Introduction: 19-year-old Chinese-American mixed-race Gu Ailing won his first Winter Olympic gold medal on behalf of the Chinese team, which exploded in China. Gu Yan, the mother who has been accompanying and educating her growing up, is undoubtedly the most important role in her life.
About Gu Yan, the outside world knows not much information, only that she is a high-achieving student who graduated from Peking University, and then studied in the United States and gave birth to Gu Ailing, in addition to no more information.
But we found a report by China Science and Technology Information magazine titled "From Wall Street to China: Gu Yan and Her Venture Capital Career" published in the 10th issue of China Science and Technology Information magazine in 1998. This report revealed more personal information about Gu Yan.
Founded in October 1989, China Science and Technology Information is a national-level semi-monthly semi-monthly magazine of science and technology comprehensive science and technology under the supervision of the China Association for Science and Technology and sponsored by the China Science and Technology News Society.
The story tells the story of Ms. Gu's return from Wall Street to China as a young woman, and of course covers a lot of information about her study abroad and work, such as her work at Lehman Brothers and the operation of a $200 million loan for China. In 1997, Beijing Oriental Weibo International Information Technology Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 8 million US dollars, was established, and Gu Yan's identity was the chairman. Obviously, Gu Yan was by no means an ordinary person, but no one could have known at the time that she would also give birth to such an outstanding daughter, and at the age of 19, she became a national idol in China.
On March 17, 1998, we came to Beijing Oriental Weibo International Information Technology Co., Ltd. for an interview.
Although Oriental Weibo International Information Technology Co., Ltd. was just established in August last year, it has a good reputation in Beijing because it is the first information technology company in China to introduce a US venture capital mechanism. It is a young and ambitious high-tech company with a total investment of $8 million, and their goal is to quickly become Asia's leading information technology company.
Here, we feel the breath of the new era coming at us, and a generation of young Chinese scholars studying in the United States have returned to the motherland with advanced Western ideas, technology, finance, and management experience, rooted in the excellent cultural soil of the Chinese nation, and when the era of knowledge economy comes, the integration of science and technology, economy, and culture between China and the West for the last time in the century will lay the foundation for the Chinese nation's take-off in the 21 st century.
Ms. Gu Yan, general manager of American Science and Technology Investment Co., Ltd. and chairman of Beijing Oriental Weibo International Information Technology Co., Ltd., is such an excellent Chinese scholar. She not only introduced foreign funds, but also mobilized outstanding electronic information technology talents in the United States to return to China and founded Beijing Oriental Weibo International Information Technology Co., Ltd. to jointly realize the dream of China's Silicon Valley.
The American system created Silicon Valley
"Never doubt that a small group of visionary and dedicated people can change the world. Because the world is changed by such people. ”
This maxim, entitled "Team Spirit", was engraved on a bronze plaque and hung on the wall of the oriental expo guest room.
General Manager Gu Yan told us that this maxim comes from Silicon Valley in the United States, where a group of the most talented people are gathered, who are young, pioneering and dedicated. It is in the midst of the causes they have dedicated themselves to.
Gu Yan looks very young, but has many years of study and work experience in the United States, and her speech reveals competence and perseverance.
She was a senior student at Peking University, a famous biologist, and one of the experts in synthetic bovine insulin, a closed disciple of Professor Shen Tong; she went to the United States at the age of 22 to study, received a full scholarship from Auburn University, with a master's degree in biology; she was the director of the biogenetics laboratory at Rockefeller University School of Medicine; and later studied at Stanford University in the United States and obtained a master's degree in business administration (MBA). A man who had the hope of making outstanding achievements in the field of biology ultimately chose venture capital, a challenging career.
When it comes to venture capital and Silicon Valley, Gu Yan seems very excited. She said: Venture capital is particularly popular in the United States. Venture capital values people and knowledge, because it means wealth. As a result, more and more thoughtful people come to Silicon Valley to start a business, and more and more rich people come to Silicon Valley to find ideas. Venture capitalists call themselves angels, giving people with ideals wings for the possibility of realizing their dreams.
Gu Yan believes that the secret of Silicon Valley's success is intangible assets. Many good people give up their considerable income and prefer to post money to Silicon Valley to find opportunities, and it is they who form the technological wealth of Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists invest not only money but also intelligence in Silicon Valley, which requires them to have professional knowledge and risk grasping ability, a spirit of co-entrepreneurship and experience in business management. Venture capital is a pure scientific investment, you must understand the technology, look at the market.
"In the United States, the stock market gives great support to venture capital because although technology products have high returns, they have a long development cycle," Gu said. We once invested in a new drug to treat cancer, and although there was no profit for 7 years, the stock was still rising. The reason is that people see the prospect that once this drug enters the market, it will have a profit of more than a billion yuan per year. This is another secret to Silicon Valley's success, acknowledging the value of knowledge and investing in high-tech for the whole people.
One might be confused: Why is Silicon Valley only available in the United States?
In this regard, Ms. Gu Yan pointed out: First of all, excellent talents and advanced technologies have laid the foundation for Silicon Valley; at the same time, the government's policy inclination, the perfection of the legal system, and the authority of the monitoring system have created good living conditions for Silicon Valley; the emergence of financial investment and the emergence of a new concept of debt listing has promoted the vigorous development of Silicon Valley. All this has attracted more talents and more advanced technology into Silicon Valley, forming a virtuous circle of continuous innovation and proliferation of technology and capital. This is the advanced venture capital mechanism of the United States, and it is the American system that has created Silicon Valley.
