8 Million Yuan Investment Gold &Nbsp; &Nbsp; Will You Be Jealous?

At present, venture capital in China is active. Both websites and sellers want to attract the attention of VC by relying on their high ranking, huge enterprise scale, sales volume or creative business philosophy, and create convenient conditions for their investment.

Just as we look forward to the day and night when the venture capital is knocking on the door, a business has only been opened for more than a month, and the women's clothing shop with 3 credit has attracted 8 million yuan investment.

What kind of background and particularity are there behind this enviable opportunity? The first thing that attracts the VCs' online shop events lies in the "inner world" of the clothing e-commerce industry.

Character card

Moderator: Zhou Zhou

Host

Cao Yitang is an investment specialist.

Cao Yi Tang

Zhang Benwei senior software and Internet

Ben Wei Zhang

Wang Zuoliang mother said Vice President of website.

Engaged in the Internet industry for nearly 10 years, has rich experience in SNS social networking and maternal and child products e-commerce.

Wang Liang Liang

When they start their own business, they are willing to help enterprises in their efforts to expand their stores, introduce talents, increase production and scale up.

This sounds almost like a good day dream, but it really comes to the head of a Taobao woman shop named Fontainebleau.

In mid July this year,

Reporters learned the situation from RobinYang, who was responsible for the promotion of Fontainebleau, and did not feel that the shop was any different. Countless Internet sellers had the same conditions as they did. What is the specialty of this store?

Strong team background is the main reason to attract VC.

RobinYang told reporters that one of the main reasons to attract VC is in fact the team composition of enterprises.

The reporter learned from the interview that the core team members of the company consist of 4 people, 3 of whom have 5 to 10 years of work experience in the top Internet Co in China. One of the key executives is not only on the Internet of eBay, but also the first batch of Internet sellers in China. After joining Taobao, Taobao has witnessed the whole process of Taobao.

In addition, a colleague in charge of supply chain in Fontainebleau has more than ten years' experience in the traditional clothing industry, especially in supply chain integration and store marketing.

The clothing designers hired by the enterprises also required formal graduation design for clothing design. They should be designers from the fashion designer assistant and then be the chief designer, until the design director, who has been around for almost 15 years.

Through the introduction of RobinYang, the reporters found that the whole enterprise team has a strong complementary structure. Apart from the internet professionals with professional experience, there are more than ten years of experienced talents in the traditional clothing industry, together with the newly recruited designers with 15 years' experience, forming a combination of traditional clothing enterprises and the Internet field, integrating these two seemingly professional industries.

At the beginning, the latest data of the whole network women's clothing market, such as the increment of sales trend, and the analysis and research data of traditional clothing brands, including the analysis of consumers of all ages and the positioning data of the entire garment, all benefited from the partners who had had many years of experience in e-commerce.

"I think one of the important reasons why we can attract venture capital is that it is easy to find a fashion designer who has 20 years of design experience in China or a senior industry person who has worked for 20 years in the traditional clothing industry.

Because the history of garment industry in China is very long, and there are many experienced talents, but the Internet has only 10 years history in China, and the e-business platform like Taobao has only appeared in China for 7 years.

If you want to find a team, not only has rich experience in traditional clothing industry, but also has 5 to 10 years of experience in the Internet and e-commerce field, it is very difficult, and our team is precisely to meet this point.

RobinYang said, "our team's background and experience make VCs feel that we are a very rare team.

But this cooperation was promoted by a friend. When we talked about our business plan and the direction of enterprise development, we got the approval from the VC company.

A VC company is a person who understands himself.

For venture capital companies, since they have locked their eyes in the field of e-commerce, it is clear that the clothing e-commerce industry belongs to a field of "slow work and meticulous work". It is difficult to evaluate the success or failure of enterprises in a short time. It requires great patience to grow slowly and accumulate customer resources slowly. When its internal strength is improved to a certain extent, there will be a burst of development.

"Our demand for VC is more that he must have patience and at the same time he has a deep understanding of the whole Chinese e-commerce industry. He understands that the operation rules of this industry will not give enterprises too much anticipation and pressure, and can give you room for growth and progress, so that investors and our team can form a good resultant force, so that enterprises can go on without any scruples."

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RobinYang said, "if we force a short-term goal to the enterprise, we will have too many constraints and pressures, which may lead to some blind, aggressive or hurt customer experience in the way of operation. This is not conducive to the sustainable development of enterprises. Our cooperation with the venture capital companies can avoid this problem.

Investors only invest in our shares and do not interfere in any management. "

In addition, the confidence and trust of VC companies in the Fontainebleau team is inseparable from their previous experience and acquaintance.

For the 8 million yuan of funds, RobinYang is mainly used in three aspects, first of all, to enhance the quality of enterprise products, including expanding team members, choosing a factory with higher cost but better quality.

