Liu Jianguo: Ask For "Rope" Up And Down.

Liu Jianguo's new office is less than 20 square meters, office furniture is very simple -- a pair of ordinary sofa, a table, a computer, and a basin of dripping water Guanyin, behind the wall hanging on a flat, writing "Peng Cheng Li Li", in addition to there is no other decoration.

Maybe it was the reason why he moved in. There was no drinking fountain in his office. When we arrived, Liu Jianguo asked the administrative staff to pour water for us, and he himself went to the office to carry tea for us.

His enthusiasm surprised my colleague who interviewed me. "This is not like CEO of an enterprise. It has no airs."

It is true that this frail man, who had no shelf at all, was the first employee and chief technology officer of Baidu. He was also the founder of China's first generation search engine, Beida Skynet, and is now the founder and CEO of AI gang.

Starting from Skynet

When we are talking about how much Baidu has broken down today, we can not forget the Beida Skynet, one of the earliest search engine websites in China, and talk about Skynet. We can not help but talk about it from Liu Jianguo.

Liu Jianguo, who graduated from the Department of computer science and Engineering in Xi'an Jiao Tong University in 1988, received his master's degree in computer network and distributed system in Peking University from 1991. He also graduated from the school of information management, Peking University, and began to study computer technology at New York State University in Buffalo, USA.

Although the two men were of the same family, they did not know it at this time.

In 1995, Liu Jianguo began to study search engines, which should be one of the first people to search for technology in China at that time. Later, he made Skynet based on his own research.

In Liu Jianguo's view, the Skynet at that time was only an experimental product of their search technology. "In fact, it is very crude. It is a server, a PC, a web page, then indexing and providing search services", but it is more practical. It was the best and real search engine in the country at that time.

This website is of great significance to Liu Jianguo. He is entrusted with the affection and love of this school professor for search technology. It is also the embodiment of his complex life of technology serving people's lives. It is also the beginning of his pformation from a university to an entrepreneur.

In 1999, Robin Li and Xu Yong returned to venture with venture capital. The first thing they found was Liu Jianguo, and the introducer of the two was Skynet. Robin Li found the person who later gave the Baidu skeleton through Liu Jianguo's mailbox on the Skynet.

If there were no Baidu at that time, could Liu Jianguo's ability to search for services in people's lives be realized and whether his technical ability could be magnified?

In fact, in the late days of Skynet, Liu Jianguo always wanted to be a commercial search engine company. He wanted to make Skynet bigger, especially after he returned from abroad in 1997 to 1998 as a visiting scholar.

Later, after returning to China, I wanted to commercialize Skynet. I wanted to see whether there was any financial support or entrepreneurial idea. At that time, I contacted many domestic listed companies, but they all thought about collecting money, and at that time, when the Internet bubble was severe, no one was really looking for the direction of search.

So for various reasons, none of them has been talked about.

Obviously, the financing environment at that time did not bring him luck.

Moreover, Skynet's mechanism has become the fetter of Liu Jianguo's entrepreneurship.

"Skynet's mechanism at that time, the whole investment and operation is completely not a corporatization way."

Under the China Education and research network, the right of management belongs to Peking University. This mechanism also makes Liu Jianguo unable to do pioneering work well.

Therefore, at that time, he wanted to make the search truly become an influential and changing dream of life, which can not be realized in Skynet.

In this sense, he was invited by Robin Li to join Baidu, and it could be said that Baidu gave him the platform to realize his dream.

Liu Jianguo, like other technical people, has seen the pride of his products being used by millions of people.

This complex also led to its later development and choice.

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Leaving Baidu

It should be said to leave Baidu is inevitable, Liu Jianguo from the bone to do his own company, Baidu is obviously not his, he can not end his career in Baidu, even though he is for Baidu to be CTO.

On August 5, 2005 Beijing time, Baidu landed on NASDAQ. For many Baidu people, it was a night to celebrate. Many people became millions and tens of millions of millionaires. From then on, they started their new lives, bought homes and cars.

For Liu Jianguo, it is also the beginning. His mission has basically been completed, and it is almost time to start his own new journey.

"After being listed, the brand of the whole company is very strong and the team is very mature.

So I feel the challenge is not very big. For me personally, I suddenly feel that a lot of things can be carried out in a straightforward way.

