Chapter 955: The Birth of Netscape
Zhang Hao's words stunned Mark. Mark never thought that Zhang Hao would make such a request. Originally, he just thought that Zhang Hao was a friend of his cousin and came here to play. At most, he had some personal interest in what he was researching.
And now, Zhang Hao directly proposed to join the project and fund himself, which surprised Mark greatly.
Mark recognized Zhang Hao's ability on computers, and the key was the small program that he had just demonstrated to him.
Although this small program is not very eye-catching and has no commercial use, Zhang Hao has absolutely no problem in making this program from a technical point of view. At the same time, Zhang Hao's divergent thinking and ideas are also essential in computer research.
Although computers have been invented for decades, personal computers, or PCs, have only been around for a short time. With the emergence of PCs, computers have evolved from professional scientific research tools to tools that ordinary people can use. Especially with the emergence of the World Wide Web, computers have begun to transform from single individuals to the entire network.
In this process, for those who work in computers, in addition to having professional skills, they also need pioneering ideas and thoughts. Both are indispensable, and the progress of computers is precisely based on this foundation.
There is no problem with Zhang Hao's skills, and his wild ideas also make Mark feel the same way, so from this point of view, Mark does not refuse Zhang Hao to join the project, because this project was originally initiated because of Mark's interest.
"Of course it's fine if you want to join, but there are two problems. How do you solve them?" Mark frowned slightly and asked Zhang Hao directly.
"you say."
"The first problem is that we are not in the same city, and communication between the two sides is a big problem. We cannot communicate in time during the project, and even communicating by phone is very troublesome." Mark said.
Zhang Hao thought about it and said that he could come over for a while to work on this project together. American universities have many holidays. American universities start their summer vacation in May and can last until the start of school in September, which is a full four months. However, the summer vacation in the United States is different from that in Chinese universities. Because of the credit system, students can choose whether to take a vacation during the summer vacation or stay in school to attend classes. The latter can graduate early, just like Zhang Hao is now, so he can adjust his rest time at any time.
"OK, that's not a problem then." Mark said with satisfaction.
"What's the other question?" Zhang Hao asked.
"Another question is that you mentioned funding just now? This is not a small amount, it is a huge sum of money. Mike, I said that if we need to complete the follow-up, it will cost at least one hundred thousand US dollars. Maybe this money is not enough. I can't judge how much it will cost in the end. It depends on the follow-up progress. Mike, you..." At this point, Mark didn't know what to say for a moment. He had very little impression of China, and Zhang Hao was the first Chinese he had met.
However, Mark remembered that China was a less developed country. Although as a Chinese student who could study in the United States, Zhang Hao's family should be considered well-off in China, otherwise he would not have come to the United States to study.
But even so, one hundred thousand dollars is not a small amount. It is difficult for an ordinary American family to come up with one thousand dollars in cash on a daily basis. According to the classification of the US government, an annual income of forty thousand dollars can reach the level of middle class. One hundred thousand dollars is the total income of many American working-class people for more than three years. If you do odd jobs, this time will be even longer.
Zhang Hao is just a Chinese student studying abroad. How can he come up with so much money? Mark expressed doubts about this.
"Funding is not a problem. My family does business in China. Even if I can't afford the money, it's not difficult to find investors. The key now is whether you agree to my joining. If you agree, I will solve this problem." Zhang Hao said to Mark with a smile. Mark thought about it and smiled. He stretched out his hand to Zhang Hao and said, "As long as you can solve this problem, I will certainly not refuse. Welcome to join, Mike!"
"Hey, hey! Don't forget I'm here!" Jimmy on the side couldn't help but say something, and raised his right hand like a lucky cat and waved at the two of them, looking like he couldn't wait.
Seeing him like this, Zhang Hao and Mark both laughed at the same time. Jimmy also wanted to join, and of course they welcomed him. After all, Jimmy was not only Mark's cousin, but also Zhang Hao's good friend. What's more, Jimmy's computer skills were not bad either, so they would not refuse.
With just a few words, a small group of three was formed. At this moment, these three young people did not know that they were creating history at this moment, a decision that was enough to change the world.
After confirming the project team, the next thing was to talk about the details. Because of Song Yuanchao and Zhang Jianguo, Zhang Hao was no stranger to business since he was a child. Moreover, although there are personal relationships in doing things in the United States, sometimes it is more about public and private. In many aspects of cooperation, business is the basic foundation.
Moreover, this project also involves Zhang Hao's investment. This is not as simple as the funding that the University of Illinois previously gave to Mark. The University of Illinois' previous funding was through the school channel, with very little commercial component. Now that Zhang Hao has taken over the investment, it has changed from pure funding to commercial investment.
