Zhang Ying: What kind of mentality should entrepreneurs have?

For a long time did not write articles, but blog this thing I have been hanging on the heart. Also have a lot of friends constantly remind me to write, thank you for your concern and concern. It is because of the concern of my friends that I have been seriously thinking about what to write. Recently on the "mentality" a little sentiment, write to communicate with you. I think a lot of times, especially in China at this stage, whether a thing or a good job, mentality plays a key role. And mentality, fundamentally depends on the degree of understanding of things. China's economic stability, rapid development for entrepreneurs to provide a huge stage, but also for the venture capital institutions to bring unlimited opportunities, the media, Suntech, Shanda, such as the success of the VC support enterprises, directly driven by a large number of their respective fields of followers, And indeed there are many followers who are important in their field. China's solar industry already has 10 overseas listed companies, and there will be a new listed companies, media and online games are also constantly mergers and acquisitions and IPO news, the industry to create a small impact. However, as an investment organization, in the premise of affirming the environment of economic development, we must calmly look at the entrepreneurial and investment opportunities that are contained in waves of upsurge. One of our investment philosophy is not like to follow the bandwagon, for the relatively hot industry, we will be based on their own understanding of the industry to decide whether to enter this area, some time ago WEB2.0 and video is relatively hot, I have on many occasions that we have a cautious attitude in these two areas. In the education industry is relatively hot, we feel that this area is worth spending time, but also invested in an educational enterprise. In the investment strategy, the beholder, benevolent, in the final results before the unpredictable right and wrong. But I think it is important that both entrepreneurs and investors should make their own decisions based on independent thinking, and maintain a good attitude. The success of others does not mean that you can also succeed, the industry has the opportunity, does not mean that anyone can seize the opportunity, and vice versa. Entrepreneurship is not easy, whether successful or not, entrepreneurs are worthy of the greatest respect, but in my dealings with entrepreneurs, I often feel that the mentality of entrepreneurs have a great impact on the success of the enterprise, on the other hand, as more and more overseas investment institutions into China and China's domestic venture capital increase, The competition that the investor faces also is aggravating, how to do well investment, also ask us to adjust a good mentality. I'd like to talk to entrepreneurs about this, because the perspective of the entrepreneur and the investor may be different. Here, I from the investor's point of view of my attitude to the entrepreneur, the attitude of investors, I hope to be able to inspire entrepreneurs. At the same time, we also look forward to hearing the feedback from the entrepreneurs and sharing their experiences, thus improving our work. I believe that the sincere exchanges between investors and entrepreneurs will make us more in-depth understanding of this issue, but also help to create a first-class enterprise. Entrepreneur: far-oriented and pragmatic is to create a first-class enterprise Foundation first, the Enterprise'sSuccess depends on the success of the financing, will make the start-up enterprises into a passive state as a focus on early and growing investment institutions, many of our contacts are in real need of financial support stage. And the more early the enterprise, its risk tends to be higher, so the possibility of a relatively small financial capital. In fact, we are in touch with nearly thousands of enterprises each year, and finally we can invest only a small percentage. This objectively gives the entrepreneur the impression that the financing is difficult, but also easy to let the entrepreneur to be able to start a business success to hope that can finance success. As I understand it, startups mostly need funding, but companies are better able to have both hands ready, financing, there is a financial strategy, temporarily not to the capital, but also enough to prepare themselves to slow down a little bit of business development, for the lack of capital to face the disintegration of enterprises, from the investor's point of view is a big worry. On the other hand, as long as the enterprise does have potential for development, I think financing is only a matter of time. Although different investment institutions have different standards of judgment, the probability that all investors will miss a good project is still very small. The real reason why enterprises do not have the capital is that the enterprise itself has some important factors that investors worry about, such as the team is not perfect, can not convince people to do the industry leader, or business model problems, it is difficult to quickly expand and so on. For startups in the industry, investors often have only a general understanding, investors want to understand the main question is how long the entrepreneur can be the size of the enterprise, as well as various exit channels (listed or mergers and acquisitions) of the possibility, Including the existing domestic and foreign listed companies or mergers and acquisitions of enterprises and entrepreneurial enterprises in the relevance of the market and the business level of comparison and so on, and entrepreneurs should have a deep understanding of this and can tell investors clearly. On the basis of the analysis of the above issues, entrepreneurs holding whether or not to be able to finance will be determined to do business confidence, along with the continuous development of enterprises, there will be investment agencies to come to the door. Second, the long-term development strategy and solid implementation, for the development of enterprises can not be a single enterprise to do, I think there are two key points. First, entrepreneurs should have a long-term vision, have a mind, are interested in bringing the enterprise to an international platform, the second is to have a strong executive power. Some of the entrepreneurs I've contacted, including the companies that have already been merged, can see very well, the vision of the future of the enterprise is good, and the sound of these ideas is reasonable, but there are many problems in the implementation, many ideas can not achieve or the actual results and ideas have a big gap. In this case, I suggest that the entrepreneur can seriously think about it, is it their own reason or middle management team problem, if it is their own reasons, such as some entrepreneurs can take the enterprise from zero to 100 of the scale, but for the larger enterprise operations lack of experience and in a short period of time is difficult to significantly improve, At this point, the entrepreneur should have the mind to find a better qualified person to run the company, they can be chairman and participate in their own good business, whichKind of entrepreneur is very popular with investors. There is also a class of entrepreneurs, the specific work done well, but lack of the big picture and long-term strategic