5938 words | 5 min read
Zhang Lijuan | wen
Throw in the net | source
"Since its establishment in 2014, Mingshi Capital has perfectly 'missed' P2P, O2O, live broadcasting, sharing economy, online education and other outlets one after another, and even once was evaluated as "weird" because the projects invested were difficult to understand. Now, technology has become the direction that almost all VVs/PE are flaunting, and Mingshi Capital, which was the first to invest in subversive technology companies such as Ideal, Cloud Whale and Maverick many years ago, has finally become 'mainstream'. ”
IBM introduced the personal computer, redefined the computer, and promoted the development of the Internet. Apple's launch of the iPhone redefined the mobile phone, and it will take human society one step into the era of mobile Internet. Tesla has defined the smart car, subverted the traditional automobile industry that has been for more than a hundred years, and led the world's automobile industry into a new era.
In the past few decades, there have been too many great tech companies like IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, etc. to define the new business era.
With the rapid development of China, it has accumulated a solid industrial chain foundation and engineer dividends, and the time is gradually ripe for the generation of world-class great science and technology enterprises. China's technology entrepreneurs are also exporting products to the world, constantly competing with the best technologies and products in the world.
The ideal car was born in the midst of the two major efficiency revolutions of energy and information, defining a third space in addition to home and work space. Cloud Whale Intelligence cuts in with a sweeping robot and gradually iterates to the terminal form of artificial intelligence, redefining the emotional link between people and things. Maverick Electric has redefined urban personal mobility, led the new revolution of electric two-wheeled vehicles in the world, and has long developed into the world's most user-consumed and most popular two-wheeled intelligent electric vehicle company.
Ideal Car, Cloud Whale Intelligence, and Maverick Electric are all the definors of the new business era in the future, and behind them there is the same VC figure - Mingshi Capital. It is worth mentioning that Mingshi Capital was the first investor in these companies.
At the beginning of its establishment in 2014, It focused on the investment of technology, and avoided one "outlet" after another such as P2P, O2O, live broadcasting, sharing economy, online education, etc., and was once labeled as "weird" by the outside world.
When technology became the direction that almost all VVs/PE were flaunting, Mingshi Capital finally maintained its alignment with the mainstream, but at this time, Huang Mingming, the founding partner of Mingshi Capital, began to worry that Mingshi Capital would become not "eccentric" enough and no longer "non-mainstream".
Huang Mingming always believes that science and technology is the strongest driving force for social development and the progress of the times, and in the future, China will produce a large number of great technology companies that define the new business era. Because of belief, we must dare to insist on independent thinking and judgment under the situation that most people do not agree, find the most head entrepreneur and insist on companionship.
"When Mingshi was founded 7 years ago, we focused on science and technology, and 10 years later, 20 years later, it is still the same", Huang Mingming is still extremely firm about science and technology investment, "Now China is at the tipping point of the explosion of science and technology, and has begun to produce a number of world-class technology companies, why don't we focus on such a wide track with unlimited growth?" ”
Always dare to be the first investor who believes in the dream of entrepreneurs
Ideals, cloud whale intelligence, calves, these are really changing people's lives behind the technology enterprises, Mingshi Capital is always the first to shoot.
Today, if Mr. Huang were to choose for himself, he still felt that the meeting with Mr. Li in the spring of 2015 might have been the most important moment in his past investment career, because he was fortunate enough to participate in the creation of a great technology company.
It was at a café in Wangjing SOHO, and Li Xiang spent almost 3 hours reviewing the entrepreneurial harvest of autohome with Huang Mingming, until the last moment of the talks to Huang Mingming to say his idea - "building a car".
Hearing this, Huang Mingming was not surprised at all, and without hesitation, he immediately expressed his full support and was willing to become the first investor in Li Xiang's new entrepreneurial project. In the words of Huang Mingming, "Li xiang is the most suitable person in China to make new energy vehicles, in fact, I have been waiting for him." ”
Until then, Huang Mingming had been waiting for an opportunity to pull the trigger. His judgment is that the progress of human history has always been driven by the energy revolution and the information revolution, and new energy vehicles are exactly at the intersection of these two revolutionary processes, and this kind of storm will inevitably give birth to an unprecedented huge change. It just so happens that the end of the smart car that Li wants to depict coincides with Huang Mingming's future development trend in the energy industry and the information industry.
But in the face of such disruptive opportunities, only super entrepreneurs can truly seize and succeed. Li Xiang is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate in Huang Mingming's heart. Huang Mingming is not only an old friend who has known Li xiang for more than ten years, but also an angel investor in Autohome, and knows Li xiang very well.
