Haha carpool Li Hua: two times the acquisition and loss of entrepreneurship

In the taxi software War not stop, business car rental ushered in a regulatory punch, carpool start-up company Haha carpool announced won by Sequoia Capital, innovation workshop with a cast of 10 million U.S. dollars B-round financing. For the founder of Li Hua, in the closed door of SAIC power distributor, and opened the car market this window. In Li Hua founded haha carpool, his last venture item car goods sinks "do it tepid." The lesson of failure: Why can't the electric company of auto parts do it? When Li Hua just sat in front of NetEase science and technology reporter, it is difficult to see his placid face below, but also echoed the last failure of the memory of entrepreneurship. Three years ago in 2011, Li Hua, who had been a programmer and an investor, decided to start a business, aiming at a car that he loved. At that time E-commerce has been relatively hot, and I personally interested in the car, plus the car is a huge market, each year in the car cost of money is not a small expenditure, an average of more than 4000 yuan, but this market does not have a company to do very big, Jingdong, the cat in this market is a piecemeal, So at that time thought that this opportunity should be quite big, did not think too much, took part in it. Li Hua recalls. July that year, Li Hua won the Lei Angel Investment, and soon, a specialized car supplies and accessories of the electric dealer Web site "On the line, selling car seat cushion, seat cover, foot mat, perfume, car wax, foil, oil, machine filtration and so on. Li Hua soldier did not expect is that this looks very fertile market, the reason why there is no one electric dealer can do particularly large, there must be a reason. I have been in this market for two years, have a very deep understanding. Li Hua said the market looks very big, but there are more than 1700 kinds of vehicles, each car has more than 4,000 kinds of accessories, which is very important to the supply chain system. In order to be able to control the supply chain in every category, we need to have enough sales in each category, but it is very difficult to do it. "A private car owner in Beijing also said to NetEase technology that he bought some auto supplies online, including cushions, ornaments, etc., but most of the spending was spent at 4S stores near home. Do maintenance, or repair, replacement parts, are in the vicinity of the 4S shop. "The owner of the car said, my friends who have cars around me are generally in the 4S shop to do all the necessary, not to cheaper to go online to buy a car match, and then run to a more distant auto repair shop replacement accessories, because it is too troublesome." "Not only that, Li Hua gradually found that do automotive supplies e-commerce There are many obstacles, such as the level of information is relatively low, product standardization, and so on, in addition to the quality of the line store staff is uneven, the way to the Internet to control the industry chain is not easy." This is a painful lesson that has been summed up over the past two years. Li Hua said that the market for auto parts will certainly be a big one, but it needs enough time. "Re-Entrepreneurship: Why choose to Carpool market?" Li Hua, whether it is dropping a taxi, quick taxi, or easy to use the car, easy to drive, these use the Internet to change peopleThe products of the way of travel, the attention is the people's life style and travel process of human relations, the future will have a huge imagination space. Taxi, car rental, driving, these areas have been hot, carpool may be our opportunity. "Li Hua said. Shut down the original business, Li Hua from December 2013 onwards along the direction of carpool, and in the same month to obtain a round of financing, including innovation workshop of 8 million Yuan and Lei 2 million yuan, a total of 10 million yuan. After getting the first round of investment, Li Hua began to recruit and build a team. January 2014, haha carpool launched the product version of the demo, March launched the 2.0 version, the end of July launched 3.0 version. In the March 2.0 version of the online, there are many investors find Li Hua soldier, expressed interest in investment haha carpool, but Li Hua finally chose Sequoia Capital. June 2014, haha carpool won by Sequoia Capital, innovation Workshop with a total of 10 million U.S. dollars B-round financing. We hope this is an opportunity because at present in the carpool market, there is no other company to get more financing than the haha carpool. "Li Hua said. At present, the owners of private cars and people who need to carpool can register their own account in haha carpool, which can be paid for by Alipay, UnionPay, and micro-letter, and realize online transaction. Now the number of users is about hundreds of thousands of, daily active users accounted for about 10%. Li Hua said that at this stage, haha carpool is still in the optimization of products, happy enclosure stage, and did not consider the problem of profit model. The profit model may not be considered for a year or two. Our investors, including Sequoia Capital, innovation workshops, Lei, have not given us this pressure. Li Hua explains that the main task now is to make it easy for users to carpool. As users become more and more, the so-called business model will follow. Li Hua For example, private car owners and carpool public accounts are in haha carpool platform, the deposit of funds is valuable, on the other hand, a large number of user information can also be excavated large data, in the future can carry out some value-added services, including vehicle maintenance, maintenance, or second-hand car sales, new vehicle procurement, insurance and so on. In fact, the internet car industry has just started, even if the drop of a taxi, quick taxi such a