Wanghuai Angel investment new play from Facebook

Angel investor usually refers to investors who invest in very young companies to help these companies start quickly. In the field of venture capital, the term "angel" refers to the entrepreneur's first investor who invests the money before the company's products and business are molded .

The Wanghuai of technical origin, this is definitely a "new Angel". In doing due diligence, first of all will come to each other's source code, understand each other's technical thinking. Wanghuai currently has no more than 4 cases of investment, several others are still in due diligence stage, because recently busy for friends of the People network technology team as a consultant, the pace of investment is slowing down.

Although he does not want to be at the point where Facebook is listed, he is being talked about all sorts of "cash-related" topics, but the experience has certainly benefited him: as an old employee who joined Facebook in the 2007, he returned to the angel investment, a background that made it easy for him to open his contacts. It's easier to find anyone.

Wanghuai, a Wenzhou man born in 1981, was a graduate student at Ohio State University, worked for Yahoo, went to Stanford University to read a master's in management engineering, and then came to Facebook to pay for backstage and security systems. After returning home, he took the idea from Silicon Valley, began to grope his angel investment play.

To be a "Deputy Angel" and to turn technology off

At the end of September 2011, Wanghuai left Facebook. After deciding to make an angel investment, he went to Silicon Valley and made a round of visit the well-known VC, and then went to Stanford University in Silicon Valley, where the heart of the world's entrepreneurs, there is a natural entrepreneurial atmosphere: the Most Outstanding Entrepreneurs (Larry Page, Zuckerberg, etc.), the most brilliant investors (such as Rohn Camves, YC founder Paul Graham, etc.) will come here to do the lectures, and have no sense of distance from the students. Wanghuai has had contact with some of them earlier, and this time he will exchange his Angel investment plan and keep in touch.

He then went to Silicon Valley, the most influential Chinese student organization Huayuan Science and Technology Association, "Hysta", which was said to have been known to Mr Ma and Jerry Yang here, and then he went to Seattle to meet a number of entrepreneurs.

"Entrepreneurs tend to mingle with fellow people, with fewer and five people, and I have to break into the circle to understand their thinking patterns." ”

These are the "lessons" that Wanghuai did before making an angel investment.

Learned that he returned, some VC dug him to join, he does not catch a cold, "Why must join the agency, cast a case to conform to their rules?" ”

A few months later, his investment tour officially began. He's got a lot of cases, "some projects, I see that the technology is not reliable, but also may be I do not know, just listen to people network colleagues said IE6 loopholes, some people use these loopholes, do promote money, I found myself and the domestic entrepreneur's knowledge system is not the same, short-term time is difficult to fully understand the domestic market. ”

Wanghuai for himself the six areas of angel investment and seven issues, and put on the internet "public": mobile Internet, payment applications, education and tourism and food-related, data processing, and so on, and investment standard is: are problem real? (Is this a problem that really needs to be addressed?) Is harsh big? (The market is not big enough) Is solution smart? (whether the solution is reasonable enough) Is Team capable? (is the team competent?) Is Team passionate? (whether the team has passion) Is Team trustworthy? (Team-work) Why me? (Can I help them?)

"I think people from science and engineering will use some standard to control their decisions, and I'm afraid I will see the project head hot," he said. But there is no misunderstanding, after these rational analysis, the final investment depends on the emotional impulse. ”

Wanghuai's investment is mainly in two forms: with the investment, that is, with the people who know the market, together, to find another angel investors to investigate the market, their own participation in order to reduce risk. And he thinks his advantage in product and technology, due diligence first will come to the other side of the source code to look at each other's technical ideas.

Soon, he was Shire, Xiaoping, such as several domestic big-name angel investors "summoned" into the "circle."

"I will work with these very professional angel investors, but perhaps more like a ' Deputy Angel ': I won't spend too much time building my own influence, but will be able to check or help with technology and products." Other investors ' strengths are market and strategy, and my strong point is to see executive power, the ability of the technical team to achieve. "Wanghuai This unique way, in fact, very effective, the home has a top VC told him that he has encountered several projects, the model is good, but after three or four months of investment, things do not come out, the original is the underlying technical framework has problems."

