Chapter 48: Would He Refuse if She Paid Him?
"No. You're also not a good judge of person." There was silence. Another presentation had ended. Yun Qian Meng had completely ignored it. Seeing her distress, Mo Qingchen spoke again. "It was a food delivery company. Their business model takes advantage of vendors and their resource allocation is poor. You wouldn't like them."
She didn't thank him.
The presenter was taking questions. She had time to control her anger. Next up was Jiang Da with his dating app. She was really looking forward to it.
"I only judge some people wrong. It's not a failure of my judgment. It's just that I wanted to trust those people."
Mo Qingchen felt an ache in his head. There she went again. That look in her eyes made him want to step in.
"Don't talk like an abandoned child. You're old enough to know that no relationship is pure. Get over your expectations from others and remember what you preach. Someone close to you, your family, or friends can turn on you at any time but not your enemy. Trust your enemy more than your friends."
True. She kept forgetting how much more damage loved ones could cause.
The host announced Jiang Da's presentation. Yun Qian Meng sat up straight and looked at the board. Most of the people weren't interested. Apart from the top dating applications that were in the market and thriving, there was not much space for other companies.
But Yun Qian Meng saw potential.
She wrote down everything she heard, making additional notes she wanted to question Jiang Da about. The man beside her looked too displeased to consider the company. Yun Qian Meng looked towards him and then sighed.
"Seriously?" he hissed. "This is the one you are interested in? I thought you had high standards for people and companies." He groaned as he saw her eyes brighten.
"Sometimes, those things don't matter," she grinned from ear to ear.
Mo Qingchen recoiled, realizing that she was up to something evil. He leaned away from her and watched the show silently.
When the presentation time was up, the host came up and announced that they would take questions.
Qian Meng put her hand up and waited for someone to pass the phone to her.
"Thank you for the presentation," she said, beginning on a positive note. "My first question for you lies in which countries you are operating in and how many active users are on your platform as of today."
"As of today, we have fifteen thousand active users on the platform. It is available in Singapore and some other countries for now but most of our users are from Singapore." Jiang Da replied confidently.
"That's a good number. How long have you been operating for?"
"Over a year now," he said.
"And you are meaning to enter the global market with this base..." she pretended to contemplate. "From what I have seen of the application and website, the selling point is great. You are including all sorts of relationships and asking for the inclusion of minority sexualities as well. I support the selling point. With the rising number of unconventional romantic and sexual wants of people, it is a really good selling point. But your user experience is boring at best. The interface is hard to navigate, looks bad, and feels like it was done by a novice." She sighed. "Can you tell me how many employees your company has?"
She smiled. Her eyes were glittering and Mo Qingchen stared at her, astounded. What was she getting at?
"Four," Jiang Da said in a much lower voice than before.
"Including you. You, your co-founder, and two other people in your company who are helping you create this website."
"Yes."
"I went to your business profile." She pulled out her phone. "Both of your 'employees' are marked as freelancers that get paid close to dirt for helping with your website." She waved the screen in front of everyone. "I also found that you are a co-founder for three other companies and tried your hand at business eight times before. What happened to those businesses?"
Now, her smile fell. Her eyes hardened.
Jiang Da stammered. "We've all had bad experiences. You also have a lot of companies under you, don't you? You must understand."
"No, I don't." She scoffed. "There is a particular difference between us. I succeeded in all my businesses. I didn't hop around like a headless chicken trying to profit from every industry. I also didn't take advantage of young freelancers who want to make money and survive."
"Miss Yun, did I do something to offend you?"
'Yes, you did. You did it the moment you compared yourself to me.'
"You've not made a single dime off the dating app yet and you valued your company at three million dollars." She chose to ignore his question. "The whole capital put into the company was around fifty thousand dollars, which you took to market inefficiently in the countries you are currently operating in. You paid little to the people who built your website and didn't think about how to better your interface. You also got a copyright for the name and idea of your dating website."
That was the only good thing he had done. It had been clever of him to do so.
"If I had to value your company, I would put it at a hundred thousand dollars. What do you have to say?"
Jiang Da remained silent. Mo Qinchen, who sat beside her leaned in.
"I thought you don't like offending people. What are you doing?" he whispered. She glanced towards him.
"I looked him up. Now that I know what kind of a person he is, I can grab him by his throat." She smirked.
"I think you are wrong."
"So, if I offer you a hundred thousand dollars to buy your dating app, including your IP rights, you would refuse?" There, she laid it out in the open. Jiang Da gaped.
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