From Wall Street to Beijing
Wall Street in the United States is the financial heart of the world, where the world's most powerful financial giants are gathered. The towering skyscrapers are like huge financial machines manipulating the world economy and showing its prominence. It was here that Gu Yan made her first test and established her own life coordinates with impressive results.
In the introduction of American Technology Investment Co., Ltd., we see this introduction about Gu Yan:
"As a professional who worked at Lehman Brothers Investments, Ms. Gu has handled hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions, including ipos, mergers and loans. In the Dollar Debt Derivatives Division of Bankers Investments, she successfully conducted a $1.3 billion transaction. The Wall Street Journal also made a special report on this..."
Speaking of her success, Gu Yan said that thanks to the training of her biology major, she has a scientific vision and mastered scientific methods. The choice to give up the biology major and devote herself to a career in finance is related to her beliefs in life.
She had a belief in middle school: "Because of her existence, the world is a little better." After arriving in the United States, she wanted to use what she had learned to make China a little better. ”
She believes that engaging in political, financial and legal professions has a greater direct impact on the country than engaging in basic science. So she chose Stanford, a world-renowned business administration institution in San Francisco near Silicon Valley, to pursue one of the most expensive degrees at her own expense, the Master of Business Administration.
At that time, many people did not understand her choice, and they gave up science for her: Why did she spend money to fight American culture with The Americans?
Gu Yan wants to go his own way. At Stanford, she said, I studied with the best people in the world, where I saw the sky out there and learned how the best people in the world think. When I graduated, I became the most job-gotten student in my class, with 12 financial institutions ready to hire me. When the author asked about the reasons, she said that this is because: 1. China has really gained status and has become a really powerful country. 2. Personal determination and will.
A wall Street boss once said of Gu Yan: You have a patriotic heart, determination and clear goals, you will definitely achieve a career.
It is worth mentioning that in 1993, when Gu Yan worked for the most famous Lehman Brothers on Wall Street, he successfully operated a $200 million loan for China. Gu Yan said that this is a particularly meaningful thing, setting a precedent for the Chinese financial community to successfully conduct commercial loans on Wall Street in the United States.
Since then, Gu Yan has begun to pay attention to the development of financial investment in China and has invested great enthusiasm in it. American Technology Investment Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994 by Mr. Evans Fleck, a well-known venture capital expert in the United States, in 1994 under the initiative of Gu Yan.
The company clearly announced that the United States Science and Technology Investment Co., Ltd. in China is not only a simple investment in high-tech industry projects, but also strives to introduce the advanced technology and management of successful foreign enterprises into China and contribute to the development of China's national high-tech industry.
Gu Yan said that in the United States, people have a lot of money in their hands and are struggling to find good investment projects. The goal of the American science and technology investment company is to bring foreign capital and technology into China. Many U.S. bosses have unsuccessfully invested in China, saying they can't make money in China. I said no, it's the bureaucracy of big American companies, because they don't understand or adapt to Chinese culture.
We must realistically combine the best things in the world, Eastern culture and Western culture, and create a brilliant world of venture capital in China.
A career of a thousand
Gu Yan said: China has created its own history and also created the history of the world.
She told us that last year she attended the Asian Venture Capital Seminar as the sole representative of China. At the conference, she heard for the first time that economic experts at three of the world's largest banks said that China would bring the region's economy forward. She was proud of this, and she said excitedly: "There is particularly hope for China to go global."
When I asked what was the hardest part of doing venture capital in China, her answer was both crisp and surprising: yes people!
Speaking of this, Gu Yan said with deep feelings, I recruited employees in Beijing, and only one out of a thousand people was selected. Engaging in venture capital has high requirements on the quality of people, which involves the elements of venture capital itself:
1. The professional quality of people should be good. It is necessary to have scientific and technological knowledge, management ability and financial operation experience. In the United States, the richest are people in their thirties and forties, and this generation has used other people's money and knowledge, so it has achieved great success.
2. Have good management. Only with good people can there be good management mechanisms.
3. Whether the value of intangible assets is recognized is key. High technology has no fixed assets, no collateral, and must be supported by financial means, and it is not enough to rely on state support alone. Because the demand for high technology is great, it is necessary to establish a system of universal support.
4. It is necessary to establish an effective financial monitoring system.
5. The legal system should be sound.
In short, if the technology is good, the people are good, the management is transparent, and the law is reliable, venture capital will be successful.
For venture capital, Gu Yan has her own unique understanding, she believes that venture capital should be called venture capital in essence. In the process of investment, we must reduce the risk of entrepreneurship to a minimum.
She sincerely hopes that people with lofty ideals at home and abroad will come to Oriental Weibo to create China's "Silicon Valley".
"The best way to predict the future is to create the future". She is taking solid steps, step by step towards her goal. Like venture capital, Gu Yan's road is brilliant and full of risks, but we believe that Gu Yan's dream of high-tech venture capital will come true in China.
(Phoenix Network)