planning. In our investment in the enterprise also has such a situation, entrepreneurs hands-on, in the technology, production details to invest a lot of energy, but also can make the enterprise short-term profit, but the long-term development goals of enterprises lack of clear understanding, and no awareness to actively think about this problem, This is the biggest problem in the future. We recommend that these entrepreneurs spend a little more time thinking about the company's strategic issues and develop this ability consciously. If you are not really good at it, be able to attract such people to join and give them enough decision-making power. The open mentality of the entrepreneur often plays a decisive role in the development of the enterprise. Investor: The entrepreneurial mentality of investing in enterprises although the Chinese market at home and abroad investment institutions are increasing, but relative to the huge need for financial support enterprises, the amount of capital is still insufficient. There are a lot of enterprises to you to raise the demand for financing, it is easy to make us feel like VC on the high, and this mentality will become the result of poor investment performance is an important reason. As mentioned above, if a business is really good, there is a greater grasp of the money, so often there will be more than a VC optimistic about a business situation, at this time, financing enterprises to the initiative to be more. Everyone, every business wants to be respected, if investors in a high profile to talk to start-ups, companies will accept it? In the case of enterprise development is not very good, it is possible that the enterprise will endure a while to finance, but I think in the long run investors can get good returns is still a question mark. How to let their optimistic entrepreneurial enterprises to recognize themselves, how to achieve our differences in a large number of investment institutions, I often think of the problem. I think entrepreneurs in the choice of VC, when the consideration of an important factor is in addition to capital, investment agencies can also bring what value to the entrepreneurial enterprise? As one of the earliest foreign capital venture companies entering China, we have more extensive network and resource accumulation at home and abroad, and many times our resources can provide direct and sometimes key help to the start-up enterprises, such as expanding the market of big customers, recruiting high-end talents, But sometimes we have little direct help for startups in a short period of time, and entrepreneurs have more resources in their industry than we do, and it's a challenge for entrepreneurs to recognize us. My character likes to go straight, can help to say can help, and try to help, temporarily do not help, and they say not to help, but we will be entrepreneurial mentality and entrepreneurship to grow together to face the future may encounter various difficulties, the ultimate goal is to work together with entrepreneurs to create a first-class enterprise, In this sense, we believe that our future development of the enterprise must be valuable. In fact, we've actually spent a lot of time working with companies we've invested in to solve problems, such as middle-level employees, a temporary shortage of funds, and help companies explore some of the industry's mergers and acquisitions opportunities and combine our strengths to facilitate the eventual completion of cooperation. Conversely, when more than VC optimistic about a business, I do not advocate the reduction of identity and business negotiations, the truth is the same. To the equal mentality, to win-get-oriented, put themselves in the position of the entrepreneur to consider the development of the enterprise may encounter problems and their possible help, is to win the trust of enterprises and then the enterprise bigger and stronger foundation. Mentioned earlier, our investment philosophy is not like to follow the bandwagon, if a subdivision of the industry or a business is very hot, we participate in the possibility will be reduced, one is because there may be a bubble in the composition, the second is even if the enterprise is really good, prices will be fired very high. For our optimistic project, we will be based on the future of the company's revenue expectations and possible risks, combined with the market, to the enterprise a reasonable price, but I do not agree to a high price to compete for the project. And if an enterprise chooses investors at an early stage and in a growing period at a price level, for the future development of enterprises may not be beneficial, one is that the world does not have a free lunch, high prices means that investors to the high expectations of enterprises; second, if the enterprise needs follow-up financing, the difficulty will correspondingly increase, thus the choice of investment institutions will be reduced. If we cannot invest, we also hope to become friends with entrepreneurs, because any one investment organization for various reasons is difficult to invest in all their own bullish enterprises. This opportunity is lost, there is next, good industry, good business will continue to appear. Of course, we will constantly reflect on and improve their shortcomings, and strive to enable more outstanding enterprises to recognize us. Finally, talk about myself. I often say with my colleagues, to see the great environment of China's economic development, on the basis of careful analysis, to maintain a good attitude, not urgent, to have their own views, not for the external trend around. But in fact, everyone will have the time of impatience, all have been led by the emotional factors, I am no exception. I am in the "first line of investment battlefield", often hear a certain investment institutions to invest in a certain enterprise, when it is really good to see the investment enterprises in the scope of our investment, and they have not heard this business name before, will feel that their work is too inadequate When we invest in the enterprise has a big problem, sometimes the temper will be more urgent, and entrepreneurs communicate too much insist on their own point of view. As mentioned above, the mentality is fundamentally reflects your understanding of things, the mentality is not very good time, it is likely that you do not see the problem clearly, see not far. I often think of myself, especially when I am quiet at night, I feel a lot of income. In all aspects of investment, from the search for projects, talk about projects, to invest in the process of growing up with the entrepreneurial enterprise, each step may make mistakes. For the current deficiencies, analysis of the reasons, and then explore effective solutions, and maintain a good mentality is complementary. I also suggest that ourTeam think, everyone has their own unique creative thinking, but also have their own blind area, collective wisdom is often able to reflect the power of 1+1>2. I believe, and entrepreneurs to maintain good communication, according to each other's experience exchange and the analysis of the facts to adjust their own mentality, the two sides towards a common goal forward, we will have the opportunity and excellent entrepreneurial enterprises to jointly create a number of outstanding national brands in the future. Author: Zhang Ying-matrixpartners China Joint Executive partner David.zhang@wiharper.com.cn david.zhang@matrixpartners.com.cn