Serial entrepreneurial model: Looking for subversive mode of demand and light asset operation

For entrepreneurs, the results of the establishment of the enterprise is extremely cruel, not life is dead. Someone found "very wet snow and very long slopes", will "snowball" roll bigger, and even landed on Nasdaq, from success to success, but also someone to stumble, several times, but difficult to escape the "dead also suddenly" doom, back to the exit after a sigh, and people never give up, firm ideals, and finally comeback.

Whether it is from success to success or failure to pave the way for success, there is a truth bumpy not broken: the larger the enterprise, the more difficult the entrepreneur, someone hard to carry the death knock continue to move forward, some people simply sell the enterprise, there is a kind of person, always in the business, exit, again, and then quit, the cycle of entrepreneurship busy.

American academics call the last of them "serial entrepreneurs"-their enthusiasm for entrepreneurship is prolonged, but lack of patience, desire to see success immediately, they can focus on a product or service to the extreme, but may not be able to withstand new opportunities temptation, a little; they are perfectionists, But the blood of bigotry and arbitrariness flowed in the bones.

Because there is such a full of contradictions and unity, rationality and paradox of the rendering, entrepreneurial story is vivid and lively, and the spirit of the serial entrepreneur is breathtaking.

"Chobsky"

Does a man's dream or idol in his youth become a guide to his future destiny? Watching the growth paths of Zhou, hanting, Zhidong, Wang and other serial entrepreneurs will find an interesting phenomenon: they all see Apple founder Steve Jobs as a spiritual idol.

3721, Qihoo and 360 founder Zhou, who was in Xi ' an Jiaotong university read a book about jobs, Bill Gates and other people's books, the other side of the computer genius knowledge to change the world's heroic complex to Zhou blood spray Zhang.

And Ctrip, such as the Home Hotel and Hanting Hotel founder Hanting, talked about Steve Jobs's exultant, full of praise: "Have to lament the great jobs." To be able to interpret a business act so artistically, emotionally and crazily, there seems to be no ancients before, and there may not be people behind. ”

Sina River clicks the founder of the Technology, Zhidong, 1986 in Peking University was "Silicon Valley hot" thoroughly shook, he said: "From Apple's success story, I first knew the venture capital, this gave me later career brought a great impact." "Soon, Zhidong joined the" flips "team scattered at various counters in Zhongguancun.

Network, Rice and the United States Network founder Wang, the promotion of a "heterogeneous" book, the book that: business leaders are selected by the Times, entrepreneurship is the era of the fate given to the brave. Gates, Jobs and Bill Choy, for example, were both born in 1955 and later became the founders of Microsoft, Apple and Sun. "There are certain things that will happen," Wang. ”

The common spiritual intersection of the above serial entrepreneurs, to the personality characteristics of jobs to deduce their character, temperament Common is a shortcut. As we all know, Jobs was restless, unconventional, arrogant, paranoid, and fastidious about the details, and he was said to have asked Apple's chief technology officer to shrink the scale of 1/4 millimetres by 1 millimeters. This incredible story, in the chain of entrepreneurs everywhere.

College, the school will have postponed the test suddenly ahead of time, the students are unprepared, complaining, Zhou 祎 lead exclaimed: "You test, I do not test!" After that, I went out of the classroom. This kind of irregular personality, throughout his always.

Also do not follow the common sense of cards and zhidong. "I used to learn the circuit, and then developed software, and do the network, but also studied the media." The way I think about problems is always extended, without boundaries, and without rules. ”

Of course, personality is only part of the reason for success, for serial entrepreneurs, let them develop "entrepreneurial addiction" also includes management, management and other technical factors, the latter role, often far greater than the former.

Equations that cannot be changed

In the face of the objective law of entrepreneurship, serial entrepreneurs have their own set of equations that cannot be changed.

Wang, for example, has had two unsuccessful startups before starting the campus. First founded the social networking site "A lot of friends", and later founded E-commerce site "wandering map", the results have failed. "The main problem with two failures is not the lack of money but the lack of user demand," Wang said. Entrepreneurship is the need to find some kind of demand for someone. ”

Hanting is precisely the success of customer demand for accurate positioning. The Chinese court will focus on the core users in the daily 200-300 travel reimbursement amount of business travelers, this kind of people like to live in the city center of convenient transportation, to "good bath, sleep well, good net" very much value, hanting is based on this as the basis for positioning Hotel business model.

has been founded Chinaren, the Ning of the Air network, has begun his third venture--well khon search. In his view, entrepreneurial model is divided into two kinds: one is higher, faster and stronger, in the original area to do better, the other is to create new patterns and rules of the game.

The operation of light assets is another major reason for the realization of serial entrepreneurship. They are keen on the internet, mass consumption, media and other fields, because of these industries, the threshold of entrepreneurship is low, the dependence on capital is low, the start is less difficult, so that their desire for the venture is not as urgent as the outside imagination.

In the 2008 financial crisis, Hanting, a second round of Chinese-court financing was in trouble, and an investment bank was willing to provide 120 million of billions of dollars in debt financing, but the conditions were extremely harsh. "If this winter lasts more than two years, we have no money to do, we have to do a low-cost dilution of equity, the company in vain to give others." "Hanting is very clear about the consequences of lack of funds, but in the end he still chose to refuse."

