Entrepreneur: Kai-fu Lee talk about American Angel

Kai-Fu Lee 2011 a year, the United States the largest angel events and y Combitor (YC). In January 2011, the fund SV Slide-up and Russian investor Yuri Milner, the famous Silicon Valley Super Angel Ron Conway, announced that it would provide $150,000 trillion in funding for each YC start-up project, with no preconditions, the only requirement being that if the projects had the next financing,　　These 150,000 dollars will be treated equally and converted into shares. This is an unprecedented case in which they guarantee 150,000 of billions of dollars of money and discount the same terms as the next round of investors. This 150,000 dollars is almost equal to an interest-free loan. That is to say, the industry's guild rules are changing, because of YC such a high success rate, can almost turn into gold "freak." It can be said that YC has reached an unshakable point.　　It now has two billion Dollar company, a 5 billion, a 1 billion, the return has been very substantial. I've also asked Ron Conway in the United States, why do you have to do such a foolish thing, to spread money to the project, and not to take advantage of it? ' According to the quality of the project that YC is graduating from now on, we have to send people to do the screening and not add much value, ' he said. Because it is difficult to enter YC, through its training and there is a promotion, we go to pick is also a waste of time, and time is money, fast is everything, we pick the process of others have been picked out.　　We simply give a guarantee that there may be one or two star projects will be taken away, we also recognize, even if it will be thrown into a few bad projects, the whole is worthwhile, and we have established a strong brand effect. One lesson we can learn is that Super Angels can be strong. At first, everyone has their own opportunity, but once the brand and attraction are established, it's really hard to shake. There will be more and more good entrepreneurs wanting to go to YC, which could be hard to reverse.　　When an organization has some industry advantages, it will certainly be the most profit margin of the first cast down, now it is clear that the investment mobile Internet space is the largest, go into the cheap, do a good job climbed quickly, such a space, in other areas is not so easy to find. YC is the kind of "pure angel" we call it. It is very focused, has its own professional positioning and subdivision of the field, suitable for products and technology leader of the company, it focused on the areas they know most, invest in limited projects, money is not its biggest contribution. It has a very detached mentality, it really is only cast to C, after the absolute does not vote. As a result, all VC is its friend, it has no competitor. The challenge for YC, however, is that it is still a small share of the brand, even if it achieves such a huge branding effect today. Even if the Dropbox has a 500 million dollar valuation, it may only account for 1%. It's great for the product, but not much. You said it didn't earn much,But the rewards are also very good. In other words, YC is not a competitor, it is not a winner. At the very least, if YC wants to do something greedily, there is competitive pressure.　　In the last few years, there have been a lot more than YC two-level incubator began to rise, such as Betaworks, Techstar, a few startups, these are also good word-of-mouth, are also seen in the Low-cost high return of the mobile internet opportunities. Another big thing just happened. February 1, 2012, the Andreessen Horowitz fund has just completed the financing of a new fund with a scale of 1.5 billion dollars.　　This is its third fund. I have always thought that innovation works is the Andreessen Horowitz model: not only to do the early, the fund back a little, so the fund is big enough to use management fees to feed the team. Andreessen Horowitz in the 1 and 2 of the Fund. About a year or so ago, I met Marc Andreessen in the United States, and he gave me this recognition, which I highly appreciate. I have always thought that this model is very good, has been advocating that we are China's Andreessen Horowitz, but look back, wow, 1.5 billion dollars! To this level, it also fell into the VC PE. I am sorry to see Andreessen Horowitz walk billion dollar this road. It is hard to be an angel again, 1.5 billion of the money here, and then to cast a 300,000, the possibility is not very high.　　I don't think it is an angel anymore, it has lost its soul and direction. I talked to my LP about this thing. Recently we are also preparing for future financing, I would say, we and Andreessen Horowitz is the same. It turns out people say, huh? Like it? It's 1.5 billion dollars!　　Anyway, the LP is no longer think Andreessen Horowitz is the same as before. However, it is amazing, and very rare, that Andreessen Horowitz has the combination of doing investbanking and doing angle. Its two founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have a product capability similar to that of YC's founder Paul Graham, but unfortunately they also have the ability to do investbanking, so they can't help doing it. They are a Skype case to do on the day, can not help but say we must be bigger and bigger.　　And they also have this ability, they may be I and Baofan (micro bo) rub together, two can not help but want to do, half want to do my work, half want to do the work of the bag, eventually mixed up, also OK. Andreessen HorowitzThe rise of the past few years has several factors. One is Skype's success. One is that it attacks the VC unreasonable. It is very honest to tell everyone that VC's salary is too high every year, we hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, they millions of dollars a year, we put management fees into the human resources department, what department, what department, but they did not.　　Whether you make money or not, they all make money, they take so much money, but it doesn't look good in return. These factors, coupled with the industry's existing dissatisfaction with VC, created the Andreessen Horowitz miracle of the rise. But surprisingly, after the rise, it suddenly decided to do the 1.5 billion dollar thing.　　I am now afraid to jump to conclusions, it is not tempted to take the money, or to transfer the strategic direction, or it has two teams inside, there are many unclear and uncertain. In fact, VC in the United States has been very unhealthy. They are making different transitions, some to the early, some to the late. The early and late models are completely different and have great challenges. Late mode that is, how to reduce each investment to the lowest risk, ten best into nine, each earn two or three times times, several years to earn several times, this money is very good to earn, and a cast is very large, so a lot of VC can not help but on the other side. The early temptation was to say, wow, I went in so cheaply, and the listing was 1000 times times 10,000 times times more, and Facebook's myth inspired a lot of people.　　Early reduction of risk by quantitative, late assessment of risk reduction, the need for people to think differently. VC transformation in the United States encounter two problems. First, some VC has become a number of climate, regardless of the good, its annual management fees can make every partner earn tens of millions or even tens of millions of of the income. So is the power of its transformation enough? Second, if you decide to do it early, it will definitely bring down its income, because the same fund to hire more people to do more projects, so can be divided into less.　　If you are the one who has earned a lot, it is difficult to give up what you already have. In addition, how do Angels meet entrepreneurs? How does an angel find a project? This is also a noteworthy concern.　　I can see both actual and virtual in both ways. The actual way, such as I/O Venture, is similar to Chinese garage coffee, 3W coffee, which provides a way to connect entrepreneurs and angels to a large extent. I have a positive attitude towards these entities. It's great to have someone do these things, but how do you make money? How do you make a living? It's still a big question mark. I/O venture is not directly to make money, it should be the incubator and café together, it is natural to attract people to come, very indirect money. It is still making coffee money, also OK, but the day so and entrepreneurs old here mixed, hang can mix out some projects, to do funds, split, introduction fee, is not a very clear and good business model.　　There is also a virtual way. The United States has a website called anglelist, very successful, as far as I know, a few of the larger VC is the depth of the excavation project. It has a similar place to Weibo and you need to be recognized by others, and this recognition will lift you up. The difference is that, on Weibo, you have to be open and not open to get the project, but an opening is flooded with information. But Anglelist is not anyone can go, it has a more intelligent sort, there are introductions and forwarding. How successful this virtual approach can be, not necessarily, but I think it's valuable to the entire entrepreneur-angel ecosystem.