Zhang Lei: We must have a long-term vision, and we can't just look at the temporary gains and losses in front of us

In the past few decades, there was no venture capital industry at that time, and the start-up capital needed to start a business was basically the investor's own money.

In the process of enterprise development and growth, the demand for funds will further increase. When the enterprise has developed to a certain stage, the bank may lend to the enterprise, and sometimes it may even need a certain relationship, otherwise it will have to fend for itself.

If the operation is perfected and done, the poor management of the capital chain is broken, and a body of debt is attached. Today's entrepreneurial environment has changed, and venture capital has emerged.

With the blessing of venture capital, many huge enterprises such as Alibaba, Tencent, and JD.com have been born.

Why did Didi lose nearly 40 billion yuan that year, meituan before the listing of hundreds of billions of losses did not fall, officially because of the existence of venture capital, if these money is a bank loan, may have long been suspended, and let the company apply for bankruptcy reorganization, the boss also has to borrow the bank's money.

Venture capital, in fact, is also another form of game, investing in 10 projects to lose 8, but the remaining one can earn back dozens of times if it is successful, and finally earned.

Venture capital companies with unique vision will become bigger and bigger, like Sequoia Capital Network Transmission has mastered half of China's Internet, and its founder Shen Nanpeng is also known as having a "2 trillion circle of friends", which can be said to be the benchmark of China's venture capital industry.

Coincidentally.

Hillhouse Capital is a relatively low-key investment institution with less voice to the outside world.

Behind many famous Internet companies such as Tencent, Didi, JD.com, and Meituan, hillhouse capital has invested in it, especially its first investment in Tencent in 2005 and its long-term holding of shares until now.

Zhang Lei was born in rural Henan, but was admitted to Chinese University as a provincial college entrance examination liberal arts champion, and later admitted to Yale University in the United States to pursue a master's degree.

At Yale, he studied with investment mentor David Swenson and really learned a lot of investment skills. In addition, during his studies, he began an internship at the Boston Consulting Group, and after graduation, he entered the investment fund and was responsible for investments in the South African and Southeast Asian markets. He then became NYSE's first Chief Representative for China, creating the NYSE's offices in Hong Kong and Beijing.

In 2005, Zhang Lei gave up his high salary and resolutely decided to return to China to start a business, and when he started a business to raise funds, the Yale Endowment Fund he ran by Professor Swenson himself immediately invested 20 million US dollars in him, becoming the first investor of Hillhouse Capital.

Hillhouse Capital is a company focused on long-term structural investment, from the beginning of its inception, Hillhouse Capital has followed a full-stage investment strategy, covering from angels, VCs, PE to secondary markets. From the projects it invests, it can be found that Hillhouse Capital pays attention to value investment, does not follow the trend in investment outlets, and has few and fine investment projects and large sums, and has a long holding time.

The first project invested by Hillhouse Capital was Tencent, which also made Zhang Lei famous.

Zhang Lei said in an interview: When the company was founded, 20 million US dollars of money, how to invest him made it difficult. At that time, he looked at a lot of projects, research and research to target Tencent, tencent at that time is no better than the current Tencent empire.

Why he chose Tencent is because he thinks that a company as big as Tencent has a market value of only more than a billion US dollars. At that time, no one around him used QQ, the more mainstream is MSN, and MSN is Tencent's biggest opponent, many people are not very optimistic about Tencent.

Tencent users were "three lows" at that time: low age, low education, low income, and three low users used QQ. However, Zhang Lei was deeply impressed when he later went to Yiwu's small commodity city to investigate.

At that time, when he went to the Yiwu booth to investigate other things, he found that the business card handed by each stall owner had a mobile phone number and a QQ number, and the investment office he encountered later also had a QQ number. At that time, he felt that QQ users covered China far more than they imagined.

"After doing the research, you have a belief. This belief is what I have always believed. Any business, don't ask how much money you make, don't look at today's income and profits, it doesn't make sense. First of all, look at how much value he creates for this society, for the consumers and customers he is targeting. Zhang Lei said.

With $20 million brought back from the United States, Hillhouse Capital was founded, and all the money was bought by Tencent, which was only worth $2 billion at the time, which seemed like a desperate investment method, but in exchange for more than 200 times the return.

In 2008, Zhang Lei found Luo Qiuping, the founder of Blue Moon, who said that he wanted to invest in Blue Moon, but first he wanted to become a "loss-making" company.

Zhang Lei's request seemed strange at the time, which investor wants the company he invests in to lose money?

Although Blue Moon was not the first in the industry at that time, but there were also several hundred million profits per year, why let it lose money?

Zhang Lei feels that the short-term profit of a company is not important, what is important is to look at the long-term development, increase investment, expand categories, and enhance the company's competitiveness.

Now it seems that Blue Moon has become the number one in the industry.

Zhang Lei believes that this is a strategy for enterprises to sacrifice their immediate interests in order to win long-term competitive advantages. Many times if you want to make a big cause, you need to have long-term investment and dedication in order to see the results, you must have a long-term vision, and you can't just take care of the temporary gains and losses in front of you.

In 2010, Liu Qiangdong found Zhang Lei and needed $75 million in investment, but Zhang Lei invested nearly $300 million in JD.com. Zhang Lei told Liu Qiangdong: "This business will either let me invest 300 million US dollars, or I will not invest a penny."

In the eyes of the outside world, Zhang Lei is "stupid and has a lot of money", and Jingdong's investment at that time was mainly used for heavy assets, but investors liked light assets.

Invested 300 million US dollars, Zhang Lei has calculated this account.

To give 75 million but give 300 million, not to surprise Liu Qiangdong, but Zhang Lei feels that entrepreneurs often overestimate their own capabilities and underestimate their difficulties. At that time, he calculated that he only needed 2.5 billion yuan to do the e-commerce model of Jingdong in big cities, and he told Liu Qiangdong why he spent so much money, how much money to build warehouses, how much to build logistics centers, and how much to invest in fixed assets.

"$75 million isn't enough for you to experiment with this practice." Either you accept my whole money, or I will not invest, indicating that you simply do not see the difficulties and challenges of this thing you have to do, this business itself is a business that needs to burn money, and if you don't burn enough money in the logistics and supply chain system, you will need so much money. ”

This was one of the cases with the largest single investment volume among the early Internet companies in China at that time.

Now it seems that it is Zhang Lei's persistence, focusing on independent thinking and in-depth research, that has made JD.com's self-built logistics have competitive barriers and rapidly rise in B2C e-commerce.

Successful companies and successful individuals are future-oriented, they have clear goals, they are willing to sacrifice the interests of the moment, they are willing to endure strategic losses, build long-term competitive advantages, and gain future opportunities.

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