Investor Encyclopedia - Tong Weiliang Position: Partner of Sycamore Capital, Executive Director of China TMT Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director of China Young Angels Association. Investment cases: Camera360, fan diary, aunt, etc
Source of this article / Venture Capital DreamWorks
Foreword: Camera 360, powder diary, aunt and other APP applications in the female user its retention rate reached 100 million yuan worldwide, especially the number of global users of the photography software Camera 360 far more than 250 million, in the same kind of application download rankings remain high, in a short period of time to quickly lay such an order of magnitude of user base, in addition to the project's accurate user positioning, investors' later support also has no doubt about the thrust, and this is often little known.
Strictly speaking, investing is a kind of behind-the-scenes work. At the beginning of the project, the investors are indestructible warriors on the front line; in the middle of the project, the investors are the military divisions who overcome difficulties on the battlefield; in the later stages of the project, the investors have become the main force for the development of resource supply. Tong Weiliang, an investor who saw the above-mentioned enterprises today, not only redefined more than one side of the technical man, but also had a deeper understanding of the investor's vision.
Tech men play the investment circle
In 2011, Tong Weiliang entered Gobi Investment. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company focuses on investment in technology projects. After joining Gobi Investment, Tong Weiliang was responsible for the Beijing office, and it was at this time that he began his angel investment road. At a time when the Internet wave is trending, with industry insight to grasp the current situation, with dozens of outstanding project investment, as a very representative of TMT, it has a wide impact on the venture capital circle. Today, his social identity is that of Sycamore Capital Partner, Executive Director of China TMT Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director of China Youth Angel Association.
Tong Weiliang has 20 years of experience in the TMT industry, good at strategic planning, business development, integrated marketing and capital operation; market experience in business development, can be described as a battlefield. According to Tong Weiliang, he had done sales in the early days of his work, but he did not think it was ideal, and the transformation of BD in the later period was a successful practice.
Tong Weiliang is a veritable technical man, and the purpose of sales lies in the direct realization of commercial value. As a result, he felt that sales was not his area of expertise. Until the later transformation of BD, based on the principle of two-way resource equal exchange, it is more convenient to carry out outreach business.
Sycamore Capital awakens the literary nature of technical men
Some reports have pointed out that Tong Weiliang is more emotional and spontaneous in his investment philosophy, while Gobi Capital, as an institution, emphasizes risk avoidance. That was one reason he eventually chose to leave. When discussing the risk control attitude of investment projects, Tong Weiliang said that different investment institutions have their own styles, and whether they go or stay depends on their own sense of conceptual identity. Many times, decisions are based on emotion above reason. There is no right or wrong, and there is no need to dig deeper into the reasons.
Tong Weiliang's Wenqing truth, in addition to the emotional value system, is mainly manifested in the love of reading life attitude and the behavior habit of casual creation. Can you imagine a boy from a technical background who is eight feet long and quietly poetry? Before we met, it was unbelievable. But in the follow-up conversation, it is not difficult to find that under his amiable appearance, there was originally a gentle brilliance.
He has been following the venture capital circle for a long time and has always been well versed in the investor's boat and car, especially in the process of finding a project. But Tong Weiliang can clearly distinguish between work and life. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, in addition to being a unique investor, he is also a participant in life who is strategic. This is conceivable in the investment projects of his personal angels.
Sycamore Capital, which joined in 2013, is biased towards growth-stage investment, focusing on TMT, investing in enterprises that already have a certain scale and profits. According to Tong Weiliang, the main direction at present is to stand in the perspective of investment institutions, allocate energy to the TMT industry observation and project docking level, and spare time, according to personal interests and hobbies to do some angel investment. "Angel investment is done in the name of an individual, so there will not be too much time and capital investment, and for now, the time period is relatively long, almost a project a year."
According to Tong Weiliang, mergers and acquisitions are a very important way for Sycamore to exit. In terms of upfront investment, compared with the old VCs, Sycamore has richer exit channels and solutions, and the main performance is in mergers and acquisitions. Tong Weiliang said that he is often active in the Zhongguancun area in Beijing. It's China's "Silicon Valley," where you read projects during the day and respond to emails when you get home. I have talked to many investors about the frequency of looking at projects, and everyone has said that they are lacking in skills. "In the past, it was a monthly flight to arrange the itinerary one by one, and now, once a week, almost all the time and experience are spent on the road." On the one hand, it can be seen that the activity of China's surplus capital is getting higher and higher with the momentum of the Internet tide, and in addition, it also verifies that the passion of the mobile Internet entrepreneurship situation is in a continuous heating up stage.
"We know very well what kind of people companies should recruit, and at which development nodes there will be marketing and PR needs," Tong Weiliang, an investor, is very determined. He said that to do investment, especially angel project investment, the early stage not only needs capital support, including in the follow-up development, but also needs human capital, platform resources docking, on the one hand, to accelerate the company's business growth of talent reserve demand, and then to help the corporate image of the brand building, and these two blocks, the decisive role is mainly marketing and PR. Admittedly, this takes into account the different stages of the development of the enterprise, so as to determine which aspect of capital to introduce.
"Deeper service is the core competitiveness of Sycamore Tree." Tong Weiliang said. As an investment institution, it is not a matter of letting the funds enter and flow freely, although sycamore in the TMT field, the investment object is a company that already has a certain scale and profit. However, the support in the later stage is relatively small compared to the industry.
Emotional angels pay more attention to the team composition of entrepreneurs
In angel investment, Tong Weiliang's emotional attitude has prevailed. General investors look at the project, in addition to having an understanding of the project itself, to a large extent, they are acquaintances docking. In order to control the cost of risk, most investors choose the credit guarantee model recommended by friends, but Tong Weiliang said that in-depth chat can make a rough judgment on their character. Although the success rate of angel investment is not high, and the talk of several sides cannot achieve a large degree of accuracy, at least the heart will first have a contour estimate of the project, and in many cases, it can be said that it is a grasp of their own experience.
For entrepreneurs, Tong Weiliang pays more attention to the composition of the core team. When deciding on a project investment, the first thing is to understand the company's shareholding structure, the team's contractual spirit, and the industry focus of the business. This is a strong foundation of the enterprise, investors most value these aspects, if you can not meet the above conditions, then the growth space of the enterprise will soon touch the industry ceiling.
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