纪念十年前的创业
2010年，我33岁。
那年3月，我的创业合伙人，即将博士毕业的X了解到团购概念，并推荐我可以作为创业项目，那时候美国的团购概念正火，国内美团，拉手等网站成为第一批国内模仿者，在西安他们还没有设立分站。当时考虑我们成立西安团购可以做本地化，既可以独立运营也可以下一步等待大的团购网站进入西安时出售给他们，毕竟不管是注册用户，线下市场开拓团队都是急于争抢地盘不怕烧钱的他们一时无法做到的。
于是5月份，我同意投资并交由X创办运营了西安团乐购。但我们错误的想把网站做到盈利稳定提高估值再出售从而错过了最佳出售时机。我不在西安工作只是投资人，而作为管理人的X在10年下半年开始进入大学任教无法全力以赴创业，互联网是个充分竞争且烧钱的行业，最后网站在运营一年多后转入出售阶段。我也于2011年春节后大年初六奔赴西安，白天一同办公，晚上就在办公室地板上打地铺睡觉。
出售阶段，联系了多家全国性团购网站。 2011年2月份，Groupon终于与腾讯联合成立中文版Groupon（高朋中国）。我亲自跑到北京高朋总部去谈出售，这里把当年去北京谈出售时应高朋负责收购兼并的美国主管的要求发给高朋中国的英文版出售说明贴在下面，纪念十年前走过的那段创业岁月。这个出售说明是我写的，X连夜翻译的。这是一次财务上并不算成功的创业，但却是我一生引以为傲的选择。这次创业深刻影响了我之后的多次职业生涯方面的选择……
Dear managers ofGaoPeng.com,
First of all, please accept my best wishes to you.
Our web tuan188.com is called “tuan-le-gou” in Chinese, whichmeans “happy Group Buy”. It was founded on May 13, 2010, inXi’an, which is a famous old city for her longhistory and her Terracotta Army. It is also one of the earliest founded Group-Buy-websitesinXi’an.
Now, please allow me to introduce the departments of our Tuan188to you. There are five departments in Tuan188
inall. They areManager Department, Assistant ManagerDepartment, Customer Service Department, Sales Department and Network PromotionDepartment. In the following, I will introduce them to you detailed.
1. Manager
Department
Currentnumber of posts: 1
Responsibilities:To be responsible for the overall operation of Tuan188.
Doctor Xu Xian-Feng, the manager of Tuan188 is in this post. He isalso the founder of Tuan188. The main task of him can be described as follows.
A. Keep tracking the situation
of website access (such as traffic, time characteristics,etc.)throughCNZZ,which is a useful tool for webmasters. To know how many persons have accessedour website, which web pages have been accessed, through what links the newvisitors come in, etc, in one day, 7 days, or even 30 days. Through theanalysis of the habits, preference and laws of changes ofcustomers, he tries to find the shortages of the company and to set themain direction of the company. Thus, the value and the precision ofmarketing capabilities of the company are enhanced.
B.Human Resource Management. He is responsible for the posts set, todesign the staff salaries and incentive system, e.g., to setbasic pays for each post, to check on work attendance, to design rewards andpunishments systems for each posts.
C.To make advertising decisions. Let me take an example to explain this. WhenTuan188was founded on May 13, 2010, as one of theearliest three Groupon-mode website to offer local services inXi’an, our advertisings are focused onmerchants. This is because, at that time, these nationwide webs havenot enteredXi’anyet (Xi’an-MeiTuanwas founded on July 26,2010, Xi’an-LaShouwas founded on July28, 2010 and Xi’an-ManZuowas founded on Sepetember 16, 2010) and thesecustomers were still not familiar with this business model.We can say that, Tuan 188 has made important contributions to enlighten thisGroupon-mode to local customers. Inour efforts, these customers have gradually recognized this Groupon-mode. Then, our
advertisings are focused on how to attract more registered users.We have paid more attention to advertise Tuan188 inshopping mall, universities, andBBS which are popular with young people. At the present stage, we arecontacting the VanguardSupermarket, which has the most stores inXi’an,to place our X-exhibition as advertisements.
D.Every Monday morning, to organize all the staff to hold a regular meeting, to discussthe changes in the local market in Xi'an, to solvethe internal problems in the company, to discuss business and costumers trends,to coordinate the operation of the corporate sector, to determine prioritiesin the new week.
2.Assistant Manager Department
Currentnumber of posts: 1
Responsibilities:Assist Manager to arrange for specific work, manage the contracting businesses,human resources and finance.
