Dialogue with Zhang Ying: Jingwei is a much better institution than 10 years ago

Here's the thing: Zhang Ying said a few kind words as soon as she came up, to the effect that she wanted to attribute Jingwei's achievements to the economic take-off and scientific and technological development, and if you want to attribute it again, it is team effort. Do you have to calculate personal factors? Okay, less than 20%.

Modesty is not unusual, the situation is stronger than people, and many people's ego is being collected. What is special about Zhang Ying is that he does not deny the meaning of positive action, he still believes in human rationality, and he doesn't care about the words of "grass platform team", he even believes that compared with the surging years, investment now needs more science and rationality, more rigorous processes, and more determination.

In fact, he is cautious in his view of the macro picture. The international situation is not slowing down, and capital markets are becoming more challenging for Chinese companies – and this will be the norm. A lot of irreversible choices have already begun, and some doors are quietly locked. But in addition to waiting for the wind to come, an active actor can always create something. For example, to raise money to make the bullets for the winter as sufficient as possible, for example, to change the investment philosophy and strategy to make it more in line with the current China.

With such an attitude at the helm, it is impossible for Jingwei to lie flat. What we hear from our peers is still the evaluation of how "volume" the warp and weft are.

The following may be Zhang Ying's proudest achievements:

The entire team of Jingwei has completed the cognitive switch from mobile Internet to technology, and intensively iterated and optimized the strategy.

What seems to be a consensus everywhere is that technology investment is still a garden with divergent paths. Jingwei's strategy is to seek the ultimate return on the basis of the winning rate - reduce the number of investments, and at the same time increase the absolute amount of investment in a project. Is this path dependence? Zhang Ying said that if you believe that the valuation space will improve in the future, it is still possible to find the next ideal, the next Xiaopeng.

On the eve of the "18th China Investment Annual Conference and Annual Summit" hosted by ChinaVentures and ChinaVentures, ChinaVentures had a wonderful dialogue with Zhang Ying, the founding managing partner of Matrix Partners.

"Going to sea is a very serious matter"

ChinaVentures: Let's start with investing in China. Now the popularity of overseas investment and entrepreneurship is very high, but you have emphasized that "Jingwei should invest every penny in China" a few years ago, and you have not changed your words, do you still see it this way today?

Zhang Ying: Yes, that's how I see it. There are some congenital conditions in this, and today with the allocation of Jingwei's team, our funds, our cognition, and our opportunities for the future extension of the Chinese market, it is the only choice for us.

At the same time, I chatted with a few entrepreneur friends a few days ago, and I have such a point of view, which I will expand here a little bit for you to better understand: the big industry in China in the past/ In a large field, if the group of people (entrepreneurs or executives) who have reached a certain height and business achievements decide to bring capital and lead a team, in another country, to a certain extent, they will break away from the direct dependence and relationship with China, extend their past business or start a new business, and then surpass the height they have reached in China's past field, and the possibility of surpassing themselves is 0.

We have made very rigorous assumptions about this topic.

Mind you, it's not that someone else can't do well and can't get results, I'm just saying that it's hard for him to surpass himself again in another country.

ChinaPitch: The conclusion is absolute.

Zhang Ying: Of course, there are conditions first, and these conditions are rigorous, and they are not a one-shot overturn of a whole ship. Some entrepreneurs have to do something relatively small and maybe don't have to think about going public in the end, for example, he used to have 2-3 very successful restaurants in China, and now he wants to go abroad and replicate them, and I am not surprised at all. But if you are the core founder, assuming that your goal is to make the company large-scale (such as a company with a valuation of at least 10 billion yuan) and the goal is to go public, then it is impossible for you to take the team to another country and surpass yourself again in the subdivided field.

ChinaPitch: Can you give an example?

Zhang Ying: Don't talk about others, take me as an example. China's economic take-off and science and technology take-off allowed me to grasp the perfect starting point, and began to do it in the investment field, and got today's investment results, wealth accumulation and a certain industry status. Among them, 70% is due to the general trend, and 30% is team + individual. Xu Chuanchen and I happen to complement each other and match each other, without him there would be no Jingwei today, as well as our core team, Wang Huadong, Wan Haoji, Zuo Lingye, Xiao Min, etc., plus a group of very young colleagues. How much more can I have personally? I don't think it's even 15 percent.

