Online Education: The second venture of matchmaking "Little Dragon Girl"

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[As with the first venture, Gong started a new adventure in a whole new field; the difference from the first venture is that she has more money and experience this time]

"Did anyone say you were a strong woman?"

"Of course, I learned from school to do business is very strong, everything is trying to do the best." ”

Familiar people know that this is the standard "gong-style" way of answering. Before 10, Gong chose a few people to choose the road, without funds, background and personnel, under the premise of their own business. When century Jiayuan (DATE. Nasdaq after finally listing in Nasdaq, founder Gong announced the departure, as 10 years ago, now Gong has become a new entrepreneur, into a field she has never dabbled in-education.

Entrepreneurship and putting down

Recalling the founding of the century Jiayuan is due to the unpleasant experience of being cheated in a matchmaking agency. At that time, Gong also in Fudan University to graduate students, and most of the pursuit of knowledge, like women, under the urging of parents, gong try to find the object of matchmaking.

After paying 500 yuan, Gong entered the matchmaking site. But found that the number of e-mails sent to the letter, completely did not respond. After calling one of the men, the caller was surprised to tell her that she had never registered with the matchmaking agency.

Gong was young and arrogant. Unhappy marriage experience let her initiation of her own online matchmaking idea. 1000 yuan to buy the domain name and space, their own learning Web page production. Then there will be the embryonic form of the century good edge.

"At least today, young people know that the tool can be found through the web." Gong told the first financial daily. Dragon Girl, this label Let gong with century good margin very close. From the founding of the brand image, although she has long been not the company's largest shareholder. 2010, 20,112 years, gong with his own entrepreneurial story frequently appeared "Day Up" and other popular variety shows, not only the rapid development of the century Jiayuan into the first listed marriage website, also let "network first matchmaker" became the most obvious personal label gong.

Century Jia Yuan listing time is not long, but the number of users has accumulated to tens of millions of, in many people's eyes, marriage and love sites in the Ascendant, the future bright one. But in Gong's eyes, the first dream of life has been basically completed.

At the end of 2012, she resigned from the joint CEO position, transferred to the joint Chairman, withdrew from the company's day-to-day operations and management. For the reasons for resignation, Gong wrote: "In the field of love and marriage, I have achieved the peak." It's hard for me to go to the next floor. I began to hate myself for becoming mediocre and inaction, and this reflection made me decide to put down. ”

"For many entrepreneurs, listing itself is a result. In Gong's Dictionary: The best attitude to life is to take it and put it down.

Enjoy two times to start a business

"So many years, I rarely travel. Although the company (Century Jiayuan) listed in the United States, I actually only visited the United States twice, the second is for the listing roadshow, the first is to prepare for the listing roadshow. ”

It is precisely because of two times to the United States experience, let gong germination of the second entrepreneurial impulse. "When I was in the American roadshow, I couldn't understand or say anything, but I had to rely on the CFO to translate it." ”

Companies that have been listed on the Nasdaq know that investor questions and answers are a very important part of the roadshow. The Chinese stock market is mainly retail, while the U.S. stock market is mainly institutional investors. So this link for the listed companies, the Life-and-death. The lengthy translation has left gong wasting half the time.

"I remember I scored 138 points in English for the college entrance examination. Grade 4, Level 6 English is also excellent. But it's completely impractical. The Chinese exam-oriented education is a century problem. ”

Different from the way other people deal with embarrassment. Gong returned to the first thing is to report a foreign language training course. But it was later found that it was almost impossible to finish the work as scheduled due to traffic and time problems. So gong again thought of entrepreneurship and the Internet. "I think the internet can change everything. ”

Everything happened so fast that gong didn't give himself a break. On the second day of the gong, he went to the 91 foreign-education network and began recruiting staff for the new company. At present, Gong holds a 19% stake in the century Jiayuan for its second largest shareholder. In October 2012, she entrusted the entire stake to the Pangu Trust Fund.

As with the first venture, gong a new adventure in a whole new field; the difference from the first venture is that this time she has more money and experience.

91 Foreign Language teaching website company profile shows that the website mainly through the Internet long-distance audio and video real-time interactive way, the user of oral English training. It is mainly for students and foreign investors. There is already a paying user.

Challenges and values

"I am an idealist. Gong, like other male entrepreneurs, gong the habit of working more than 10 hours a day. "This is how you start your business, it's hard to stop and think." ”

The field of online education is a sunrise industry, is also a capital competition of the Red Sea, the past two years, abroad, Lynda.com continued to profit, and received 103 million U.S. dollars investment, interactive online course website Coursera successively financing 22 million U.S. dollars, online education platform Udacity also completed the 15 million U.S. dollar B-round financing. In China, the 2012 public investment in several investments also optimistic about this area, qiming venture investment 15 million U.S. dollars in online language training company TutorGroup, Bertelsmann to the network investment, and Xiaoping to the "extension of the word" investment 1 million yuan.

"I know the competition is fierce, but also on behalf of everyone optimistic about this area." "Gong. The venture is more challenging than the first. "Century Jiayuan is entirely an internet company, 91 foreign teachers also wired under the section." In addition to the online form, the content of the professor is more important. "In Gong's plan, in order to make 91 foreign teachers more competitive, all of them employ expatriate instructors, focusing on content, more like the online version of Wall Street English."

There are still a lot of unresolved problems. A company's development process generally needs to go through three stages, the first stage is survival, the second stage is mature, the last stage is a leap. In Gong's view, 91 foreign teachers must first solve the problem of survival.

For the second venture, Gong set himself a 6-8-year time. "I want to retire at the age of 45. To spend time with their families, now owes them too much. "Getty Figure