Startup Loan

Interpersonal relationships in industrial companies were extremely complicated.

At Zhong Wei Technology, the current core principle was that sales reigned supreme. Surpassing Hua Long Technology was only one goal; the other was to expand sales revenue.

Therefore, business carried more weight than procurement, and even more than R&D or projects.

That was also why Liao Yongqing did not dare to be negligent.

Still, Liao Yongqing was at least an executive-level figure. Faced with Li Bo's inexplicable anger, he had a temper too. Once he figured out what had happened, he was ready to fire back.

But now, it seemed that their procurement department really had caused trouble.

Peng Fan said nothing, but the terrified look on his face made Liao Yongqing understand instantly.

"Peng Fan, do you know about what President Li mentioned?"

Liao Yongqing asked, with some nuance in his question. If Peng Fan said he did not know, there was still room to argue over the matter.

Peng Fan hesitated before saying, "I don't know about Hua Long Technology's bidding matter, but regarding the FY-01 material President Li just mentioned, someone came to recommend it the day before yesterday. That person was extremely arrogant and insisted that we sign a confidentiality agreement before he would provide the material. So our R&D department said at the time that they did not dare use his material."

"Such a tough supplier? Do you know which company it was?"

Liao Yongqing asked again, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't completely stupid.

This was the first time Li Bo and Feng Zhongfa had heard this information as well, and their anger immediately subsided somewhat. As long as it had not been deliberate sabotage, it was still understandable.

Although Peng Fan's words carried the implication of shifting responsibility onto the supplier and dumping the blame on R&D, they understood perfectly well, but they could understand it too.

Feeling secretly relieved, Peng Fan replied, "It was a company called Fei Yang Technology. It was a new company founded by an R&D employee who had resigned from a materials supplier we worked with before. He claimed that his material outperformed King Material overseas. Of course, we didn't believe that..."

But Feng Zhongfa cut him off coldly. "The people at Hua Long Technology already said this material performed on par with King Material overseas, and you still didn't believe it? You made assumptions without even conducting verification. That is not how business should be handled."

Peng Fan was immediately left speechless.

Liao Yongqing spoke up and fired back, "President Feng, Peng Fan already said that the supplier's attitude was unyielding. He demanded that we sign a confidentiality agreement before giving us the material. Does that mean we refused to verify it? Those are two entirely different matters, all right?"

Feng Zhongfa's expression changed, and he was about to retort.

Li Bo waved a hand, stopping the meaningless argument. "What's done is done. There's no point in rehashing old matters. But we must give the company an explanation for losing the bid on the Oupai client project. Director Liao, take the lead and prepare an investigation report. Someone must be held accountable for this."

Liao Yongqing fell silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "All right."

Damn it, I still have to take responsibility!

Peng Fan groaned inwardly, filled with regret.

Without question, he could not avoid responsibility for this matter. He would most likely be fined.

At that moment, he desperately wished he could return to that day. When Zhou Feiyu had introduced the material, he should not have been so arbitrary and should have given Zhou Feiyu a chance.

In hindsight, giving Zhou Feiyu a chance back then would actually have been giving himself a chance as well.

After Liao Yongqing and Peng Fan left, Li Bo made a suggestion to Feng Zhongfa. "President Feng, regardless of whether this material is a new product from a new company or something else, since Hua Long Technology dared to use it and its price has a major advantage, it must have something exceptional about it. I think we can verify it as well. What do you think?"

Feng Zhongfa immediately said, "I'll arrange it."

While Zhong Wei Technology was in complete disarray, Zhou Feiyu, who had already returned to his home county in Nanjiang Province, also received a message from Wang Wei. Hua Long Technology had used his material to defeat Zhong Wei Technology and secure a high-volume project from the Oupai client.

"A mid-to-low-end Dual Punch-Hole Screen LCD Screen phone. I didn't expect even this kind of new screen technology to become a high-volume model."

Zhong Wei Technology's failed bid did make Zhou Feiyu feel vindicated. They had not valued him enough, after all. They deserved it.

But that satisfaction was merely a momentary emotional release. What Zhou Feiyu felt more deeply was that technological innovation and generational replacement were accelerating faster and faster.

In the latter half of last year, major phone manufacturers had still been treating punch-hole screens as selling points, hyping up Extreme Point Screens and capsule screens while loudly promoting how much the screen-to-body ratio had improved.

But now, Dual Punch-Hole Screens were no longer a selling point. They were being used by phone makers like Oupai Company for high-volume projects.

High-volume projects were not intended to showcase a company's innovation or technological strength, nor were they aimed at profit. They existed specifically to capture the market and increase market share.

The development of such a project showed that the Oupai client intended to turn this type of punch-hole screen phone into a commonplace street phone, an ordinary mass-market product.

Zhou Feiyu felt a growing sense of urgency.

Phones were fast-moving consumer products. A company could release several new models a year. Once Hua Long Technology began applying his FY-01 on a large scale, he would need a factory with sufficient capacity to meet production demand. Otherwise, rapid growth would be difficult.

Entering the optical materials market alone, with neither money nor influence, he could only rise quickly and deny his competitors time. The longer things dragged on, the more variables there would be.

As an R&D worker, Zhou Feiyu's mindset was simple: just get it done!

Before leaving for Peng City, Zhou Feiyu had not only produced an FY-01 sample, but also completed two other matters. One was obtaining his patent certificates; the other was submitting an application for a startup loan.

Patent certificates could be difficult to obtain, but they could also be simple. Zhou Feiyu chose the easy route and directly hired a patent agency to file the applications.

For FY-01, he had applied for more than a dozen patents, including invention patents and utility model patents, covering some of the materials, processes, and equipment required to manufacture FY-01.

Of course, he had not applied for patents on the most critical technology. It involved the production of deeper-level materials and was the core of the core. There was no need to patent it.

The next day, he went to the bank to submit some supplementary documents.

"Boss Zhou, have you brought all the supplementary documents?"

Dong Xiaolou, the president of the county branch, greeted him with a smile. University graduate startup loans were still very rare in their county. Deep in the inland region, economic development was not very strong. Few university graduates returned home to contribute to local development, and naturally even fewer started businesses.

Not to mention high-tech startups, which were practically unheard of.

And Zhou Feiyu was applying for a high-tech startup loan. Looking at the stack of patent certificates Zhou Feiyu handed over, Dong Xiaolou was even somewhat stunned.

After all, these were merely Zhou Feiyu's personal inventions.

In their county, aside from the only two listed companies that possessed more than ten patent certificates, the other companies basically had none, even though the county had specifically introduced generous rewards for patents.

Zhou Feiyu nodded and replied, "They're all here."

Dong Xiaolou looked through them for a while before reminding him, "Don't worry. I'll help you process the application as quickly as possible. Also, since this counts as a high-tech startup, you can apply for two to five years of interest subsidies and tax exemption support. Don't forget."