In view of this situation, the three decided to set up a company, in which Zhang Hao, as an investor , held 60% of the company's shares with an investment of 100,000 US dollars. Mark was the core of the project and used his current technology to invest in the company, holding 35% of the shares, and the fat man Jimmy held the last 5% of the shares.
In theory, it doesn't matter whether Jimmy's shares are given or not , at least Mark doesn't think it's necessary to give Jimmy's shares, even though he is Jimmy's cousin. However, Zhang Hao's thinking is that of an oriental person. Jimmy is his friend, and he can get to know Mark and start cooperation. Jimmy's role in this is irreplaceable.
What's more, Jimmy is very good at computers. Since everyone is working together, it is not appropriate to exclude Jimmy from the shareholders. So Zhang Hao suggested giving 5% of the shares to Jimmy. To put it bluntly, this 5% is taken out of Zhang Hao's original shares. Since Zhang Hao did this, Mark naturally would not object. He shrugged and agreed to the suggestion.
A simple document was drafted and the next step was the registration of the company.
Since Zhang Hao became an investor, this project could no longer use NCSA's resources, and it also had to be directly distinguished from NCSA's work to avoid future technical entanglements.
Taking these into consideration, as well as the actual situation, they decided to register the company in California, and this suggestion was recognized by everyone.
Funds were not a problem for Zhang Hao. He hadn't touched a penny of the money in Citibank so far, and it was enough for his investment.
The specific company registration was handled by Zhang Hao, who was very familiar with California. After all, Song Chaoyuan's company and laboratory in the United States were in California, so it was not difficult to register a company there. Moreover, by registering the company in California, he might be able to use the resources of Song Chaoyuan's company, at least that was what Zhang Hao thought.
They acted immediately. After Independence Day, the company's registration was carried out in full swing. Zhang Hao commissioned a lawyer to register the company in two days, and rented a good office space in California as the company's office and work location.
This place is the location of Song Yuanchao's company. Because of the relationship between Zhang Hao and Song Yuanchao, the California company readily provided convenience, which saved Zhang Hao and his team a lot of trouble.
After the company was registered, Zhang Hao's investment funds also arrived. The three of them thought of the name of the company together. According to Mark's suggestion, the company was named Netscape. After thinking about it, Zhang Hao felt that simply calling it Netscape could not fully reflect the whole thing, so he proposed adding Navigator after Netscape to express the role of the project they were researching.
This suggestion was approved by Mark and Jimmy, so the name of the company was finally determined, Netscape Navigator, also known as Network Navigator, or Netscape Navigator, and the company was born.
After Netscape Navigator was established, Zhang Hao and Jimmy contacted Mark, who had resigned from NCSA. The three met in California and went to the newly decorated office together.
When they arrived at the place, everyone was very satisfied. Although the office was not large, it was very well decorated. It was much better than when Dell was first established and used his own garage as an office. There was also accommodation near the office, so they didn't have to find another place to live.
In the following days, the three of them were busy with their work, staying in the office every day and not going anywhere. For this project, Mark moved all his computers here, and Zhang Hao also spent money to configure several new computers to meet work needs.
For more than a month, the three of them hardly even left the office and worked day and night.
At this time, I don’t care about Chinese or Western food. As long as I can fill my stomach while working, it’s enough. Even when I go out to buy groceries, I will only go to the supermarket when I have no other choice. When I eat, I either make a sandwich or call for pizza delivery. When I am tired from being busy, I just lie on the sofa for a while, or go to the back room to take a nap. After waking up, I wash my face and continue.
When the last code was finally typed, Zhang Hao and Jimmy watched Mark run the software successfully, and the three of them cheered at the same time.
It was not easy! After nearly a month and a half, they finally completed the project and produced a software that could be used in practice. Looking back on the previous plot, everything seemed like a dream.
After so long, the three of them looked slovenly, with long hair and haggard faces. Their clothes hadn't been washed for a long time, and there were sauce marks on their chests. If they walked out like this, they would definitely be mistaken for homeless people. The three of them laughed at the same time.
The software was completed, but the initial investment funds had long been used up. Fortunately, Zhang Hao had made more preparations, otherwise it would have almost failed.
After finishing the software, everyone felt relieved. As soon as they felt relieved, they felt tired. They fell asleep without even taking a shower. They slept soundly for more than twenty hours. When they opened their eyes again, Zhang Hao felt that all his fatigue was gone and his energy returned to his body.
