Even if VC ushered in the cold winter, entrepreneurs can still go very far

Now, in both Silicon Valley and China, venture capital has become easier than ever. Any start-up company, once the financing is successful, will be reported by the media, peer envy, users easily doubled, rapid expansion of the team. It seems that investment can solve all the problems of products and teams. There is even a strange phenomenon, some startups got a round and even angel investment, actually set up a celebration lit firecrackers.

It is putting the cart before the horse. Wei, "China's entrepreneurial environment", said, "VCs are not the lucky boy, each investment will pursue the largest possible return: VCs A to sell the equity premium to the VC B, the VC B again, but there is always the last good time, that is, in the open market of the VCs exit.

But what really makes it possible for a start-up company to continually iterate over its products and values? Not to mention the hundred-year-old shops such as IBM and Intel. Even three years east of the three-year Hexi Internet investment Circle, can survive over two cycles of start-up companies do not rely on products to speak.

After Alibaba's successful IPO, the question of whether the Internet venture is in the cold winter has sparked a heated discussion. Whether there is a bubble is not the issue that this article wants to discuss. We assume that:

If there is a bubble, VC winter is coming, can excellent entrepreneurs rely on their own strength in the cold winter in the immune?

The answer can be said to be affirmative. Two weeks ago, Micheal Carney, in PandoDaily, published an article entitled Zoho How to Survive and succeed in two tech bubbles, describing an IT company founded in Silicon Valley, which has been founded for 18 years without any external investment, Profitability is good and maintains a 40% annual growth rate. The most amazing thing is that on the way to Zoho, without the support of venture capital, success survived the two technological bubbles and the widespread recession.

According to Raju Vegesna, one of the company's founders, Zoho's total revenue is now close to $1 billion trillion. Until today, Zoho still has no plans to finance the IPO, which is rare in companies of this size. Zoho's culture advocates the development of self-reliance, although it has always been the goal of VC Chase, the company has never accepted the intention of external investment. This has a very real problem, in the current ecological environment, job seekers want to find a rocket-type development company, Zoho How to attract and motivate the best talent to join?

Founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu said, "We do not think that the short-term utilitarian things can attract the best talent, Zoho turnover rate is very low, 100 product managers, the average term is about 10 years, I think still rely on culture, good corporate culture to retain people. The money will change our hearts, people will become quick, no way to work at ease.

"You may have trouble finding a product line as wide as Zoho, product categories such a rich company," Sridhar said, "We put more money in research and development, unlike many companies spend most of their money on sales and promotion, the money will eventually be passed on to users. When VCs get involved, you become a company driven by the VCs.

In stark contrast to Zoho is box. The latter has now gone through seven rounds of financing, raising a total of 450 million U.S. dollars. As can be seen in the performance report of this year's S-1 paper, despite growing revenues and rising financing, the cost of flowing water is driving up the risk of huge losses and private debt, leading to the postponement of IPOs. Similarly, Groupon is often touted as the fastest-growing technology company in history, and the reality is its totally unsustainable "daily buy" model, which is still facing serious problems of business model and management transition after a $20 per share price drop to $6.25 today.

There are more than one zoho that can still be successful without relying on VCs. Let's take a look at the following:

37Signals

37Signals was founded in 1999 in Chicago, was the "Wired" magazine for the 2008 Ten most worthy of concern start-up companies. Compared to some of the technology companies, 37signals is really a domestic program ape envy envy of the company, its CEO Jason fried against today's scientific and technological so-called "rapid development", against these companies financing, burning money, hiring people, as animals, in his place, Employees only work 4 days a week for only 35 employees in summer, but the company still earns millions of a year.

In 2009, a group of investors used 1 of dollars to buy 1e-09% of the company, and the market value of 37signals went straight to the 100 billion dollar mark. In an internal open letter to the financing, 37Signals said, "Since the release of Basecamp, the company has rejected more than 30 VCs, the company is not interested in funds and contacts, the company has been looking for a unique entrepreneur with wisdom, he sees things different, and allow us to continue our comfortable office at home, and have a long-term vision, and now we have found. In the next 20 years, 37Signals will be one of the greatest companies.

