source: Beijing Youth newspaper Author: Wen Jing
the winter of the Zhongguancun pioneering street not seen the noise of the past, the first street on both sides of the early last year or a next to the "ground push", and now even a stall can not be found, the road, coffee halls are not seen in the crowd. Is the Internet entrepreneur really coming in the cold winter? What are the startups that are still sticking to it? The Beijing Youth Daily reporter interviewed three Internet entrepreneurs after 70, after 80, and after 90. From their entrepreneurial stories, they felt the "winter of Internet entrepreneurs" in the eyes of people.
Huang Yong is 70, and also a father. He said his initial business was to replace the unqualified children's products in the market. He recalled this year's scene on the entrepreneurial Street: "that summer, everyone was crazy. Every day, people tell you to go to various kinds of recommendation meetings, activities, meet people, I don't know what I'm doing. After months of work, he didn't get a penny, and CTO left. He kept all his life and maintained the company. He said that entrepreneurship is a practice. Now, he went back to the beginning of the heart, not only to attract than their powerful people to join the team, but also to attract investors to take the initiative to find a home. He said, "the cold winter is fine. We are calm."
start
"forty no" start the two startup
Huang Yong, born in 1975, is 40 years old, and now he serves as a Internet Co CEO, which mainly produces children's intelligent hardware. "Forty no doubts," he told the Beiqing Bao reporter at his home in Wangjing. "I regard entrepreneurship as my own practice."
careful calculation, this is Huang Yong's second venture. The first business was 10 years ago. At that time, he was a home building site. He saw the first batch of Internet business opportunities and entered the Internet industry. From then on, entrepreneurship is his dream. "My parents are teachers. I like to challenge myself ever since I was a child. Sometimes I think, since there is always someone to do it, why can't it be me? "
after the first failure in 2005, he went into large enterprises such as HUAWEI, Haier and other large enterprises, and has been leading the top position of the more than 100 team. He said with a little regret: "people always get on the road and forget why they started out. I went to HUAWEI to learn management. After that far, I still had to come back and do it myself. In April, his project started. He resigned from his job that looked good to outsiders and started his second venture.
initial heart
for the children to do intelligent cup,
Huang Yong decided to put her eyes on children's intelligent hardware products. The inspiration comes from my own children. "After being a parent, I want to do something related to the children. I only ask them to use something that is not poisonous. This is the first heart."
Huang Yong is doing an intelligent water cup. In addition to using pure natural materials from corn, this water cup has the function of drinking water, and parents can see their children's drinking water in the school on their mobile phones. "To do smart hardware is to burn money, hundreds of thousands of models," first into the smart hardware, he found that his project was not so easy to imagine, "after several times the baptism of the stock market, my savings mostly contributed back," so he had to find ways to finance from the beginning. By the end of May, Huang Yong saw more than a dozen investors in the month of
4, including many well-known investors. "Once, to see a big man in the investment world, he learned my background, and looked at my project, and told me directly, you don't do this project, I recommend a individual for you." But Huang Yong didn't promise. He knew that a cup was much more expensive. "Even if you sell 100 million, people will not see it."
despair
see more than 20 investors did not get the money
6, under a friend's recommendation, Huang Yong's team moved to the most famous 3W incubator on the Pioneer Street, and 4 people in the team rented 4 jobs here, "1000 yuan a month, this is the lowest cost. You know, 4000 yuan can't rent a decent house near Zhongguancun, and 3W has plenty of resources. "
at that time, there was an upsurge of entrepreneurship across the whole Pioneer Street. The streets were both stalls on both sides of the street. Entrepreneurs and investors were everywhere in the cafe, and everyone wanted to succeed overnight and fantasize about their own investment. Huang Yong recalled: "that summer, everyone was crazy. Every day, people tell you to go to various kinds of recommendation meetings, activities, meet people, I don't know what I'm doing.
throughout the summer, Huang Yong met more than 20 investors in order to get angel investment. Many investors after listening to his project said: "it is almost the same." After listening to it, he really went back to modify his product plan and model. None of the more than 20 investors really got the money out. In July, the original CTO also left the team.
Huang Yong was desperate. "During this period, I could say that I was in charge of my own life and maintaining the normal operation of the company. I calmed down, "he said." I stopped seeing angels, and I saw no one for the next three or four months.
change
attract investors to come to
Huang Yong think of what they do is the field of intelligent hardware. Compared to the traditional Internet, it is too difficult to do the product; two is the long return cycle, and in this field, investors and entrepreneurs are mutual exploration, and they all have the heart of quick success and immediate interest. He summed up his failure as a "state of mind". "At that time, I didn't really think of the question of 'what a business is for'. I thought I was going to succeed, and all the starting point was egoism." Huang Yong smiled and said, "I used to always aim at asking for money. I was too" result oriented "and I didn't think clearly about my vision.
"the process of entrepreneurship is the process of constantly self-examination. I keep asking myself," who am I and what I want? Now I know that business success is not my ultimate goal, my vision is to replace the existing domestic children's supplies, to give children the safest and most reassuring thing. Huang Yong said, "in this process, including how to attract people and how to retain people, this is the transformation of entrepreneurship." He said happily that 4 people in the team are very special. After changing the mindset of
, he said he was in touch with an investor recently, "this is the other party's initiative to find it. Investors invest in 'people'. I now know what I want to do. I can attract a team that is stronger than myself, and it's not a problem to attract investors. He also went through the bottom and stopped if he could not get the financing.
the biggest problem now is "impetuous"
Huang Yong said, compared to his own two business road, "always now better than the original", the whole society is willing to risk more people; the entire industrial and downstream chains are more ready. But now the biggest problem in the whole industry is "impetuous", Huang Yong sighed, "to judge whether an entrepreneur is impetuous, he can see if his first heart can not move you." Many entrepreneurs blindly pursue valuations, profits, speed, the concept of Shanzhai, data fraud, "Germany does not match, it is dangerous."
at the end of the cold winter of Internet entrepreneurs, Huang Yong finally said, "the industry is cyclical, and if the winter comes, there will be another spring." The cold winter is good, we all calm down. " Wen / newspaper reporter Wen Jing