Forging Entrepreneurial Heroes: A Journal of Tsinghua Entrepreneurial Teams

Author: / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-01-01
Features: It's truly a coincidence that we managed to gather this group of friends together. Since entering university, the US has never stopped luring us, and in such an environment, it's not easy to find friends who share our vision. My pager rang—it was the CEO of ×× Investment Consulting Company, saying he wanted to meet all the members immediately. So I called him to come to our dorm in half an hour. Half an hour later, the CEO arrived. He wasn't tall, and there was a hint of fatigue in his expression, clearly indicating a tiring day at work. However, after a few polite exchanges, he quickly became excited again. He had already reviewed our project summary and had a general understanding of what we wanted to do. He offered many suggestions for our project, introducing us to knowledge we had never encountered before. I felt this economics PhD was quite capable. We discussed the development models that small and medium-sized entrepreneurial enterprises should choose, and why many good projects at Tsinghua were slow to translate into actual production. We had encountered many small, dynamic enterprises with great potential at Tsinghua, but their growth was very slow. This was largely because these professors-turned-entrepreneurs still believed that high development could rely on a snowball model like traditional businesses, without understanding the need for financing, which greatly constrained their growth. We all agreed that in the 21st century, tech brokers would become a new profession. Because the current information asymmetry has become a bottleneck for the development of China's high-tech enterprises. After talking with CEO Li, I truly realized the magic of the capital market. CEO Li gave us an example of a software company raising funds. More than a year ago, a small, well-known high-tech company in Beijing invested 100 million RMB to sell a Chinese translation of a foreign bestseller. We had all read this book, though calling its sales "pseudo-science" might be too strong, but it was certainly questionable. We never understood why this company would do such a loss-making venture. Today, CEO Li explained the mystery to us. It turned out that before this, the software company had acquired stocks of ×× Steel and achieved a stock swap. However, due to the limited reputation of the software company in China, its stock price never rose. In desperation, the company's CEO came up with the "unconventional" idea of selling books mentioned earlier. In reality, they weren't concerned about whether the books would sell but about increasing the company's visibility. The result of this publicity stunt was a near 20 RMB increase per share of the company's stock, and the company successfully raised 230 million RMB from the stock market, with their only investment being 30 million RMB in advertising. Whether the books sold or not was no longer a concern. We won't discuss the pros and cons of this financing method, but it did provide valuable funds for the high-tech company's development. The magic of the capital market. The conversation with CEO Li kept everyone in an excited state, and before we knew it, it was already 10 PM. After sending off the CEO, everyone went back to their own places. It seemed like this night would be a sleepless one for everyone. July 7, 1999, Wednesday, Sunny Wu Zhanming: Yesterday, the CEO of the Wenzhou Fund from the school contacted us, saying that an "important person" from Wenzhou would be coming today. When it comes to investment, it's impossible not to make our entrepreneurial teams' eyes light up. Media has been hyping it up lately, as if our entrepreneurial teams could magically conjure hundreds of millions overnight on a "concept company" balance sheet. How easy is that! That's money, after all. It doesn't matter how you write it down; when it's cash in front of you, you can barely carry it. Of course, we all look forward to the day when we can make a difference, but we must wait calmly for that day to arrive. For this meeting, we prepared thoroughly yesterday. My investment and financial plan was revised no less than 10 times, and I was still thinking about numbers even when I slept last night. My roommate told me that I shouted in my sleep around 2 or 3 AM: "The balance sheet isn't balanced? Impossible..." At 2:30 PM, we finally met the legendary "important person" at Tsinghua's Jia Building. He was young, capable, and surnamed Li, whom we called CEO Li. Of course, the first thing we did was introduce what we were doing. However, I was quite impressed with Xiong Zhuo and Xia Ma. recently, they had repeatedly introduced themselves to others, and each time it felt different—tailoring their approach to the audience. Next was my investment plan and financial analysis, but I was cut off halfway through. It seemed they weren't interested in the details; they just needed to know how much money we needed. Once they had the intention, they could discuss the specifics later. It turned out my worries yesterday were unnecessary. Wenzhou started with small commodities, but their vision was still long-term. They couldly recognize how to upgrade their industry through investment and support for high-tech enterprises. CEO Li frankly admitted they were learning but were determined to do it, which greatly encouraged us. However, disagreements were inevitable. Perhaps the