创始人如何保住控制权？ How does the founder retain control?

创始人往往都是白手起家，在高速发展的现代商业社会，没有资本的加持，难以在市场中脱颖而出。

The founders often start from scratch. In the fast-developing modern business society, without the blessing of capital, it is difficult to stand out in the market.

为了吸引投资，创始人往往会稀释股权，而如果因此丧失了控制权。创始人出局，投资人自然就成了公司的母亲，但如果创始人还能牢牢掌握控制权，他就可以把投资人看成是无法掌握大局的舅舅。马云当年就是这样，用4.8%的股份，就牢牢掌握了阿里的控制权。

In order to attract investment, founders often dilute their equity, and if they lose control as a result. If the founder is out, the investor will naturally become the mother of the company, but if the founder can still hold firm control, he can treat the investor as an uncle who cannot grasp the overall situation. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, with 4.8% of the shares, he firmly grasped Ali's control.

创始人怎么保住控制权呢？我们今天探讨一下。

How can the founder retain control? Let's discuss it today.

优序融资理论 Priority financing theory

经济学里有一个“优序融资理论”，具体是什么意思呢？

There is a "priority financing theory" in economics. What does it specifically mean?

优序融资理论，融资首选是内部自有资金，其次是外部债权融资，实在不行了，才选择外部的股权融资。

Priority financing theory, the first choice for financing is internal own funds, followed by external debt financing. If it is not enough, we choose external equity financing.

如果必须进行股权融资，投资人进来的话，肯定不能又让马儿跑，又让马儿不吃草，创始人要把相应的控制权和索取权让渡给投资人。这个时候，创始人一定要抓住之前我提过的三条生死线，保持一个适当的融资节奏。

If equity financing is necessary and investors come in, they must not let the horses run and not eat the grass. The founders must transfer the corresponding control and claim rights to the investors. At this time, the founder must seize the three life and death lines I mentioned before and maintain a proper financing rhythm.

同时，创始人一定要学会用时间来换空间。新东方的三驾马车，持股比例是俞敏洪45%，徐小平和王强各10%，可以想象，如果不是俞敏洪先把公司做起来，而是一开始就找另外两个人合伙，三个人的股权比例不会相差这么悬殊的。

At the same time, the founder must learn to use time for space. New Oriental’s troika holds 45% of the shares of Yu Minhong, and 10% of Xu Xiaoping and Wang Qiang. It is conceivable that if Yu Minhong had not set up the company first, he would find two other people as a partnership at the beginning. It will be so different.

当然这个案例不是让你不找合伙人了，今天的创业环境和新东方当年完全不一样，合伙人越来越重要了，我只是想告诉你，创始人要把股权看成是公司重要的战略资源，如果可能的话，不要着急释放。

Of course, this case does not prevent you from looking for partners. Today’s entrepreneurial environment is completely different from New Oriental’s back then. Partners are becoming more and more important. I just want to tell you that the founders should regard equity as an important strategic resource for the company. If possible, don’t rush to release.

为什么有那么多创始人都大幅度的稀释自己的股份呢？有的人肯定是无可奈何，因为没有这些钱，公司就发展不了，因此也就不计较股权的比例了；有的人是图个虚荣，比如看到竞争对手融了3000万，就较劲一定要比对方多。

Why do so many founders greatly dilute their shares? Some people must be helpless, because without the money, the company cannot develop, so they don’t care about the proportion of equity; some people are vain, for example, when they see a competitor raise 30 million, they must compete with each other. There are many other parties.

以下我们就说3个防止创始人出局的方法：

Below we will talk about 3 ways to prevent the founder from getting out:

资源控制 Resource control

除了用股权控制公司外，还有什么方法吗？还有三类方法可以用。

Is there any other way besides controlling the company with equity? There are three types of methods that can be used.

第一类方法：资源控制。

The first type of method: resource control.

2011年，雷士照明在引进多家投资人后，创始人吴长江的股份已经降到15.33%，当时吴长江还盲目自信，认为投资者人很喜欢自己，绝对不会把自己赶出局，结果好景不长，还不到一年，吴长江就被投资人赶出局了。

In 2011, after NVC Lighting introduced a number of investors, the shares of the founder Wu Changjiang had dropped to 15.33%. At that time, Wu Changjiang was still blindly confident, thinking that investors liked him very much and would never drive himself out. As a result, the good times didn't last long. In less than a year, Wu Changjiang was driven out by investors.