Liu Jianguo began to dislike his state.

At the end of 2006, Liu Jianguo officially left Baidu.

Looking back at Baidu's 7 years, Liu Jianguo said that he had gone through a company's entrepreneurial process from scratch, and went through the listing of enterprises. He led the creation of Baidu's technical team, and also participated in the exploration of Baidu's business mode and the pformation of the company.

This is precious experience and wealth to him.

It is worth mentioning that, like many successful companies today, Baidu's earliest business model is not so early today. Early Baidu was also a company that did not know the way and was lost.

Baidu's main business was to provide search technology and search database services to several portals, learning from Inktomi (acquired by YAHOO in 2003), but at that time, it was hard for them to pay their own websites. The market was not easy to do, especially when the Internet bubble burst in 2000.

"Technology is good, monopolizing the 80% search market at that time, but it did not make money."

This is the embarrassment of early Baidu, which is also the most difficult time for Baidu.

At that time, Liu Jianguo and Robin Li and other core members of the team, as well as investors were very anxious.

In the middle of 2001, Liu Jianguo and others saw the competitive bidding mode created by Goto.Com (later renamed Overture and bought by YAHOO). The eyes of the team members, including Robin Li, Xu Yong and other core members of the team, think that this is the direction for Baidu to develop.

In September of 2001, Baidu began to provide commercial search services and take the road of competitive bidding.

"We had a very consistent idea at that time and felt that this was the only model of Baidu.

So in 2001, we went to the front desk to do the search, then we went to the auction mode, and then we got up.

Liu Jianguo recalled.

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Seeking help

We asked Liu Jianguo how he viewed his aura from Baidu and helped him create the help network. His answer was simple, "zero."

Actually, I didn't think I was Baidu's CTO in the process of starting a business.

My mindset has always been the mentality of an entrepreneur. If you want to start a business, you will have to return to zero and zero. Then you will have no difference from other entrepreneurs and grassroots.

But you may have many special experiences.

In attracting investment, when talking to them, there may be more credibility, because you have done it, so there may be some convenience. "

Liu Jianguo believes that another advantage in Baidu is that the heads of the circles are relatively familiar.

As mentioned above, the creation of AI Bang network is the complex of Liu Jianguo, a scholar expert, who wants to provide services for more people through his efforts.

"At that time, I also observed a lot of Internet products and services. I think the Internet is very helpful to people's work, study and even entertainment, but it is not very helpful to people's daily life, especially in China.

When Chinese people live, they will encounter many problems when they consume, including information problems and quality of service.

Many times, the Internet seemed unable to help him.

I was wondering if I could do anything for myself and help everyone in this area, so I came out to do it.

Liu Jianguo introduced his entrepreneurial motivation.

Now, AI Bang network is located in a search company that is most convenient for everyone's needs.

Due to the optimism of Liu Jianguo and his team, the company was invested in Matrix Partners, one of the three largest Vc firm in the United States, and the leading partner in China is Shao Yibo, the founder of eBay and Shao Yibo, a young investor.

Speaking of entrepreneurial experience and the challenges it faces, Liu Jianguo's motto is that entrepreneurship should be maintained, especially when the products that have been laborious are used by everyone. That sense of achievement is a catalyst for entrepreneurial passion. He believes that entrepreneurs should be able to pass their passion on to the whole entrepreneurial team so that the company can run efficiently and develop faster.

Liu Jianguo admits that he is a very perfect person. Therefore, "many things, including people, including a lot of things, may be a little too much for perfection, and too high for yourself."

In addition, his evaluation of himself is "relatively stable, introverted, not the kind of extraverted, especially self acquainted people.

Sometimes logic is too strong. "

These characteristics are the commonalities of people who are born of technology.

One of the questions we would like to discuss with Liu Jianguo is how a skilled person can be an entrepreneur and manage the technology, strategy and operation of a company in a comprehensive way. What are the challenges he faces?

The middle-aged man who worked for more than ten hours a day replied, "we are always solving problems."

The famous poem "Li Sao", the masterpiece of Qu Yuan, China's greatest Romantic poet 2200 years ago, said, "the road is long, and I will go up and down."

In order to express their firm pursuit of true knowledge.

Liu Jianguo, a college professor, is also constantly exploring his career path.