In an interview, Jason Fried said: "

Look at the TechCrunch, see what the hot news is talking about, is a company to get how much money, recruit how many people, but some really important they do not care. What's the big thing? Can you make money? Can you make any great products? Have you taken good care of your employees? Are you good with your customers? In our entire industry, there is little news about how to treat consumers well or how to build a sustainable business. TechCrunch for me, is the best place to see the sick of our industry.

Jason Fried's attitude may be a bit extreme, but he points out the impetuous mood prevalent among entrepreneurs with the help of media and VC. This impetuous mood is sometimes very prominent in Beijing or Silicon Valley.

Seabed Fishing

It is said that the bottom of the shop is not responsible for the turnover of the store, and no one is responsible for the turnover. Such a person is not responsible for the turnover of enterprises, 2008 income has reached 300 million yuan! "To improve the quality of service, we will certainly suffer losses in the profits," said Zhang Yong, who fished on the seabed. But our service let the guests come often, the waiting guests are staying, the rate of improvement. Because the fixed cost is invariable, the higher the turnover rate, the higher our profit margin, we earn is the turnover rate. ”

A large number of sharp sense of smell of investment companies earshot, IDG, National Gold Securities, Tiger funds have looked for the seabed fishing, hoping to inject capital to help accelerate its development. Unlike the small Fat sheep, which has been listed in Hong Kong for $25 million trillion, the seabed has declined all the VCs. "They want to buy shares and ask for a development plan that sets the level of the first year and the level of the second year." "Zhang Yong said," to the bottom of the current market, as long as the price up a little, wages down a little, you can achieve the profits of the venture investment requirements. But he was unwilling to let the seabed go bad for the sake of expansion.

Some people may say that the seabed fishing is because the money to refuse to vote, it is true, but, from a mala of Zhang Yong Why can go to the money today, we have carefully thought about it? Today's "internet thinking" food brand Shijian, we can wait and see, after two internet cycles, they can survive several?

camera+

Social photo-sharing apps camera+ has sold 8 million copies in two years, and its developers have been maverick in tap tap Tap, rejecting acquisitions by software and internet giants, and daring to say "no" to start-up companies ' often-coveted venture capital. In a blog post celebrating the two anniversary of Camera+, founder John Casasanta said that Adobe, Zynga, Google and Twitter all tried to buy his company, and John turned them down.

John Casasanta said he had almost signed on to the TS, but changed his mind at the last minute, and he didn't like the way the investment agency had planned for him. John attaches great importance to the independence of the company, he has put an end to all the suitors. Tap Tap was established not for short bursts, but for long-term development, and the company promised to make a great application and never sell the company.

Fred Wilson, founder of New York's famous venture capitalists, Union Square Ventures, argues that not only technology companies, but almost all startups in the U.S. are burning too fast. Bill Gurley, another well-known venture capital firm Benchmark partner, also said: "The entire Silicon Valley, as well as the entire venture community or entrepreneurial community, they are currently suffering from too much risk." "They dare to keep on burning money because they know there will be more capital coming in the next round of financing." Thanks to the behind-the-scenes impetus of the VCs, the speed at which Silicon Valley startups burn their money has soared, and the domestic burning of money is no less favourable.

Is such a Huoshaohuoliao status quo, so that countless entrepreneurs remain drooling envy. , "When some young people choose to start their own business on the internet, the focus is often not on how much market value the project can create, how to achieve value and how long it takes to achieve that value, how competitive conditions are and how competitive they are, and whether they have enough resources to successfully operate the project." It's about how much time you want to do, how much you rank, and how long you get the risk.

Wu, founder of the handle, said, "When you do well, you don't need to raise money; "The handle NET uses own present situation to confirm own founder's view." Once the first group purchase site in 2012 after the end of the small cycle Bingbairushandao, has just been acquired by the Triple Group, currently in the field of group buying less than 5%.

Accept the wind and burn money is not wrong, just hope that the vast number of entrepreneurial friends, or to have a beginner, do not lose the direction of the venture because of the wind, do not finance and financing. If you really want to make a career, you have to think about not accepting VCs, how you go down, how far you can go. You know, even VCs, the most favoured is the business model that can survive without VCs.