If I had taken enough money and five or six of the best people on my team to go to the U.S. today to do local venture capital — the biggest market — I think my performance would be a mess.

I'll tell you what the core reason is: the Chinese face, and its small network of connections. Even if I can speak English better than most people, I can't enter the core entrepreneurial circle in the United States. It's an extremely closed circle, and you just can't touch really good projects, and even if you can, it's hard for you to convince others. Even if it happens that there are Chinese co-creators and Chinese, he can have a better understanding of our value and how to behave, but the final amount will not be suitable for institutional investment. To put it simply, it means that you can't get the best quality and top projects in that country, so as to lead to such an investment, there will be no good returns, and it is not meaningful at all.

Again, I'm talking about myself, not to anyone. Based on this relatively rigorous premise and logical framework, if you want to discuss with me, argue with me, and convince me that these logics, judgments, and underlying thinking are wrong, I am very welcome.

China Investment: Very sincerely, I understand the reasons why I am not optimistic about overseas investment, but what about enterprises going overseas?

Zhang Ying: I think every company should spend energy to think about going overseas.

In the past 1-2 years, I have researched many countries, including the United States and Europe, and I have driven from San Francisco to New York in the United States, meeting a large number of companies along the way. I drove to Europe, ran a big circle in Germany and the surrounding areas, and exchanged quite a few companies and founders. There are many other places, so I won't go into details. In this kind of practical scenario, a framework thinking is summarized.

I define it as, 1+4 to go to sea.

Among them, this 1 is that you have to compete in your own big field to the top through the ultimate competition, at least the top 1-2. All your overseas behavior is to fully rely on China's ecology and supply chain, based on China, the company has a good state and vitality under the premise of making overseas moves, embracing the international market, rather than taking going overseas as a helpless move.

As for 4, it is necessary to meet the following four points overseas:

First, you must do a branded business. Foreigners only recognize themselves and recognize the high-quality brands inside;

Second, there is strategic determination. We must have long-term investment, long-term loss, long-term persistence, and the determination and patience to become better in the future;

The third is to have end-to-end superiority, without any visual short-term version. If there are more than a dozen boards in a barrel, even if the long board is very long, the short board should not be too short;

Fourth, it is necessary to have the ability to deal with people from different cultural systems. For the humanities of different countries, as well as the organization and management overseas, there is a good ability to adapt and adapt.

ChinaVenture: You suggest that entrepreneurs refer to this set of standards, put them on their bodies, and see if they are suitable before deciding.

Zhang Ying: Yes. Going to sea is a very serious matter, which requires a long period of thinking, iteration, and collision. You must have the ability to meet these points, and at the same time, the revenue foundation is thick enough, and then consider going overseas. Don't go to sea blindly, before you think about many things, otherwise you may become, transform into a strange country, and accelerate the state of loss.

ChinaVentures: Ask a macro question. As we enter 2024, has change begun to slow down, and is it time to make some judgments about the future?

Zhang Ying: My answer is divided into two parts.

First, I don't think the international situation has slowed down, and the capital markets, at least for Chinese companies, have changed more dramatically. The changes driven by AI in every field are also accelerating, and I don't think the change is slowing down, but it is happening in more dimensions.

Second, whether change slows down or accelerates, there will be a long time in the future that will make venture capital more difficult. "Difficulty" also brings "dangerous" opportunities, and the strong look at the crisis is the "opportunity" in the "crisis", so the core method is to turn yourself into a strong person. "Self-improvement is ten thousand strong" is a topic that I often communicate with the CEO of the Jingwei Department and the hundreds of millions of entrepreneurship camp students, and this slogan has been around for 10 years, right?

ChinaTou.com: It's been a long time.

Zhang Ying: That's right. Going back 10 years, around 2014, right? That was the golden time of the mobile Internet, and comparing the self-improvement at that time with the current self-improvement and the current self-improvement, it can reflect a lot. The work, execution, and methodology are all different, but the bottom remains the same, and this sentence will never fade.

