Option rewards are subject to certain restrictions.

To motivate the employees, Su Yehao once again approached McKinsey Consulting, asking them to arrange for professionals to develop a tiered option reward program based on TVT's user numbers, market share, and revenue performance.

In short.

It's roughly like a level-based game, where equity and cash rewards are unlocked whenever TVT reaches a new stage of development.

Considering the continuous increase in the number of internet users, and the quality of TVT's instant messaging product itself being quite good, Su Yehao didn't want his employees to receive reward shares too early.

Therefore, he privately made a request to McKinsey, hoping that rewards would only be given when the number of daily active users exceeded two million, and that the initial stage of the option reward program would focus on cash rewards.

This wasn't because Su Yehao was greedy and reluctant to release the shares.

Mainly because, in his opinion, TVT's success was a logical outcome. He himself invested money, provided ideas, conceived development strategies, and even acquired iCQ to attract traffic.

If it still couldn't develop, then how incompetent would his employees be?

Feeling that his employees hadn't yet proven their worth, Su Yehao chose to appropriately raise the restriction requirements for option rewards. He was also worried that TVT employees would get rich too early and become as lax as those at iCQ.

When acquiring iCQ, Su Yehao promised not to lay off employees for two years, a decision he now deeply regretted.

When arranging for McKinsey staff to reorganize iCQ a few months ago, they could only transfer some of the lagging employees to other departments, continuing to pay them to avoid the spread of a lazy atmosphere that would affect other employees.

Personnel costs could waste millions of dollars in two years, and some executives who had initially achieved financial freedom were also slacking off. Those who needed to be transferred were transferred, and those who needed to be warned were warned. The situation recently improved a lot compared to the first half of the year...

After returning to Hong Kong, Jiang Yu sent Su Yehao a text message, saying that transnational flights were deadly.

Judging from her attitude, it didn't seem like she was choosing to distance herself. Over the next few days, they continued to exchange messages sporadically. The time difference between the two places made communication inconvenient.

November 25th.

In the morning, arranged by KOKO Ventures, Su Yehao met with representatives from more than a dozen startup teams, covering search engines, online shopping, online games, news, and more.

With ten million users in hand, he was trying to build a small ecosystem, supporting some promising startup teams.

Doing this turned out to be more difficult than expected.

There was too much sand in Silicon Valley, and the workload for finding gold was huge.

In Su Yehao's eyes, there was actually a better option, which was to pay attention to the upcoming situation, escape the top in time before the bubble burst, and then, when the internet entered a winter trough, invest in quality stocks like Amazon and Apple for long-term investment.

He had clearly noticed that work tasks were encroaching on a "large amount" of his personal time.

He used to be able to finish work in just ten minutes every day, but this time in Silicon Valley, he was tied down, and things were getting busier and busier.

After interviewing more than a dozen teams, Su Yehao finally selected a forum for a news website and a game development team, requiring a total investment of approximately eight million U.S. dollars.

On the way home.

Sitting in his newly bought Bentley Azure, Su Yehao sighed to Linda Yun, "It's terrifying, ambition is constantly expanding."

Linda Yun asked blankly, "What do you mean?"

"Alas, I originally only wanted to develop TVT and iCQ, focusing on monetizing traffic. How come I'm planning to create an internet ecosystem now? No, I should continue to be more open-minded, finish up and hurry back to Hong Kong. Liuli said she's almost forgotten what I look like."

Linda Yun was stunned when she heard this, and asked:

"You've been in a great state recently, working so seriously. Several institutions have arranged for people to do research. More and more people want to invest in us, and external evaluations of our company are becoming more positive. The executives also say there's a chance to turn losses into profits."

"It's indeed very good. How could business not develop well when I personally handle it?"

Su Yehao changed the topic and smiled:

"But I already have enough money to spend. The best approach is to hold on to the basics and make money through venture capital and private equity investments. They're the easiest. But now I actually want to build an ecosystem, so I say it's terrifying. I feel like I'm being pushed forward. If you want to monetize traffic, you need to support other businesses, and once you get involved in other businesses, you need to spend more money and put in more effort. There's never an end."

Silicon Valley is poisonous.

Most of the people you meet usually talk about business, making money, and who has succeeded or failed. The air is filled with the smell of U.S. dollars.

Su Yehao found that he was also infected. He wanted to invest in any project he was interested in.

Objectively speaking.

The quality of these projects selected by venture capital firms is relatively high. As long as they are well-managed, they all have the potential to succeed, and the big picture is quite tempting.

Unfortunately, some success in other people's eyes is just a waste of time in Su Yehao's view.

For example, someone just mentioned that they plan to develop a car communication community program. There are already similar forums online, competition is fierce, and the entry barrier is too low.

There's also an online map that sounds a bit like Google Maps.

Instead of spending a lot of money investing in a map product that is likely to fail, Su Yehao thinks it's better to wait until he has spare money in the future and directly acquire an existing product.

Of course, this is on the premise that there is a need for it.

Personal energy is limited, and even if it is managed by a team, there are too many things to worry about.

At this moment.

Su Yehao decisively made up his mind to stop the spread of ambition.

In the short term, it's impossible to chew more than you can swallow.

In the future, there may be opportunities to naturally get involved in other industries, but it's better to focus on games and news forums recently.

Having thought this through, Su Yehao suppressed his restless ambition and decided to focus on heavy investment and light entrepreneurship.

He stretched in the car and suddenly asked Linda Yun, "I remember I bought a Gulfstream private jet. More than a year has passed, but where's the plane?"

"Um? I'll contact them for you later. It should be in production."

"It's too slow. I shouldn't have customized it myself in the first place. I should have bought someone else's plane at a premium. I would have been enjoying it by now."

Linda Yun didn't respond, took out her phone, and sent a text message to the assistant on duty.

She soon received a reply that the customized private jet was expected to be delivered in the second quarter of next year, and they would have to wait patiently for a while...

Back home, Su Yehao was wondering what to eat for lunch.

The butler walked up to him with a cardboard box and said, "We received another thirty-two letters today. Some people came in the morning and I had them leave their files, promising to forward them to you."

"...Another round of investment solicitations?"

"Of course. If needed, I'll send any unfamiliar letters that look like investment solicitations to your venture capital firm."

The butler also found it troublesome, adding:

"More people are seeking investment from you. Other celebrities in the Silicon Valley area should be in a similar situation. I heard that a neighbor cleans up once a week, and the letters can fill two large garbage cans on the street."

"No need to guess, it must be the CEO of Oracle's house. He's the most famous, so more people will be looking for him."

Su Yehao took out these letters and casually flipped through them.

There were invitations to attend banquets from charitable foundations, advertisements for selling yachts, and even invitations for door-to-door "shameful" services, probably sent to every household in Atherton, as there were a lot of wealthy clients.

Entrepreneurs are everywhere here, and everyone hopes to latch onto someone powerful.

As Su Yehao gained some fame, recently, whether he went to the company, ate out, or took a walk, people would always "coincidentally" meet him and recommend their projects.

Su Yehao originally had no expectations for these unsolicited letters and didn't even bother to read them. Anyway, those who sent him the letters had probably already adapted to them disappearing without a trace.

However.

An ordinary folder successfully caught Su Yehao's attention, with the title "A New Generation of Search Engines" written on it.

Continuing to read... um, there were too many professional terms, and Su Yehao didn't quite understand them, but it seemed very professional.

He beckoned Linda Yun over and asked her to help him translate it.