Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“… Ah, I feel like I missed out on the whole world.”
At an office in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Chen Yushan laid on the table.
It had been two weeks since New Year’s Eve, and the Chinese New Year was in two weeks. However, she was still sulking over missing out on the Christmas party.
Compared to her supervisor at Yan University, her supervisor at the University of Pennsylvania was basically the spawn of Satan. Since she arrived, she had had an endless amount of project work waiting for her, and she could never take a break.
At first, she felt quite fulfilled by this lifestyle. After all, she learned a lot during this time.
However, as time went on, even though she was passionate about studying management, it gradually became less and less palatable.
Chen Yushan believed that her situation was definitely an exception because most of the other international students at Wharton expressed sympathy for her.
Although everyone was being used as free labor for their supervisor, few people were being exploited as much as her.
Suddenly, the office door was pushed open. Michelle Parsis walked in wearing a fur coat.
This sophisticated woman dressed elegantly and her professional makeup perfectly covered the wrinkles around her eyes.
She looked at her student with her head down on the table and said blankly, “I’m about to go meet with a customer. Did you finish preparing the graphs for the Chinese lithium battery anode material market?”
Chen Yushan, who was still lying on the table, tiredly opened the drawer and took out a USB before she said, “It’s basically finished.”
Management was a very broad subject, this meant that its scope of studies could be very narrow or very wide.
On one day, one could be planning a company’s organizational structure while on the next day, one could be conducting market research on China’s lithium battery anode material market. The types of service people in management offered would depend on the requests of the customers.
Although AM only offered company structure planning, Parsis was able to sniff out that the contract between the Cayman Islands Star Sky Technology company and the Belgian Umicore company excluded the Chinese market.
This discovery was a huge surprise for her. People like her were the ones that conducted market research and developed plans to maximize intellectual property profits.
This type of “value-adding services” was her way of expanding her customer base.
After all, customers did not come for free. The Wall Street elites not only had to meet the needs of their customers, but they also need to help their customers and to find out what else they needed.
Mr. Parsis took the USB from Chen Yushan and stuffed it into her purse. She then said blankly,
“I’ll check your homework, but for now, go take a nap. Say hello to Los on the way out. Ask her to hand in her report by tomorrow.”
Chen Yushan obviously did not regard her words as compassionate. Parsis only wanted her to rest so she could work better.
“Okay, professor, I’ll go right now.”
Chen Yushan stood up from her desk and wobbled out the door.
…
At the same time, Professor Sarrot was facing the toughest moment of his life in a small Silicon Valley research institute.
Facing a man sitting in front of him, fifty-year-old Sarrot argued in a fierce tone.
“… Our team in the field of organic synthesis is world-class! Cornell University provides us with technical support, do you know what this means? Buying my team for $10 million, why don’t you go rob a bank instead?”
Facing this furious professor, Woolf only smiled and spoke in a calm voice, “Of course I know that Cornell University is one of the Ivy League schools and has given birth to 54 Nobel Prize winners, and there are many famous professors there as well… But what does that have to do with you?”
Professor Sarrot froze, so Woolf continued to speak slowly, “From what I know, professors at Cornell University usually don’t have to worry about funding, and they usually wouldn’t set up their company in Silicon Valley. So, Professor Sarrot, have you sent out this month’s paychecks?”
Lu Zhou’s asking price was $20 million USD, but the lower Woolf negotiated, the higher his commission would be.
If it was not for the few pieces of valuable equipment, Woolf would not want to pay a single penny.
AM was serving the scientific community?
Nope, that was the only advertisement.
AM only served the rich.
Sarrot turned bright red and he did not speak.
If he was facing an ignorant person, he could speak out of his ass. He would not be fazed even if he was facing investors at the MRS Conference.
However, Woolf was an investor that knew this industry inside and out, so his child’s play would not work here.
Woolf’s ability in negotiation was on another level.
In fact, Woolf knew exactly what Sarrot’s weakness was.
The reason why Sarrot set up his company in Silicon Valley instead of New York was that it was easier to get funding there.
Any famous materials science professor normally would not do something like this because funding was not a huge issue for them. Plenty of companies were willing to cooperate with them, so they needed talent more than money.
Materials science was different than computer science and materials science talent in Silicon Valley was no match for universities on the east coast.
As for Sarrot…
A few years ago, he could still get funding. After all, that was the golden era of lithium batteries.
Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, and even the US energy department jumped on the lithium battery train. There seemed to be no shortage of funds in this industry, and billionaires were being created left and right.
However, the situation turned sharply in recent years.
P.G Bruce, a big name in the field of lithium-air batteries, was criticized for his Nature Chemistry thesis. No one could replicate his research results. Professor Bruce was so close to success but failed in the end.
Although most people believed that Bruce made an “honest mistake”, some people labeled him as a “liar”. Because of this, the entire lithium-air battery industry was hit hard.
Sarrot was only a small name in the field of lithium-air batteries. He wanted to pick up the crumbs left by the big names, but now he was left to feed himself.
Honestly, with the financial situation of his current research team, he could not even pay the researchers’ salary, much less conducting experiments.
“I guess you still need some time to think about it…” said Woolf. When he saw that Professor Sarrot was still frozen, he shrugged and stood up from the sofa. He then said, “I’ll go take a walk nearby.”
When Sarrot saw that the opportunity was slipping away from his hands, he suddenly changed his mind.
Finally, he could not hold it anymore.
“Wait a second.”
Woolf stopped walking and turned around before asking in a relaxed tone, “You changed your mind?”
Sarrot uttered, “You’re a villain.”
Woolf smiled and said, “Same, same.”
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