The second is investment in brand building and construction, such as cooperation with top designers in China, launching two or three main hits per quarter.

The third is the promotion of products. Once a large scale promotion on Taobao network will generate a large volume of traffic, it is dangerous to promote it hastily if the basic capability of the enterprise is not available. Once the enterprise has done well in its internal strength and is well prepared, it will be natural to push the activities.

It's hard to copy, but it's a new way.

Nowadays, there are some super stores with annual revenue of over 100 million yuan in the women's clothing brand on Taobao, which has constituted the scale of large and medium-sized enterprises. The early stage of primitive accumulation and extensive operation in the field of e-commerce has passed. The network platform is only a small business gathering place. It has gradually left us. Now, if we want to stand out in many network shops, we need more specialized and meticulous enterprises.

As the prospects and expectations in the field of e-commerce are very optimistic, the increasingly fierce competition is also an inevitable trend. Not only grassroots entrepreneurs, many traditional clothing enterprises will enter the market.

Both prospects and competition, even venture capital sniffed the unlimited business opportunities in online shopping.

After the first successful introduction of Taobao shops in venture capital, many Taobao sellers began to look forward to their "money scene".

However, we must be clear whether the case of Fontainebleau can be duplicated. We have to admit that the first venture to the internet shop has its own particularity. Deep team background and extensive connections have played a vital role in the introduction of the first venture. These conditions are not always available to all entrepreneurs, and it is difficult to succeed in copying.

So is the dream of other online stores attracting VC to be shattered?

In fact, RobinYang told reporters that if you want to attract VC, you have to have a very clear goal in the business and strategic direction. Many of the smaller sellers in the past are just trying to earn a piece of money, but there is no systematic thinking about the development of the whole network store.

"If you want companies to get the favor of venture capitalists, the first thing to do is to give the VC a vision, so that they can be confident that you can achieve this vision. This vision is that your company can grow bigger and stronger quickly, and have continuous profitability and growth capability.

The second most important thing to attract venture capital is that the whole team must deal with increasingly fierce competition, especially in traditional industries.

Third is the ability of enterprises to retain customers, new customers come, you can provide them with what kind of product quality, what kind of value-added services to retain them, so that they repeat the continuous purchase is a very profound knowledge.

RobinYang said.

When the first venture to Taobao shop is gradually subsided, what kind of impetus will it play on the entire e-commerce industry? Does it mean the beginning of a "Internet venture" era? We will wait and see.

The "banknote maker" in the eyes of e-commerce venture capital

Zhou Zhou: several guests are senior members of the Internet and investment industry. When you look at the project, what factors do you use to judge whether the other party has investment value?

Cao Yitang: in brief, investment value is a function of project increment potential, investment cost and risk coefficient.

We mainly judge the value added potential of an investment project according to market potential, business mode and management team. The investment cost is not self-evident. The risk coefficient is mainly determined by the stage of the project itself, the investment risk preference of the investment company and the investment portfolio.

Zhang Benwei: e-commerce is the most concerned industry in venture capital in 2010. The global economic recovery and the high growth of China's consumer market have given VCs the biggest confidence.

The high price earnings ratio of domestic gem makes investors more eager to move.

Women's wear has always been the top ranking of Taobao's sales, with high gross margin and large sales scale.

Ask Zhou Zhou: what is the reason for attracting the VC in the clothing store of self created brand?

Cao Yitang: like Fontainebleau's online clothing brand, there are three reasons for attracting VC: huge market potential, unique business model and effective management team.

First of all, China's e-commerce market is huge.

Women's clothing online shopping market is also a very attractive market.

Secondly, the business model of Fontainebleau is characterized by truly creating customer value, a spokesperson for consumers, specifically focusing on the value chain high value part - Design and brand operation, and outsourcing production with the help of Taobao and other e-business platforms to rapidly and quickly contact potential target consumers, so as to achieve low quality fashion products for customers.

Moreover, this business model is proved feasible in practice. Foreign successful cases are Threadless.com and Zappos, and domestic investment cases are Vancl and MasaMaso.

Last but not least, a strong management team.

The team in Fontainebleau is a combination of senior e-business practitioners and product designers accepted by the market. That is to say, it has the two core organizational capabilities of women's clothing e-commerce brand design and network marketing capabilities.

Zhang Benwei: there are 2 basic reasons for Fontainebleau to get venture capital, one is the market environment with high growth, and the other is the comprehensive strength of the team.

Choosing Taobao as a marketing position is just the beginning of this team.

In the future, as an independent brand, it will also develop to offline stores, so as to further consolidate the brand support power of online shops.

As for the only one to get VC, it is not important in itself. The 8 million yuan investment can be seen as style investment or angel investment.

