Silicon Valley 88 angel investor and his Chinese mafia ambition

A 88-year-old teenager, running all day in San Francisco and San Jose 100 kilometers, distributes 101 highways of tens of billions of companies, seeking and supporting the next billions in the name of an angel, and having a bigger dream. This article is from Silicon Valley, I encountered a very good story, but also can be described as the Silicon Valley Angel spirit and entrepreneurial culture in miniature, as well as methodological elaboration.

The protagonist of the story is a Silicon Valley 88 born, exactly 89 Angel, his name is Guo.

At YC's new incubation list, Guo told me that there were two of his projects.

For a VC into the industry just over two years of Super Young Angel, this vision is very sophisticated sinister. Since the end of 2012 to become an angel, Guo has contacted more than 1600 projects, invested 26, more than One-third have been to the next round. He looked at more than 60-80 items a month, averaging 2-3 a day, if not intermittently. He said I was gifted, so he was very diligent.

Early in the morning, sometimes 5:30, Guo from the southernmost San Jose of Silicon Valley, often on the 101 road through the Bay Area, shuttling through the congested San Francisco incubator cafes and start-ups, and he was familiar with the scenery. Catch every big and small meeting and see everyone who is about to meet. The men pitch the product to him, and he spends 80% of his time silently judging the person in front of him, and often chatting about something unrelated to the product--the way he pitch created in.

That's right, Angel. Guo's investment methodology is to look at leader and then look at the team last to see the trend of the project. For the most recent trend in his priority, Guo recently optimistic about VR and unmanned aerial vehicles, in addition to these two industries, the traditional O2O, the electrical business and so he thinks there are many opportunities. Guo think a good entrepreneur will have a sense of direction, even if the smell is biased, by their own characteristics can be reversed or again. This person and his team temperament decide to do something or other.

He is also in Silicon Valley, New York and Beijing, Shenzhen, and every country in the city to lobby all the three generations of rich-rich second-richest, urging them to use the money to buy the car to cast Angel wheel:

You're going to use the money to buy a car? Buy Audi and Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, even if the limited edition is not a talent you have, where is the meaning? If you use this money to help an enterprise early development, not to say that expect it to become the next Google, Facebook, the material return is one side but not the most important, more importantly, you participated in the history, but also to do practical things. When we say to our children that the app or service that was still in use when we were 20 years ago was a project that their parents voted on, is it more cool than buying a car? The coolest thing is that in investing we do a little bit to change the way we change people around us and change the world.

Playing Warcraft to make life "first bucket of gold"

Guo First contact with business is high school "reselling" World of Warcraft game currency, with the network of half acquaintances marketing plus my field transactions. "I made a pot full of money," he smiled, and then said very gravely: "I didn't ask for a penny at home that year." ”

"In economics, the absolute advantage, the comparative advantage, including how to price, even how to hype." Later I learned these courses systematically, and now think of the process of buying gold coins are unconsciously used. Speaking of this, Guo appears excited, the finger joint on the table with the rhythm of the speech to knock several rings.

Then he couldn't keep telling the story. Too many players want to buy gold coins in the real world, but the gold coins can not be bought directly, many of them are office workers, rich but no time, which is equivalent to a advantage Exchange (Advantage Exchange). But at that time Guo in Singapore High School, the curriculum is tight, also did not have much time, how to do. "I found two people in the country to the United States to play, give them 900 yuan one months." I know the rewards are far more than that. "Sure enough, 8 cents Yuan is a world of Warcraft gold coin, one to find a month to play a seven thousand or eight thousand gold coins, and play the game when they played very well."

There are a few small details: such as discovering potential customers, Guo is a hunter (relatively easy to hit the gold coins), to find a knight this occupation, because the knight is hard to hit gold coins, and not to find wizards such as easy nuggets or other hunter friends, he also see which is obviously the office workers, the early forward will be offline after six o'clock. Come up to find good equipment; Warcraft In fact does not allow trading gold coins, Guo in private to these observed potential customers to send letters, and then offline field transactions; Every friend of the game will send an email to them during the festival and send them 214 or 1314 gold coins for Valentine's Day.

This is Guo's first real practice in the business world. May play the game in many people's eyes passed, but this time the 16-year-old children, to the World of Warcraft added a play, in the inability to work in Singapore, earning the life of the "first bucket of gold." Then he took economics and business classes in high school because he felt he had found "something he did well".

Failure is a small thing, this is Silicon Valley!

After graduating from college, Guo spent four years in stock-making and a small amount of support from relatives and friends as a seed fund (seed fund), starting a group-related venture in Silicon Valley. But after the Hundred-Regiment war, the project hung up.