A.To arrange and coordinate the specific daily work among the departments.
B.To contact external collaborators, such as advertising company, printingfactory, etc.
C.To procure the office supplies, pay housing rent and utilities,prepare the internal parties, and maintain a clean office environment.
D.To arrange the overall on-line schedule of the contracting businesses, to makethe sales and profit statistics after each group purchase and to arrange the installments.
E.To check on work attendance, assess the company staff and calculate the salary,according to the company regulations.
F.To recruit new staff.
G.To check on various financial documents claiming for reimbursement and to establishrelated regulations.
H.To handle company accounts.
3.Customer Service Department
Currentnumber of posts: 1
Responsibilities:To serve the customers online.
A.Responsible for customer consulting through QQ, e-mail, telephone,etc., to inspect customer orders.
B.To record and deal with customercomplaints, suggestions and comments. To submit the records to relevant departments.
C.To feedback, follow up and deal withcustomer complaints and to maintain good customer relations.
D.To monitor the degree of satisfaction and loyalty of customers. Tocommunicate with relevant departments to promptlyresolve customer issues and to make accordingly adjustments toimprove our services.
E.To review the credibility, the quality of goods andservice of those merchants who contact us through the entrance “Business Cooperation”on our website. And to negotiate with them.
F.To collect information and PS pictures on stuff to besold online.
G.To be a receptionist to offer service to the visitors.
4.Sales Department
Currentnumber of posts: 3 (continuing to recruit)
Responsibilities:To develop and maintain local businesses.
A.On arrival at the office before nine every morning,get acquainted with the feedback and sales of on-line businesses from the CustomerService Department within about 15 minutes, and give a report about the businessexpansion in the previous day, including the amount of businesses visited,their industry and their requirements, etc.
B.To get acknowledged about the stuff of other Group Buywebsites in another 30 minutes.
C.To make an online research about the customers on today’s schedule in another30 minutes.
D.After completing the previous work, communicate witheach other about the market information, including the communicative strategiesin sales, the latest businesses and services with features, the new requirementsof the customers, the personalized marketing programs and the latest developmentof the counterparts inXi'an.Then begin to visit the businesses on today’s schedule.
E.To regularly revisit the businesses with good cooperationand deepen mutual understanding.
F.The work focus is to develop new businesses and signcontracts. Sales staff can decide whether to make X-exhibition of the present GroupBuy for free, according to the influence of the customer and service. The X-exhibitionwill act as an advertisement in front of the customer’s store usually for 2months. (The ad will center on the present Group Buy, with eye-catching logoand website domain name.)
G.To maintain flowing communication with contracting businesses,deliver the payment and collect the materials to be used on the website.
H.The Company will make a monthly assessment of the qualityand profit of their contracts in order to decide their reward.
5. Networkpromotion Department
Currentnumber of posts: 2
Responsibilities:To do promotion for Tuan188 and the on-line goods or service.
A.As the start of one day’s work, to check the SEOresults onBaiduby searching some keywords, such as “Group Buy”, “Xi’an Group Buy”, “Xi’an Group Buy networks”, etc,to see if the searching results are on the first page. These SEO results couldbe regarded as one of the self-examination indicators of their contributions.
B.According to the day's new business, with the SEOskill in mind, make plans on the day's promotion techniques andstrategies.
C.Then to promote Tuan188 and the on-line goods or service by the way blogs, microbloggings,QQ groups, SNSes, Baidu-Zhidao, and themajor online forums inXi’an.
D.On these blogs, microbloggings, QQ groups, SNSes,Baidu-Zhidao, and the major onlineforums inXi’an,they have registered about 100 accounts. All these accounts have been logged infor refreshment.
E.Both of them have their respective links. Visitingcustomers on our website, whether to register or purchase, couldbe recorded. They exchange their promotion skills from time to time.
F.To ask these Group Buy Navigation websites (e.g.,Tuan800) to take in Tuan188, and tocommunicate with their customer service.
Theabove are all the five departments of Tuan188. Thank you for your time to read.I believe that our resources inXi’anare usefulfor GaoPeng.com, including brand awareness of Tuan188, registered customers, ourfirst-ranking network promotion result and SEO skill inXi’an, and most importantly, our mature andefficient team composed of the young. I believe our cooperation would be fruitfuland successful.
Finally,thank you again for your time and attention on Tuan188.
Best Regards,
2010，西安，再见
2020，你好，西安
