Grassroots stationmaster of He, why choose Ego Revolution?

Grassroots origin, Webmaster started, the two unique experience of the Chinese venture into the most legendary warrior. But why did he choose his own revolution when it came to the most important harvest of his life?

If it were not an English report in the Wall Street Journal, few people would have known what country TTg was, what it was doing, and no one had linked it to CAI. With November 27 officially landed on the Australian stock Exchange, TTG finally unveiled his own mystery: It came from Shenzhen, China, to make bank card coupons business, the IPO day value of 480 million Australian dollars (about 2 billion yuan). In short, this is China's first successful IPO O2O enterprise.

Yes, its angel investor is Cai. So far, TTG is the first one to go public since Cai has invested in Angel investment. At the same time, his early investment in the Storm audio and video has been in the domestic newspaper, waiting in line, and the page tour platform 4399 this year's revenue has stabilized more than 1 billion, is one of the most likely to be listed in 2013.

This is a proud transcript for any angel investor, especially for CAI. He is not born in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other front-line cities of the first-line companies, no root without foundation, plainly, he came from the circle outside. He is not a prominent graduate of the returnees, he even did not read the high school, when the other people's starting point is Java, C + +, his starting point is Hanyu Pinyin A, O, E (from the pronunciation, this "basic course" to today Cai also did not pass).

1993, when Cai from the small mountain village in Quanzhou, Fujian, when I went to Southeast Asia, no one thought that even the Mandarin-speaking young people would someday be connected to a business called the Internet; the locals will be able to accept all kinds of shoe kings, such as Anta, special steps, and Hong Xing, which sweep China. Even the real estate tycoon, who has been in the top ten for years in the Forbes list, is the Rongmao of Quanzhou, a digital symbol in the eyes of the local people. Doing traditional business, and then discovering the opportunities that others cannot find, is the "Entrepreneurial Bible" in this place. Everything is so natural.

In a way, Cai is a "traitor" to faith. If it wasn't for the afternoon of 2000, he saw in a Hong Kong newspaper that a domain name named "Business" had sold 7.5 million of dollars, and maybe today in the corner of some of China's unknown third-tier cities, you would see a clothing chain that looked like a special cottage, His boss is the CAI that you can't search on the Internet; if he had not made a navigation website called 265 and sold it to Google (the internet giant's only acquisition in China), you might have seen a small webmaster who was shuttling back and forth in Beijing's major internet venues, with a feeling of silk and a middle-aged man. , he handed a business card, it said "Cai wins", and perhaps an English name, such as Mike Cai.

Anyway, he has not inherited Quanzhou (Jinjiang) People's wealth logic, also did not copy their success path ...

Of course, it's all just if. It happened that he saw the domain name business that day, it happened that he found the game gate of China's Internet arena-traffic, he happened to have made and achieved his first bucket of gold, the first confidence, he happened to like the angel investment.

"Cai in Quanzhou, Jinjiang area is also very famous, but he belongs to the heterogeneous entrepreneur, differs from there businessman, entrepreneur, he plays the Internet to play the fame, this is many does the traditional business person is very difficult to do." "Cai-Sheng's fellow friends, famous collectors Cai said.

In fashionable words, it is called "Crossing the Boundary". From selling clothes, doing real estate intermediary, investing in stocks, to reselling domain names, self-built websites, digging and investing in internet grassroots entrepreneurs, cai a step by step to subvert the business model of Quanzhou. If it comes down to one thing, it's the traditional internet that allows Chua to discover and hold the chance. But this is "yesterday's story"-with the advent of the mobile internet era, whether cattle or cock silk, are back to zero, put on the same starting line: Because the battlefield is transferred from the PC to the mobile phone.

The rules of the game have changed completely, Mike Cai is no longer cai.

"Cai Webmaster" and "Cai Angel"

It seems like everything is meant to be.

TTG founder Chunco The earliest business is not coupons, distance O2O is 108,000 miles. He has done music downloads, mobile phone e-commerce. In the music download station, he is also the leader of the same field in China, at least in Shenzhen, the eldest. But the internet climate in Shenzhen has not been very good, at least in 2006. So, that year suddenly received a letter from Xiamen invitation, he was a little surprised: Shenzhen did not know a few peers, the field actually have attention to us.