We also did not see how the performance of the investment agreement provided for gambling, so it is hard to tell whether this is a good investment case or a bad investment case.

Compared to M18 (Mcglaughlin), which has been invested nearly 1 billion yuan in women's clothing brand, 8 million yuan plus gambling, really nothing.

But in general, we still see the commercial value of Taobao store, and believe that there will be more investors in the future, pay attention to the brand of Taobao store, and focus on Taobao's entrepreneurial team.

Wang Zuoliang: e-commerce has been very popular in the past two years. From the Internet as a whole, e-commerce is the biggest cash flow besides advertising and online games, and it is bigger than advertising on scale.

At the same time, with the continuous improvement of online payment, the continuous acceptance of online shopping and the development of logistics, e-commerce has been well developed in all fields in the past two years.

So it has attracted the eye of VC.

Zhou Zhou: there are other great original designer brands on Taobao. Their sales and business scale are amazing. But why did Fontainebleau's newly opened shop become the first Internet brand to attract venture capital?

Cao Yitang: sales volume and enterprise scale are only one aspect of investment company investigation, and the weight of rating varies from enterprise investment style.

For the VC concerned with earlier projects, the scale weight of sales scale may be lower than that of PE, which is more concerned with later projects.

VC is more concerned about the sustainable growth potential of the project.

Investors are optimistic about Fontainebleau's potential for sustainable growth in the future.

Wang Zuoliang: for VCs, the driving force for future development and sustained rapid development is the most critical, while the seller's own business ability is also a major consideration.

Under this premise, the size is not the best, but the best strategy is to find the differentiation strategy on Taobao platform and find the driving force for continuous growth. If it is found, even if it can not get the VC, its development can be very good.

Zhou Zhou: now more and more VC are looking at the fast growing online shopping area. What do you think the impact of the rise of e-commerce is on VC?

Wang Zuoliang: VC is a swarm of industries. Once a field is concerned, VC will start to grab the project in this field.

Now people and projects with e-commerce experience are almost robbed. Taobao super sellers may be the last remaining resources.

I believe more Taobao sellers will get venture capital.

The entry of venture capital is not necessarily a good thing.

For sellers who get the VC, it means faster expansion.

This is a high risk, and the expansion of sales scale means the increase of inventory, logistics and personnel costs.

In the past, Taobao sellers still had good profit control, but from the past they got the VC.

B2C website, because the rapid expansion of sales demand, will directly lead to a decline in profit margins, and even in a number of years to maintain a state of loss.

Zhou Zhou: there are many companies looking for VCs but they can't interest them. But on the other hand, venture capitalists invite other owners to eat all day, hoping that the other side can accept the money of venture capital. What are the reasons? Many Taobao sellers began to look forward to the "money scene" of venture capital. Do you think it's realistic?

Cao Yitang: the investment company is also an economic man. He is engaged in the business of making profits. In short, it also has its own set of business models, namely, finding high-quality projects, investing in it, supporting it, and then withdrawing profits through mergers and acquisitions or listing.

So whether you get the core of the VC's favor is whether your project is good or not? Is your project compatible with the investment strategy of VCs? More simply, before you want to get the VC, ask yourself whether your project can make money for VC. If the answer is yes, VCs will come to you naturally. If the answer is not, even if you take the initiative to find VC, it is useless.

Therefore, if Taobao sellers want to win the favor of venture capitalists, first of all, they must clear up the "money scene" of their projects, formulate clear strategies and action plans, that is to say, they will operate their own shops or projects as an enterprise, so that their enterprises can have sustainable growth potential, so that they will have capital to cooperate with VC.

Zhang Benwei: as an entrepreneur who wants to enter the e-commerce industry, this case also gives us some important inspiration. First of all, entrepreneurs like to be independent brands of independent sites, rather than using Taobao as the base for all sales.

This point of view should be corrected today. Instead of starting a venture on Taobao, we can not get investment opportunities. Achieving good sales performance is the only criterion for success.

Second, excellent teams can gain long-term competitiveness, while pure trade Taobao stores are still hard to get investors' trust.

Third, the core of e-business is no longer platform, but products and services.

On Taobao, everything else is the same except products and services.

Therefore, the competition will eventually lead to success and failure.

Wang Zuoliang: it's not necessarily a good thing to get VC.

To put it bluntly, VC does not give you money to use, but gives you money to earn more money for him.

So there will be more requirements in terms of scale and speed of development.

Besides, VC needs to be profitable through investment projects, so it is bound to consider more about how to quit, not as a century old shop.

The enterprises that can get the venture capital will have certain strength. Venture capital will only add to the icing on the cake.

So, when you can get the VC, you can also develop well without VC. VCs can help you solve the problem of rapid expansion.

Especially for e-commerce projects.

Generally speaking, this will not become a trend. After all, only a few can get the VC.