other party was too realistic, or maybe we were too idealistic. We always believed that the approach to operating high-tech products shouldn't be limited to the framework of winning in the small-commodity market, but this was indeed the former glory of the Wenzhou people. So when CEO Li mentioned applying our rapid prototyping technology to mass-producing lighter casings, we could onlyly smile at each other during his phone call. The market awareness of the Wenzhou people was top-notch. When they pointed out that our plan lacked market analysis data, we had to honestly admit that this was exactly our task for the entire summer. Now that I think about it, it was indeed hasty. It seems we need to prepare a lot and learn a lot more. By the time we left Jia Building, it was already dinner time. I heard CEO Li still had to rush back to Wenzhou, which explained why his phone kept ringing nonstop. As we parted, CEO Li earnestly advised us to visit Wenzhou at least once, which made us feel the trip was worthwhile. At least they didn't express disappointment. "Maybe the opportunity lies within it"—Xiong Zhuo's words made the dinner atmosphere much livelier. After dinner, I rushed back to the academy. The market research plan had to be completed tonight. For the second time this day, I was deeply reminded that this could no longer be postponed. Although we had been busy lately, it couldn't go on like this. Ma Yangbiao: Today was my birthday, and it could have been perfect if it weren't for meeting that old man in the afternoon. In the morning, as soon as I woke up, the phone didn't stop ringing—my parents and older brother from afar sent birthday wishes, and the sense of being surrounded by family made my entire morning's work incredibly productive. Then, here's what happened in the afternoon. Yesterday, the CEO of Sanlian called, saying a investor from Shenzhen wanted to meet the team. To ensure the progress of our market research, the group discussed and decided that Xiao Ge, Old Wu, and Old Guo would continue with the research, while I and Xiao Xiong would negotiate with the investor. At 2:30 PM, dressed in our negotiation attire (to look more formal for the investor meeting, everyone painfully scraped together some money from their living expenses to buy slightly more mature clothes, calling them "attire"), we met Mr. Chen from Shenzhen. After listening to our project introduction, this old man, who looked like Li Meiting from Qian Zhongshu's works, said something that left me speechless—I believe high-tech creates no value. The only profitable high-tech fields are two: military, where no matter how much a country spends on military development, as long as it wins the war, it's the defeated country that bears the cost; the second is healthcare, where people will spend every penny to save their lives. As for other so-called high-tech fields, they don't have any value and are useless—ancient people lived well without high-tech, right? What truly has value is finance, is capital. Listening to this high-flown rhetoric, the smile on my face became more and more stiff and forced until it disappeared. I couldn't believe the old man spouting such anti-scientific nonsense was actually going to invest in high-tech. Ancient people lived without high-tech, but he used that as evidence that high-tech has no value. You weren't in Shenzhen yesterday, were you? Without this very ordinary high-tech of airplanes, could you have appeared at Tsinghua today? If you're so capable, why not walk from Shenzhen to Beijing. Frankly, this old man wasn't genuinely interested in investing in our project. He was just using the name of investing in high-tech to make a profit in the capital markets. In more than a month of vacation, we've met many investors, though not all understood our technology. But this old man, being so blunt and crude in saying high-tech has no value, is truly . The investors we need should understand our project and potential and genuinely consider its long-term development. We don't want such investors, even if it means missing out on opportunities. Maybe this isn't rational, maybe it's emotional, but our passion for Bochuang's project doesn't allow us to make even the slightest decision that could harm its prospects. Maybe we'll lose an investment opportunity, but we're willing to accept it. The meeting is still ongoing, and without the mood for negotiation, we're just going through the motions, while the old man is still rambling on about how the global capital markets can make a company rich overnight, and its core members will have money for the rest of their lives. Although his phone kept ringing during the meeting, the few interruptions didn't affect his "clear" train of thought. Today, I and Xiao Xiong finally met "anti-scientific" people, but I believe there are many like him in China's investment circles. Our entrepreneurial journey has just begun, and finding a satisfactory investor and securing funding is no easy task. But we believe we can do it, because I have full confidence in Bochuang's project. The dawn of entrepreneurship is ahead. Today is my birthday, and if I could make a wish for my birthday, it would be for our entrepreneurial journey to go well. By next year's today, it won't just be a plan written on paper. I firmly believe my wish will come true! Alright, I won't write anymore. Let's gather some friends, have some beer, and eat cake. Birthdays are a time to rest and relax. Entrepreneurship, let's talk about it tomorrow!