Hundred meters CEO Xiang: 40-year-old business is not too late to think twice before the trip

Today, the protagonist of our story is "hundred meters (Byme)" co-founder and CEO Mr. Xiang, he will be a reasonable entrepreneur's safe and infinite imagination space of the entrepreneurial story to show in front of us.

"The mobile internet will usher in a burst of growth next year", and last year we heard so much about it, opening this year's curtain, and we saw those wandering on the brink of entrepreneurship starting to stir, eager and eager to jump into the ocean that looked like the Red Sea. In the face of this scene, Xiang told us that entrepreneurship is not in the morning and evening, the need to calm down to consider the trade-off, in the most appropriate time to do, when all mature circumstances, should not be late. )

"Hundred meters (Byme)" Co-founder and CEO Xiang

The first act: for money and entrepreneurship, in order to start a business and the misunderstanding

After graduating from university in 1991, Xiang became China's almost earliest batch of programmers, at first, he worked for a foreign company, from the mainframe to do high-performance computing, to the PC on the calculation, and then on this basis to do technical support and management work, with customers more adept, more than 2000 years, Xiang the idea of starting a business for the first time, but there was no entrepreneurial environment around him.

In the eyes of Xiang, 20 years ago, China did not "entrepreneurial" the word, ten years ago, in order to close touch "entrepreneurship", he went to Silicon Valley, just want to know how to start a business, this is 10 years, after returning home, Xiang has 40 years old, he began to start a business.

Xiang says that 80%-90% of Chinese entrepreneurs start their own businesses for money, this misunderstanding by both domestic and foreign circumstances misleading, "the boss of the listed companies too high to let people mistakenly think, want to make a lot of money can only start;" The foreign population of the ' venture to the early ' so that those who did not graduate from college without entrepreneurial planning began to rush to start a business.

"The Chinese think of entrepreneurship as a means of earning money, and Americans make money as a by-product of entrepreneurship", which may be related to China's national conditions and education system, can not change quickly, the hearts of people.

"Entrepreneurship should be based on interest, should be ' always want to do something ' portrayal of", Xiang that the profit of entrepreneurship may lead to a red sea, while the durability is not long, "if so, can be entrepreneurial and successful people very few."

That is why, Xiang's business is not a hasty decision, "entrepreneurship can not follow suit!" In his mind, entrepreneurship is the homeopathic demand: "Mobile phone has several major features: location, personal ID, and when familiar with these characteristics, on this basis will be able to create something special, must be able to solve some kind of demand." "In the stimulation of these ideas," hundred meters "was born, no about money, there is no about entrepreneurship, in short, Xiang did this thing he has always wanted to do.

In order to live, the Chinese people's pressure has been very big, the profit-making business seems to make people more crazy, and the pursuit of money if not achieved in the short term, you are likely to directly face the "give up or not" problem. Since you want to embark on the road to entrepreneurship, first of all to clear a "goal" question, what do you want to start a business? Xiang told us not to start a business for money, not to start a business, should be to "demand" and entrepreneurship, in order to "interest" and entrepreneurship, which directly affect your entrepreneurial direction, determine your beliefs, test your enduring power.

Act II: Entrepreneurship is not easy!

In the first act, we mentioned that more than 10 years ago Xiang first had the idea of starting a business, ten years later, he really began to start a business, another interesting situation is that more than 10 years ago Xiang very optimistic about the development of lbs, ten years later began pioneering business in this field.

1999, the OpenView Beijing office work Experience let Xiang unforgettable, at that time, lbs has been deeply attracted him, "at that time the idea has matured, but the technology at that time does not support people to turn ideas into reality."

From ideas to entrepreneurship, from the idea of lbs to really do lbs, Xiang experienced a decade, but actually experienced a time of change, from the entrepreneurial initiation period to a relatively mature period, from the weak period of mobile communication technology to high-speed development period, his waiting is a "latent" process.

In the ten years of Silicon Valley, Xiang saw a different kind of entrepreneurial scene, individuals have ideas or prototypes to Google such a large company to sell, at the same time, large companies are willing to recognize small entrepreneurial projects, to buy ideas and talent, this is a common entrepreneurial mode, and in China, good ideas will not be bought, are easily copied by big companies, "in China, it's very difficult for young people to start a business."

In this entrepreneurial environment, entrepreneurs need to think twice. Perhaps you are thinking that this is not a red sea, but the focus is not on the Red Sea, but on the market, Xiang that there are two points need to "think": "First of all, there is no market; second, how long can you hold on?" ”

In order to start a business, Xiang prepared for ten years, thinking about a year, mobile internet is really hot, but where are our users? With so many smartphone users, are they all enjoying 3G network technology? and "persistence" may be a financial battle.

The Xiang team's byme is a location-based lifestyle consumer service software, and in the mobile internet world, similar applications are not few, thoughtful Xiang why choose to do such a "homogenization" of the pressure products?

"Some areas can only have one or two, extremely monopolistic situation, and life class, there will be a lot of home, this market is very big", for this, Xiang is very confident, he believes that the difference between products only users to experience, and mobile Internet and location of the close relationship between the decision, even if doing the same product, there will be a lot of living space. This is Xiang to market and competition situation judgment, at the financial level, early get financing also let his entrepreneurial behavior has more emboldened.

In combination with his entrepreneurial experience, Xiang recommends individuals who want to start a business in the mobile Internet: if there is no good team and money, then focus on gaming and tools applications. Although in his eyes, similar to the products of hundred meters still have a market, but in the content to spend too much experience, it really needs the support of the team and money, and play games and tools to make the application of ways to earn rankings and users, it is difficult to quickly enter the profit model, but also difficult.

The choice of entrepreneurship requires careful consideration of the various issues involved, on the other hand, "the continuity of career development may be broken, may be the most drastic", which seems to be a heavy topic, but Xiang that young people not only have to think about what the business will bring to themselves, but also want to lose what they have, "the choice is difficult to turn back , entrepreneurial people's own mentality needs to be good, hard or not are their own choice.

Xiang suggest entrepreneurs "don't be impatient; it's better to settle into a start-up company and start with a ' follower '."

Act III: Two issues of entrepreneurship: people and money

In the eyes of Xiang, entrepreneurship has two problems, one is the human problem, the other is the question of money.

"The Chinese people's sense of hardship is very strong, to find like-minded people is not easy," Xiang, found that a team can be more difficult with their own suffering, pressure to survive.

In Xiang's entrepreneurial philosophy, he thinks you need to sink down to think about all kinds of problems, and once you want to do not hesitate to do, and when he started his own business, he still thought for a long time, think good people, think good money, just to let go.

"Entrepreneurial threshold is still very high," Xiang said, because of the problem of money, many good applications may not last much longer, resulting in "the remainder of the king", "You can not insist, can not hold, money can not support, more value people can support."

In addition, Xiang that whether it is the biggest difficulty of starting a business, or the most important element of the company is "people", "communication with the team, communication with the investors, to be responsible for the investors, but also to the team responsible for", in his eyes, to lead all the relevant personnel successfully ashore the most important.

People and money is pressure, but also power, can be said to be the premise of entrepreneurship, but not necessarily, Xiang, because the environment is not the same, so the opportunity for personal entrepreneurs is still very large, but he suggested: "Do not go to life and capital demand too much of the project, at present, the investment project of VC less and more, they are more valued at people and team." ”

In a word, entrepreneurship is not easy, need to think about it, need to be prepared, need a person's wealth, and really prepared enough people have how much? Perhaps this so-called Red Sea is really just a fake image, for want to be a real entrepreneur and not a drowning person of you, at this moment is there any feeling and inspiration?