Le Bo Capital founder Ning: To be a contemporary entrepreneur "Lishizhen"

Intermediary transaction SEO diagnosis Taobao guest Cloud host technology Hall

Ning, 37, already has a company that has been acquired, a company listed, and an unsuccessful company operation, with three of the capital accumulated by the venture and the company's operating experience that has enabled him to qualify as an angel investor.

There are only two kinds of companies that invest in Ning, the first is business model, product technology or business resources is very good, a half silly entrepreneur can make; the second is Project General, no features, high difficulty, but there is a very cool entrepreneur "not to vote."

In order to achieve "medical name", he ran a breath in a week in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other 5 entrepreneurs concentrated cities, but also occasionally to expand the popularity of some television programs.

May 25, 2012, Ning back to the United States Silicon Valley. This time, his identity is angel investor.

After meeting a few old friends, Ning announced on his microblog homepage that he would appear at the Knight ' Sbuilding Ground Café at Stanford University's business School on the afternoon of 29th, hosting the first "entrepreneurial clinic" American station, "Welcome to the Silicon Valley friends, no registration."

Now that China is exporting a new product ——— venture capital, a growing number of Chinese investors are providing funding for us start-ups, including the venture capital funded by China's sovereign wealth fund (SUMMIT). According to Dow Venture source, the Dow Jones market research firm, 28 U.S. companies received injections of capital from Chinese VCs in 2011, a figure that was almost one-fold more than two years ago. Ning's "entrepreneurial outpatient" American station, doing the same thing, meeting with entrepreneurs, giving guidance, and identifying suitable startups or teams to invest.

Although it is the first time to enter the Silicon Valley ecosystem as an investor, Ning is no stranger here. 15 years ago, the 22-Year-old applied for a graduate student at Stanford University, majoring in electrical engineering. This university, close to Silicon Valley, has a strong entrepreneurial atmosphere, new technologies and ideas, combined with the help of hundreds of venture capitalists on the Sandhill Street on the west side of Stanford, creating a group of young billionaires.

As a graduate student at Stanford University, he and Google founder Larry Peggy and Sergy Brind are also classmates, Ning after graduation, Peggy they have warmly invited Ning to join Google, hoping he became Google tenth employees. However, in the Silicon Valley, Ning was thinking of returning to business, declined Google's invitation.

At that time, Ning had met the important partner of the first venture Chen and Zhou Yun Sail. Sitting on the terrace outside the Stanford Tressider Student Activity Center, drinking vitamin Water, three people talk about financing, business models, together to plan for the future. At that time they decided to imitate a United States "Earth City (Geocities)" community website (January 1999 the site has been Yahoo for 3.6 billion U.S. dollars price acquisition), returned to create Chinaren.

The venture capital was pulled by the party. They do a good job pricing, lawyers agreement, rented a school site, bought some pizza, cola, please eat, homeopathy talk about the plan to start Chinaren home. "Some students have money at home, twenty thousand or thirty thousand dollars, some home is not very rich, cast a thousands of dollars", and finally got 250,000 dollars.

1999, as a new community web site, Chinaren rely on alumni and other products quickly leap Red, registered users quickly break 100,000, "alumni" has become the domestic similar products in the largest, most complete data, the most users of the site. Less than a year after its inception, Goldman Sachs invested $10 million trillion in Chinaren, Ning they were able to continue to "burn money" to promote, big user. In order to snatch the eyeball, Chinaren, chairman of the then Zhou Yunfan, signed a 40 million-night advertising contract, to win the gold signs advertising.

2000, Chinaren Flow ranked the top 10, Yahoo had wanted to contribute 100 million U.S. dollars to buy Chinaren, Ning they did not sell, "thought it should be 200 million or 300 million dollars." Later sold to Sohu only sold 35 million dollars.

In March, the dotcom bubble began to burst, and the Chinaren financing of the second-year listing was extremely difficult. In order to avoid the fate of the close, three founders chose to sell the company Sohu, in exchange for Sohu 12.5% total 4.4 million shares. Ning and Zhou Yun-fan respectively as Sohu CTO, General Manager, located in Zhang Chaoyang and six or seven under the vice president.

In Sohu "dormant" more than a year later, Ning found Sina, Sohu, NetEase with the help of the SP business profitable, restless heart stirred up. In March 2002, Ning and his old partner Zhou Yunfan resigned together to create an aerial network to provide MMS services.