Whether the change is slowing down or intensifying, we need to be self-reliant and make ourselves better. Think clearly about the direction of focus, shrink the front, give full play to what I am good at, and use medium and long-term results to tell everyone that my persistence is right or wrong. Of course, I think that if we persist, the results in the medium and long term will not be bad, because we have entered an era in which good money drives out bad money.

ChinaVentures: Regarding good and bad currencies, the last time I wrote an article saying that it was a matter of position and perspective.

Zhang Ying: That's right, it's a matter of perspective. My perspective is good money, waiting for the bad money to be cleared, when there will not be so many bubbles in the market, high-quality companies are easier to judge, and the probability of our investment will also increase. Of course, it is a fact that industrial capital and state-owned assets are grabbing quotas, but we can enter early, accompany us for a longer time, be the founder's military advisor, be patient than others in a very complex background, and accept a higher failure rate, which are all advantages.

China Investment: When it's very smooth, I don't think about who I am, and the worse the market, the more you have to recognize yourself. "Be sober, be yourself without compromise, without conformity, without giving up" – Ferguson says this is at the heart of leadership.

Zhang Ying: Microscopically speaking, having a clear and honest understanding of oneself is the foundation of all success and achievements, and it should be the same at the high point and at the low level.

From a macro point of view, the world pattern is so complex, and it is even more necessary to do things in a real way and eliminate the virtual. Everyone should have a clearer position, for example, do you believe that China can be better in the future? If the consideration is too simple, it is easy to become too pessimistic or optimistic, and you should think comprehensively about your birth environment, growth environment, circle of friends, workplace circle, network resources, cognition, wealth...... If you leave China, do you want to continue to run professionally, or do you choose to retire and lie down? to see the world and enjoy life?

This is a self-aware choice, and many people don't believe it. He said that Lao Tzu has money, and he can do whatever he wants anywhere. I'm sorry, you have no connections, no resources, no collisions, no fighting, you will become more and more dull, you can't find yourself, and you lose your vitality.

ChinaPitch.com: You think you've figured it out.

Zhang Ying: What I have a slight advantage over others is that I think more clearly about these issues and implement them resolutely.

First, I'm following the trend. With the take-off of China's economy and the development of science and technology, Jingwei has become what it is today, and I am full of gratitude, which is true. As soon as there is a challenge in the general environment, the grass on the wall will fall to the other side, and I can't do it;

Second, as I said earlier, I don't think anyone who has reached a certain level and then takes the team to another country and starts over can be successful.

Third, I firmly believe that people who do nothing will affect their health. Even if you decide to retire, keep your hobbies, look for the places you want to see, the people you want to know, and put your heart and soul into them.

I strongly believe in these points. Therefore, if you think clearly, you should persevere, enlarge what you are good at, narrow the front, and see the results in the future.

"Today's warp and weft capacity is at least double that of a decade ago"

ChinaVentures: Last year, it was very popular to say that the grass platform team, and many people will also use this sentence to challenge the investment industry. Can this sentence be understood as the ineffectiveness of "science" and "reason" in practice?

Zhang Ying: I think this just proves that the grass platform team has no room to survive. There was this possibility before, because the market was too prosperous and the capital was too turbulent, which led to some grass platform teams making money. There will be no such opportunity in the future.

In fact, I see the opposite. The greater test for an investment institution is how to be more scientifically oriented, formulate the process more rigorously, do the due diligence more accurately, and make the judgment of people more in place on the basis of judging the future.

ChinaVenture: So you are clearly opposed to using the grass platform team to disenchant investment.

Zhang Ying: Of course I am against it.

The "grass platform team" is more about emotional expression. Going back to investment, what I want to express is that there are peaks and valleys in any industry, and it has become difficult to make money in the primary market, but you have to understand that it is relatively difficult, not from 100 to 0. Jingwei will have 8-9 companies listed and withdrawn in 2023, not including mergers and acquisitions, which cannot be compared with historical highs, but this is also an excellent result.

My insistence on investing in China is also supported by objective factors: Jingwei has a sound organization, completed the cognitive iteration in the field of science and technology, we are still a very competitive brand, and we still have enough cash to invest for several years.

We're making investments very seriously, and somebody wants to get rid of the charm? Then I can only say: give me another 5, 10 years, and we'll see the results.

