He once studied at a top university in China, and after failing to start a business, he took up a heavy burden to repay the debt after the failure of entrepreneurship. Founding an electric car brand, putting aside the ambition to say that one day it will surpass Tesla.
Behind him, there are even many corporate bigwigs to escort him. What kind of entrepreneurial experience does he have aspiring to create a world in the automotive industry?
Tell the story of the original business founder and spread the top business wisdom. This issue of Founder Observation will lead everyone to know and introduce the story of Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile.
In 1991, a 17-year-old boy in Taihu County, Anhui Province, made the decision to change his life, and he wanted to take the college entrance examination. The boy's name was Li Bin.
College entrance examination
Although he wasted a lot of time in the three years of high school, But Li Bin did not care, he did not review day and night, in the last year of the third year of high school, he finally got his wish, was admitted to the Taihu County Liberal Arts College Entrance Examination, and successfully entered Peking University.
The college entrance examination completed Li Bin's transformation. After entering Peking University, he did not waste time, but continued to move forward and make his life full.
During college, he worked hard to the point of near-madness, and for a time he even took 17 exams a week. It was this effort that allowed Li Bin to get three degrees in four years of college.
Business management
In 1996, he started his own business, Antarctic Technology Development Corporation. In 1998, he had new ideas for companies like ebay.
Inspired by ebay's use of common interests to attract interested users, Li Bin invested most of his savings in 2000 and established an e-commerce company with a brother he met during college.
Although the penetration rate of cars was relatively low at that time, and families had not yet really entered China, Li Bin was convinced that it would become an indispensable means of transportation in the future.
Li Bin, he is not only the chairman of Weilai Automobile, but also the chairman of two companies such as EasyCar and Mobike.
For more than a decade, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of the company, has led a series of forward-looking practices in major scientific and technological frontiers such as Internet marketing and automotive e-commerce, laying the foundation for the later creation of Weilai Automobile. It has also prompted him to become one of the important figures influencing China's automotive Internet industry.
Attach importance to corporate culture
Li Bin attaches great importance to corporate culture, and he believes that enterprises should take the fulfillment of social responsibility as the top priority.
As he served as the vice president of the China Automobile Dealers Association, he took it as his duty to promote the healthy development of the automobile industry, and during his tenure, he established a series of post-opinion systems such as the establishment of the automobile maintenance fund to feed back the automobile industry and so on, contributing to the health and sustainable development of the automobile industry.
From Li Bin's experience, it is not difficult to see that his personality has the motivation to do what he wants to do. In 2001, the state introduced policies to encourage the development of automobiles, China joined the WTO, established a joint venture, and Chinese began to have more car brand choices.
However, the Internet bubble burst at this time, and almost all Internet companies lost money, losing more than four million yuan and on the verge of bankruptcy.
What is even more surprising is that Li Bin let investors withdraw their investment at this time and bear all the losses alone.
A reporter asked Li Bin why he did this, and he said: "The difficulties are short-lived, and as long as I overcome them, I have confidence." That's two or three years.
Listed
In 2004, he made millions. In 2010, 10 years after its inception, electric vehicles were officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It is the first Chinese automotive Internet company to list overseas.
This was not an easy experience, but it was an important experience in Li Bin's life, and the tenacity in Li Bin's personality was also perfectly reflected.
Perhaps for every entrepreneur, being strong means everything. Going public in the United States is seen by others as the culmination of Li Bin's entrepreneurial success, but for him, it is only a point.
In 2014, looking at the gray skies of Beijing, Li Bin made another decision: build his own car. This is the origin of NioCar.
Cars help people break through the limitations of space, which does mean freedom and beauty, but congestion, environmental pollution and other issues, don't people get farther and farther away from the blue sky?
NIO
When Li Bin was 40 years old, he wrote a letter to himself, giving all his money to Weilai Automobile. "It's something worth your life doing," he said.
People who don't want to do business are not good sociologists! Looking at Li Bin's social network, he found an interesting relationship with Liu Qiangdong: Li Bin and Liu Qiangdong were the same age, both born in 1974, and Liu Qiangdong was only four months older than Li Bin.
Li Bin, like Liu Qiangdong, taught themselves computer science at university. And Liu Qiangdong is also one of the top five investors in Weilai Automobile, which Li Bin now founded.
According to the details disclosed by Liu Dongqiang's wife Zhang Zetian about Liu Dongqiang's investment in WEILAI Automobile, Li Bin spent 15 minutes at a dinner party held to discuss the idea of starting a business with Liu Dongqiang, and Liu Qiangdong immediately agreed after spending 10 seconds considering.
Another entrepreneurial story of investment in a short period of time. Li Bin and Li Guoqing are brothers at Peking University. Li Bin was 10 years younger than him, and in 1997 he joined Beijing Kewen Books, which was the early prototype of Dangdang, but unfortunately he only stayed for a year before leaving.
But Li Bin's Baidu Encyclopedia still has this resume at that time. And the real Dangdang founder Li Guoqing, as the eldest brother, also turned a blind eye, which is a sale of a person's affection.
What all three had in common was that they majored in sociology and all started doing business in college. Only Li Bin has better grades in school entrepreneurship than the other two, and once earned 300,000 yuan in school entrepreneurship.
According to the consumption level of the last century at that time, it was already an achievement, but unfortunately, the fate was uncertain, and Li Bin's good fortune of successful entrepreneurship in school could not continue forever.
Perhaps everyone needs a period of time to precipitate themselves, Li Bin in the sober face of their own failures after the courage to explore, the creation of Weilai Automobile, which must also learn a lot of lessons from the past.
Taking the wrong path and stepping into the pit is a problem that every entrepreneur can't escape, and if you think about it, it's really just how much tuition to pay in exchange for a lesson.
Turning "opponents" into "teammates"
Li Bin not only learned Xiaomi's thoughts on the basis of communicating with other entrepreneurs, but also learned Lei Jun's lifestyle.
Li Xiang, the founder of Autohome, has been a competitor to Li Bin for a decade, and Lei Jun, a potential electric vehicle competitor, eventually became an angel investor in NIO.
Even his own team players can become investors, which shows that Li Bin's character and ability are top-notch, and even Ma Huateng is also an investor in Weilai Automobile.
In the early years, when Mobike was sold to meituan, the news of major media was overwhelming, and Li Bin shuttled between various capitalists. This ability to live in harmony with capital is hard to come by.
Together with external investors, Li Bin has invested in more than 30 companies related to the travel and automotive industries, covering every cycle from the automotive industry to the landing.
The ecological chain of the automotive industry, which Jia Yueting failed to achieve, is now to be realized in the hands of Li Bin. Why does Li Bin get the support of so many people?
Yu Minhong of New Oriental English once commented on him: Li Bin has the determination, the will to do things well, and the ability to mobilize all resources to support him.
This may be the legacy of Li Bin's choice to carry $4 million in debt in 2000, and the sense of responsibility and integrity shown in this huge debt burden has now become his greatest recognition of trust. A loss may turn out to be a gain.
The founder of Ali once said that how many years he has been doing business, he has been questioned by others for many years. But now Ma Yun's success is obvious to everyone.
So for Li Bin, there are only two outcomes in the face of doubt: either more successful, or lose everything and start over.
Now Li Bin has the support of commercial giants such as Ma Huateng, Lei Jun and Liu Qiangdong. Li Bin is also approaching his dream step by step, making China's "Tesla" and letting the world remember Li Bin!
How do you feel after reading Li Bin's entrepreneurial deeds?
Which business founder's wealth creation story would you like to know?
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