Young VC also have trouble

Every age, young people emerge. The difference is that, influenced by the cultural and economic environment, the labels of every generation of young people are different.

Born in the 1985-1990 's, experienced a wealth of material and cultural life, is the Chinese internet Aborigines. So, granary foot and know etiquette, food and clothing foot and honor, this batch of very young pan, began to toss up the Internet entrepreneurship, or to IDG, Gobi investment major venture to invest in the TMT.

This "Double 90" combination is bringing a young wind to the industry.

"To be friends with an entrepreneur."

In a 24-hour KFC in Shenzhen, two of young men in plain clothes sit together chatting with their peers favorite "Pirates of the King" and other anime, chatting over the past few years of work and entrepreneurship, the excitement of dancing, not the slightest intention of the people around the surprise gaze, until they came out of KFC, the subway has long been stopped , two people stood on the road waving farewell, their respective taxi home.

These two young people, who are not visible in the crowd, one is the founder of the face Meng Guo Lei, the other is IDG's young investment manager steady, in both sides talked about only 3 hours later, IDG decided to vote for this young people to start an interesting project, so there is today in a friend circle portrait of the "Face Meng".

"I want to walk in the subway and see a man with my product, and I'll tell him: Dude, I made that product." "From the Guo Lei of Tencent's departure, it describes his dream." At that time, he is "Pirates of the King" enthusiasts, and gave himself a Guo Lei fly nickname, hoping to make a comparable micro-letter explosion application. But Tencent's micro-letters had become a national application, and he was just starting a business. But he soon found the direction: "Pirates of the King," there is a phone worm, it will learn your expression, you cry him it will cry, you laugh it on the smile, according to this inspiration we did face Meng. ”

At that time, Guo Lei at home dedicated to the face Meng app, other team members are part-time help on weekends, in order to support the team and project, he not only spent all the savings, even took out his last Housing Provident Fund. In order to find funds to support the team members to continue their business, Guo Lei began to invest in business plans. Unexpectedly, 10 minutes after sending the mail to IDG, he received a call from IDG.

"At the beginning often bright come to me, face Meng fire after they (IDG) will not appear." Their relationship is more like family and friends. Guo Lei so described his dealings with IDG.

"We are more of a peer relationship than a purely investment relationship." "This young 85 VC, with a short hair, with ordinary box glasses, casually threw himself on the chair, looks more like an ordinary entrepreneur." But in fact, he worked for Huawei and was sent to Africa for two full years of after-sale support. However, because often active in the group of the founder of the generation of entrepreneurs, was incorporated into the young groups of VC. But he wants to be friends with young people.

Now, often bright add a lot of the group of the cast, the leisure time will organize dinner together eat and drink. Chat with their peers and anime, talk about work and ideals. "Sometimes we tell them stories in Africa and encourage them to travel collectively to Kenya and Zambia to see how the animals migrate and see the Snows of Kilimanjaro," he said. ”

"Only after 90.

This group of 1985-1990-born VC, with the mainstream of the users and entrepreneurs have a common language, "tease Force", "spit", "two yuan" these popular words also appear in their words, and this particular idea and thinking to give them different eyes, The ability to find the right lifestyle for young people and invest in their favorite Internet projects has also hit a number of 70 and even more investors.

In an internal party, IDG Capital founding partners to once with IDG colleagues well-known investors Wang regrets, "Power, we have been outdated, no longer belong to the entrepreneurial community, young people with us, like the face of uncle and elders, do not want to speak the truth." ”

"Whenever, this generation of investors, in the same economic and cultural growth, the way of thinking and ways of doing things are relatively similar, or more curing, single, this in the young mobile internet industry is taboo." "One of the most immediate consequences of this commonality," said a whenever investor, who asked not to be anonymous, "is that everyone wants to be in the same way and that the last items are the same, and they can't stand out in similar products." ”

"An uncle-level senior investor sits in front of you and you say you're afraid?" The same for the dream of the founder of the network CEO Du Mengjie smile, entrepreneurial two years ago he had seen too many traditional investors, to the end of the IDG's a-round investment. But by the end of the financing period, he will be stressed when he sits down with senior investment directors and VP to talk about projects and ideals.

