indianbanksassociation Chapter 35 A New Starting Line
Chapter 35 A New Starting Line
The day after the signing, Su Chen convened a meeting of all management personnel.
Zhou Ming, Zhang Lei, Meng Xiaosui, and Li Wei sat in the conference room, watching Su Chen write a title on the whiteboard:
[Three-Month Action Plan Following Funding]
"The ten million yuan from Mingyuan Capital will arrive within two weeks." Su Chen's tone was calm, as if stating a given fact rather than a major breakthrough. "Every penny of this money has a clear destination."
He listed four expenses on the whiteboard:
1. Final payment for the new production line: 2.1 million.
II. Expansion of the ground sales team: 1.2 million (from eight groups to fifteen groups, covering ten provinces).
III. R&D Team Building: 3 million (recruiting three flight control engineers + one algorithm engineer, including salary for the first six months and laboratory equipment).
IV. Preliminary reserves for agricultural plant protection line: 1.7 million (technical research, prototype design, joint development costs).
The total is exactly ten million.
The four people looked at the numbers on the whiteboard, each with a different expression.
Li Wei adjusted his glasses: "President Su, this ten million is allocated with almost no surplus. If any item is overspent—"
"We won't overspend," Su Chen said confidently. "Because starting next month, after the new production line goes into operation, our monthly sales revenue will exceed 1.5 million. Operating expenses will be covered by sales revenue, and the financing will only be used for these four strategic expenditures; they won't be mixed up."
Li Wei nodded and wrote down a few numbers in his notebook.
Su Chen turned to Zhang Lei: "I need you to focus on the R&D team. I've already decided on the hiring strategy—three flight control engineers and one algorithm engineer. The flight control engineers need experience in embedded systems development, preferably with experience in motion control for drones or robots. The algorithm engineer needs to understand sensor fusion and state estimation."
"My goal is to transfer the core flight control system from the minds of just the two of us to a four-person team within six months. We two will continue with core development, but the new team members will need to be able to independently handle daily iterations and new feature development."
Zhang Lei nodded vigorously. He clearly understood the significance of this arrangement—if flight control remained solely in the hands of two people, it would be a ticking time bomb.
"Regarding the plant protection sector," Su Chen wrote a few more lines on the whiteboard. "Mr. Shen from Mingyuan Capital introduced an agricultural drone company in Hunan. They have experience in designing the mechanical structure and spraying system for plant protection drones, but flight control is a weakness. If we can reach a technical cooperation agreement with them—we provide the flight control solution, and they provide the mechanical and spraying solutions—we can quickly enter the plant protection market without significantly increasing our financial burden."
"Agricultural drones?" Meng Xiaoyi was somewhat surprised. "We're going to make agricultural drones?"
"It's not something we're doing now, it's something we're preparing in advance," Su Chen said. "DJI will launch an agricultural drone priced at over 40,000 yuan by the end of this year. The market lacks truly usable products that are also priced within farmers' affordability. This is a huge untapped market—just like when we first discovered the small and medium-sized commercial aerial photography market."
Meng Xiaoyi's eyes lit up.
The same strategy—find an overlooked market, create differentiated products using technological barriers, and use ground sales to break into the market.
The difference is that the scale and profit margin of the plant protection market far exceed those of the consumer market.
"This matter is being led by Zhang Lei and me; others don't need to be involved for now," Su Chen said. "The current focus remains on sales of the F2 working version and the commissioning of the new production line. Plant protection is the next move; there's no rush to play it."
The meeting lasted for more than an hour. Everyone received their assigned task.
After the meeting, Su Chen sat alone in the conference room.
Outside the window is Shenzhen in early August, with heat waves rolling up from the asphalt road.
The construction noise on the third floor is getting quieter and quieter—because the renovation is nearing completion and the installation of new equipment has entered the final testing phase.
The new production line will be put into operation in ten days.
Production capacity will jump from 750 units per month to over 3,000 units per month.
With the expansion of fifteen field sales teams, the continued media coverage and word-of-mouth marketing, and the upcoming restructuring of the dealer network—
A monthly sales volume exceeding 2,000 units is not a dream.
After that, the agricultural drones can be deployed.
Su Chen closed the whiteboard and walked out of the conference room.
He walked towards the technical department.
Zhang Lei should already be waiting for him there—they need to discuss the core module of F2 firmware version 3.0: a flight control algorithm that can adapt to plant protection operation scenarios.
He has been studying DJI's MG-1 technology solution in the virtual disassembly lab for more than a month.
Agricultural drones and consumer drones have very different technological approaches—they have heavier payloads, more complex flight environments, and require entirely new flight path planning algorithms for precise spraying.
However, the underlying logic of flight control is the same—attitude estimation, sensor fusion, and motion control. Hongyuan's technological capabilities in these areas can be fully transferred.
Su Chen pushed open the door to the technical department.
Zhang Lei was indeed inside, with two monitors in front of him. One monitor had a code editor open, and the other displayed a simulation interface for the flight control algorithm.
"Mr. Su, I have a few ideas about the initial architecture of version 3.0 that I'd like to discuss with you."
Su Chen pulled up a chair and sat down.
"explain."
The two began a technical discussion that lasted for three hours.
The sky outside the window changed from blazing sun to twilight, and then to night.
The night shift workers on the first floor began their handover. The new equipment on the third floor emitted a faint metallic contraction sound as it cooled down.
The entire building is in operation.
Meanwhile, in the technology department on the second floor, two young people were drawing up a blueprint for a company's second growth curve, looking at the algorithm architecture diagram on the screen.
From a small, dying factory with 1.2 million yuan in cash and 52 employees—
With ten million in funding, five production lines, fifteen field sales teams, two product lines, and a new track about to be launched—
More than three months.
Su Chen sometimes felt that time was passing too quickly.
But more often than not, he felt that time was not going by fast enough.
DJI's price war is already underway. Tianying's marketing offensive is also intensifying. A full-scale reshuffling of the consumer drone market will unfold in the second half of this year.
The window of opportunity left for Hongyuan was actually narrower than he had imagined.
But Su Chen wasn't afraid.
Because he possesses something others don't—memories of his past life, a virtual disassembly lab, and a team that is growing stronger and stronger.
There is still time.
Just enough.