The letter is Cai wins, when he began to organize webmaster Assembly, Hope Chunco as a representative of Shenzhen to attend the meeting. At that time, many participants were the most famous people in the Future China Internet Circle: 2005 Webmaster General Assembly photo, Lei and Zhou is sitting side by shoulder; it is in this Congress, Lei and Lee Colling after a long talk, decided to invest him, at the same time, Zhou 祎 know the strange tiger Webmaster and acquired the site; By the year 2007, 酷6网 founder Shanyou's personal profile at the webmaster meeting sounded like "xx excellent workers"--one of the top ten new sharp stationmaster.

It belongs to Ding Lei, Charles Zhang, Li's era, even Lei, Zhou finished veteran have squeezed into the team of stationmaster, Chunco "the stream" and calculate what? but Cai take them seriously. Even the grassroots entrepreneurs, also have the opportunity to speak, pointing to the lake, yy future. This is in line with the host's personal origins: the hero does not ask the source. At the 2006 conference, Chunco met Cai, the former impression of the latter is: the courtesy of everyone is very high, no shelves, but Mandarin sounds laborious.

In 2007 webmaster meeting, the founder of the Wood Ant speech, the first sentence is to thank Cai Win, make Cai Sheng fog. Originally a few years ago when he had to find Cai help, asked if can send a server, CAI also really sent, but later put it all forgotten.

Through the Webmaster assembly, Cai to Xiongke Miao's team has a more comprehensive understanding, that year it was invested. Over the next two years, Xiongke's team has been trying new directions, and in 2008 finally established with the bank card cooperation coupon mode (at that time O2O concept has not been popular in the country), that is, the dispersed business coupons unified to credit cards, so that vouchers become vouchers, greatly reduced the traditional coupon business of the uncertain link. Afterwards Cai to Chunco said, you know I bought the first domain name? It's called "One Card".

For "Cai Webmaster", there is a problem is not difficult to explain, that is why he knew so many grassroots webmaster. The reason is very simple, he does the domain name business, all day is to deal with strange URLs, the Web site is the webmaster, at the same time, do 265 web site, but also need to constantly update the list of websites, this is not to contact with the various sites and webmaster.

So, "Cai Angel" is how to refine it? This requires "CAI Webmaster" to explain. The so-called angel investors, not the money, not even the vision, but the source of the project, that is, how to ensure that the project is a steady flow of the present in their eyes. And as the king of the Cai win, in a very long time have two magic weapon: 265 and China Webmaster Station (Webmaster House). The former can tell him that which site traffic in the surge, which small stations suddenly come out, this is quantitative analysis, the latter will let him know that the flow of the station and its behind the webmaster is not reliable, that is, the webmaster home played a circle of "key person role", this is a qualitative analysis.

The left hand takes the knife, the right hand takes the fork, this is "the CAI stationmaster" Changes the body "The Cai Angel" The Secret Cheats. In the past nearly 10 years, if say as an angel investor's Cai wins has the competition threshold, that is gathers in his side many other people simply cannot see the grassroots stationmaster.

Suguang, founder of the Android Optimizer and Master Zhuo, is a classic example. Zhuo Master just got Baidu's B-round investment, it's a round of investors are June-Lian capital. And in the June Lian before, is Cai wins first discovered and invested in Suguang liters.

Before doing the two products, ad copy of the Suguang had joined the SP industry and quickly amoy the first bucket of gold. Then he made a Saipan forum out of hobby, namely opda.cn, Nokia's application software to download, his own three years have invested 600,000, the site to do the industry second. Old shouting Symbian Net.

At the beginning of 2009 one day, Suguang suddenly received the phone Cai wins, said he wanted to talk to him. At this time Suguang just remembered, oneself saw Cai wins. It was 2003, Suguang to accompany a webmaster friends to Beijing a courtyard to participate in the stationmaster get-together, this bureau is CAI wins organization, so will be impressed by this person. But Cai long ago did not remember him, in the words of Suguang Sheng, the party he is "soy sauce."