They rented a cottage in Houhai, Beijing, as an office, in only more than 10 employees to participate in the air network set up a conference, Ning wrote on the blackboard "Sina, Sohu, NetEase, Tencent," the name of the four major portals, followed by "Air", to motivate their employees to say: "We are going to and their famous company!"

At this point, the money became a problem. Ning and Zhou Yun sails to sell the Sohu shares held, to the investment bank concentrated in Hong Kong in central sweep floor, and eventually won the DFJ Global venture capital fund and other 3 institutions of 3 million U.S. dollars.

May 2002, the Air network became one of the first 16 WAP partners in Mobile, the end of the year, they got the film "Hero" Wireless copyright, by January 2003, "Hero" to the air network brought more than 1.3 million information revenue, the first to achieve full profit. 2004, the Air network in Mobile WAP, mobile game downloads, MMS three business of the SP revenue are ranked first.

Ahead of the sharp contraction in the SP business, July 2004, the Air network on the Nasdaq listing.

Seemingly smooth entrepreneurial experience, Ning has missed the opportunity because of his own judgment mistakes. "I got about 3.5 million dollars after Sohu's acquisition, but Goldman Sachs said," No cash, no stock. At that time Sohu just listed, the stock is about more than 10 dollars a share. Then there was a time when the stock fell to 1 dollars, and I threw it away and then rose back to dozens of dollars. The air network listed, after the city, the stock fell a lot, this time I did not throw. ”

In the air online after the city, Ning still not idle, chose the third venture ——— not Khon search. The search engine, a very low public awareness, was launched in 2010 after Google withdrew from mainland China, aiming to target the search market. At that time Ning idea is, "search domain has Google and Baidu, and people to rob the market has been very difficult, but the subdivision of the search market is not, I want to do is for the market search engine."

However, the market did not give him the opportunity to successfully challenge Baidu, Google, Tencent. Later, Ning to understand the problem, for specific target groups of product micro-innovation is not enough. He told the southern Metropolis Daily Reporter, "micro-innovation is misleading, not enough!" What is big innovation? Before the invention of Band-Aid, bandage the wound with gauze and duct tape. The Band-Aid lets the tape and the gauze stick together, the bandage is very good, the Johnson company's creation can paste therefore one cannon success. What is micro-innovation? Girls feel that the creation can be pasted not good-looking, it becomes transparent, cartoon of the creation of stickers, this is called micro-innovation. If you want to create a transparent, cartoon-like paste to do the company, you are finished, certainly not enough. You can't beat the Johnson Company, micro-innovation is not enough. Innovation must be great innovation. ”

At this point, the 37-year-old serial entrepreneurial enthusiasts Ning has a company has been acquired, a company listed and an unsuccessful company operation experience, three of the accumulation of capital + company operation Experience so that he has become an angel investor qualifications.

In fact, around 2006, Ning began to regard Angel investment as a "sideline".

His first project was the popular player, a typical "cast acquaintance" model. Ning has seen the popular founder Lo Jiangchun in Silicon Valley, back home after a number of contacts, due to the lack of entrepreneurial experience, Lo Jiangchun in the preparation of a new company to find Ning, "at first I just want to ask him to be a consultant, because he had two startups have been very successful, so I want to ask him to advise." "After two or three encounters, Ning decided to be their first investor," I hope that entrepreneurs must have good morals and do things, and Lo Jiangchun is one of them. He is more sensible and has a considerable view of things, all of which come from experience, thinking, observation and study. ”

In Lo Jiangchun eyes, Ning is a very high IQ, in the analysis of the problem can always see the essence, "and the general financial investors are different, Ning has a wealth of entrepreneurial, business management experience, so he can give entrepreneurs a lot of good advice." He has a wide range of knowledge and knows everything, so he can analyze problems synthetically rather than only from a technical point of view. ”

Subsequently, Ning has invested a listen to music, Leroy Entertainment, hot cool games and other companies. Recently he simply did Shang, will Wu empty network to professional managers to take care of their own set up Le Bo Capital, the total asset size of 100 million yuan, specifically for a huge growth potential, the company is still in the concept or the embryonic state of individuals and teams for Angel investment. His microblog name was changed from @ Well Khon Search founder Ning to @ angel investor Ning.