ChinaPitch: What do you mean is that the most important tools in the work of warp and weft are science and rationality.

Zhang Ying: Of course.

ChinaVentures: To what extent can it be scientific and rational?

Zhang Ying: Let me give you an example. Jingwei's project management team will collect the financial forecasts of the portfolio companies in February every year, and if it is some companies that have no revenue for the time being, they will ask for their core KPIs and the most critical 5-7 annual goals.

Review at the end of August, if there is a difference of 108,000 miles, I will kindly remind and ask to change to a more objective version. In February of the following year, on the basis of the data of the previous year, the relevant comparison was made. How much is the difference between the first version? What is the gap between the second version? If the second version is still much worse, what you tell us in the future, and what we express about our expectations of the goal, we will have a big discount internally. At the same time, it will also affect Jingwei's decision on the company's future co-investment, whether to co-invest in the future, which is the difference between green light, yellow light, and red light.

Do you think this is reasonable? Today, everyone says it is very reasonable. Why is the mobile Internet era unreasonable? Because everything is 5 times faster, a lot of people have to vote, you want financial forecasts, Lao Tzu has no time, can't write it. Do you want core KPIs? At that time, we also compromised with some companies. Now that things have calmed down, there is plenty of time to communicate with the founder. With time, things become more scientific and rigorous.

Yang Xiaolei said casually before, saying that he has been in the industry for more than ten years, and his mind has become better, but the market has deteriorated. Later, I thought that when we write articles and do research in the pitch, sometimes we do feel that when we are older, we have more knowledge and experience, but we may not be able to get better work results.

Zhang Ying: I understand. That's why I'm sitting here today, right? The challenges are greater, the difficulties are greater, and even if my overall ability improves a lot, maybe the output will be reduced, which is very normal.

I can still escort the founders, be their military advisor, and get a certain benefit and a certain sense of achievement. Isn't that what a person wants?

You have become more experienced and judgmental, and you may not have brought about a great improvement in secular indicators, but you are still producing high-quality articles and videos, and you are still influencing entrepreneurs and ecological partners in your circle. Isn't this significance diminished?

At least today I'm taking this with most of my colleagues, and you think it through, so what?

ChinaPitch.com: Got it. In fact, what I want to ask is: if you look at it in ten years, what is the longitude and latitude capacity and performance ten years ago - the golden period of mobile Internet in 2014? What is the longitude and latitude ability and performance this year?

Zhang Ying: I want to think about it.

I don't talk about comprehensive, just talk about investment ability, ten years ago 6 points, performance 6.8 points, today ability 8 points, performance from 7.5 to 8.5 points in the effort (the text is different from the video, revised by DZ himself) - there are several big projects on the market, and it has become an anchor point for us to move towards new energy, advanced manufacturing, and robots.

Or, you can reduce the ability to 4 points in 2014 and adjust the earnings performance to 6.8 - because today the ability of Jingwei has at least doubled, and I can tell you why: we have become more experienced, we have completed the cognitive switch from mobile Internet to technology, the brand is still very popular with the entrepreneurial community, and the capital is abundant - in China, among financial investors, at least the top 5.

In addition, the post-investment system is complete, from the group leader to the core of the group, no one has ever left, and there is almost no intrigue inside. Why don't you say? I, as simple as that, don't allow this to happen, and I don't.

ChinaVenture: It can be considered that Jingwei is relying more and more on ability to eat?

Zhang Ying: Investment institutions have always relied on their ability to eat. It's just that "ability" is also a more diverse definition. Cognition of the founder, understanding of the industry, and efficient use of funds...... This is the hard skill of investing. For a long time, there are resources, you can get close to the big guys, you can get quotas, and you can make money. At that time, this was also a skill, and there was no need to exclude the ability of different dimensions. However, in today's context, making money is more related to those "hard skills".

"On the basis of the win rate, I want the ultimate return"

China Investment: After the government has become the largest source of capital supply in the primary market, it is increasingly impossible to "focus on me" in investment. It is often necessary to understand the needs of others and reach a consensus with others before investing. So, can investing today still make money through non-consensus?

Ying Zhang: From a micro perspective, from its establishment in 2008 to the present, Jingwei has involved major exits (more than US$1 billion) in the past 16 years, and every process has been full of controversy. Therefore, it is very important to have non-consensus and non-consensus.