所以，任何创始人都不要盲目地乐观，如果不做控制权的安排，只要股份比例低了，在资本面前，谁都不安全。

Therefore, any founder should not be blindly optimistic. If there is no control arrangement, as long as the proportion of shares is low, no one is safe in the face of capital.

那么，如果股权被稀释得少了，担心失去控制权，都可以做些什么安排呢？

So, if the equity is diluted less and you are worried about losing control, what arrangements can be made?

方法还是不少的，吴长江就打了一场漂亮的翻身仗。他被赶走后，把经销商和员工发动起来，*工罢**停产，引发股价大幅下跌，投资商不得已又和把吴长江请回了公司。你看，吴长江是怎么控制了公司的？ 是通过掌握员工和经销商这样的关键核心资源。

There are still a lot of methods, and Wu Changjiang fought a beautiful turnaround. After he was driven away, he mobilized dealers and employees, went on strike and stopped production, causing the stock price to fall sharply, and investors had to invite Wu Changjiang back to the company. You see, how did Wu Changjiang control the company? It is through mastering key core resources such as employees and distributors.

架构控制 Structure control

第二类方法：架构控制。

The second type of method: structure control.

你可能会觉得这种资源控制的方法也不是那么绝对，毕竟股权大战都打起来了，资源只是在战争中进行博弈的工具。有没有什么干净利落就能取得控制权的方法呢？有的，这种方法叫“架构控制”。

You may think that this method of resource control is not so absolute. After all, the equity wars have started, and resources are just tools for the game in the war. Is there any clean way to gain control? Yes, this method is called "structure control".

比如你可以采用金字塔持股的架构。怎么操作呢？

For example, you can adopt a pyramid holding structure. How to do it?

假设，你掌握A公司51%的股权，然后A公司再掌握B公司51%的股权，B公司再掌握C公司的51%的股权，这样的话，你间接持有C公司51%乘以51%乘以51%，也就是大概13%的股权，但是在这个金字塔的每一个层级你都是控股股东，所以你看，你用13%的股权就牢牢控制了C公司。

Suppose, you hold 51% of company A, then company A then holds 51% of company B, and company B then holds 51% of company C. In this case, you indirectly hold 51% of company C multiplied by 51% Multiply by 51%, or about 13% of the equity, but you are the controlling shareholder at every level of the pyramid, so you see, you firmly control the C company with 13% of the equity.

有统计数字说，在中国的IPO企业中75%以上的企业股权结构体现出金字塔的特点,特别是在民营上市公司中,有94.51%的企业都采用了这种股权架构。

According to statistics, in China's IPO companies more than 75% of the corporate ownership structure reflects the characteristics of the pyramid, especially in the private listed companies, 94.51% of the companies have adopted this type of ownership structure.

你还可以采用有限合伙企业的架构。这种企业的合伙人，分为普通合伙人，General Partner，简称叫GP，和有限合伙人，Limited Partner，简称叫LP。

You can also adopt the structure of a limited partnership. The partners of this kind of enterprise are divided into general partners, General Partner, called GP for short, and limited partners, Limited Partner, called LP for short.

合伙企业是承担无限责任的，普通合伙人就是这个企业中承担无限责任的人，有限合伙人只承担有限责任，作为对价，有限合伙人不参与公司的运营管理，创始人可以自己或者指定亲信担任普通合伙人，普通合伙人哪怕只有一股，也有全部的经营管理权力，是100%的控制权。

A partnership enterprise bears unlimited liability. The general partner is the person who bears unlimited liability in this enterprise. The limited partner only bears limited liability. As a countermeasure, the limited partner does not participate in the operation and management of the company. The founder can either himself or appoint a trusted person to serve A general partner, even if the general partner has only one share, he has all the power of operation and management, which is 100% control.