Ning the company from entrepreneurship to listing as the process of going to school, "after kindergarten stage, primary and secondary school and then university, college graduation is listed." Angel Investment Stage is kindergarten stage, he boasted as "professional preschool education." Have a wealth of entrepreneurial experience to do support, he is most adept at the start-up company's management, marketing, operations, so that the rapid growth of the team.

What makes Ning more objectionable is that some companies in the kindergarten stage, always thinking of the middle school should do things, "I said if you are not staring at the kindergarten should do things, kindergartens are not graduating, is ordered to drop out!"

After investing in some projects, Ning concludes that there are only two kinds of companies he will invest in, the first one is business model, product technology or business resources is very good, a half silly entrepreneur can make; the second is Project General, no features, high difficulty, but there is a very cool entrepreneur, "not to vote."

This may be the voice of many angel investors. Angel Investment phase of the risk is very large, to VC, PE phase of the risk reduction, the more near the listing, the possibility of capital preservation, the more intense competition between investors, even for investment opportunities, each other to slander each other. Is the so-called Angel by eye, PE by alcohol. Ning said, Angel investment is like in Beijing Pan home Treasure Hunt, 99% are fakes, but there are real things in the inside, if you can amoy out, the return is quite amazing.

However, Ning that the two companies that are worth investing in are hardly risky. If a company's business model, product technology or business resources are very good, which almost means that a steady profit and loss of the business, entrepreneurs can fully borrow money from the bank or friends, there is no need to separate a substantial share of the investors to the angel. And the "Ning entrepreneur" that he wants to meet may already be able to survive the initial stage of weakness and require large investments to scale up, which is not the mission of angel investors.

Dai Jian, a well-known angel investor, believes there is only one ingredient in making him a final investment decision: Man. This is also the idea of many angel investors. Ning that if the project is not reliable, he will not consider the founder's good. He told the southern Metropolis Daily Reporter, "This, you are betting that he will be able to change the future of the project, but he may not change or bad Ah, this project I never gamble." ”

Ning a set of "Red Sea, blue ocean, salt Land" theory, Project Good, is a big blue sea, half fool can become, he cast; The general concept of the project is the Red Sea, although the competition is fierce, but the founder of cattle, he felt also can cast, if it is salt, the project is wrong "and the founder of the cattle do not vote."

In the "give you a billion" column in Ning, there is a project for job seekers to shoot job-seekers ' videos. "I think this is the salt project because there is no market," he said. First job seeker is very poor, he also has no money; is simply unrealistic; third, you even cut the beautiful words, you and iphone's camera can not be compared, because most job seekers will think, I let friends take mobile phone camera for me to shoot A, will not have you this professional racket (market), There is no market demand. (some) entrepreneurs are not ideal, but fantasy. There is a big difference between ideals and fantasies. ”

Ning believe that doing things, not by the mentality of gambling, he does not believe that he has so good luck. The idea he often makes to entrepreneurs is to make success from accidental to inevitable. If there is a good team, ideas, development ideas, then entrepreneurial success is step-by-step, "flowing".

Shi Xiaofeng founder of the Ning for the type of investment companies, but also summed up the needs of their entrepreneurs, "only two kinds of money is what we want: the first is the investors money more people silly, just throw money regardless of income." The second is that although the money is not much, but extremely want to make money, so that can not do their own things, to help us do things for free people. Other than the investors, we do not consider!

Ning to this response said, first of all, it depends on the specific situation who is strong, is the buyer's market or seller's markets. Second, the general investor may not be able to identify what is a good model and a very entrepreneurial entrepreneur. Finally, for good companies or investors, compromising compromises may not be a bad thing.

In fact, Ning in the hearts of two types of companies worthy of investment, are too extreme. See most is a first-class business model, with two or three stream of people, or vice versa. A project or person who is not born to succeed. Successful start-up companies often rely on the eye of angel investors to know beads, capital and experience to support, but also need entrepreneurs in the market to fight hard, and gradually grow.

According to his own thinking, so far, Ning has cast more than 10 projects. He is not an impulsive investor, the decision to invest or not, Ning need to meet with the start-up company 5 times, each project inputs 1 million to 5 million, "about 30% can be sold or listed." ”

He spent the last six months on the project, as Chinaren and the founder of the Air network, Ning is a well-known entrepreneur in the country, a friend introduced him to the project, entrepreneurs are often attracted to himself, looking for his investment.