This time, Li Xiang still did not disappoint Huang Mingming. Ideal Car, in the case of only one car, Ideal ONE, has been far ahead of medium and large SUV models since mass production, and has sold first for 7 consecutive months.
The latest November 2021 market data shows that the monthly sales of the ideal ONE are even higher than the sales of medium and large SUVs such as Volkswagen's Tuon, Touareg and pure electric ID.6X combined.
Sales data is the most favorable verification of product power, but also confirms the investment principles of Mingshi Capital, defining the new business era of technology companies, must need a super product manager type of entrepreneur. The "super product manager" trait is: to use user needs as the origin and chassis of all decisions.
In the sales figure of the ideal ONE, the core commonality of users is that "it can deeply match almost all the needs of the whole family". Obviously, a brand-new brand, a brand-new product, successfully experienced a series of considerations such as market competition and hot public opinion, as well as the ideal of the company's original intention to "create a mobile home, create a happy home".
Relying on a blockbuster "invincible hand all over the world" enterprises, in the Mingshi Capital's invested projects are not unique, in 2019, Cloud Whale Intelligence only relied on a "small white whale J1" to rush into the sweeping robot industry, quickly becoming a dark horse in the industry. In fact, from 2016 to 2019, the Cloud Whale team spent more than three years developing this product.
Nowadays, Yun Whale, which has just launched its second flagship product, J2, has become a favorite of capital, and Sequoia, Hillhouse, and ByteDance have all bets, but what is less known is that Mingshi Capital became the first investor of Yun Whale Intelligence as early as 2017 together with Clearwater Bay Venture Fund.
Speaking of the acquaintance of Huang Mingming and Zhang Junbin, the founder of Yun Whale, we have to mention Professor Li Zexiang of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 2014, Huang Mingming and Li Zexiang believed in the common concept of technology to serve the country, and at the invitation of Professor Li Zexiang, Huang Mingming went to the Songshan Lake Robot Industry Base to visit, and since then Songshan Lake has become a place where Huang Mingming and his colleagues often go every year.
Mingshi Capital judged at that time that with the continuous decline of the Chinese dividend, whether in the industrial scene or the home scene, the growth space of the robot industry is infinitely huge, but with the current level of technology, the era of humanoid robots is far from coming. Robot products that take just need as the starting point, and can continuously iteratively increase intelligent functions, and gradually iterate to the terminal form of artificial intelligence, are likely to successfully redefine the link relationship between people and things in home scenarios.
Under such judgment, in the autumn of 2015, Huang Mingming met Zhang Junbin, who was still a student of Professor Li Zexiang at Songshan Lake. In his exchanges with Zhang Junbin, Huang Mingming was impressed by the young man's deep belief in technology and his extreme obsession with products.
What is even more valuable is that although Zhang Junbin has not created an industry before, he also has an insight into the market beyond ordinary people. At that time, the domestic sweeping robots were all imitating the United States, but Zhang Junbin was keenly aware of the difference between most of the American families using carpets and most of the Chinese families using wooden floors, and the mopping robot was more in line with the direction of market demand.
Therefore, when other brands of sweeping robots have already been racing in the market, Mingshi Capital resolutely decided to invest in cloud whales that only had one model running SLAM at that time.
Mingshi Capital always dares to be the first investor to believe in the dream of entrepreneurs. Before meeting entrepreneurs, Huang Mingming will lead the team to independently judge the evolution direction of the industry they are focusing on, and then when a top team appears in front of them, dare to make quick decisions and invest all resources to support entrepreneurs.
The establishment of Xiaoniu Electric was personally promoted by Huang Mingming after seeing the opportunity industry.
While studying the development of new energy vehicles, Huang Mingming found that the two-wheeled electric vehicle, which is also an important means of transportation, is the way of travel of 250 million people in China, but in such a huge market, there is no easy product redefined by technology. Huang Mingming has been looking for companies in this direction in the market, but has always found nothing.
In 2014, Hu Yilin sent his smart electric vehicle business plan to Li Xiang on Weibo, and Li Wanted to read it and found it very interesting, so he directly recommended it to Huang Mingming, who has been paying attention to this field.
To this end, Hu Yilin flew directly from Shanghai to Beijing, Huang Mingming after seeing the product design, think the product design is very good, but if you really start a business, there is still a lack of a suitable CEO candidate. Maybe it is really a thought that there must be an echo, and after meeting Hu Yilin for a month or two, Huang Mingming chatted with Li Yinan and mentioned this matter, and Li Yinan immediately expressed a strong interest.
