First participate in entrepreneurship, then lead it - a letter from Kaifu Lee to graduates who want to start a business

First participate in entrepreneurship, then lead it

- A letter from Kai-fu Lee to graduates who want to start a business

Twenty years later, China’s greatest Companies, and companies that successfully move onto the world stage are likely to be founded in the next five years. Therefore, many college students are now eager to start a business after graduation. In addition, the launch of GEM, the success of many start-up companies, and many successful entrepreneurs have inspired Chinese college students, making them hope to follow the footsteps of Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, and Robin Li on the road to entrepreneurship. On the one hand, I appreciate college students having entrepreneurial ideals, but on the other hand, I suggest college students: first participate in entrepreneurship, and then lead it.

Many college students mistakenly believe that as long as they have a good idea, can get investment, plus persistence, ***, and luck, they can become the next Ma Huateng. So, they all thought: they would start their entrepreneurial journey after graduation. However, they were overly optimistic. The real key to entrepreneurial success lies in: team, experience, and execution. Most entrepreneurial failures are not due to bad ideas, but due to lack of experience, lack of team, and lack of execution. In the final analysis, accumulation is more important than ideas.

After a year at Sinovation Ventures, I have contacted and had in-depth discussions with hundreds of post-80s entrepreneurs, and have invested in some of them. During this process, I deeply felt that China's future belongs to them, but at the same time, I also felt that the best entrepreneurs need deep accumulation to succeed. Technical training in schools is only one-sided, and entrepreneurs cannot be just specialists. They must have multi-faceted experience. They not only need to understand technology and products, but also management, operations, and markets. There was a very talented and creative young entrepreneur who expanded too quickly in the early stages. In the end, the company couldn't bear the load and closed down. In addition, the entrepreneurial team is very important. Steve Jobs said that the success of a business lies in the team, especially whether the entrepreneur can find a team of 5-10 smart, hard-working, three-headed and six-armed people who complement each other. An inexperienced entrepreneur often cannot attract such a team. There was a young entrepreneur who had a great idea, but was unable to attract a team and was stuck in the recruitment quagmire. Later, a person with more experience than him quickly found a team, made a product, and got the upper hand. In the end, he had to face the fate of bankruptcy. Finally, during the entrepreneurial period, execution is more important than ideas, and execution can only be learned through participation. Therefore, no matter how smart a graduate is, it is impossible for him to reach success immediately after graduation.

Of course, some people will ask: Why did Microsoft's Gates and Facebook's Zuckerberg succeed in starting their own businesses after graduating from college or even without graduation? In fact, when they started their business, they already had a team, experience, and execution capabilities. Gates is not only a programming genius, having invented the world's fastest algorithm, but he is also a business genius, having founded the profitable Traf-O-Data company in high school. Moreover, he did not start a business alone, but with Paul Allen. Zuckerberg began studying how to program in C++ at the age of 11. In middle school, he developed a music player that Microsoft and AOL were willing to acquire for millions of dollars. While in college, he created multiple social-related networks. Products, these accumulations are crucial to building Facebook in the future. His entrepreneurial team is four outstanding Harvard students. Therefore, the success of Gates and Zuckerberg is exceptional and cannot be replicated. Unless you have a team, execution ability, and experience like Gates or Zuckerberg, it is best not to start a business as soon as you graduate.

Of course, most people cannot compare with Gates, so what should students who want to start a business after college do? Some people say: Get a job first, then start a business. This statement is worth reference. If you join a company that "you want to start in the future" and learn from it how it operates, how it succeeds, and how its corporate system and culture are established, you can indeed make a lot of progress in a few years. If the company provides a good training program, you can learn more.

However, I have also seen many outstanding employees in large companies who have worked for 3-5 years. When they entered the company, they had plans to start a business after recharging their batteries. However, they gradually received generous benefits and promotions, but they also got used to it. A stable life from 9 to 5; I learned the knowledge and skills for subdividing positions, but I also became a screw in a huge machine; I optimized my ability to survive and be promoted in a large company, but I lost the enthusiasm and motivation to start a business. So, if you are really sure that you want to start a business, but also understand that you need the most appropriate, timely, and appropriate training, maybe you should find a better training venue.

Such a training venue is a startup company. My suggestion is: first participate in entrepreneurship, and then lead it. You can consult which companies have a vibrant entrepreneurial environment and corporate culture, experienced leaders who are worthy of being your role models, recognized products and directions in the industry, and high-quality investors. In a startup company, the pace is extremely fast, learning is targeted, and everyone needs to participate in all aspects of the company, so learning is also extremely fast. (Sunshine Network Sun) In just one year, you may learn things that take several years to learn in a large company. In order to ensure that you can learn the atmosphere of early stage entrepreneurship, try to join a smaller company (less than 100 people) so that you will not become a screw. At Sinovation Ventures, in order to provide such "participation in entrepreneurship" opportunities, we have also launched a campus recruitment plan with a target of 150 people. What we are looking for are those who want to participate in entrepreneurship first, become engineers first, learn entrepreneurship, and then lead entrepreneurship later.

How long is "in the future"? In a good startup, your growth may surprise you. In a large company, it can take decades to climb to the CEO position. However, after studying in a small company, after two or three years, you may develop enough experience, teamwork, and execution capabilities to start your own business. For example, Mi Jinhua graduated from Zhejiang University in March this year. When she joined the "Magic Elf" team invested by Sinovation Ventures, she was a young but passionate assistant product manager. But six months later, she learned the knowledge that she could not learn in school, realized her potential, and successfully promoted this product to more than 100,000 users in four countries around the world. Not only did she learn a lot about product design, but she also learned about overseas promotion and user experience, and she also successfully conducted several business negotiations. Today, she is the project leader. Ye Zhewei joined the larger dim sum team at the end of last year and became one of the founding engineers of the team. In just eight months, under the training of Zhang Lei, the mobile leader from Baidu, and You Minli, the product director from Tencent, he has become the person in charge of the application software in the dim sum operating system. Now he leads a team and is responsible for the company. Core application software. I believe that in a few years, both Jinhua and Zheyi may become leading entrepreneurs. Another of our entrepreneurs once lamented: "Good engineers don't have to worry about finding opportunities to go to big companies. What they should really worry about is how to go to start-up companies with huge potential."

In " In "Be Your Best Self", I advise all graduates: "The future is more important than today; positivity is more important than stability; learning is more important than money." This point is more targeted for students who want to start a business, because it is short-sighted Security and stability are the biggest enemies of entrepreneurship. When you graduate, think more about the people you work around. Can you learn and grow? After graduation, participating in an excellent startup company is the best first step on the road to entrepreneurship.