From a macro perspective, non-consensus is also very important. For example, today everyone recognizes AI and believes that it is the next intelligent revolution that will change everything, which is the consensus. But there is no unified view on how to invest in AI. Is it to give some time and patience to invest in the middle and late stage enterprises? Or to make more layouts in the early stage and wait patiently? Whether to invest only in the C-end or only in the B-side? Each institution has a different view.

ChinaVentures: You think it's not the time to verify non-consensus, but to practice non-consensus.

Zhang Ying: I can understand it that way.

I have an observation that in the current investment institutions, a person with a so-called high industry knowledge may not be able to compete with someone who can solve more practical problems.

Zhang Ying: I understand that we are discussing the question of "who can eventually become a star investor"? Let's first classify them into categories such as professionals with technical backgrounds, and investment veterans who have proven themselves in other fields and can iterate on cognition. I think that in the end, the one who will fight out is the one who has these conditions at the same time and finds the balance.

ChinaVenture: If you look at it as a balance, has it continued to tilt to one side in the past two years?

Zhang Ying: Jingwei is more selected from the technical talents who think deeply. Look at your past trajectory, your understanding of people, your understanding of business, whether it continues to improve.

If you used to be just a broker, only running projects, meeting all kinds of people, without deep thinking, without iterative knowledge, then you can't digest the current scientific and technological knowledge. No matter how much you understand human nature and how you can negotiate, you will not be able to make an investment.

ChinaVentures: Now many people say that venture capital has entered the era of winning rate, but you still seem to be looking at the high return of a single project.

Zhang Ying: How to put it, I think there is some truth in what people say. If you understand it statically, the return space has indeed been greatly compressed, which is a fact, and it will be the norm in the future, and it is true that the winning rate will replace the probability, and the logic is correct.

But if you believe that the valuation will be much better than today in the future, and you will also find the next ideal, the next Xiaopeng, and the next robot head company in the AI era, then on the basis of maintaining a certain winning rate, you still have to boldly look for multiples.

Or you say that the ultimate return is probably gone, and I won't debate this with you. I asked, can you give me a relatively extreme return on the basis of the win rate? It may not be 50 times, it may not be 20 times, but I want 7 times instead of 2 times, and I want 5 times instead of 1.5 times.

ChinaVenture: You emphasize subjective strategy, you can't stop here.

Zhang Ying: Yes. The ultimate reward may be compressed, but you still have to pursue it. We're reducing the number of investments and increasing the absolute amount of investment in a single project, and I'm going to make sure that one day it's big enough to give me a higher absolute return. If it can't be listed, it's not big enough, and the money I invest is too small, it won't mean much to the fund.

ChinaVenture: So Jingwei decided to scale it at the beginning, and it matched your current needs.

Zhang Ying: I want absolute value, I don't want multiples, a high multiple of a small amount is meaningless.

If you want to get a high absolute value of returns, there are only two paths: first, invest a large amount at the beginning, the company is relatively open, and continue to iteratively develop; second, invest early, and then dig out the winners, the data is getting better and better, the founder is getting better and better, you keep following the investment, increase the weight, protect your original share ratio, and finally become an investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, and when you exit, use a high share ratio to respond to the absolute value.

ChinaVenture: If venture capital is regarded as a capital product in the standard sense, is "large" and "scale" the most effective strategy?

Zhang Ying: Many people say "I am a sniper, I invest accurately and study more deeply, so I want to make a small fund". If you analyze it, how many people end up getting high returns? At the same time, they can continue to maintain high returns in the second and third phases of the fund?

But on the other hand, the larger the size of the fund, the farther away from glory. So, you have to think about what the extreme number is that the team can handle and don't cross this threshold. For Jingwei, several of our funds have reached the extreme of the standard, so no matter how good we do in the future, we will strictly control the scale, and even downward adjustment.

The core partner must have a sense of destiny, be consistent with words and deeds, and control the fund within the extreme range of operation.

ChinaVentures: Let's talk about exiting. Zhu Xiaohu told us last week that now early-stage companies will also ask to sign dividend clauses, the logic is that the exit expectation is very poor, and it is necessary to rely on dividends to achieve fund liquidity. Does Jingwei have similar considerations?