At the strong request of Li Yinan, Huang Mingming introduced Hu Yilin to him, and in the first meeting next to the bird's nest, the two hit it off and directly set up The Calf Electric. "That's where the coincidence comes in, two people happen to have a strong product mindset, they recognize each other, and they are very complementary."
In Huang Mingming's view, Li Yinan is also a very typical super product manager who can grasp the trend of science and technology, and with the strong combination of two people, Mingshi Capital invested in Maverick Electric for the first time.
The subsequent development of Maverick once again confirmed Mingshi's initial prediction of industrial development, Maverick Electric redefined urban personal travel, led a new revolution in electric two-wheeled vehicles in the world, and has developed into the world's most user-consumed and most popular two-wheeled intelligent electric vehicle company.
Believe in technology, believe in the founders
Firmly accompany the enterprise through the trough
Before the dawn of the enterprise, there will always be a long period of darkness. Sending charcoal in the snow during the trough period is more precious than the icing on the cake under the highlights.
As we all know, building a car is an extremely expensive thing, but before the ideal car is listed, the road to financing is extremely bumpy. But Mingshi Capital not only continued to raise bets in each round of financing, Huang Mingming also accompanied Li Xiang to "find money" everywhere.
However, Li wants to take the technical route of zengcheng and the insistence of building his own factory, which makes it difficult for many investors to understand, and financing hits a wall everywhere. In the early days, Huang Mingming pulled Li to see almost all the VC and PE institutions in the head, and most of the food was closed doors.
Huang Mingming's insistence on Li Xiang has always been deeply identified, and at the same time, he has to resist external doubts. "At the beginning, mingshi capital's AUM was not very large, and the proportion of funds bet on the ideal car was very large, and we spent a lot of time responding to questions from outside investors and the market."
"There has never been a mutual talk of stress during this period. But I know that what I have to do at this time is to believe and accompany, to bear the pressure and great uncertainty that is not recognized by the mainstream market together, and to get through difficult times. “
After 2019, this depression finally dissipated. The successive investments of Meituan and Byte have greatly alleviated the ideal capital problem, and the LPs of Mingshi Capital have called Huang Mingming and asked, "Why have the best entrepreneurs in China chosen the ideal?" “
On the other hand, the production model Ideal ONE was exhibited at the 2019 Auto Show. Huang Mingming personally went to the auto show to visit and sent a circle of friends to say that "the ultimate product can always win the hearts and minds of users.". Li Xiang, who rarely replies to the circle of friends, quickly replied to Huang Mingming: "After reading it, I am steadfast in my heart, right?" You were suppressed for four years, just like us, and we hit back with products and sales. ”
Excellent companies ultimately have to respond to various questions with products and sales.
Li wants to be an entrepreneurial veteran, the road to entrepreneurship is still bumpy, Zhang Junbin started a business from a student, but also to go through many difficulties. Huang Mingming and Zhang Junbin met in 2015, but after 2 years of patient waiting, Zhang Junbin decided to start a business officially, and Huang Mingming expressed his willingness to invest and support for the first time.
Since then, it has been more than three years of companionship, and finally witnessed the birth of the first product of Cloud Whale Intelligence, Little White Whale J1. It should be known that during this period, in addition to old shareholders such as Mingshi Capital, Cloud Whale Intelligence has been in a low-key dormant period, and there is little mainstream market VC attention.
The repeated postponement of Yun Whale products is inseparable from Zhang Junbin's serious "product cleanliness". Zhang Junbin once because one of the product solutions of the circular mop will produce a gap in the middle of the mop, and pushed back to change to a triangular mop, such a small change not only made the product listing "delayed" for three months, but also let the company add millions of losses in the situation of financial difficulties. In this process, Mingshi Capital has always been firmly optimistic about this team, and has since made additional investments in the company.
Compared to the ideal car and cloud whale smart, Maverick Electric seems to have a perfect start. The first crowdfunding amount exceeded the original target of 5 million yuan in 5 minutes, and the fundraising amount exceeded 10 million in 13 minutes, breaking the historical record of Jingdong crowdfunding in less than 4 hours.
The development of a great enterprise can never be smooth. On June 3, 2015, only 2 days after the first press conference, Maverick Electric suddenly encountered a well-known change, and investors who had rushed to give money before suddenly changed their faces and even wanted to withdraw.
At this time, Huang Mingming and the founding team of Maverick quickly set up a "Maverick Electric Working Group", which met every day to deal with a thousand and one things: product details, sales channels, suppliers, and even packaging boxes, wrapping paper, etc. More importantly, Huang Mingming persuaded Li Yan to join the Mavericks and put him in charge of the Mavericks operations, which stabilized the situation.