Wang insists: "The company is bought, not sold, must be buyers to find entrepreneurs, not entrepreneurs holding companies everywhere to sell." For 10 years all of America's most famous VC have entered China, and there is no money for good projects. ”

And under the Banyan Tree and Rainstorm Entertainment founder Zhu Wilian has been to the wind not cold. When someone took 8 million dollars to invest in the Banyan tree under his refusal, and now want to invest in rainstorm Entertainment, he declined again. "They're going to be thinking about me, coming in and throwing money, and hoping to get paid back soon," he said. ”

It is not difficult to find that the serial entrepreneurs have their own entrepreneurial formula: to find the right needs, Subversion business model, light assets operating in particular attention, so you can less detours, increase the chance of success.

The value of beating

Because has already obtained the rich pioneering experience, the serial entrepreneur always attracts the wind investment clan more attention. In this sense, serial entrepreneurs have more ways of survival and overcoming skills than others.

December 2005, Wang founder of the net is less than 10 days, was the Sequoia Capital to discuss investment matters. For the first time, Wang, who was too excited to leave his business plan in a taxi, had to rush to write about a two-page profile. The second time, the Linux system suddenly failed to connect to the projector during the live demo. In the end, Sequoia Capital throws money into the net.

Wang was impressed by the blow, and the scholar became a mellow businessman. After the meal was shut down, he said: "I do not want to challenge what should not be challenged, I and rice are no longer a radical person and company." ”

Zhu Wilian is also a hapless serial entrepreneur. Under the Banyan Tree, he invested $10 million in the first year, then spent 2 million yuan a month, and spent no plans until only 200 dollars was left. In the 2007, Zhu Wilian married and won a daughter, and he became cautious and steady, so he argued repeatedly when he founded Rainstorm Entertainment.

Hanting also have a hot head. In the 2007, the Han court expanded wildly, and when the economic crisis broke out, the negative cash flow was huge. At this time he did not panic, when the entrepreneurial Ctrip encountered the Internet in winter, entrepreneurship such as when the SARS, he carried over, after reflection, he slowed down the pace, the expansion of the 150-160 new stores plan to reduce to 100.

After the crisis, he concluded: "The hotel is not a game of scale, but a cash flow of the game, you have to put the cash out to the fastest speed to produce the most cash flow, is the root of the business, and how many stores basically do not have much relationship." ”

A few times beat, the serial entrepreneur matures gradually, their ability to discern the business opportunity reveals undoubtedly. For Zhou in June 2006 launched 360 security defender of the move, the original 360 security defender General Manager, Cash Mountain Network CEO Fu said: "360 when the timing of the launch is very good." Traditional security vendors to Trojan holes, malicious plug-in response is not sensitive, not too much attention, leaving a gap. ”

Hanting in the second year of SARS as a home, but also took a great risk. At that time everywhere insecure, talk about "not" color change, no one dares to rent a new building. Hanting thinks, this time is the best time to enter, in this market will be low buy high selling. In the eyes of a certain storefront in Xujiahui, he unquestionably said: "Unless SARS destroyed the world, this place I must sign down." ”

The price of sticking to it

In the evaluation of serial entrepreneurs, there will be such a view: They are wild uninhibited, unrestrained open-minded, depending on the entrepreneurial journey for the show, what can be successful. But fair say, they mostly belong to be forced to change careers, had sadly left the field, and battle, put aside the glory or humiliation of the past, again in the new field kill, hissing. Many people still do not wish, more belong to their own personality, management flaws, lack of experience.

Zhu Wilian from advertising to online literature to online games, involved in a number of areas, but all the way bumpy. Some people analysis, because he has been very radical, always want to eat the first crab, but was brutal reality hit badly beaten. When the banyan tree, he gesanchaiwu with people in court, publicly write articles to expose peer ills, many enemies, if the low-key hard work, patience, also not be it peers gradually forgotten.

Of course, some people are really obsessed with entrepreneurship, such as hanting, "When the wind and rain will be excited, a few days calm will feel boring." "The Heart is like adventure, there is freshness." He said: "I am not a professional surrogate mother, just keep starting a business, non-stop to do a new company, the fun of entrepreneurship is this, the average person is not experience." ”

Objectively speaking, there is no lack of development planning and management capacity of the technical aspects of the factors, but also include natural keen to challenge, aggressive, lack of patience, but also some people blindly follow the trend of short-term speculation and Shi, repeated setbacks. For the third type of entrepreneur, may wish to learn from Ma Yun, only do one thing in a lifetime-to build E-commerce platform.

In fact, the serial business and single-minded entrepreneurship is the same thing, the end is to achieve success, harvest wealth, to achieve the ideal, but the process is different. In contrast, the former will experience a number of areas, try different models, but if so exaggerated its enjoyment of pleasure or experience of suffering, it will form an illusion, it is not a serial entrepreneur want to leave the scenery of the later.

Article | Special journalist Zhang Source | The March 2011 issue of the Journal of Excellence