But these cannot satisfy his appetite. In order to find more suitable projects, ning by virtue of their own "creation of the industry, sold the company, went to the city, do a lot of investment and financing," the experience of doing a "pioneering clinic." The experience that makes the entrepreneur dream is that he can be "like an old Chinese medicine", diagnose around, listen to the problems of the entrepreneur, prescribe a prescription for them, and choose the right project to invest. "Entrepreneurial clinics are free, purely for the public good." I do not have to invest to do so, because I invest in a standard, to meet the standard to invest. I just help solve the problem. ”

This solves the problem that Chinese entrepreneur is difficult to make an appointment to Angel investor, "I have no appointment at all, I open outpatient service, if everybody can come", very popular with entrepreneur. Through the entrepreneurial clinic, Ning has been able to see a large number of entrepreneurs, the ability to diagnose entrepreneurial disease has improved a lot, "why Chinese doctors than foreign doctors?" is the Chinese doctor, who has seen many times the patient is American doctors, natural medicine is good, because he has seen everything. ”

Ning is a mission of investors, he made Angel investment not only to make money, but also hope to become "contemporary entrepreneur Lishizhen", to do the best entrepreneurial doctors and investors, "is the inheritance of Confucius, is the future generations will (someone) to learn your thoughts, learn your deeds." This is to some extent eternal life, how do people gain eternal life, it is our thoughts and deeds to gain eternal life. In order to achieve the "medical name", he ran a breath in a week in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other 5 entrepreneurs concentrated cities, but also occasionally to expand the popularity of some television programs.

A ning in Nanjing Airport terminal, suddenly found that the airport TV screen, is playing him as the judge of the "give you a billion" column, many tourists look, but no one recognized him. Ning, "It seems that I am too ordinary." If he sits next to a bunch of entrepreneurs, he's probably already surrounded.

After running home, this time, he opened the business clinic to the Silicon Valley. Ning sat on the terrace outside the Stanford Tressider Student Activity Center, drinking vitamin Water, and this time he heard that the next table was talking about financing, business models, and planning for the future. 13 years ago, he and Chen a boat, Zhou Yun sail for the establishment of Chinaren to prepare the scene vividly, Ning took out the iphone to press the shutter, the picture uploaded to his microblog homepage.

Angel Quotes

"The cool man has no idol and no authority."

Give entrepreneurs a piece of advice, do not take VC too seriously!

Jobs in his book and life repeatedly to believe his intuition, "intuition", which is particularly harmful, genius intuition to make it, the average person's intuition is a piece of crap! What do we usually rely on? is judgment, "judgement".

Want to become a great cause must pay attention to three aspects of the fix, realm, pattern, mind, which aspect of small career will not be big.

There are only two kinds of companies I will invest in, the first is the business model/product/Technology/Business resources it's great. Even if only one and a half stupid entrepreneur can do it; the second is a project in general, without features and difficulty, but there is a very good entrepreneur.

There are only two ways for small companies to get along with big companies, one is to subvert it through the great innovation of business model or product, and let big companies tangle to death. Another way is to attach to a large company, thoroughly do the work of holding the thigh to seek wealth.

The development of the entire enterprise is the process of subversion and subversion, but the new era is getting faster and entrepreneurs should be thankful to live in this era.

What call worthy brother, lead team success is called Worthy Brothers.

The entrepreneur has a good mouth, a good manners, and can only be a great employee, and entrepreneurs who don't have the confidence to win are impossible.

What I value is the lucid founder, who is able to see the nature of the problem, to judge the development of the situation, and to have a strong executive power.

A man without an idol has no authority.

I think Google and Facebook have two totally different worldview, and Google believes that machines will one day solve all human problems, and Facebook believes that only people can solve human problems. The metaphor of the movie "Terminator" is that machines are against humans, so Google is hard to make a search for communities and Facebook.

Deciding whether you can succeed is not how well you do it, but how bad someone else is, and whether you can get the Olympic gold medal is not how fast you run but how slow others run.

There is no universal truth, do things to local conditions, timely, INN!

"Le Bo Capital founder Ning: To help entrepreneurs realize the ideal is a happy thing"

People ask me favorite sports, I say like running, others will be surprised to say, running is the world's most boring sports. I said yes, it is because it is boring, in addition to exercise my body, but also exercise my heart.

