Li Xiaoliang: How to succeed continuously in the field of intelligent hardware

Li Xiaoliang is a bizarre case in the entrepreneur: he doesn't know the technology, and has limited knowledge of smart hardware products before the venture. In the need to spend tens of millions of dollars in the smart hardware industry, Li Xiaoliang in the absence of investment has been supported to profitability, with the early self-financing 500,000 of funds and partners in the fierce competition in the smart hardware start-up market success. At the same time, most people in the country to know a lot of the situation, continuous success of the public chip. The creation of each product is to achieve a big sale, just a movement tracker on the income of tens of millions, smart scale sold tens of thousands of units, and successfully created the world's first Intelligent Water Cup--cuptime (7.30 in the Beijing-East starting). How does this technology-free entrepreneur do all this? Seven South Road interview with Mai Kai Li Xiaoliang, and he talked about the intelligent hardware business in the field of those stories:

The growing experience of me and Michael's team:

I studied law in college, but in fact I knew clearly that I would not take the law this way. I was very active in college, I like organizing activities, participate in various youth organizations, design posters, and also learn some skills such as web programming. At that time I tried to start a business, in the university to do pagers and other business, the effect is good.

After graduating from college I entered the beauty of the air conditioner, do is the sales and channel management work, in the United States to do 4 years later, 2007 began to set foot in the electricity business, Taobao do home appliances sales, we have been to the top of the National Grid shop, but slowly more and more thin home appliances. We began to transform to do TP (Note: Amoy partner (TaoBao Partner) means Taobao partner, is to join Taobao Partner Program of various types of outsourced service providers, to help Toshiba, Sanyo and other brands to do network marketing outsourcing. Although make some money, but we do is on behalf of the operation, this is like surrogacy, no matter how good, are other people's children, so we still particularly want to do their own products.

Our team at the earliest include me as early as three people, the other one to do sales, there is a do technology, intelligent hardware know very little, we do not even know a product to do before the appearance of the design to do structural design, and then open mold and other processes do not know. But our team overcame all sorts of difficulties, gradually groped, integrated various resources, has produced the Movement tracker in the Intelligent hardware field successively, lemon intelligent weight gauge, cuptime Intelligent Water Cup, all is also good. Lemon Intelligent Weight Gauge in the roll-call time to raise the success of 151491 Yuan. Cuptime the success of the roll-call last year, the crowd raised nearly 1.4 million.

Our products include motion Tracker and smart scale for the long time ranked Jingdong similar products sales first, Cuptime Smart Water Cup because it is the world's first, without any reference template, completely groping themselves. It is connected to the mobile phone via Bluetooth and can remind the user to drink water at the right time. This month, 30th is about to start in Jingdong, the previous test is also very good response. We now have millions of dollars a month. The team also gained an angel investment of Angel Cove 5 million yuan early this year. A round of financing is currently being launched. The team is also slowly growing, from the early 3 people to the current scale of 30 people, the middle moved 3 office address, because the place is not enough to sit. However, because of the rapid development of business, but also recruitment, the need for technical and market positions such as people.

Entrepreneurial success can not be separated from the people and:

Intelligent hardware process is more complex, involving product direction, product design, manufacturers, agents and many other links, each link can not be ignored, in order to succeed in smart hardware entrepreneurship, and the right and indispensable, in this respect, the correct choice is greater than efforts.

Timing: Smart hardware entrepreneurship is more time than software entrepreneurship, such as the beginning of 2012, we have to do the idea of the Water Cup, but after a comprehensive consideration, we decided to make a motion tracker first. At that time if the Smart Water Cup, the likelihood of success is very small, almost no, because it is not mature Bluetooth technology, the user's attention to intelligent hardware is also very low.

2012 in Nike company launched the smart hand ring fuelband,jowbone up on sale, so everyone for the understanding of intelligent hardware slowly and deeply, began to pay attention to this piece of products. This transition to 2103, for intelligent hardware is a good opportunity, because the intelligent hardware through the warm hand ring, the whole market slowly nurtured up. User acceptance level is also relatively high, for entrepreneurs, greatly reduced the threshold. So we launched the Cuptime Intelligent Water Cup project, this time point for the development of our project is critical.

It also helped us a great deal two times and did the right thing at the right time. If a little earlier, we know little or no understanding of the public, the public will not be successful.

Location: When we chose Shenzhen as a start-up base, it is to take into account the factors of geographical location. Shenzhen City hardware production base, supply chain and information, product support and other conditions are not comparable to other places, but also easy to find a good partner. So we resolutely moved from Chengdu to Shenzhen.

People and: Is that you have to choose good partners both inside and outside. Internally, I am more good at marketing, design, product, and my partner is also my classmate Ma Jing, she is good at law, finance, personnel, investment and financing, and many other business management aspects, and I am a good match. We are all in harmony with the team. The team of people for our goal to achieve a high degree of recognition, always adhere to the same, no objections. Millet released a few days ago 79 Yuan Smart bracelet, entrepreneurs lament. In fact, we also spent a few months in 2013 to advance the design of hand ring products, only the difference is not mass production. But then I after serious thinking, think the development prospects of the hand ring is relatively limited, so find a night, the team said, we have to stop this project, to other products. Team people in serious discussion after a high degree of unity, if there is no team harmony and tacit understanding, the replacement direction is a very high cost.

Similarly, the choice of suppliers and manufacturers partners is also a key issue, whether the harmony and suppliers to get along, the formation of benign interaction and long-term cooperation, which basically determines the survival of intelligent hardware start-up companies. Because we do not understand the production and supply chain, then we will be given to professional people to do. Manufacturers for product control, supply chain, components, etc. will be better and more professional. So from the very beginning, we are very careful to choose our partners, when I first arrived in Shenzhen, investigated more than 30 manufacturers. As an entrepreneur, do not try to find the biggest card, such as Foxconn, other people do not care about you, you need to find in this industry or subdivision of the more professional person is good, and the boss and the company's culture and entrepreneurs if more consistent, that is, congenial. Do not look too heavy on the immediate interests, have a long-term vision.