有限合伙企业作为一种控制权的安排，现在被广泛应用在公司治理之中。比如，你看蚂蚁金服的两个大股东君瀚和君澳都是位于杭州的有限合伙企业，马云作为背后的实际控制人，对于股权稀释不会有任何担心，可以大胆地引入投资商和给员工做股权激。

As a control arrangement, limited partnerships are now widely used in corporate governance. For example, you see that the two major shareholders of Ant Financial, Jun Han and Jun Ao, are both limited partnerships located in Hangzhou. As the actual controller behind it, Jack Ma will not have any worries about equity dilution and can boldly introduce investors and Give employees equity incentives.

协议控制 Agreement control

第三种方法：协议控制。

The third method: agreement control.

通过什么协议来控制公司呢？答案是《公司章程》。

What agreement is used to control the company? The answer is the "Articles of Association."

很多创始人对于公司章程都不太重视，使用的大都是工商部门提供的模板，等到公司治理危机出现了，想起来去章程里面寻找支持，往往为时已晚。

Many founders don't pay much attention to the company charter, and most of them use the templates provided by the industrial and commercial department. When the corporate governance crisis arises, it is often too late to look for support in the charter when thinking of it.

创业公司完全可以通过股东之间的约定来定制化公司章程的内容，有限责任公司可以不按照出资比例来分配分红权和表决权，这就是把股权中的控制权和索取权分离了。

Start-up companies can completely customize the contents of the company's articles of association through the agreement between shareholders. A limited liability company can distribute dividends and voting rights regardless of the proportion of capital contributions. This is to separate the control and claim rights in equity.

有的股东更喜欢控制公司，有的股东更喜欢分享利润，大家商量一下，你出了40%的钱，但是你可以拥有80%的表决权，拥有60%的分红权，如果大家同意这种“同股不同权”的约定，那就完全没有问题。这就是公司法中的任意性规范，只要公司法中的用语是类似“依照公司章程的规定”，或者是“公司章程另有规定的除外”，股东们都可以商量约定。

Some shareholders prefer to control the company, and some shareholders prefer to share profits. After discussing it with you, you pay 40% of the money, but you can have 80% of the voting rights and 60% of the dividend rights. If everyone agrees to this " There is no problem at all with the agreement that the same shares have different rights. This is the arbitrariness of the company law. As long as the language in the company law is similar to "in accordance with the company's articles of association", or "except as otherwise provided in the company's articles of association," shareholders can negotiate and agree.

除了公司章程，协议控制的普遍做法还包括一致行动人协议和投票权委托。一致行动人协议主要是针对上市公司的，就是指当几个股东意见不一致的时候，约定大家都听某一个股东的意见共进退，这个股东的控制权自然就增加了。腾讯的创始人团队就和另外一个大股东南非的MIH公司签订了一致行动人协议，保证了自己的控制权。

In addition to the articles of incorporation, the common practice of agreement control also includes agreements with persons acting in concert and delegation of voting rights. The concerted actor agreement is mainly for listed companies, which means that when several shareholders disagree, it is agreed that everyone will listen to the opinions of a certain shareholder to advance and retreat, and the shareholder's control rights will naturally increase. Tencent’s founder team signed a concerted action agreement with another major shareholder, South Africa’s MIH, to ensure its control.

投票权委托就是有的股东把自己的投票权委托给特定股东来行使，比如，京东上市前，刘强东只持有18.8%的股权比例，但是红杉资本、高瓴资本、腾讯这些投资方都把自己的投票权委托给了刘强东，这让刘强东取得了51.2%的被委托的投票权。

Voting entrustment means that some shareholders entrust their voting rights to specific shareholders to exercise. For example, before JD’s listing, Liu Qiangdong only held 18.8% of the equity, but Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and Tencent are all investors. He delegated his voting rights to Liu Qiangdong, which allowed Liu Qiangdong to obtain 51.2% of the delegated voting rights.

我们今天介绍了三种保住创始人控制权的方式，分别是资源控制、架构控制、协议控制。

Today we introduced three ways to maintain the founder's control, namely resource control, architecture control, and protocol control.

中国近30年的商业史，也是一部创始人被踢出局的血泪史。创始人不怕在市场竞争中一往无前，开疆拓土，就怕在资本博弈中一念之差，前功尽弃。所以，与其有东山再起的勇气，不如有保住东山的魄力。

China's nearly 30 years of business history is also a history of blood and tears in which the founder was kicked out. The founders are not afraid to move forward in the market competition and open up new territory, but they are afraid that they will lose all their achievements in the capital game.