From the ideal car to the Maverick electric, and then to the cloud whale intelligence, Mingshi Capital still insists on accompanying and continuously refueling in their trough period and even crisis moments, firmly believing in the huge opportunities brought by technological change, and Mingshi Capital chooses the entrepreneurs who are most likely to seize this opportunity. Once the choice is made, it will definitely fulfill the promise of "long-term and firm escort of technology entrepreneurs".
Focus on technology and look for opportunities for unlimited growth
It is precisely because of the privilege of accompanying the startups of many invested projects that Huang Mingming deeply realized that all the leaders who redefined an industry were lonely and unrecognized in the early days. From the ideal car, the maverick electric, to the cloud whale robot is no exception.
Still taking the ideal as an example, the first thing Li wanted to say to Huang Mingming was to build his own production line, and Huang Mingming immediately expressed his support. But after this sentence dissuaded many investors, the underlying logic behind Li Xiang is to give users a sense of security, only the car made by their own production line, they can sit on it enough to be assured. Therefore, even if investors are worried about the pressure of self-built production lines on an entrepreneurial team, Li Xiang has his own persistence.
Because of the profit-seeking nature of capital, because of the fear of the unknown, because of the anxiety of becoming a minority, so most people are crowded, in order to become an investment institution that can invest in these great enterprises, Mingshi Capital must become the same kind of entrepreneurs, to do Think Different, and have the courage to Be Different.
Huang Mingming jokingly said, "Since its establishment in 2014, Mingshi Capital has perfectly 'missed' P2P, O2O, live broadcasting, sharing economy, online education and other outlets one after another, and even once evaluated as "weird" because the projects invested were difficult to understand. Now, technology has become the direction that almost all VCs/PE are flaunting, and Mingshi Capital has finally become 'mainstream'. ”
Since its establishment seven years ago, Mingshi Capital has always adhered to the judgment of the beginning of its establishment, the world is in an era of great change driven by science and technology, and the scientific and technological innovation industry has unlimited potential for growth. Traditional companies that double their profits in 5 years are already very healthy and high-quality companies; but in the field of technology, Amazon's revenue has increased by 2500 times from 1997 to the present; Tesla's market value from $1.6 billion today has exceeded trillions, and there is still room for growth hundreds of times.
At the same time, after decades of development, China has laid a solid industrial chain foundation, and there is also a huge engineer dividend, and China has reached the time when it can produce world-class scientific and technological products. China's technology entrepreneurs are also exporting high-quality technology products to the world, and are constantly competing in the global market with the best technologies and products.
"We've never invested in technology as a vent, we've been investing 7 years ago, and we're still doing it 10 or 20 years later." Now that China is at the tipping point of the explosion of technology and is starting to produce a group of world-class companies, why don't we focus on such a track with unlimited growth potential. ”
Huang Mingming said, "We hope to be the first to see and believe in the dream of the founder, and support him, if the judgment determines that the future is a technology company that can define the new business era, we will firmly support it as a partner and do our best to provide it with the help and resources needed at different stages." ”
Of the many funds managed by Mingshi Capital, almost all of the invested projects are technology companies. Because Huang Mingming believes that the top entrepreneurs will only gather in the super track driven by scientific and technological innovation and with unlimited growth opportunities.
For example, while investing in Cloud Whale, Mingshi Capital has also made an advance layout on the key nodes of robots: realizing the huge space of logistics robots, investing in Juxing Robots; focusing on robots in the medical field, investing in Magnesia robots; investing in Liqun automation when paying attention to industrial robots earlier. This is all because of the firm belief that in China, there will be some excellent robot companies in many sub-scenarios, and these companies have unlimited growth potential.
Huang Mingming hopes that Mingshi Capital will dare to adhere to its own independent thinking and judgment under the circumstance that most people do not agree, and maintain sufficient sensitivity to the future development of science and technology. To this end, Huang Mingming urged the investment team to run to the front line of the industry, to communicate with the entrepreneurs in the front line of the industry, and to continuously obtain the most cutting-edge and leading cognition of the subdivision industry.
Huang Mingming said that within Mingshi Capital, a very bold judgment and innovative idea, even if it may be wrong, will receive enough attention and praise; but if it is just some correct nonsense, such as how the mainstream of the market looks at it, how other institutions invest, it will have no value.
"If we lose our independent thinking, we will be lost to everyone. In this way, even if the founder of a great company comes to us, we may not be able to stay with us until the end. Maybe we can be a good investment institution, but it is completely contrary to the original intention of finding great technology companies that will redefine this business era. From this point of view, I hope that Mingshi can always maintain enough 'non-consensus', enough 'weird'. ”
Dr. Wang's 2021 book has been listed
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