Entrepreneurship tracking: A project coming out of the innovation workshop

DONEWS11 Month 23rd News Innovation Workshop Since its inception, has been the focus of media attention in the industry, in the leadership of Kai-Fu Lee all the way. From the incubator to the run-up to the initial investment, the Innovation Factory invested 50 start-up projects in 3 years, assisted the entrepreneur to apply for 53 patents and currently employs 45 people. Some of the projects that come out of innovation workshops have undergone a transformation, some are facing difficulties, and others have been successfully sold. And the reasons behind their hardships, difficulties and successes are worth the lesson of all startups. Dim Sum: Weak Market competitiveness has led to three of transition snacks since its inception in August 2010 has undergone 3 transformations and transformation: from the earliest mobile phone manufacturers customized OS extended to provide users with ROM, and then transformed to develop app tool applications, during the acquisition of Android optimization Master, is considered to be the most valuable snack assets , and now the focus of development has been trying to move to web apps, and the mobile OS business that started up is already being watered down. The repeated transformation of dim sum may be summed up in the absence of direction + focus and execution. The first place to start a dessert business--cell phone rom--was once thought to be a more mobile internet portal than mobile apps. Dim sum hopes to work with large manufacturers in the industry and some high-end brand mobile phone manufacturers to customize the phone ROM. But the day will not be willing, 2011 China's mobile phone ROM market and to achieve market expectations, such as Samsung, HTC and other manufacturers have their own development system, the reality makes snacks can only with sharp, the sky language and other front-line brand manufacturers. But these manufacturers ' shipments are not high, which has affected the improvement of the number of dim Sum rom users. Dim Sum coo Huang Zhuang has said that mobile phone ROM want to become difficult, mobile OS is a very long industrial chain of things, involving chip manufacturers, factories, mobile phone design companies, mobile phone brand manufacturers. And in the brush machine market, ROM has not been able to break through the mobile phone enthusiasts this small circle, become a popular product. Dim sum is beginning to recognize the "user-king" of mobile Internet: to increase the number of users as soon as possible, through the application of tools app is easier to implement than ROM. At this point, dim sum began its first transformation--downsizing and controlling the size of the company and reducing its spending. The data shows that dim sum has been developed by the gadget app with Dim sum desktop, Dim sum address, dim sum alarm clock, snack box sync, etc. App plus rom cumulative number of users has reached 120 million, bringing snacks tens of thousands of yuan a day of stable advertising revenue. But the tool application also faces the Red Sea competition, because enters the market late, the dim Sum tool app Faces "before has the wolf, after has the tiger" the awkward situation. Tencent, Jinshan and other large enterprises in the app tool market occupies a large share, sufficient funds enough to drag the start-up companies. The transition must be quick, seize the market opportunity, after realizing this, dim sum again transform the Web APP. Pastry CEO Zhang Lei has publicly said he wants to take advantage of the internet giant's open cloud service and not yet to force web apps, asOccupy a certain share in this new market. After this transition, the snack box sync, dim sum alarm clock, and dim sum address Book are almost abandoned. The successive transformation of dim sum has not only affected team morale but also resulted in the loss of staff. According to Coo Huang Zhuang, dim sum was a real drain in 11, but the core members have been sticking to their posts. This was also confirmed by Mark, director of human resources at the Shanghai Office of the Innovation Workshop, that dim sum Shanghai did have a round of layoffs at the end of 11, but the 12-year team has steadily stabilized. Analysis: Hatching model difficult to perform team inexperienced famous it reviewer Bo in the analysis of the reasons for its continuous transformation, dim sum os can only contact some small and medium-sized manufacturers, not to a certain market size. and App tool application because enter the market late, also do not have the advantage, in domestic competitiveness is not enough. For the transition to the force of the Web App, Bo that the success is also very hanging, the domestic success in the Web app few examples. Bo that the transformation of the entrepreneurial team would have been normal, can be repeated transformation has become disorganized, so that the loss of staff, so its team may also have problems, so that the vicious circle. In addition, since dim sum is the first investment incubation project of the innovation Workshop, it is the workshop selected project, selected team to do, perhaps this model is also a bit difficult to implement. In addition Bo said, if Baidu buy dim sum, also not completely unreasonable, Baidu value perhaps is the dim sum of the team resources of the movement, is not the existing project. And if the innovation Workshop was wholly withdrawn at this time, it would have been successful. Founder partner of Guangzhou Innovation Valley Incubator Accelerator Zhu Bo also suggested that snacks should be sold earlier "dim sum has lost the best time to be bought and sold, such as a two-year snack that can be reasonably priced to a big handset maker." And in the Internet observer Xiang, it is normal for startups to have difficulties, enterprises should find a breakthrough to do things well, strengthen the executive power and focus, for the entrepreneurial team than the entrepreneurial environment is more important business model problems. Magic Chart Wizard: Mobile end photo processing is a point of entry if the dim sum is rumored to be bought by Baidu, then another project owned by the Innovation Factory--android The Magic Chart Wizard by Baidu acquisition is one of the successful investment cases of innovation Workshop. The Magic Chart Wizard is one of the first investment projects in the innovation Factory, with two photos of the Application "Magic Chart Wizard" and "Friends map" to support the smart phone image shooting, landscaping and sharing, there are nearly 10 million users. November 2011, was Baidu wholly-owned acquisition, March 2012, officially renamed Baidu Magic Map. After being bought by Baidu, the Magic Chart Wizard's products, technology and team resources are all integrated into Baidu, and the first release of the iOS version for the iphone users, after several versions of updates, the application in the overall function has been more obvious progress and optimization, creating a small social network, Its adjusted and filtered images can be shared with Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Facebook and Twitter. Baidu Magic Chart as a successor in a veryMany details and product features are not as good as the United States Mito, after the Baidu acquisition after the launch of the first iphone version, not only did not add more features, but also reduced many of the original features on the Android version. Baidu Magic Figure Product owner Du Lin pointed out that the product should be at least to ensure that more than 80 points in order to release, Baidu Magic map more focused on the phone, as Baidu photo album of the mobile phone products. She said, to surpass the United States Mito, must be the Magic map advantages to play to the extreme, and the image of the beauty function is Baidu Magic Killer chart. According to another report, Baidu Magic map new products App Store Punch list, only spent three days to the United States Mito occupied for more than half a year the first place of the photographic list, and the first time release only spent 20 yuan. Analysis: Entry point and opportunity are important factors of success the success of the Magic Chart Wizard, according to the former project leader Mi Jinhua Introduction, is the right to enter the direction: The image is a lightweight app application, from the technical level is a good entry point, so the magic map at the beginning of the positioning of mobile phone photo processing and sharing, is focused on the mobile side of the app application. As well-known commentator Bo said, the success of the project is related to the choice of the point of entry, sometimes it is a coincidence, the opportunity has come, this point in the Magic Chart Wizard has a good verification. It is understood that Baidu network disk storage function is powerful, but can not edit the management of photos, and Baidu albums in addition to storage functions, but also to achieve photo management, such as more rich functions, and Baidu acquisition magic figure is the hope that it will be as Baidu album Mobile end of the portal. In Baidu's view, after the acquisition of the overall consideration of Baidu Magic map of the long-term future. According to Du Lin, in the United States such as Mito image processing software-led market, by micro-innovation can not succeed. Only by subverting the conventional innovation of the past, new ideas and perspectives will make it possible to succeed. Du Lin said that the future Baidu Magic map will provide similar functions and Instagram, and can be based on the address book sharing. In Baidu's view, the future of Baidu based on the image of the application will take the Baidu photo album as the leading, and album function will be open to become an open platform. Mocha Chart: The semi-finished Mocatu of the run-up plan is a vertical e-commerce online trading platform based on photographic services, where photographers, models, or people with photographic needs can seek the resources they need, one of the second run-up plans of the innovation workshop. According to the owner of Yangjie, Mocatu project has been set up more than a year, October 2011 moved out of the innovation workshop. July 2012 New version of the online and renamed Image Factory. But unlike the Magic Chart elf, Mocatu, who moved out of the innovation Workshop, because of the conflict between entrepreneurial ideas and traditional photography ideas, has not been favored by investors, had a lack of funds and stagnation, the loss of team members is so serious that the person responsible for the need to continue their own photography and advertising business to subsidize the project needs, at present, The site is targeted only at the user community in Beijing. Yangjie said that his project conflicted with the traditional concept of photography, which many outsiders could not understand, and it was difficult to get the recognition of venture capitalists.So he decided to take risks at his own risk, but he believes that his project will not be imitated in the short term, but he is optimistic about this trend, but also identified his entrepreneurial direction. At this stage he wants to form a new team, to find partners with common values, and the Web site model will be adjusted to the network platform plus the new form of the entity, make the project easier to understand, more easily recognized by the public. It is understood that Yangjie in the advertising industry before the more than 10 years, in the beginning he did not think that this is an Internet project, the Internet industry lack of rich experience and understanding led to the original product concept set on the lack of. and into the innovation Workshop after the formation of the team, most of the technical level of support, in the value of the concept of lack of consensus, so the team executive power is insufficient. After moving out of the innovation workshop, contact with investors, but also the idea of conflict led to VC investment. In addition, he said, the termination of the run-up plan also shows that innovation workshops are