Zhu Min: I enjoy the pain and joy of starting a business
There are many exquisite and elegant villas on both sides of California Expressway, which was once one of Zhu Min's dreams when he first came to the United States to study for a doctorate. However, when he succeeded in starting a business for the first time and had the money to buy the villa here, he found that he was not in the mood to enjoy such a villa, but was wondering how to introduce his products to the world.
at the age of p>36, Zhu Min, who was the first batch of international students sent by the state to Stanford University in the United States for further study, was exposed to computers for the first time. Five years later, he started to set up two IT companies in the United States, promoted his products to most of the Fortune 1 companies, and used his position and influence in the United States to set up an international platform for China enterprises.
The Blue Book of Overseas Chinese in p>211 found that today, companies founded or served as CEOs by overseas Chinese account for about one-third of the total number of companies in Silicon Valley. The great contributions and achievements made by overseas Chinese in Silicon Valley have not only greatly changed the "rigid" impression of Chinese in American society, but also greatly enhanced the international image of China.
silicon valley entrepreneurship
in Zhu Min's view, the idea of starting a business in the United States originated from the entrepreneurial atmosphere in silicon valley. "In Silicon Valley, the evaluation and recognition of a person is very simple, just based on whether you have started a business or not. If you are only an executive in a large enterprise, although the salary is also very good, you are embarrassed to say hello to people, for fear of being looked down upon. "
Stanford University, where Zhu Min is studying for a Ph.D. in Engineering Economics, is located in Silicon Valley, where thousands of new technology companies and elites from all over the world gather. Thanks to the educational environment in the United States, he was encouraged by the school to participate in practice, so he worked at IBM while studying, and accumulated a lot of practical experience, so he entered the IT field.
In this fiery entrepreneurial environment, in 1991, in his garage, Zhu Min started his first venture and founded FutureLabs. The main product is a "conference demonstration communication system" based on the Internet. However, apart from the general difficulties in starting a business, the greater difficulty in starting a business in the United States is that although the American society is relatively diverse, it is not easy for a Chinese to integrate into such a society, especially in the mainstream society, and it is even more difficult to find Americans to invest in you.
Zhu Min recalled that Americans didn't vote for him at first, but his products attracted a Singaporean to take the initiative to be his angel. However, at that time, he didn't understand that this software needs the Internet to support, and FutureLabs is ahead of the Internet; At the same time, FutureLabs has been struggling in the shadow of the competitors of IBM and Intel. It was not until 1996 that Quarterdeck bought FutureLabs for $13 million that Zhu Mincai earned the first pot of gold on the road to entrepreneurship.
When * * * traveled around the world with his founder and his girlfriend with a large sum of money, Zhu Min was lying in bed, thinking that although he could almost have food and clothing for the rest of his life, he did not achieve the success he wanted, that is, to introduce his products to the world.
Start a business again
So, Zhu Min went out again. He found an Indian partner, Soubrat Eya, and co-founded WebEx, a software company focusing on video products, to provide network conference software services and support. At this time, it is increasingly accepted for overseas students to start businesses in China, and Zhu Min got $7 million from American venture capital for the first time.
Zhu Min also ran into a wall many times when he sought investment. When people heard that his competitor was a big company like Microsoft, and that Microsoft provided similar products bundled with the browser for free, they all thought he was crazy. He got the second investment of $3 million from a person who used to be a product manager at Microsoft. "Only he really understands this product and knows the difference and value between our product and Microsoft's original product."
in p>2, WebEx was successfully listed on Nasdaq, and developed into the most powerful service provider of network interactive service and network conference center system in the world, defeating Microsoft's Netmeeting and Placeware. Zhu Min also became a famous American scientist by inventing "Internet-based real-time interactive multimedia communication technology" and holding more than 2 patents. This technology was called "revolution in communication history" by IDC, a famous IT consulting company.
in p>27, the share price of WebEx reached $56, and in March of that year, WebEx was acquired by CISCO at a cash premium of $3.2 billion, which made Zhu Min famous. (Entrepreneurial m.taiks.com) Excellent innovation and entrepreneurial achievements have made Zhu Min enjoy high popularity and prestige in Silicon Valley and become a model for overseas students and Chinese entrepreneurs. What makes Zhu Min more gratified is that 8%~9% of Fortune 1 companies are using WebEx products.
In Zhu Min's view, the growth of entrepreneurial teams needs two kinds of running-in. One is the running-in of the market: what the market needs in the end and what products should be provided to serve this market; The second is the running-in of team members: what kind of team is needed for products, and how the team members can seamlessly connect and provide the best products to the market.
Start again
Being deeply influenced by Silicon Valley culture, starting a business has become Zhu Min's spiritual pursuit. After returning to China, Zhu Min has no energy to start a business again, but he is very willing to use his successful entrepreneurial experience to help young people embark on the road of starting a business.
Actually, when he was still in Silicon Valley, Zhu Min began to set foot in the investment field after his successful venture. In 24, as the sole investment partner of NEA, the largest early venture capitalist in the United States, in China, he helped NEA successfully invest in a number of projects such as SMIC [.39-1.28%], Spreadtrum Technology and Red Kids.
In p>25, Zhu Min and NEA*** co-founded Cybertron China Investment Fund, and talked about the current and future investment fields. Zhu Min said that the investment fields are mainly located in the fields of education, training, finance and medical care related to China's consumer services based on the Internet and IT technology.
Now Cybertron has directly invested and invested in dozens of enterprises and entrepreneurs in China, including China Green Line, Chint Solar, Spreadtrum Communications and so on. Zhu Min introduced that many of Cybertron's investments are angel projects, including Spreadtrum Communications and Focus Technology [17.92-1.54% research report]. Two entrepreneurs of Focus Technology once took a piece of paper to their home in Zhu Min, because they finally found out that Zhu Min was their hometown and hoped to support them in starting a business. "I listened to their ideas and said that maybe you can, so I invested them $5,. Now the company has been listed on the GEM, and $5, has turned into a return of more than one billion. "
another successful case is chint solar. Zhu Min introduced that the founder of Chint Solar is one of his classmates. Cybertron has invested from scratch. After 3-4 years of development, it has now reached the scale of 3-4 million, and its sales this year may exceed 5 million.
as an experienced person, Zhu Min said that if there is any advice for entrepreneurs, firstly, it is very hard to start a business, and you should be able to enjoy both the pain and the pleasure; secondly, you should have great ideals and start a business with passion, and at the same time, you should establish a culture of enjoying the business; thirdly, you should persist and persist. "Most of the time, it is not your competitors who beat you, but yourself."