——— Ning

When he interviewed Ning, he was in Silicon Valley. will be old friends, open "entrepreneurial clinic" to the alma mater Stanford Business School to the MBA students to talk about the aerial network case, so can only call about the interview. Ning's voice is magnetic, the words love to cite case argument, is a love to tell the story of the word tuberculosis.

Southern Metropolis Daily (hereinafter called the South Capital): What is the harvest of the American station of this pioneering clinic, is there any project that can be invested?

Ning: This time, there are more than 10 participants, most of them Chinese students. There is also a Venezuelan American, a native of the United States. The two entrepreneurs were at school, and they took part in the event.

Nancy: What do you think is the salt project, can you give a concrete example?

Ning: In the "Give you a billion" column, see a project running over, is for job seekers to shoot job-seekers video. I think this is the salt project, because there will be no market. First job seeker is very poor, he also has no money; is simply unrealistic; third, you even cut the beautiful words, you and iphone's camera can not be compared, because most job seekers will think, I let friends take mobile phone camera for me to shoot A, will not have you this professional racket (market), There is no market demand. (some) entrepreneurs are not ideal, but fantasy. There is a big difference between ideals and fantasies.

Nan du: There is a saying in industry saying, "Don't talk to people about investing, it's about retirement." "How do you rate it?"

Ning: No, investment is a new phase of my career, I think the difference between investing and doing business, one is to be a player, one is to be a coach. I'm a player, I've been to the city, I've done these things. So if I am a coach, I believe that the experience of being a player is helpful to me as a coach.

Nancy: What would you do if you didn't do a VC?

Ning: If I hadn't been an angel investor, I'd have retired a long time ago. Because I also sold the company, go to the city, so for me, as a coach can be a better coach. In addition to my investment money, I teach them how to start a business, I help them diagnose, I bring the value of the entrepreneur is multiple.

Nancy: What do you think is really interesting?

Ning: I think it's a happy thing to be in touch with different businesses, to see different projects, to get in touch with different entrepreneurs, to help them realize their ideals and to help them solve their problems.

Nancy: When was the last time you cried?

Ning: I don't remember much. Our company is called Le Bo, is happy music, not because of work cry.

Nan du: Besides work, did not cry?

Ning: This doesn't have to be answered, it's not an entertainment version, it's a commercial, okay?

Nancy: What have you always believed in?

Ning: I firmly believe that there is a mission in this world. I think my mission is to leave my footprints in history. This is what I want to do.

South: What kind of way to leave footprints?

Ning: Actually, everyone is pursuing this influence. For example, Einstein, Newton, Edison, all in this world left very deep footprints, even like Lishizhen, Sun-Miao, right. So, I would also like to say that I opened this pioneering clinic, which is to become the best venture physician and investor in this entrepreneurial field. Let more entrepreneurs succeed, but also shape my own personal brand. This is what I want to do, to become the entrepreneurial field of Lishizhen and Miao. Is the inheritance of Confucius, is the future generations will learn your thoughts, learn your deeds. This is to some extent eternal life, how do people gain eternal life, it is our thoughts and deeds to gain eternal life. You see, Jobs has been living forever.

Nan du: Do you have any distress?

Ning: No worries. Every day I think about how to improve, how to do a better job. I'm not worried about losing weight, although I often run. I can keep on running for at least 50 minutes. People ask me favorite sports, I say like running, others will be surprised to say, running is the world's most boring sports. I said yes, it is because it is boring, in addition to exercise my body, but also exercise my heart.

Nancy: What kind of person do you think you are?

Ning: I think I'm a very hardworking, very positive person. I am confident that I can achieve the goals I set for myself.

Nan du: Can you evaluate the way you've been through the past 13 years after graduating from school?

Ning: After graduation, at first, from my career point of view, my progress is very fast, 65 years old to sell the company, 28 years old on the Nasdaq listing. Things like this, compared to the average young people, is the cause of rapid progress. But these years, you see my career progress, did not say, and did a lot of listed companies Ah, or how. In fact, my inner growth is very fast, I believe that my knowledge level, the understanding of the world, is much older than my previous years. Because of my inner improvement, I believe my career will also improve.

(Source: Southern Metropolis Newspaper author: Tian card)