Angel investor Charlie: Cultivating warriors is not a flower

As an angel investor, Charlie says, the starting-business entrepreneur will be the warrior who fights independently, not the flowers that grow in the greenhouse.

Saturday one o'clock in the afternoon, Shanghai Xinzhuang Wisdom Garden 6 Floor Hall packed, this is the starting point of the entrepreneurial camp regularly held weekly entrepreneurial open class, more than 100 from the Yangtze River Delta entrepreneurs come to learn from. The current guest is Angel investor, Hong Kong trillion di Holdings Limited chairman Lingdaihong, for entrepreneurs to tell "how to overcome the entrepreneurial process encountered in a few obstacles."

This overcrowded scene is staged at least two times a week. As the founder of the starting business camp, Charlie also often personally taught, without reservation to teach the entrepreneurial lessons over the years, the curriculum is strong, the entrepreneur is very useful, so they are affectionately known as "Charlie teacher."

Starting point of business is the incubator and fund form operation, although just set up less than six months, has attracted nearly 30 enterprises settled in. Cheer up. The first batch of enterprises to be settled in the incubator. Founder Wenger has 10 years of entrepreneurial experience. In many exchanges with Charlie, he realized that "what entrepreneurs need most is not the more outrageous free rent, but the professional, in-place package of services." ”

Wenger very recognized the starting point entrepreneurial new model, where the weekly entrepreneurial open class, regular entrepreneurial training, gather a lot of entrepreneurial team to share and learn from each other. "Starting point entrepreneurial Team Professional, service Spirit is strong, Charlie as a public figure is very approachable, the entrepreneur's care and encouragement is meticulous." ”

There are many years of continuous entrepreneurial experience Charlie understand that the start-up enterprises are often confused with such a difficult problem, such as lack of funds, difficult to recruit, do not understand management, the need to dig people, entrepreneurship, such as autism. Through the organization of entrepreneurial activities, carding business models, formulate strategies, timely guidance maze and share the actual combat experience, this is the development of the starting point to create the outstanding advantages of entrepreneurial camp.

Develop an entrepreneur who fights independently

Charlie, a continuous entrepreneur and angel investor in Silicon Valley, has many years of experience in the early stage of venture investment. 1997, he began to contact Angel investment.

In the 2000, Charlie and SoftBank set up the early Chinese technology incubation agency idea Factory, incubating China's earliest search engines, online learning, online music and mobile gaming companies. Aware of the importance of capital to the development of the enterprise, he set up a dry Dragon venture, an early venture fund for new technology.

There were not many incubators at the time, but idea factory eventually failed to last. "At that time, entrepreneurial environment is far from the present, new technology knowledge entrepreneurship has not arisen, the talent situation is not good, it is difficult to recruit the right talent." "Charlie said. After a few years, Charlie has been in Sina blog to "Himalaya Bear" for the pseudonym to share entrepreneurial experience and insights, very popular with entrepreneurs like. Later, these blog content into a collection, published as "Give you 100 Million" a book, the response is very good.

In the process of doing incubator and dry Dragon venture, Charlie found that the value of incubation space, facilities, and network is very low to the entrepreneur, and the entrepreneurs focus on exchanging and exchanging resources, which will increase the success rate and accelerate the development of enterprises. But these are not the key to entrepreneurial success, the most important thing is to help entrepreneurs from ideas and strategies. This is the starting point of the establishment of the start-up business to do things.

Starting a business to measure the standards of entrepreneurial team is more stringent, they hope to introduce the team can be independent entrepreneurship, has enough preparation and funding to prepare, really stepped up the first step of entrepreneurship.

After the audit into the start-up camp, the beginning of the start-up camp to continue to give and nurture. The incubator has offices and entrepreneurial coaches that regularly provide advice, coaching and even training to entrepreneurs. "Organize a lot of entrepreneurial activities, the purpose is to establish the thinking of entrepreneurs, we call entrepreneurial thinking power." "Charlie that this is the key to reducing the risk of incubators.

