in cell phone games instead of independent games.

Yet Boss Pei’s ‘Destitution Plan’ was actually targeted at standalone and independent games?

Moreover, as the person-in-charge, the bonus and performances were not to be measured by the income of the project?

It was instead... inversely proportional to the ratio of profitable projects?

Didn’t that mean the greater the investment and the lesser the profits, the more the bonuses would be?

Could reverse incentives work?

Wasn’t that encouraging himself to choose more rubbish projects?

That made Qiu Hong very confused.

Sincerity for the income was already shown.

Qiu Hong served as a chief planner to make a project with a monthly turnover of 100 million yuan before his entrepreneurial pursuits. That was the highest income he drew in his life, even so, his bonus was just over 100,000 yuan.

The bonus rule of the company was that the entire development team could only get 3% of the project income, and this so-called monthly ‘turnover of 100 million yuan’ was—in fact—bragging in most parts. It did not mean a net income of 100 million yuan.

They had to deduct the share with the platform and channel where the channel took the bulk of the money and deduct marketing expenses—a huge part of which was fudged by his company. Moreover, it was a rather big development team by then. The bonuses were divided by the entire project team. Everyone had a share. As the main planner, the proportion was higher even though it was also limited.

Counting in all the miscellaneous stuff, the money that they got eventually was just a drop in the ocean.

That was why Qiu Hong was so keen on pursuing entrepreneurship.