Zhang Ying: I have a good relationship with Zhu Xiaohu, he is a straightforward person, and so am I. But I don't agree with this point of view.

From a static point of view, the slowdown in A-share listings and the recession in Hong Kong and the United States are all objective facts. On this basis, the logic is valid that the invested company is required to give a certain amount of dividends, and the fund can return a certain amount of money.

But for a fund, if you still have money to invest and hope to have excellent returns in the future, you can only rely on you to invest in a company, invest enough money, and go public one day after the capital market recovers, only in this way will the fund's rate of return be stimulated.

If your big logic is to invest in 10 companies and sign dividends with 8 or 9 companies, I can only say: First, this requirement is very empty, as long as the company develops rapidly, it must raise funds quickly, and you say slow down and make money for me, and no founder will take care of you; second, even if there is a profit, it doesn't want to share, what can you do with it? Because the dividend clause is only for you in this round, and people may not approve of the next few rounds.

From a lot of underlying logic, this strategy is unreasonable.

ChinaVenture: I understand your attitude: I can understand him, but I don't agree.

Zhang Ying: I think he is just expressing a kind of helplessness, and he may not have a specific case to demonstrate. Dividends may seem to provide a way to assist. Venture capital itself is about being optimistic about a potential opportunity, and taking risks early on to reap the rewards. And dividends, such as getting back the principal or income after a specified time, are not VC/venture capital at all, and to some extent it is more like debt.

ChinaVentures: You expressed your views in the circle of friends, and some people think that Zhu Xiaohu's logic is talking about the requirements of RMB LP.

Zhang Ying: No, there are some misunderstandings here. Later, I learned that everyone circulated a screenshot of my circle of friends discussing dividends, which caused some other extended discussions. In fact, at this point in time, Zhu Xiaohu did not have a RMB fund and did not want to raise RMB. Based on my discussion with him under this framework, I have clearly marked "USD LP" in my own opinion, so some people argue that this is the understanding and disagreement between RMB LP and USD LP on dividends.

"We are strong and full of ammunition"

ChinaVenture: Many institutions are lying flat, but what I heard from my peers is that the Jingwei team is still very "rolled". What do you make of this assessment?

Zhang Ying: I'm quite happy. I have always hoped that Jingwei can be different from others, not blindly different, but in a meaningful place. So I answer from several dimensions:

First, the money is the same, and the attitude is different. To give entrepreneurs more valuable services, more help, so we have a lot to do.

Second, say that we invest in the team volume. If there is a young man who wants to show his skills and prove to everyone that you have the material and can become a star investor, then why don't you come to Jingwei?

Of course, I don't call it a volume, I think it's the achievement of oneself, the achievement of the fund. Today is not the era of massive trigger pulling, a person on a big platform, if you are very good and can do 3-6 projects at the moment, you should do a thorough job and follow them.

So in the past four years, Jingwei has basically left 0 people after investment, but in the investment department, I still require that about 10%-15% replacement be maintained every year, which depends entirely on your ability and what you have invested, and will also give enough patience and enough help to help him integrate into the comprehensive evaluation. Now Jingwei has become more scientific, more rigorous, and more demanding for people. You say this is a volume, then a volume, we are strong and strong, we have enough bullets, and I believe that China still has many good opportunities.

ChinaVentures: Compared with previous years, how has your personal work status changed?

Zhang Ying: Compared with five or six years ago, I have less time and scenes to do projects independently, and more of multiple collaborations, sometimes I come forward to grab projects, sometimes I make decisions, I have done it before, but today I have done more.

Everything I do has become more scientific, more rigorous, and more process-oriented. Every meeting I have has recorded, summarized, refined, followed up, distributed, and watched the effect. The preparation for each meeting was 10 times more thorough than before. Not only the information on paper, but also the financial forecasts and accurate data, and the middle office colleagues also gave me a lot of side information that my investment colleagues did not give.

I was more concerned about time allocation today, and I was also discussing it with Huadong that day, and he said that he was busy, and he was so busy thinking about the doppelganger technique. Of course, he also understands priorities, and he also has to prioritize, but when it is very busy, it is very important to use how to organize time.