And Cai from the home founder Yau Jianjun there two Symbian BBS do well, a call Saipan network, another is OPDA. In fact, Cai Vision of the Symbian Network team, later found Suguang sheng.

Cai and Suguang talked about it three times before and after, and finally decided to invest in the latter. That is a Saturday morning, Cai to Suguang sent a text message, said you give me your account number, I will give you the money to call. Suguang, also said to his wife, you see this thing is reliable? His wife said that the account first to the people, not hit you will not lose anything. In this way, Suguang a row of very good bank card number to Cai hair in the past, the digital domain name is extremely sensitive CAI webmaster back to a word: This number is very auspicious ah!

The next Suguang like nothing. Soon Cai sent a text message, ask the money received No. Suguang not yet. At the urging of his wife, he checked the afternoon, suddenly found that the balance behind a lot of zero. Obviously, this scene is very easy to remind people of "Dahua West Tour" in a classic line: wife, come to see God!

For Chua, this project is called the Sow and the fruit. And the story is just beginning.

Reborn

Suguang said that no investor had ever looked for him before seeing Cai because few people knew him. But Cai the first to invest is not OPDA, but Symbian network. The latter, whether the number of users or traffic, are higher than OPDA, the only common point is that both are for Symbian developers.

But at this point Cai to Nokia and its operating platform has been completely off the cold. With the first iphone listing in 2007 and the advent of the first Android phone G1 in 2008, he vaguely felt that this was the direction of the phone. Cai The first team to talk with the Symbian network, everything was satisfied, but he put forward a condition: to give up Symbian, the overall shift to more open Android, that is, to do the Android forum.

But they don't agree. You know, in 2009, Nokia was still sitting on the top of the global handset market, and this position seems to be untouchable. Finally, Suguang and his opda was picked up a leak, of course, the premise is to do an android forum. Suguang accepted, but told Cai that it would take time.

In June 2009, the OPDA team moved to the CAI office in Soho, Suguang said, here may be the earliest incubator in China, in addition to opda,4399, the United States and Mito have a team here, the administration, finance, foreign cooperation is not the basic management.

One day in 2010, a guest came to chat with Cai in the office. Cai Suguang Rose called over, introduced that this is the Hua of Innovation Factory. Then Suguang listen to the two people talk about mobile internet, say what An Chaocai is the future. Suguang Rose frequently nodded, but did not go to the heart, thought this and I have what relationship, do a Symbian forum, one months down 200,000, 300,000 of the application to promote income, a few people's small team comfortable very, Android is seen money?

Again a few months later, see Suguang have no movement, CAI urgent. He called from Xiamen, asked why did not turn, Suguang again, said what the latest model of Nokia E71 are out, Symbian market looks like a pretty promising. Cai wins a listen to be angry: "Originally agreed, why do not do now?"

Calm for a moment, Cai wins began to tell Suguang his "blood and tears history." Every angel investor is the same, people often see their bright side, success cases one after another, the lessons of failure are rarely mentioned. Cai told Suguang: "You know, we have a case, tens of millions of of dollars hit down, and finally did not." Why? is the direction of the wrong, did not adjust the direction in time, how hard, how much money is wasted! Cai finally left a sentence: The arm rotten, must be cut off to live hope.

After the call, Suguang for a month or two, during which one of the team's core members also resigned because of direction. This allows Suguang to experience a full embrace of Android, especially starting at the mobile end exerting force. "When the Android engineer was still hard to find, I forced my little brother to teach himself, and the Symbian Forum was completely shut down," he said. "After this transformation, Suguang launched two products: one is an Android optimization master, one is Zhuo master." The former is responsible for system optimization, the latter is responsible for brush machine.

It is said that this year only an Android master optimization of this product was acquired at the price of tens of millions of yuan, and Zhuo master just got the Baidu investment, the amount is also at millions of U.S. dollars. It's less than two years before the OPDA transition. Over the last year or so, Nokia has completely abandoned its Symbian operating system, while Android phones have become the world's largest smartphone for shipments. Suguang said, served.

