Who says there's no dream in Shenzhen

Now in Shenzhen, just as the promised land of hardware entrepreneurs: Here are the world's most components, various generations of factories, processing plants, PCB printing plant, designer resources, supply chain resources, channel resources, backed by the world's largest consumer market, close to one of China's busiest ports. At the right and the right, the PCH, Fuji Kang, haxlr8r such foreign companies, but also the achievements of Huawei, ZTE, TP, DJI and a variety of domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers. No wonder the co-founder of Zach, who MakerBot away from the city, will feel that the hardware in Shenzhen is like a huge workshop with a whole town.

Beijing or Shenzhen, who will be the ultimate leader in the new hardware wave? This discussion, the entrepreneurs, investors, bystanders, more or less already have the answer. This time to Shenzhen, I feel that there are actually two waves of entrepreneurs inside Shenzhen, their experience is very interesting.

In order to discuss the convenience, first make a simple definition, I said the Shenzhen entrepreneur, refers to the company or the main part of the company in Shenzhen team. One of them, a technical circle of acquaintances, alone on the target, can circle many of them, is the most well-known part of the group. On the other side, the reputation in the tech circle will be much smaller, but you may actually be using their products, such as one of the smart bracelet you receive is their solution, a Bluetooth keyboard connected to your tablet, and even some of the creative products you bring back from abroad are made by them.

The former, is a Shenzhen young 85 after the creation of a miniature, they are basically outsiders, regular university graduates, thinking Agile, a wide range of foreign information and products, aversion to the cottage, do basically are original products. Like the entrepreneurs in Beijing, pay attention to brand promotion and market image. Although more than Beijing entrepreneurs understand the hardware, but also in the cost control and supply chain management problems, although also rely on financing, but their products have been basically spread out, has been profitable or quickly profitable.

The latter, often have a strong gene in Shenzhen, in the World Manufacturing Center for many years, the hardware industry, the things in the clear, each line has accumulated enough experience and contacts, often on behalf of the factory is their own buddies, the program is their relatives. Some of them bought a set of things from the upstream, assembled and produced, and then sold them to the downstream; some people buy their own components, come back to develop a plan, and then sell to a variety of customers. Many of these people are very low-key and pragmatic, you may not imagine his family turnover billion, his factory's humble products occupy more than half of the world's share.

The former, have a dream, always remind me of the word idealism, the latter, have resources, always let me contact realism. For the former, I am full of love, it depicts the future of our life a beautiful blueprint, for the latter, I am full of reverence, after all, it has changed our life now.

In Shenzhen, the air is filled with two very different temperament and breath. The latter I do not contact much, or mainly to say the former bar.

Modular robot Creative platform Makeblock, air detector air.air!, intelligent robotic arm uarm, creative platform based on Android smartphone hippo are the projects I covered six months ago, and their founders are basically the 85 young creators I've defined. Another six months later, look at these teams, the situation is not the same. Some teams have a chance to make a profit this year, some projects are about to complete a new round of financing, some projects have basically failed to declare, and some projects co-founder has run away, and some teams have begun to develop new products. Many members from these teams are also starting to embark on a new path of life, or go to a major company, or go to school, or two of startups, or join the boom in hardware entrepreneurship.

After the Times, these new hardware teams have successfully turned their geek products into mass consumer goods, whether they succeeded by a DIY team developed into a benign operation of the company, this issue has aroused my interest. Predictions, obviously meaningless. Finally, the market, the user will give a phased answer, all in silence. But simply by the current project progress to evaluate, is biased. Entrepreneurship itself is a marathon of comprehensive strength. The reasons for the failure of all aspects, or product positioning is not just needed, or promote the lack of resources, or commercial operation is still shallow, or the distribution of the interests of the team uneven.

But I think that these are not very important, at least not the most important. Entrepreneurs, in the final analysis, sell the understanding and imagination of the world, and entrepreneurship, ultimately win, depends on the product, ability, resources, experience, luck and other factors of the synthesis. In the early days of the hardware renaissance, they had paid tuition, accumulated experience, or summed up the lesson.

Above all how to see is brutal reality, with ideals does not seem to have a half cents relationship. But, chatting, technical optimism they also have the ideal of entrepreneurship, talk about their own or a friend of a creative still excited, talking about the future of the world can always talk. What surprises me most is that they dream of changing the world, for example, when someone wants to set up a laboratory to study how to manage air pollution from the technical. Elon Musk all realized so many impossible, guarantee this group of technology curtilage someone can do it.

Some people say "and hardware entrepreneurs do not talk about what idealism, chicken soup is not used, the methodology is not used, is that you help me to produce products," but there is no ideal, but also to create what industry ah, should not go to the Blue Xiang Learning excavator Mody, at least, can also "change the world

Yes, idealism kills anyone. Empty talk Languo, fantasy mistake oneself. Only when these idealists one day became the realist now, and do not forget beginner, they can really not go to the Blue Xiang open excavators.

Although the parallel imports, production, accounting period so that Shenzhen "Peer-to-peer" has been full of the smell of stink, although the escape, jumping, cottage these words are often linked with Shenzhen, but the realism of Shenzhen, Idealism is not dead.

Above, is a work in Beijing, Shandong people, the first to Shenzhen feeling. Before this, she has been full of fear in Shenzhen, because cargo she watched CCTV when she was a child, know that there is a dish called three squeak in Shenzhen, Guangzhou.