Hit a lot. But the people around almost all talked to him, little things. There are entrepreneurs who have encouraged him to come back to the experience of failure (including strategic, managerial, and detailed); Investors and he said Wei, in Silicon Valley, sometimes a start-up failure is a plus (plus).

Until a friend took him to the road show at YC (Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's best incubator), he decided from the bottom of his heart that these words were not sympathy nor consolation, but an inherent part of Silicon Valley culture. Guo and the inside of the people after chatting, think of the failure of their own low, think of the deeper in the Silicon Valley after the embrace of entrepreneurs, he moved to become an angel heart.

I now think that the core culture of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship is inclusive, we can accept the failure, it is the acceptance of the failure of the heart, the emergence of a "wonderful" idea. While constantly thinking about perfecting ideas, there are a variety of successful stories. and the winners (the big companies of the future, or the Angels) will be happy to help the entrepreneurs who are in trouble after the inevitable setbacks. Such a virtuous circle has created the Silicon Valley unique angel investment, The big company, the entrepreneurial Trinity culture. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have the kind of momentum to be afraid of failure, with the confidence to be subversive. Because they know that, whether they succeed or not, they can be accommodated in Silicon Valley, and there is always someone to lend a hand when they need help--this is the big environment.

This is the day Guo back to write down the understanding of the spirit of Silicon Valley.

He started raising money, with Silicon Valley, New York and partner in the country, and began to get up early every day to watch various projects in Bloom Bay Area and San Francisco. Half a year later, in mid-2013, Guo the first of thousands of projects, a high-end children's ebook company, for a very idealistic reason-"feel that the founders know and agree with Chinese culture." This single return on capital has not yet been reflected.

At the end of 2013, Guo has been almost half a year in the rhythm of only out, met a particularly good team to do the game, or want to push. The last 20,000 hit out, basically no money to eat. As a result, the game company Giant, half a year to return five times times more.

Young Angel's Chinese mafia Dream

Because of resource reasons, Guo currently cast a majority of the team is Silicon Valley side, there are demo on the encounter of Ireland, Venezuela, as well as Japan and Australia. Different entrepreneurs come from different places, he remembers everyone's hometown clearly. Talk to them about their country, talk about their culture, introduce them to Chinese and Chinese start-ups, and big corporate models.

Chinese people here in Silicon Valley want to expand the influence of the group, to let everyone meet know that we can actually and have done something very good. I was very confident with them (foreign teams) because I believed I could bring them something different. Now from China's capital strength and entrepreneurial community is growing stronger, I would like to do one thing is a bridge of communication, so that local and more people know. This process is slow and requires patience, just like angel investment. But it is also a way of participating in and changing history.

The remark of the young Angel was very impressive. Recently, the famous American Science and technology blog TechCrunch to interview him, but according to the U.S. media practice, mining characters must have 35 partners or friends refer (recommended). Guo in social media roar, suddenly foreign friends all jumped out to say happy to doing that I come to you. In a Silicon Valley café, he showed me these replies, counting dozens of.

Guo is a Libra, and he says he's a very nosy person, the basic popular things know the point, the national culture of the likes of the beginning from high school, and memory is very good, saw a person can definitely recognize the name and face, read the information basically into the data base at any time call. One of the great Silicon Valley startups CEO is Jewish, he came up to talk about "the Jewish Business Sutra", when people are elated to chat with others about Chinese culture.

For older entrepreneurs, Guo often spend a lot of time listening to their past experiences, comparing them with international entrepreneurial stories, and combining their knowledge of China with the feasibility of localizing them, giving them a certain initial fantasy of the domestic market. When the CEO of glowing plant mentioned the feasibility of doing marketing in China, Guo told him about the Roseonly case. He also discussed with many entrepreneurs tea and jingdong, foreigners listen to these like the domestic people listen to the Silicon Valley gossip so cheerfully.

I am the angel of the process to seize every opportunity to pitch China's companies and models. Let them have the identity and fantasy. We are talking about how to integrate into local culture, local business circles, but over the past two years, I think it is necessary to enlarge the influence of Chinese and Chinese entrepreneurial groups, but do not think about how to integrate. But to pitch our own characteristics so that everyone here knows.

Silicon Valley, 88, is an angel investor from China. You asked him what his dream, he thought of special honest said just a few months, but still no time to give his wife a touching wedding, this is a dream. And then think about it, he said that Silicon Valley, including the domestic creation circle everyone knows the PayPal mafia, hope to have a similar organization, called Chinese Mafia.