Currently invested in the project, one is to do data mining tools, for six months, although Wanghuai himself unsure whether the market will buy, but he is very confident of the company's technical level, and the investment in another project is China's most angel investment: the introduction of acquaintances. The founder of his university alumni, also from the same mentor, he from the mentor, students, the other side of the original colleagues and other channels for in-depth background.

"In this case, I'm 80% in favor of the founder, who may have less judgment in other cases," he said. You see a lot of projects in the ABC round of investment down, the judgment of people, weight is getting lower, but still very important. Innovation is always driven by the founders. ”

"Domestic entrepreneurs are too keen on ' making money '"

Many of Facebook's former employees have been angel investors, who sometimes chat on Facebook and see good projects together. April 10, Facebook acquired Instagram news disclosure, Wanghuai on Weibo, feeling: "Nankeyimeng, Dream Awake still true, this is the Valley dream ..."

"Two years, three people, little revenue, 1 billion acquisitions. It's not a dream. But that would be Zuckerberg's approach. He likes talented, geek, a little crazy entrepreneur, Instagram absolutely. "Wanghuai said.

He believes the mobile Internet is the most important development of Facebook in the future, which is the starting point for the acquisition, while in the case of Silicon Valley in the US, another naked aim is "digging", the old business is shelved, and the poached cattle are assigned other tasks.

"But these entrepreneurs are willing to be bought, which is the standard I set for myself as an angel investment: is the team good enough?" Because startups must be a good platform, working with good people is the most important, and this is the foundation of success. ”

Facebook's experience has also allowed him to deliberately ignore the entrepreneurial model of profitability. Zuckerberg, a "anti-money", rejected a 1 billion-dollar takeover at age 22, and the company also downplayed its revenue problems when it developed. Until later COO Sandberg took office, only began to do the market, do income specifically project.

"Returning to some activities, I found that entrepreneurs are keen to say how they make money, a bit too deep." In the cases I've seen, winners are focused on products rather than making money. Doing it in Silicon Valley will change a person's outlook on money, thanks to the cultural atmosphere. ”

Instead, Wanghuai that these entrepreneurs should pay more attention to the needs of users, "to find the rigid demand, rather than pat the head to think of the needs." Rigid demand coupled with idealism, I believe that will achieve a lot of start-up companies. ”

"Angel Investment" is a concept, Wanghuai soon found that China's play is very different from the United States: The U.S. Angel sometimes investment like "whip", each person only 350,000 dollars, China is a single large, or even direct investment of 2 million yuan. However, the U.S. angel investors do not pay much, after the guidance is quite in place: "If you invest 20, every day to find you the probability is very high, the most painful is, the morning when the shower will be the founder's phone interrupted." The Good angel investor answers the entrepreneur all day, the more the investment is busier. ”

So the investment has to charge in advance, Wanghuai to Seattle is also hoping to make friends, to become a platform, in addition to their own understanding of social and payment, the entrepreneur to help other aspects, he can quickly find the right person to guide.

"The United States VC give me a suggestion: if you do professional angel, you will ' suffer to death ', tired to death, and the probability of losing money than making big." "Wanghuai doesn't work full-time, but he reckons the future will be a little bit like those American Angels, who decided to take his wife and children for a year in Shanghai because of the main investment radius of the Yangtze River delta."

Not long ago, Wanghuai's friends, the People net CEO Wang Jianyue, invited him to give Bai to do training, now, Wanghuai almost become the people net product manager. Although the main identity is an angel investor, he doesn't mind being interrupted by the things he likes. He soon ran the Shanghai bus card and rode his bicycle to the high tech building of Jiao Tong University "to work" every day.

"We have a word called fun Employee, and I'm willing to pursue something I love." "When I resigned from Facebook, the company retained him, advised him to help with China's construction, or the mobile internet business, Wanghuai hesitated and finally found it more interesting to invest."

I think it is a very enjoyable experience to devote myself to a career while I am young. Around the six directions I want to invest, I actually have a lot of entrepreneurial ideas, the real entrepreneur will have the deep heart of the ' Deep desire ', perhaps done a lot of work, the ultimate heart of the goal will be more and more clear. "The 31-Year-old Wanghuai believes that his ultimate ownership is entrepreneurship, but is not ready yet."