improving in terms of auditing the project. Analysis: The experience of the run-up plan is not the same as the VC investment idea of the famous angel investors Shire had on the "mocha map" to comment on, he believes that Mocatu target users must find the right, looking for users to reduce costs. And he thinks gross margin is only 35%, because from the transaction to the actual operation is a complex matter, so need to improve the gross margin. Prominent commentator Bo that the failure of Mocatu on the one hand is its own reasons, and on the other hand, the termination of the run-up plan also shows that the innovation Workshop itself realized that the planning model is deficient. He believes that the first innovation factory is a relatively young investment organization, in the entrepreneurial team to provide entrepreneurial guidance is still inexperienced. Secondly, although the innovation Factory has a certain degree of visibility, but the run-up plan to bring out the project by VC recognition is still very low, so may be premature death is also a lot. According to Wang Huihui, a spokesman for the innovation workshop, the run-up plan has been terminated after three, due to the fact that there are some problems with the project, which needs further adjustment. Love to sing: The new darling of the Innovation Factory under the Apple the last one to be invested in the innovation workshop love to sing is very special, that is a high-profile and very low-key-online only three months, once more than "sing", rushed to the first place in the free app rankings, but also because of Lee Kai-fu, access to innovative factory investment and was known. But the reporter learned that love singing and do not have their own public relations, external also do not disclose what data, never received media interviews. It is understood that Love sang published on August 6, 2012, entered the innovation factory in October, is regarded as "sing" the main competitor. CEO Zhang Minghui has been a core member of the start-up team for cool Music box, as Chief architect. Zhang Minghui appears very self-confident, has said that "in the Internet music field, we have many years of technology accumulation and precipitation, so our technology in the peer is still in the leading position." He said that in product promotion, love singing is mainly rely on the user's Word-of-mouth spread. But the drama is that there is no "love singing" in the Apple App Store. AccordingApp rankings query App Annie's data show, Love singing released the day, the list ranked only 47, the next day its ranking straight up to 18, after half a month, love singing in the rankings between 15-31 in a line between floating up and down, and then September 1 below 47. After falling to the bottom of the climbing peak is blockbuster, September 3 love singing rankings from 47 straight to the top of the list, September 20 again straight down, down to 53. Love to sing all the signs of the industry questioned, that its ranking is through the brush list, and in addition to the brush list does not seem to have any other reason why is under the shelf. As many people say they do not know what to sing, or frankly did not use, so the industry's evaluation of love singing is unknown. Entrepreneur Reviews: Innovation Workshop is a platform for gaining experience and opportunity. CEO Zhang Lei summed up the incubation of the Innovation Workshop: In addition to financial support, the recommendation of the main staff, innovation workshop to provide entrepreneurs with good government relations. In addition, the Innovation Workshop organization's salon is also very valuable, invites the successful entrepreneur at home and abroad to speak freely at the meeting, the professional financial guidance also lets the company to take many detours. Mi Jinhua, a former head of the magic figure, has publicly said that the biggest help in innovation workshops is that the entire platform team lets them know what entrepreneurship is. The entire team in product development, resources, funds, users, channels and so on have a very deep understanding. Even the dessert team leader Zhang Lei also guests to share with them the entrepreneurial feelings and experience, she believes that innovation Workshop has a learning-oriented work atmosphere, we communicate is very harmonious. In Yangjie's view, innovative workshops to provide entrepreneurs with a platform for entrepreneurship, a valuable opportunity. The incubation guide for the Innovation Workshop pointed out the possible entrepreneurial direction for the entrepreneur, and played the basic training and VC referral function. But the master leads the door, the practice sees individual, not each project can successfully go down. According to Yangjie, the same group of run-up projects were mostly mobile internet projects, and now almost half of them have died. The reasons for failure are not the same, but certainly have a great relationship with the entrepreneurial team itself. In talking about the failure of investment, Kai-Fu Lee has said that the biggest problem with early-stage entrepreneurs is usually in the executive, executive and focus should be tied together. On the failure of entrepreneurship, bo that the failure rate is very high, these are normal. Moreover, the innovation Factory is a relatively new investment organization, the experience is still shallow, in the choice of companies in fact there are very complicated standards, in the selection and entrepreneurial direction must have careful consideration. He believes that the Magic Map Wizard was the acquisition of Baidu is a successful innovation workshop case. For Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation workshop, this is a good start, but also inspired the entrepreneurial morale. With regard to the way in which innovation workshops exit the project, Bo that the future sale of the project may be more appropriate than the project IPO, "Innovation workshops are not as good as their own visibility and social effects, and the project will be sold in a timely manner."