Chapter 243: Short on Cash

Chapter 243: Chapter 243: Short on Cash

Irene hadn’t expected that he would still be able to keep a timely eye on her movements despite being so busy in New York that he had no time to sleep.

"Things have been going smoothly so far, but Facebook is the ultimate priority. I’ve already set the stage. You guys absolutely cannot drop the ball." Irene got straight to the point.

"How is the progress over in New York? Have all the core functions been debugged?"

Chen Shiyu’s expression tightened slightly as he took out a notebook from beside him.

"The functional iterations are basically going smoothly. The core modules—celebrity verification, image/video uploads, likes, comments, and shares—have already passed three rounds of testing. Stability is not an issue. However, there is one critical problem: the current server room can’t handle the load."

He paused and continued, "We originally configured the servers based on an initial scale of one hundred thousand users. But if your plan goes smoothly, user growth is likely to be explosive after launch.

Especially with the traffic drawn in by Britney and the artists you’re close with, we estimate the first month’s registrations could break a million. The bandwidth, storage capacity, and concurrent processing power of the current server room can only support three hundred thousand users at most. If more people are online simultaneously, page loading will lag or the site might even crash directly."

Irene tapped her fingertips lightly on the desk, signaling for him to continue.

"Besides expanding the server room, there are several major funding gaps." Chen Shiyu listed them clearly. "First, server procurement and hosting fees. To support a million-level user base, we need at least twenty sets of high-performance servers. Combined with cross-regional node deployment, this part will require about 3.5 million dollars."

"Second, bandwidth and data storage costs. The videos and images uploaded by users are large files. Subsequent storage and bandwidth consumption will be continuous. The first quarter is estimated to cost 2 million dollars."

"Third, team expansion. The operations and technical teams combined only have eight people right now. After launch, we’ll need to handle user feedback, content moderation, and functional iterations.

We need to hire at least fifteen more people, including senior operations engineers, content moderation specialists, and user operations staff. With salaries and office space expansion, this part will need 1.8 million dollars for the first half-year."

"Fourth, promotional materials and cooperation fees. Besides the organic traffic from artists, we also need to place targeted promotions in colleges across North America, such as campus posters and club collaborations, plus subsequent user incentive activities. This part will need about 1.2 million dollars."

He closed the notebook, his tone grave. "Adding it all up, to handle the upcoming launch plan and initial operations, we need an investment of at least ten million dollars. If subsequent user growth exceeds expectations, the financial pressure will be even greater."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone.

Irene gazed at the neon lights outside the window, her mind quickly calculating. She had already invested her share of the box office from The Italian Job into Pirates of the Caribbean.

As for the box office share from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, she would have to wait until the film finished its theatrical run for it to arrive gradually. Since the film’s box office had already surpassed 200 million dollars, many theaters were still insisting on showing it, so it was still far too early to get that money.

No one had expected that Irene’s first film to break 200 million dollars in North America would be the one with the least investment and the worst prospects, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This had certainly defied many people’s expectations.

From her previous negotiations with Fox regarding overseas distribution, she had received 12 million dollars. However, 5 million of that had already been given to Chen Shiyu and his team, and another 5 million was being used for the pre-production planning of Million Dollar Baby.

There was no way the liquid capital she had available could reach the ten-million mark.

"I’ll handle the funding issue." After a moment, Irene gave a clear answer. "It’s not suitable to seek external financing at this stage. Introducing capital too early would dilute shares and might affect the platform’s direction of development. Give me a week. I’ll get the money together."

Chen Shiyu was somewhat surprised, but he immediately responded, "Okay! With your word, I’m relieved. Should we push back the launch date then? It might be safer to wait until the funds are in place and the server room expansion is complete."

"We can’t push it back." Irene’s tone was firm. "The heat from the charity event only lasts these two weeks. The story of Britney and the patient is still fermenting. Launching now allows us to ride the momentum and capture the traffic. If we delay any longer, the heat will cool, the users’ sense of novelty will be gone, and all my preliminary work will have been for nothing."

She paused and made a decision. "Set the nationwide launch for the end of this month. Cut all other features—interest tags, groups, search optimization—we can add those slowly in later versions.

For this stage, keep only the core functions: a simple registration page where verification can be completed in three steps; exclusive Blue V badges for artists so users can find stars at a glance; and image/video uploads, likes, comments, and shares. The simpler the operation, the better."

"The page must follow the principle of subtraction. Remove all unnecessary pop-ups and ads so users can use it as soon as they open it, lowering the barrier to entry." Irene added, "What we want is retention, not a pile of features. Users come to the platform either to follow artist updates or to share their lives. Only by perfecting the experience of these two points can we keep people."

Chen Shiyu nodded and quickly noted the key points. "Understood! I’ll hold an emergency meeting with the team right now to cut redundant features and focus all efforts on optimizing the core modules and user interface.

Regarding the server room, I’ll communicate with the service provider first to apply for a temporary expansion to get through the initial traffic peak. We’ll complete the permanent upgrade once the funds are in place."

"Thank you for your hard work. Keep a close eye on it." Irene’s tone softened slightly. "If there are any emergencies, communicate with me anytime. This launch can only succeed. It cannot fail."

"Don’t worry, Boss!" A renewed drive burned in Chen Shiyu’s eyes. "We will definitely deliver a qualified product on time."

After hanging up, Irene leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh of relief. A funding gap of over ten million dollars was indeed a significant challenge.

She opened her phone’s contacts and scrolled to the number of her financial advisor, Jean Williams.

"Hi, Jean. Good evening. Have you had dinner yet?"

"I currently have a funding gap of over ten million dollars. Do you perhaps have any suggestions?"

"Okay, I have time. Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning."

At ten o’clock the next morning, the studio door was pushed open gently, and Jean Williams appeared on time, her high heels clicking.

Dressed in a sharp professional suit and carrying a thick folder, she had a professional smile on her face. "Irene, I organized your financial situation overnight. I’ll sync with you now."

Irene set down her coffee and gestured for her to sit.

Jean opened the folder and pushed a clearly printed report in front of her.

"You have no real estate in your name. Your only vehicle is that Mini Cooper, which was a gift from the brand when you filmed The Italian Job. In terms of financial assets, you hold liquid stocks in three companies: Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, with a total market value of about 4.2 million dollars.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding hasn’t officially finished its run, so we can’t estimate your box office share yet. After setting aside taxes and regular membership fees, the liquid capital you can use is about 100,000 dollars."

"To raise ten million dollars within a week, the safest way is a bank loan. With your current credit rating—five consecutive years with no debt or late payments—plus the box office share of My Big Fat Greek Wedding as a repayment guarantee, every bank in Los Angeles will be fighting to lend to you. You can even get the best interest rates. There’s absolutely no need to worry about it not being approved."