It turns out that this approach is very helpful to entrepreneurs. Cheer up, though. has not yet been invested in the search, but has been from the starting point of entrepreneurship and Charlie to absorb enough of the "nutrients", wang-hot view as "priceless". Charlie meets Wenger every week for one or two hours each time, and the incubator's investment manager will keep in touch with the cheering bar every day.

"The social circle is very wide, see more projects, he will help us analyze which ideas are good, which model is relatively new, which model may be three years ago someone did, and failed." These things are very important to the entrepreneur. Wenger said that Charlie's years of entrepreneurial experience and capital operation experience are very inspiring to entrepreneurs.

Unlike many incubators, starting-point startups are not free.

"If startups ' houses, equipment, people, etc. are free, this kind of business is untrue. A team can make a quick profit and generate cash flow at a certain cost, which is the real business. Charlie said, "Get more subsidies, concessions, rewards, can not guarantee success." Sooner or later, startups will have to compete in the market, and early children should get into the habit, the sooner they enter the battlefield the better. So we do not call the incubator, but called entrepreneurial camp, is a barracks, our side of the training of entrepreneurs will be independent combat, not a flower in the greenhouse. Although the starting point of the start-up camp also has a rent subsidy and other incentives from the government, but we do not think that this is a competitive. ”

Slow down, be careful.

The starting point is not only to invest in the project, through the holding of entrepreneurial activities, or in micro-blog, Web sites, parks, start-up institutions, entrepreneurial groups and other joint cooperation in a variety of channels to find a large number of projects, and then from 3,500 projects to choose the best recognized enterprises. Charlie's investment style is heavy quality, not quantity. "I don't care if I have 40 or 50 companies in the first year, and I don't get a good one, and I don't throw in a lot of companies. It's always good to be slow and cautious. ”

Early investment must be more accurate, not quantified, not scale. "I particularly disagree with the idea of casting 10 into one, which does not meet the probability." Hit 10, nine are rotten companies, a good company's success probability high? Or 9 good companies, one of which has a high probability of success? "Every company that Ventures ventures, they will spend a lot of energy to make sure it's a good company," says Charlie.

"Because we are tied to the interests of entrepreneurs, so I must remain neutral, speak the principle, must solve the problem, can not be dragged." Charlie said that the starting point of the venture to solve the problem of hindering the development of the company spent a lot of effort. From finding projects to talking about projects to investing, this part of the work is only a small fraction of the overall investment process, and they are 80%~90% to post management jobs. "After we put on a boat, we must not let this ship not turn over, we must finally open to the other side of victory." ”

The rapid establishment of flesh-and-blood relationships between angel investors and entrepreneurs is essential, as Charlie and the team strive to do. They think more about helping entrepreneurs and becoming close partners. "The starting point is not to gamble, the terms are also more friendly." "a company said.

"Don't try to protect yourself, even under the premise of violating the interests of the entrepreneur." It's no use! Only the interest of the entrepreneur is maximized, the investor's rights and interests can be protected. "Check up against the signing of a gambling agreement, if through the gambling, investors take up a stake in the enterprise, the team ownership structure is disrupted, the effect will be counterproductive." The starting point VC General obtains the enterprise 20%~30% the stock, will not be above 30%.

The starting point of start-up business enterprises in the incubation period is generally 3-12 months, full 12 months must be moved away. Each company has a professional person to track regularly. They set short-term goals for most startups and set a time point to help and drive entrepreneurs forward.

"We want the team to be ready in three months, to be on the right track, to upgrade the product to a higher level and to be able to make money quickly in 6-12 months," he said. The money means that his product and team have been approved by a third party other than us. Charlie said, and they welcome outside agencies to start the venture investment.

Charlie once said to Wang, frankly: "We are very welcome you to come in, this is not to say that only we can vote, also welcome other people to vote in, even you can choose investors." ”

Entrepreneurial camp in the Xinzhuang Wisdom Garden, 2 floor and 12 floor in the waiting for renovation, decoration, will accommodate more entrepreneurial team, Charlie said, his goal is to dig the next Alibaba.

"Early venture capital is not everyone can do, do a good return is very high, do not good is thankless." We have accumulated years of experience, we are very firm, persistent, and only do this thing. ”