Silicon Valley says Zhongguancun pioneering street

Lead: Interview with a number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: Are you echocardiography?

A week ago, "Zhongguancun Business Avenue" This resounding name turned out, in the industry caused no small waves. Garage coffee, 3W coffee, 36 Krypton, Lenovo star, entrepreneurs, such as more than 10 entrepreneurial services, the coefficient of entry. Ecological ecology of I dare not say, at least, a take shape of the entrepreneurial community is ready to accept the crowd!

In the past decades years, Zhongguancun has been walking on the road to the ' tall ': In the 90 's, the suburb of Beijing, which gathers many profiteering, has been full of internet giants and U.S. stocks listed companies (including and not fully including Microsoft, Tencent, Sina, Youku, Auto, where to go, Beijing-East, Baidu's love singular and slightly farther sohu media mansion. Countless institutions of higher learning and scientific research have made the country the highest density of ' highly educated people ' and, of course, the dreamers who came here. And many of them have dreams that are more than just ' living ' and ' getting rich '.

We live in an increasingly diverse range of values in China; Now, the government is calling on young people to venture, as a mainstream employment (the party's 18 has made a major deployment of innovation-driven development strategy, the party's 18 plenary explicitly put forward to improve the preferential policies to support entrepreneurship). Zhongguancun pioneering street in such a policy background came into being, but also is born with the golden key. Yes, it's a so-called ' creative landmark ', but it's probably not just a landmark.

So what is the significance of this 200-metre-long street to entrepreneurs? Does that mean that Zhongguancun is as long as Silicon Valley?

The small series recently interviewed more than 10 Silicon Valley entrepreneurs (all Chinese who grew up in China, and now choose to venture in Silicon Valley): including the CEO of Tsinghua Genesis Incubator, the core member of the news application Flipboard, WhatsApp core member, the Orbeus CEO of image recognition technology provider, Mail management software Mailtime team and so on. Ask them to share the eyes of Zhongguancun business Street. Zhongguancun all the entrepreneurial play into a street, the Silicon Valley of their echocardiography?

First, entrepreneurship is ' fashion '

Several respondents said in the past in China, all kinds of entrepreneurial services are relatively fragmented, no system: which institutions where, what services have to be one to understand; For many start-ups, it's going to take a lot of time and effort to get started. Now, Zhongguancun Business Avenue Angel Investment Platform, science and technology media, entrepreneurship training institutions, business cafes ... These name-naming services are clustered within a 100-metre radius, which will undoubtedly help entrepreneurs reduce costs and make new projects easier to start and develop.

And these are just noodles: after all, it's no big feat to focus on a street that already has some entrepreneurial services. Chuang Yuan CEO laugh that, Zhongguancun business street More far-reaching significance is that it is helping a ' entrepreneurial values ' output and transmission, tell everyone: entrepreneurship is very glorious also very fashionable, this is a great way to achieve the self, to work for others is not the only way out. And here said the entrepreneurial not simple is ' self-employed ', if successful, it can bring you money and freedom, help you realize the dream, maybe also can change the world.

"Anyway in Silicon Valley, no matter who you are and don't think about creating a business, you're out." A strong entrepreneurial culture is an important soil for Silicon Valley's innovative power, and the most lacking in China is this entrepreneurial culture. If the main street can let more Chinese young people understand entrepreneurship, at the level of values to accept entrepreneurship, perhaps Zhongguancun is really not far from the Silicon Valley, laugh said.

Flipboard's core member, Zhao Jing, told Xiao-bian, the export of entrepreneurial values is a big trend, whether it is government support or public opinion, we are more and more inclined to "entrepreneurship" as a beautiful thing, "sometimes even a little too good (laugh)", Zhongguancun Avenue of pioneering people happy, But it's not that surprising. "We're all thinking of moving the Beijing office of Flipboard to that street," he said.

What does it mean for the government to be backed by entrepreneurs?