Cai's judgment of trends is no different from that of ordinary people. He loves to read all kinds of reports and earnings and is extremely sensitive to the changes in numbers. In Tencent's latest earnings, he was visibly impressed by the changes in the traditional Internet: income, though high, had fallen short of expectations and stocks fell sharply. And let him really feel the power of mobile internet, also from Tencent.

In the March 2011, when the micro-letter came out, Cai found its value. He shouted in the microblog: "Human beings can no longer stop the micro-faith." Almost the same period, Cai also in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively, two similar to the micro-letter products, but by the end of 2011 years, Cai obviously feel that the war has ended without suspense.

Cai said the biggest "lesson" of the past two years was to see the trend, but the action was not firm enough. This year, he has a total of seven or eight projects, all from the mobile internet. In an internal speech to the CAI Fund, the company announced that it had stopped investing in Internet projects since last March, only to move the internet. His rationale: The first phase of the Internet changed the composition of information, the second phase changed the way of entertainment and E-commerce, and with the mobile internet and smartphones, changes in traditional industries have just begun.

And the traditional industry is CAI wins "territory". On the one hand, he started out as a traditional business, familiar with these industries, and, on the other hand, many of his "sources" came from traditional industries. When he was a webmaster, he saw those who do traditional business friends, the villagers asked them what the latest network, what software, and even he will go to the Internet cafes; now, he will pay attention to what the other mobile phone, play what application. "The needs of these small white users often represent the needs of most users. "Cai said.

But this is not the time of the stationmaster singles alone fights. "When big companies are focused on their own fields, like storms, 4399, 265, these sites can get up quietly," he said. Not now. You can't imagine a small town with a sudden xingping, which is impossible. The mobile Internet pays more attention to the team. "Cai said.

The battlefield changed and the rules of the game changed. The traditional internet, to stationmaster or the entrepreneur's challenge, actually is the flow to become present. If a product is good enough, the webmaster should do is to sit at home to collect money. But in Cai's eyes, mobile internet is not so easy. "For a product to be successful, there must be two necessary conditions." First of all, the user over billion, this is the bottom line, and can output traffic, that is, users can use your products, but also through your products with other people's products. Second, version upgrades, updates to fast. You see why the micro-letter up so quickly, first message function, then the picture, voice, shake, two-dimensional code, open ... This version is upgraded faster than all competitors. ”

To some extent, mobile internet is the "two times" of Cai wins. Despite his huge wealth and great reputation over the past decade with the help of the traditional Internet, Cai is unwilling to win. Just as Lei to Amazon, Zhou sold 3721 to Yahoo, he sold his 265 is also a deep regret. "After Baidu's acquisition of Hao123, the site gives it a billion of revenue each year, and 360 of the main revenue comes from the navigation site," Cai said, "but some things that are missing may give you greater value." If you miss it, you don't have to regret it. You're in a hurry to go ahead and find a bigger chance. ”

All right, even at midnight just out of the airport, Cai wins willing to friends Cai Club, drink tea, chat. "Sometimes he sits there on the Internet, I study my antiques, and I can't say a few words a day, that's all." "Cai is really sensitive to new trends, and he always finds opportunities that others haven't noticed," says Cai. Micro-bo, micro-letter came out, are CAI first time introduced to Cai.

Not counted on those pure "donations, donations," The help of the webmaster, Cai wins the current official Angel investment project in 50 or so. He does not like to use the number of projects to obtain a round or B round of financing to measure transcripts, but more attention to the number of users per project. "If a product can get 10 million of the user, in my eyes, even if the pass, more than the amount of money to be happy." Cai said that of the 50 or so projects, there are currently over half the number of users in more than tens of millions of projects.

But he also said that this year's biggest project "Exit" is not TTG listing, but the daughter admitted to Columbia University economics undergraduate-mainland China not more than 20 finalists. "You know, like me who did not study, grass-roots people, the most happy than the children are promising, which at least proves that I cai still have the talent of reading!" He smiled and said.