But on the contrary, with the same age, the communication between the VC has no such a sense of constraint, "the generation gap is not, together very relaxed, talk about a variety of unrestrained topics, teasing each other." "Du Mengjie said.

"Only after the VC, can understand the founder, understand the user." "Gobi Chong investment Deep investment director Hu Tang to the high expectations of young VC," now has moved to society, become the next round of the mainstream users, and the "VC" can just understand this circle of popular culture, understand the mainstream user needs, or even one of the users, It is the same language as the same age entrepreneur, which is the most attractive place for investment organizations. ”

And face Meng Project, is steady in the entrepreneurial contest found, in the final decision to invest, he pulled the IDG Vice President Li Feng together to see. "Young investors do things differently than predecessors, the biggest advantage is from the needs, communication methods, common topics, will be closer to young entrepreneurs." And senior experience is rich, to a certain thing, a person's level in which range there is a better understanding. "Li Feng evaluates this combination.

Teenage vc growing up trouble: Face the entrepreneur, grow up beard disguised as mature

"Too Young,too simple! face a group of Uncle Entrepreneurs, I in the minds of others may be this image." "Gobi Venture cast of the Lu Yinan VC smile with a network of popular words Spit channel, the most unfortunate is that in his attention to the large data, enterprise services, entrepreneurs are whenever, the main, and most of the older generation of the communications." "Many people think you are the intern to soy sauce, it is difficult to have deep communication at the first time." ”

The young VC, born in 1990, is a typical symbol of a new generation of VCs.

Unlike most of his peers, the 24-Year-old boy, who has worked at McKinsey, a well-known consulting firm, has been fluent in answering questions and giving a clear, logical answer. But on the other side, he is a DotA, World of Warcraft, such as the "Ashes class" players, is also a fan of the king of the Pirates cartoon fans, leisure season and a group of friends to go to the Internet café together "open black", or home brush Acfun, Bilibili, such as "two Yuan" anime website Spit slot.

In the company, this batch of the VC to try to integrate into the uncle generation of the world, and senior investment director, VP Talk about the stock market, talk about football. Sometimes, senior whenever investors will also be infected by their passion, active with them to chat anime, chat games, party together wine, and in the circle of friends all kinds of "mutual black."

However, in the investment community, there is an unwritten practice--70 after the vote, after the cast. The former's rich experience and the latter's passion ideal met, then produced some of its wonderful chemical reaction, the advantages of both sides just can make up for each other, which has become the industry's eyes of the gold partner combination.

This brings a lot of troubles to the young VC. In the face of whenever, generation of entrepreneurs, they are very difficult to play a mature mentor role, and entrepreneurs often cast a distrust of this group of young people, seniority in the seniority of the traditional businessman, this is too youthful qualifications to become a very realistic threshold.

Two weeks ago, in a small scale of the online venture, Lu Xiunan met a Web site for the generation of entrepreneurs, the latter of the young VC is not very cold, feel that his qualifications are too simple and not willing to communicate more. However, when the entrepreneur in the live speech link spit horizontal fly, when you talk about the disruptive innovations of social and recruitment, and the bright future, it's a question of being thrown under the Lu Yinan to get on the stage-"How do you combine low-frequency hiring with high frequency usage?"

Just after the meeting, the entrepreneur changed his lukewarm attitude and proactively found Lu Yinan to consult the core issues of business model and commercialization.

"If you can't talk about experience, talk about business." Lu Yinan summed up a set of experiences with entrepreneurs who were more than 10 years older. "To be an entrepreneur, be a sharp expert, be able to clearly see the core issues and business models in the entrepreneur project, and give some advice on this, which is the true nature of an investor." ”

And steady in the face of older entrepreneurs, it is a beard, put on a suit, trying to look more mature. "Many older entrepreneurs, who value experience and seniority, often want advice from a mature VC, but at the first glance he sees a very young investor with a discount in mind." He explained how he was cooked. But more entrepreneurs contact with him, all of this young VC awe. "Young inexperienced is not a problem, the key is to learn and enterprising ability, as long as there is enough investment in a field, and can give their views, no matter what age class entrepreneurs will know you have material." ”

After the emergence of the VC, more venture capitalists began to cultivate this group of young forces in the interior, and hope that through the whenever, generation, cadres three generations of investors, will be the thinking and 70, the experience combined, looking for the next possible rise of the young bat.