We finally chose one of them based on this standard. It turns out that this choice is absolutely right. Our partners for the Cuptime project, not only bought a special ultrasonic machine, an injection molding machine, but also specialized expansion of production lines, rented a new plant. At this point, I suggest that entrepreneurs take more time to find the right partner, which is more cost-effective than spending time with later.

We are from the motion tracker, Smart scale, smart water cups, from 3 to now 30 people, we have been working with a fixed two manufacturers. In the process of developing our products and brands, we have brought many new partners and business opportunities to our partners. The factory even said to us, as long as you want to do the product, we can open mold for free. Our partners in order to include and agent cooperation is this principle, must be his interests are protected. In the early days, when we chose to outsource development partners, although I did not understand the development, but my principle is that I want to make money, you have to make money. And it's not one-time. So then we used the method is the cash dividend of the long-term cooperation model, for example, there is a project outsourcing need 10,000 dollars, in order to save costs, I will cut to 8000, but in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of partners, I will promise to sell the product and then let you earn 8000, so that our interests are consistent.

How to avoid Turman and Luo-style crises:

Hardware production process is complex, any small problem in the production process may lead to delayed delivery, resulting in capacity and yield problems. In the area of hardware entrepreneurship, the most discussed event is the Luo watch after the pre-sale of a serious jump ticket, the hammer phone production capacity is insufficient. Two things are a big lesson for smart hardware entrepreneurs.

About Turman Event: Turman Encounter the biggest problem is the product quality is not high, the later PR crisis can't keep up. First of all, you have to do your own products, the key in prevention and prevention, better than PR. So we are producing cuptime intelligent water cups, using tritan materials, which are used abroad to make baby bottles. We in order to prevent accidents, in the material, we take the initiative to find the Guangdong Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau testing, fully qualified. After finishing I still don't trust, and spent several times the price to find a third-party inspection agencies, let him play the role of competitors, try to find ways to find fault, the result is smooth through, this I was relieved. Prevention is always the first element.

Even if the plan is more comprehensive, but also to prevent in case, so we have to do a good emergency plan, many times very small things do not timely communication, resulting in a large area of the crisis. At the same time with the media to maintain good relations, have a good voice channel, timely clarification of the facts.

In the product really occurs when the problem, to face in a timely manner, the courage to assume responsibility, this time don't be too concerned, the so-called crisis PR is your products and services in the face of users or fans of a high degree of concern, of course, is a negative concern. At this time all the investment is to the brand. A successful crisis PR will strengthen the trust of the brand, create new fans and trust. I used to help a company to do Taobao on behalf of the operation and planning, it has encountered such a crisis. At that time, party a produced a health scale, by our pre-sale promotion, at that time in less than 10 seconds sold thousands of units. However, due to various reasons, can not be shipped in time, some of the goods shipped is not very qualified.

Due to the inability to ship, party A is very passive, so we boldly put forward a crisis public relations program: Thousands of sets of all free list. Because the cost is not high at that time, the total number of orders is acceptable. Taobao also gave the corresponding resources to support the whole incident was quickly calmed down. If I were the head of Turman, I would probably opt out of it after I assessed the cost of the whole thing. Let us know that we are responsible for the enterprise, which is much better than to cast hard. At least after this processing, the later perfect version came out, there will be consumers choose me, not to fall to the present predicament.

About Hammer Phone: when it comes to hammer phones, the most recently said is the lack of capacity. In development, it is necessary to do a good job of risk prevention, where there is a risk, where the problem is easy, because in the hardware production of every link may drop the chain. Our Lemon Intelligent scale also met the same situation, there are 20% bad rate, unable to deliver on time. We urged the factory to catch the goods, but at that time did not find the cause of the problem, and finally in order to ensure timely delivery, we have borne all the bad losses. Later, the factory found the reason, because the Bluetooth module welding temperature is too high. Tens of thousands of of products produced later are no longer problematic. A small call will have so many problems, not to mention a more complex than our mobile phone. All the bad rate is too high or the capacity is insufficient, in fact, as long as the factory enough time, basically will be solved. Of course, in this process, the benign interaction between the two sides is very important.

In crisis management, the two sides of the dispute is absolutely to be avoided, this is a mutually destructive thing, will only form a vicious circle. Recently occurred in the Hammer cell phone event, the same situation, Luo in the microblog, the delay in delivery of the problem due to the production line of the lack of running-in, quality control standards are not unified and other factors, triggered the workers of the Foxconn Langfang factory dissatisfaction, suspension of cooperation, forced to transfer by the Beijing Fuji Kang took over. The cost of doing so is enormous, and the production time of the hammer phone will be extended to the beginning of October, which is of great negative impact on both sides. The angle of our cooperation is not only how much money we want to earn, how convenient we are, but how much you help the factory to make money and make money at the same time. The same is true of cooperation with agents. You are not standing opposite him to consider the problem, but to stand behind him from his point of view. We also never defaulted money, the point of clearing, we are very happy.

We will continue to launch new products in the smart hardware field later, and we will consider a combination of popular applications, such as micro-mail. But we will only do one thing, I believe that the intelligent hardware field in the future will provide users with a better service.

South Seven: Hong-Yi Wireless founder, the former Innovation Workshop project leader, since the media, Tiger sniff entrepreneur Baidu Hundred and many other media authors, micro-letter public number: South Seven.