Work-life balance is also important, and you must find something that you are passionate about and that you can continue to decompress. For me, decompression is all about motocross, and putting on a helmet is another world.

It's true that the pressure of work now is much greater than it was four or five years ago, really, very intuitively. Off-road motorcycles still allow me to relax, decompress, and love. A person is actually very lucky to have an interest that he loves and can stick to.

ChinaVenture: I want to know where you go on business trips now? This may determine the market position of Jingwei.

Zhang Ying: With the beginning of investment in advanced manufacturing, new energy vehicles, and robots, the destination of the business trip is indeed different. In the past, it was Beijing, Shanghai, and the Greater Bay Area, but now it has increased a lot, Nanjing, Xiamen, Suzhou, Changzhou, Chengdu, Yibin, Chongqing, etc.

I'm trying to make my travel as meaningful as I can now. Whether it is new energy, photovoltaics, advanced manufacturing, or robots, there is a cluster effect, and I will try not to be in a hurry. After I went, I looked at the node companies and the companies in the ecosystem. I usually go to places that are rare, such as Yibin or near the big building, I will take a little stroll, stay for an extra night, try to blend in, and have enough communication with the founder. In the local area, not only to see the company clearly, but also to see the ecology behind the local enterprises, to understand the actual situation of economic development, as well as the local cultural customs, for me, this business trip will be a great harvest.

ChinaVenture: As a GP, many people emphasize "feel" and "being on the front line", but you said that you spent a lot of time on management to adjust and improve the "precision instrument" of warp and weft. For you, don't you feel pressured to pursue "masterpieces"?

Zhang Ying: According to my understanding, staying in the trenches and on the front line means that more than 6-7 percent of the time to deal with the founder. It can be to communicate with the investee, or it can be to do a new project. I also lead one or two investments a year – usually with colleagues who work with me. As long as most of the energy is with the founder, it is in the trenches.

On this basis, I dispatched post-investment colleagues into 8 or 9 teams to escort the most elite portfolio companies (more than 150). I act as a hub, helping to solve problems, also on the front lines, in the trenches.

What I want to say is that every GP has a different understanding of the front line, and in Jingwei, I am only right to do this. If I spend all my time pulling the trigger, it's actually a huge reduction in efficiency.

ChinaVenture: I always feel that if the collective hysteria of society ten years ago was financial freedom, the current collective hysteria is reconciliation with self, and everyone has lower requirements for themselves.

Zhang Ying: First, it is not difficult, but if you have real underlying thinking, find the method and direction, everything will become simple.

Second, the so-called lying flat and despairing, you have dealt with me several times, in our fund, can you feel this? Others have their own reasons for lying down, we are right or wrong, but in Jingwei, we are more sophisticated and more effective every year than in the past year.

ChinaVentures: Last question, what is your understanding of the meaning of wealth in life? I always feel that you have a good ability to handle money as an investor, but you are not so keen on money and the power it represents.

Zhang Ying: First, I am extremely sensitive to numbers, but I am determined not to be a slave to money.

Second, I don't have many material pursuits, and I hope to do something meaningful, but it's not easy.

Third, I myself recognize a sentence very much: hidden in the city. What investors do is to use money to leverage the future, because we invest in the early stage, invest in technology, and invest in China, so that it has a lot of social significance. Everything we do is on the table, and if we do it right, we can see the company grow and contribute to society, which is very meaningful.

To a certain extent, doing investment is a part-of-the-way business, close to money, looking at human nature, and seeing all kinds of alternative things, but I think that in this process, don't lose yourself in the hustle and bustle, and always maintain your own knowledge, action and state of mind.

I may be in a job role where I face a complex business environment every day, face complex human challenges, etc., but when I am alone behind closed doors, I will constantly remind myself to do my best in the smallest unit. Treat entrepreneurs with kindness, treat all partners in the entire ecosystem with kindness, try to help others more within the scope of their ability, do more empowerment and assistance within their capabilities, and do the ultimate in life and work at their own margins. I think to a certain extent, this is a kind of hidden practice, and it is also a very interesting process and challenge, and I believe in this very much, and I try to do it every day in the process of my work, to do better.