Wang Whinan: Entrepreneurship is a "scared to death" thing

today's Yahoo China in the end, has been completely unrelated to Wang Whinan. All his energy is now on the nurturing of a new company-"Babytree", a brand new website being launched by Wang Whinan and ebay founder Shao Yipo

The winter of 2005 was particularly profound in the memory of Wang Whinan. At the time, the later "father of Google" had just undergone an unprecedented shock in his career-forced to leave Yahoo China's one-click Network and sign a new owner, Google, as Asia-Pacific market director.

Time to flash back to August 2005, Yahoo China by Alibaba comprehensive mergers and acquisitions, a beat net nature is also in the bag. However, just a few weeks before the announcement of the takeover, Wang Whinan just took over the job as general manager of the network. To that end, he sold his house in Seattle and took pregnant's wife back to China for 16 years.

"I did not want to leave Yahoo (China) to Google, is Yahoo to sell us." I feel I have no way to stay happily in that situation. "January 12, 2007, has left Google and started their own business Wang Whinan to mention the" departure ", still difficult to calm," I think my original decision (leaving Yahoo China) is right, you look at the year after the Yahoo China, now become what it is. ”

Of course, today's Yahoo China in the end, has been completely unrelated to Wang Whinan. All his energy is now on the nurturing of a new company-"Babytree", a brand new website being launched by Wang Whinan and ebay founder Shao Yipo.

Wang Whinan also warmly invited reporters to visit his new company after an interview with the "New era of China" that day. "The small company you saw today, maybe 5 years later, is a great company." On the way to "Babytree", Wang Whinan excitedly told reporters.

　　The hardest of times

In a room of about 20 square meters, 10 or so young people are in an orderly fashion. Their average age is less than 30 years.

"I recruit people who are the first technical personnel, this is the Internet industry, a major feature." Wang Whinan said, the Internet's biggest consumption is talent, it is not like traditional enterprises, the need for plant and other hardware facilities. The Internet industry needs "machines + people", and machines are getting cheaper, and people are getting harder to get.

In this industry for many years, Wang Whinan sigh: "The Internet industry is not easy to quickly success is easy to quickly fail." Google is a ' quick ' success, but it's been doing it for 7 years. ”

It is birthdays's Wang Whinan to the matter, to people have seen very clearly. For example, in the Internet, the "circle", a variety of characters have, but with his like-minded not many, "there are 5 or 6 friends can be regarded as confidant, but also wave is one of them." ”

Wang Whinan said his cooperation with Shao Yipo was based primarily on a high degree of mission awareness of China-the hope of creating value in this chaotic but rapidly growing industry. Therefore, "cooperation is only a matter of morning and evening." ”

"I and Bo is different, he graduated from graduate, he started his own business." When I graduate from graduate school, I feel I still need to learn something. When someone else is starting a business, I practice in some big companies. Others started a successful business, and I also rehearsed well in a big company. Finally, we are the same. China needs two kinds of experience. ”

In Wang Whinan's view: "Everyone's mission is different, my mission is to start a business now." ”

In addition to VC investment, Wang Whinan and Shao Yipo also took out their own part of the money to do the new company. "The key to this is that you do it yourself and you don't have the money to do it, and you feel differently about the company." When we were working on the company from the first day, we agreed that whether we needed our own money or not, we had to invest our money in the company. Every penny we spend on our company, we all think about it. The money that should not be spent is not spent, and the money that is spent will be quickly spent. ”

Two people's Division of labor is very clear, by Wang Whinan to be responsible for specific operations. Wang is the chairman and CEO of the company, and Shao is a company director. "I need to refer to the place where his opinion is actually very precise and I need to know how a company should operate at this stage." Because I have not done a company from zero to 20 or 30 people, I used to join the company are very large. "Wang Whinan said.

For most of the time, Shao Yipo will still be in the United States. "Babytree" is not the only thing that Shao is doing at the moment, and of course, people abroad have an advantage over him, that is, they can see and learn those new patterns at any time.

"The hardest time for me is now," he said. I think at this moment, especially the next year, he will be the most guiding role for me. Wang Whinan knew that his difficulty at this time was how to begin.

　　Give parents a "pure land"

Wang Whinan's second child was born in Beijing, just 1 years old this year, the older son 6 years old. Shao Yipo also has two children, all of whom are about the same age as Wang Whinan children.

"He has a boy, a girl, more fortunate than me. Wang Whinan smiled and said that two of the Kings were boys.

It is from the children that they find a problem, and that is behind the problem, hidden huge business opportunities, and their new company is born.

When Wang Whinan brought his wife home in 2005, the first thing they felt was a huge difference in life--the extreme lack of communication between people--in a 33-storey building where they could meet their neighbors every day, only after work or on weekends. And parents with children have only this time to communicate, and children can only play together in the first floor of the hall for a while.

"We lived on the West coast of the United States when we had our first child." Every family has its own house, and the neighbors have a good rapport with each other. The whole community has a perfect system for children to play with and mothers to interact with. Wang Whinan laments that the booming economy of China has made the relationship between people more indifferent now.

While Wang Whinan's wife was pregnant with her second child, she found herself unable to find the information she needed on the internet-a vast and neglected group.

"Chinese internet entrepreneurs have a blind spot and most of them are too young," he said. A fresh graduate of science and engineering students, is not expected to serve the mother of this crowd. Even if they can think of it, it's just how they can sell things to them. ”

Although there are countless websites in China, there is a lack of a "heaven and earth" dedicated to parents. "That is to say, our internet is not a healthy solution to parents ' problems." Further, there is no solution to the mother's problem. So, our little website, hope is the first step to solve this problem. "Although there are still some sites that are similar to positioning, Wang Whinan believes those sites are far from being done-both bad and not enough."