36Kr Interview with Zeng Dejun, founder of Elvis Presley Audio |: I love designing audio more than making missiles

Text | Wei Wen

Edit | Peng Xiaoqiu

Why can a Shenzhen company that makes audio get investment from JD.com and Headlines at the same time?

Behind it, in addition to Elvis Presley's fire out of the circle with several explosive models, it is also related to its founder Zeng Dejun. Zeng Dejun once won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, drummed rocket missiles in the Second Artillery Corps (the predecessor of the Rocket Force), and taught missile control systems at universities. Elvis Presley is already its sixth venture.

In this business that revolves around music and the nature of human nature, what is the DNA of Elvis Presley Audio? How to give this brand more vitality? Recently, 36Kr made an in-depth interview with Zeng Dejun, the founder of "Elvis Presley Audio".

In his view, "people's demand for music is unchanged, and people connecting music through speaker devices is unchanged." ”

After all, there is no one in this world who does not listen to music.

People meet each other for the first time, the British ask how the weather is, and the literary youth asks what songs they like to listen to. The song list is the most hidden corner of the soul of urban people. Classical, pop, jazz and even hip-hop music that extends from jazz... As a medium for transmitting music, stereos, headphones, and even mobile phones are "middlemen."

People's ears are getting sharper and sharper, and so is aesthetics. "Elvis Presley Audio" can be said to be the representative of "new domestic goods", a circle product of the audio circle, which has won a number of internationally renowned awards such as the Red Dot Award and the CES Innovation Award. After the explosion, Elvis Presley Audio experienced a two-year period of silence, 36Kr noticed that in recent times, Elvis Audio has regrouped and frequently produced new products.

So, what are the highlights and features of the new products? Since what Elvis Presley does is that everything revolves around music, it is still necessary to investigate its essence.

Zeng Dejun kept walking

Zeng Dejun is 66 years old this year, still obsessed with tinkering with speakers, and has not stopped in the slightest.

Judging from the recent elvis launch series of Elvis presley,the image of speaker products ranges from Elvis Presley's classic model, the Mate series focusing on quality and sound quality, to the technology trend playing XOG, and then to the CoCo music handbag. From projectors to watches and headphones, around product innovation, Elvis Presley and Zeng Dejun did not stop there.

Elvis Presley Incubation Technology Brand "XOG"

Unlike Ye Gonghaolong, Zeng Dejun really likes music and sound. In the conference room of Elvis Presley Audio's Shenzhen headquarters, from the ground to the desktop to the cabinet on the wall, there are a variety of audio products designed by Zeng Dejun, from the earliest radio designed in 2004 to the latest Internet speakers. When talking about XOG products, Zeng Dejun walked into the back room warehouse and took out several iteration products to show 36Kr.

After Zeng Dejun researched the outdoor military-style "wild mini" product, the team thought of adding a cool breathing light strip, and then added the fingertip gyro play, which is the final XOG product. When the user gets the speaker product, download the "OhPlay Elvis Presley Magic Broadcast App", you can also achieve "open the favorite music", 24-hour Elvis Presley selected radio stations waiting for on-demand. Combining hardware and software, Elvis Presley's technology won the 2017 CES Innovation Award.

In 2015, at the beginning of Elvis Presley's founding, Zeng Dejun wanted to understand what he could and could not do according to Elvis Presley's characteristics. Therefore, in the wave of entrepreneurship, although Elvis presley was the earliest team in China to invest in smart speaker research, it did not participate in the fight of smart speakers. Zeng Dejun explained that smart speakers are the logic of LOT (Internet of Things) and need to be supported by an ecological chain, when many startups invested money in research and development and foundries, and burned them all.

This kind of judgment and preference is inseparable from Zeng Dejun's characteristics, innovation, openness and meticulousness. If it is explained in metaphysics, it is also inseparable from Leo the Sun and the ascending Virgo, and Zeng Dejun claims that he is not a person who "wants, wants, wants, and wants again".

The choice of desperate gamble reflects personal boldness. In 2003, Zeng Dejun threw off the iron rice bowl of the army, chose to be demobilized, and came to Shenzhen with 400,000 subsidies. With 200,000 yuan to buy a house in Shenzhen, the remaining 200,000 to start his first company, Shenzhen Jidian Technology, the radio R601 designed at that time, was the predecessor of the later explosive Elvis Presley Little Prince.

Elvis Presley 1&2

In the financing process, Elvis presley chose "transparent" and "open" investors. From 2015 to 2019, Elvis has completed several rounds of financing, and investors include JD Group, Hushan Capital, Tianqi Amoeba, ByteDance, Haitong Capital and many other well-known investment institutions.

A startup is moving forward, but if it doesn't progress, it's going backwards. Zeng Dejun admitted that Elvis Presley Audio has come all the way, naturally there are regrets, in the epidemic, Elvis has not had outstanding performance. What Zeng Dejun needs to solve is the problem of team genes, organizational ability, and sustainable growth. In 2020, after major changes in the external environment, Elvis Began to rectify the internal structure of the enterprise, "We believe that the Huawei system is more suitable for us, all are hardware and software companies, and the Huawei system has three foundations, based on business logic, based on human nature, and based on biological evolution." Enterprises with such systems and genes can keep pace with the times. ”

Everything revolves around sound

People's demand for music is unchanged, and people connecting music through speaker devices is unchanged. Elvis's responsibility is to create an emotional link between people and hardware and content, and to make the speaker into something that users are willing to use, and there will naturally be innovation in thinking.

Indeed, human nature is greedy, and the pursuit of beauty, cost-effectiveness, more content, and the need to meet individuality are unchanged. Elvis Presley sets the strategic direction of "humanities + technology" on the basis of unchanged. "Our products sell more temperature, emotion and emotion than others, which is a tone and basic color of Elvis Presley. The connection that works for you, the connection that works better, the connection that understands you better. ”

Zeng Dejun grasped this point, Andrea's products are aimed at different groups of people, that is, retro style, military style, and small fragrance style. Elvis Mini Music Pouch is a finger bag that Zeng Dejun saw a few years ago that was once popular, and thought that it would be better to give the handbag sound and recording functions. This mini music pouch works with illustrator Jacob Bunt, and the small speaker also has a recording function to store emotions.

Mini music pouch products

In the brand strategic positioning of "technology + humanities", technology is an important moat for Elvis Presley. Zeng Dejun has won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, drummed rocket missiles in the second artillery, taught missile control systems in universities, and is also known as the "father of China's bile machine", making the first commercial Hi-Fi bile machine (electron tube audio amplifier) in China. These qualities also give "Elvis Presley Sound". He said that Elvis Presley's continuous application for patents and industry standards since its inception are the basis for Elvis Presley Audio's continuous innovation.

Zeng Dejun is the leader of the national intelligent audio standards development team, and Elvis presley invests millions of yuan in intellectual property rights and tens of millions of yuan in core technologies every year. Up to now, Elvis Presley has won 8 CES Innovation Awards, German iF Awards, Good Design Product Awards and Chinese Design Red Star Awards.

From the perspective of the entrepreneurial stage, Elvis Presley has been in an adjustment period in the past two years. Zeng Dejun believes that the adjustment period of Elvis Presley Audio is coming to an end, just like this epidemic, the clouds are dissipated and returned to the normal growth track.

Zeng Dejun said that as a "created in China", Elvis Presley has not yet shown real strength, and Elvis Presley's goal is to be a domestic audio boutique brand. "The original Elvis had a beautiful skin bag, and in the future, after technology gave Elvis presley products more emotional experiences, Elvis had an interesting soul."