"Has the idea, diligently steadfast, the study ability is very strong, this is the biggest VC's a bit." Before is whenever with VC, now is the combination of the high and low VC, can understand young people, but also to make up for the shortcomings of lack of experience. In a few years, the junior VC will gradually go to the stage of decision-making, then it belongs to them. "Hu Tang said.

The Secret of the investment: see if he can manage the elders

In the current popular Internet creation circle, the one is the most subversive and maverick representative. They often in various occasions, to talk about their ideals, talk about their own listing plans, release a rich passion and dream the first signal. But most of the whenever, the founders to be more pragmatic, they generally only talk about the project's market prospects and profit expectations, the entrepreneurial as a business to operate. In a sense, the former is an idealist, and the latter is a pragmatist.

These two distinct entrepreneurial circles, to the young VC also raised the question: cast or cast a group of students, which can be voted?

"The mobile internet now needs a more open mind, but it does not mean that there is a 80 execution." "Love Bar" founder of Xiqing years, the ideal does not catch a cold. He started with all his savings, to the current annual flow of more than 100 million yuan, during the contact with the outside world, the slightest mention of the dream, only to talk about the project management and market expectations. "The mainstream start-up companies are still 70, the main, the second is easy to become famous, but actually not much." ”

This typical traditional thinking, quite representative of the current entrepreneur's attitude to the popular---too young, inexperienced, resulting in the company's day-to-day management, business operation defects.

Before the industry ding famous online education entrepreneurship project bubble noodles, because several young junior partners because of management problems of infighting. This July, the Bubble noodle Bar issued an official statement, officially issued co-founder Wang, Shing, the resumption of various administrative authority, and accused Wang, Shing stop the direct or indirect use of illegal steal access to the bubble Surface Bar project code. But the latter soon also in color, will bubble Noodles Bar Project team and the original user management staff from the user QQ group kicked out, seriously affected the product market operation. The end result was a 100 million-dollar project that broke off before a round of financing was signed.

But for this thorny problem, young VC have their own understanding and judgment.

"The most important thing is whether you can find someone who is more mature than him," he said. Or the entrepreneur itself is mature enough, have failed experience and lessons, can dive into the heart to concentrate on good products. "At this point, Lu Yinan this VC flow revealed beyond the maturity of peers and sophisticated--90 entrepreneurs lack of experience and organizational management ability is understandable, but they must find more excellent talent, together to operate a good company." "Otherwise, like a lot of young entrepreneurs, pull a lot of younger learning younger brother to learn younger sister, use University to run a community thinking is not good at a company." ”

From the Gobi investment in the project Teambition, can see some obvious signals. Born in 1990, founder Zi Junhuan, a second-time start-up CEO, appears to be comfortable with investors and the media, with a maturity that is beyond this age group-to think twice before answering each question and politely asking if he or she is satisfied.

Earlier, in college, Zi Junhuan started an online medical program, and received a more than 2 million Yuan Angel investment, but was limited by the prevailing circumstances, the project ended in failure. But after the project was established, Teambition began to have a steady stream of VC visits, and soon finalized the angel investment. "The first venture to make mistakes, the second venture will be around, this is the reason VC like serial entrepreneurs." ”

In order to make the company's commercial operation and management become mature, many of the entrepreneurs are also working hard. Dream Net CEO Du Mengjie began to try to dig people from Baidu, Ali and other big internet companies, and some investors look for good enough and experienced "uncle Generation" staff. In the current 40-person team, there are a number of young, there are many mature, the oldest one has been 36 years old. "When you don't have the experience to be a good boss, look for someone mature enough to help you be the boss," he said. ”

Steady is also trying to help this group of young people with his own actions. In Shenzhen, he spent almost every week taking time to start a business, talking to CEOs about current operations and problems, and giving advice and guidance. Sometimes, he's busier than an entrepreneur: The phone is 24 hours old, and he can see him in the middle of the night. Active in some of the entrepreneurial micro-trust group, "Investment is not a simple money relationship, more important through weekdays to learn from each other, and young entrepreneurs grow together." ”