Some respondents believe that the Chinese government openly support entrepreneurship, hit the money + the starting point of the hard gas of course is good, but the specific to give entrepreneurs how much help, it depends on what the entrepreneur wants, if it is just money, it is better than province. Mailtime's founding team told me that they had seen the Shanghai government support start-ups, applied for it, and finally got 200,000 of the venture capital. But because it is the government's project, the process is particularly cumbersome, just apply to spend half a year, the money will be divided into 3 years to call you. "This kind of rhythm, small start-up companies really cannot afford".

But is the ' government openly encouraging entrepreneurship ' to bring entrepreneurs only money? Some respondents think, not necessarily. The Government's support is more like an ' endorsement ', you take its resources, not how much, not the speed, but help you build a trust. In other words, entrepreneurs with this "endorsement" are more likely to have access to other resources, which is understandable Chinese.

The logic of Zhongguancun Chuangye Street is also the reason. Now the government as a long, standing behind the founders to support them, and mobilize the community all the resources to the entrepreneur tilt, this will undoubtedly make the start-up services to become more grounded, the grassroots entrepreneurs more trust. Anonymous respondents told the small series, "in the past, in China under the age of 30 and no strong background of the entrepreneurs, generally difficult to access any resources, go where no one to speak." (and this is precisely what Silicon Valley has always been about: the courage to believe in the minds and abilities of young people.) Now, public encouragement from the government may make it easier for entrepreneurs without roots to get resources in China, so that's a good thing.

Three, dreams are looking forward to entrepreneurial ecological change

The entrepreneurs who interviewed repeatedly referred to the ' eco ' two word, or the cliché that China was not passionate about innovation, but too tolerant of plagiarism (often with encouraging ingredients). Their choice to start a business in Silicon Valley is to value Silicon Valley's respect for innovation. Compared to the domestic Phoenix Chestnut in the start-up of the case, in Silicon Valley, million/tens of millions of dollars in this order of magnitude acquisitions almost every day. In other words, it is not a particularly far-fetched dream to let your start-ups retire gracefully in Silicon Valley, and that's why they choose to be strong in exotic places.

Some respondents said they actually dreamed that China's entrepreneurial ecology could really improve. "After all, as a Chinese, in the Silicon Valley is still relatively weak, where investors still have to wear tinted glasses to see you, they will give preference to local entrepreneurs, rather than your foreign." And the Silicon Valley engineer Price is also particularly high, not as good as the domestic cost-efficient. In fact, to stay in the Silicon Valley business is also a necessity. Of course, specifically to stay or to go, but also to see your product-oriented customers where, anonymous respondents told the small series.

Perhaps in the near future, China's big companies can raise awareness and become the cradle of innovation rather than the Terminator; new policies can bring labor costs up, making plagiarism less easy; new entrepreneurial services can help start-ups achieve rights, look for big corporate investment mergers, etc... Anyway, the birth of Zhongguancun Avenue has given us a thought, we are willing to believe that improving China's entrepreneurial ecology is only a matter of time, not wishful thinking.

Four, entrepreneurial road no longer lonely

In Silicon Valley, exchanges between entrepreneurs are particularly open. There are a lot of social activities around entrepreneurs, the meetup that conference, there are many opportunities to learn from each other and encourage each other. With LinkedIn Open, there's a bunch of ' fellow-players ' in every entrepreneur's network.

Orbeus company CEO Liyi said, she always listen to domestic friends complain ' entrepreneurial way very lonely ', perhaps the emergence of Zhongguancun Avenue can improve this phenomenon. "Yes, the domestic vicious competition is very serious, entrepreneurs out of trust issues, may not be able to 100% of the development of communication, but there is such an entrepreneurial community, to provide you with the opportunity to exchange is also very good." "In any case, it can bring some positive psychological cues to people who are entrepreneurs--to make them no longer alone on the entrepreneurial path."