night of the star company, also have not found a suitable business model. As fast as a taxi COO Zhao Dong said: March at present just took the first step, the future of the road is still very long. "Do carpool, where is the difficulty?" At present, haha carpool only in Beijing pilot, has not been extended to the country. This is due to the operational capacity of the consideration, hope to first in Beijing steady. Li Hua explained, if in Beijing can make users feel very happy, later promotion to the country is the logical thing. "For haha carpool, want to be in the internet car market also become star products, the final foothold or product itself-whether the product can really meet the needs of users." NoBefore, first put in front of Li Hua obstacle is: Carpool this market is a non-standard market, need to solve the user and platform, user and user's trust problem, and again is the problem of information matching. Songko (alias), who lives in Tian Tong Yuan, said to NetEase technology, every morning he will be crowded bus, change the subway to work in Zhongguancun, and then he found in the carpool platform in the same district to live in the same area to work from the driving trip of the neighbors, they meet, he only need to pay 20 yuan a day ride fee, You can make your commute a little more comfortable, and your travel costs can be shared. But not all commuters with carpool needs can easily find fellow travellers. The premise of this kind of transaction is: Carpool both sides to build up trust. More importantly, in this carpool platform, only when the number of private car owners, the number of carpool users are enough, people will be able to find their own travel lines most matching, time is also the most matching neighbors. After solving the problem of trust and line matching, there is another challenge: how to retain users? After one or two carpool, we are familiar with each other, no longer through the carpool software to trade. Songko said, two people are fixed time to work, and sometimes will come home together, we all feel that there is no need for a knot, a week to 100 dollars is also very convenient. "In addition, there are people worried about the problem of the black cars. Li Hua said, haha carpool will be in the system through technical means to the investigation. For example, from the suburbs to the international trade, the usual cost of carpool is 15 yuan, if the owner asking for 50 yuan, generally there will be problems. Li Hua said, in the future version of the product, haha carpool will provide recommended guidance, "will also increase the driver, passenger comments, through the credit system to troubleshoot the black car." Li Hua Before the problem is not only information matching, user retention, black car screening, but also to a AA carpool, love carpool and other similar app and just enter Beijing's foreign star products Uber competition, even do not rule out the taxi software also involved in the possibility of carpool market. Li Hua is not worried about competition from outside. We have our own experience in this market, we now encounter problems, competitors will also encounter. Haha carpool is in the Three Kingdoms War (Tencent-drop, Ali-fast, Baidu-easy to) the gap between the search for another market, we will not fight, just want to subdivide in the area of the carpool product. "Li Hua said. The short-term goal is to make the product in the Beijing market thoroughly. The current investment, burning to make an ideal product, should be enough. Li Hua Frankly, even if which day and failed, also very normal, entrepreneurship is not such a process. "[Detailed] Li Lihua is a computer professional, after graduating after five years of programmers, then as a vice president of the Han group, then created the Thousand Amoy capital, engaged in early investment." In 2011, Li Hua set up a website to focus on automotive supplies and accessories, but due to the inability to scale, the business closed at the end of 2013. InAfter the failure of the first venture, Li Hua soldiers to the company's office location from the East five ring moved to the North three ring, the formation of a team, involved in the carpool market, began two times to start a business. At present, haha carpool has about 40 employees, including a number of well-known Internet companies from the technology and market talent. Investor comments on the National Sea Innovation Capital investment director Yu Xiang: Whether investors or entrepreneurs, in the selection of a project, the first thing to consider is demand analysis, including the degree of rigidity of demand, the frequency of demand, the possibility of landing. Only a sufficient need or high enough frequency and can be landed on the demand, it is possible to form a separate flow at the mobile end of the portal, rather than become a comprehensive information platform of a channel. Carpool looks like a great opportunity, but it's really hard to get to the ground. First, the matching degree of the carpool itself is low, to meet the same starting position, the same time, the right price, the two sides can also be satisfied with each other, is certainly a small part, and when this small number of users to form a good match, naturally formed an acquaintance relationship, after direct contact, out of the dependence on the app. Secondly, because of the payment behavior, the nature of the carpool has become blurred, whether it is a professional pay service, or a social mutual assistance behavior, it is not good to define. This directly led to two aspects of the problem, first, the owners and passengers on this point of recognition is different, easy to dispute; second, after the accident, the definition of responsibility does not have a good reference standard. Therefore, whether the carpool can form a healthy and effective market, yet to be verified and observed.