If everyone is reborn, who will work for capital?

Chapter 76 PUA

Geng Zhi came to this meal today with a specific mission.

He needed to subtly guide Zhang Xuhao and the other two's thinking step by step into his predetermined path.

At this moment, faced with the three people eagerly seeking his advice, he deliberately hesitated for a moment before guessing:

"Your 'Ele.me' delivery service only takes a 6% commission, right? If your daily order volume is still below 1,000, your profit is definitely still negative, isn't it?"

A hint of embarrassment flashed across the three faces. They exchanged a glance, but still nodded honestly.

The three of them simply thought it was a slip of the tongue and didn't pay any attention to Geng Zhi's slip of the tongue, saying "eating delivery" instead of "food delivery". They didn't correct him.

Zhang Xuhao was silent for a few seconds, then bitterly confessed:

"Boss Geng is very insightful. Jiaotong University is our home turf. We can handle the ground promotion, order taking, and even some of the delivery ourselves, and we only need to recruit a small number of part-time students for delivery. But Fudan University is a new place. From ground promotion and order taking to delivery, we have to hire people for everything. We are burning money every day we wake up, and we are indeed losing money."

Seeing that Zhang Xuhao had revealed his true intentions, Kang Jia added:

"If we really want to scale up in the future, labor costs will rise exponentially. Right now, most of our funding comes from support from Hao Ge's family, and that's almost gone... We've even started discussing whether we should cut off the business line at Fudan University and shrink back to Jiaotong University."

As Geng Zhi listened, his expression gradually became more and more interesting.

His eyes widened slightly, his eyebrows first twitched, then furrowed into a vertical line, and finally locked into a deep "川" (river) character.

With a hint of disbelief, Geng asked, "I remember during the roadshow, Professor Qi Chuqin, one of the judges, suggested you develop a system? You haven't even started working on it yet, have you?"

"No..." Kang Jia replied awkwardly, "For the past month or so, Hao Ge has been running around like crazy trying to raise funds, and I've been focused on expanding Fudan University. The three of us are all 'code illiterate' when it comes to programming, so... we haven't started yet."

Geng Zhi deliberately furrowed his brows even more: "No wonder! Without network effects, relying solely on manual labor, it'll take forever for orders to increase!"

"Boss Geng, how can we create a network effect?" Kang Jia followed up with another question.

"Simply put, firstly, we need to create momentum through online and offline promotion, and secondly, we need a platform or tool that allows users to multiply their knowledge," Geng Zhi explained.

"We've also been promoting it!" Wang Yuan couldn't help but interject. "We've tried everything: handing out flyers door-to-door, posting on campus BBS and Renren, but the results are lukewarm at best, practically useless!"

Zhang Xuhao wanted to ask if "the vehicle for user growth" referred to an online website system, but he saw that Geng Zhi kept shaking his head and sighing.

"Sigh, you guys are really hopeless..." Geng Zhi forced himself to swallow those five words back, turning them into a long sigh.

Although he was being manipulated and his face was burning with embarrassment, Zhang Xuhao felt more at ease.

Good medicine tastes bitter, and honest advice is hard to hear. This meal was totally worth it!

He quickly clasped his hands in a fist and palm salute: "Boss Geng, please give us your guidance! Where exactly are we lacking?"

Have you paid attention to how our "Jiaotong University Matchmaker" became so popular?

All three nodded in unison, especially Wang Yuan, who nodded particularly emphatically.

"My fellow bosses, each of you is an expert in your own field, so I won't give you any unsolicited advice on the specifics of your food delivery business." Geng Zhi waved his hand and changed the subject, "But I can use our own case to break down the 'three-step' strategy we used in our first event, which might give you some inspiration."

"That's wonderful! Mr. Geng is too modest! I'd like to hear more details!"

Wang Yuan turned to the side, facing Geng Zhi; Zhang Xuhao and Kang Jia across the table crossed their hands, rested their elbows on the table, and adopted a posture of listening attentively.

Geng Zhi took a bite of green pepper slowly and deliberately before speaking:

"The first step, before the event, was to generate buzz through mystery cards and banners, which piqued the curiosity and attention of many students, right?"

"Yes! Brother Hao and Brother Jia might not know, but I was eating gossip on the BBS every day for those few days, and I had a blast! I know all about it!" Wang Yuan hurriedly said.

Geng Zhi gave him an approving look: "Before the event, we had already accumulated a large number of users, and the website registration was instantly full. But this is only the first step in a long journey."

Geng Zhi held up his second finger, "The second step was during the event. We won praise from almost all the participating guests with an exceptional experience that exceeded expectations, which laid the foundation for the subsequent sold-out events."

None of the three had participated in "If You Are the One" before, so Geng Zhi briefly introduced several highlights of the event that would revolutionize traditional dating activities with an ultimate experience, which drew repeated praise from the three.

"Boss Geng, what's the third step?" Wang Yuan asked impatiently.

"The third step is post-event promotion. Through various online channels and news media, we let the results of the event spread. Many college students at Fudan University and Tongji University not only learned about our event, but could also register directly through the official website. We achieved a breakthrough. Ultimately, we achieved a closed loop of customer acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and self-propagation."

"Regarding your 'Hungry Delivery'... oh no, it's 'Food Delivery,' I only think of your products when I'm hungry, so I keep making mistakes. Please forgive me," Geng Zhi quickly apologized.

"It's alright, it's alright, Boss Geng, please continue. How does it relate to 'food delivery'?" Kang Jia quickly said that he didn't mind.

"The underlying logic is the same for your 'Fanjisong' (food delivery) service. You also need to create momentum, you need a good tool to handle traffic and improve the experience, then retain users with an excellent delivery experience, and then spread the word through word of mouth, creating a viral effect."

"Students ordering food online either make phone calls (inefficient and prone to errors) or use Dianping and Koubei (essentially still phone-based lead generation). If you can use a smooth online system to overturn this traditional, cumbersome experience, the opportunity is right in front of you."

After speaking frankly, he said no more, leaving the three of them time to process what he had said.

The small private room fell silent immediately.

Kang Jia rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought; Wang Yuan half-closed his eyes, deducing in his mind; and Zhang Xuhao unconsciously twirled the stubble sprouting on his chin.

Words like "creating momentum," "ultimate experience," "fermentation," and "disruption" kept echoing in Zhang Xuhao's mind.

After a long silence, he broke it first:

"Mr. Geng, your words today were truly enlightening, like a light shining through the clouds! Thank you so much!"

"Oh, we're all good friends, Haozi, you're too kind!" Geng Zhi laughed heartily, naturally changing the subject, "This chicken hot pot is really delicious! It's truly irresistible!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xuhao immediately offered, "Boss Geng, from now on, whenever you have time, I'll treat you to a chicken hot pot every two weeks!"

He was sincere.

Talking with Boss Geng always sparks new ideas and helps me see the blind spots in my thinking. Moreover, Boss Geng seems to be sharing everything without reservation, purely as a friend offering help.

He said it would take two weeks because he was afraid of being too straightforward or too busy, but actually he wished he could chat with someone every week.

"Sure! Then I won't be polite. Just don't complain if I eat too much!" Geng Zhi readily agreed.

This is exactly the effect he wanted.

In the future, if Arctic Capital successfully invests in "Fanjisong", what could be a better way to obtain first-hand information and exert subtle influence than to have regular meals with the founding team as an external friend?

If there's anything else, it would be best to have an undercover agent.

But actually, whether you're an undercover agent or not, it's only useful in the early stages when negotiating financing; it's completely unnecessary later on.

Geng Zhi had no intention of doing that at all.

No need, really no need.