Two Investment And Entrepreneurship: Li Tong'S "Cross Border" Entrepreneurship Network

Li Tong's first identity is the founder and CEO of Heng Zhi net. If you happen to know LinkedIn, it may be easier to think of it as a business SNS website similar to it.
His second identity is the founding management partner of Origin Capital. This is a seed period with a focus on the Internet and a mixed fund of RMB and RMB.

His two identities are not isolated from each other. capital It is the angel introduced by Heng Zhi net. Investment One of the people. It is not alone to invest in a company founded by its own fund. The other two projects invested by the fund are JS technology and Internet communications, which were founded by Li Tong's first two ventures.

"The money of the fund is shared by myself and several angel investors." Li Tong said, those "LP" are actually his good friends for many years: he knows and understands the Internet, so he gives him the money.

Heng Zhi net has its own needs.

In 2006, Li returned home with original capital, because "domestic opportunities are more interesting than the United States and Canada".

After returning home, he found a problem: because of the mobility of the work, friends who know each other often fail to find it in one or two months. Even if there are friends who love to play beach volleyball, it is not easy for Li Tong to find a good friend.

This is not a problem of his own. In 2007, when the first group of America was sent back to First Title Real Estate, there were a lot of problems at the moment: how to recognize enough customers of real estate collateral and mortgage loans? How do I get to know professionals who can help me in my business? How to recruit suitable people? Through which channel can we learn about a real China?

"I found Business affairs The demand for people in this area is enormous. " Li Tong said that even if he intends to read a MBA, he hopes to get guidance from fellow practitioners. The fact also proves this judgement. Heng Zhi net was formally launched in February 2010, and now there are 600 thousand users. They are not without reference frames. Despite the changing social networks, LinkedIn is always there. In May this year, the world's largest commercial SNS was listed, with a market value of US $8 billion 860 million.

Therefore, the introduction of angel investment by Heng Zhi net went smoothly. In addition to the origin capital, Li Tong also introduced several other angel investment institutions. These investors also used "Heng Zhi net", which is different from other websites.

After 2003, there was a wave of business SNS in China, such as skyline, neighbor and LinkedIn, advantage and so on. But with many similar networks, Li Tong is reluctant to invite his friends to these platforms because "user quality and experience are not ideal": too many students who just want to find jobs, or too many insurance brokers.

Li Tong instinctively feels that the snowballs of these websites "roll in the wrong direction": early rush to rush traffic, resulting in a mixed group of users, "and even high school students". Buffett once compared the growth of an enterprise to a snowball: enough wet snow and long enough slopes. The premise of business SNS snowball is at least ensuring the quality of users.

"Unlike the fast mode of search engine, business SNS is actually a slow network." Li Tong explained that search engine is a universal tool. If it can not be done quickly, there will be a gap between competitors. But business SNS is a community that "brings business professionals together", "it is a natural choice for users".

Heng Zhi chose another way: to ensure that the initial seed users are business professionals. The feedback from users made Li Tong realize that this road should be right. One day, I called him and said thank him. "Because on the platform of Heng Zhi, the amount of real estate guarantee business I made has already been tens of millions RMB." In the existing user group, there are more than 20 thousand CEO, about 200000 senior managers and professionals, covering 90% of China's investment institutions. {page_break}

Two successful ventures

"In all parts of the world, financing is not so easy." Li Tong used Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom for example. Even though he had successfully established P2P software Kazaa that changed the direction of the industry, the financing process of Skype was still difficult.

But many previous "cross-border" entrepreneurship and success is an important reason why Li Tong can attract several other angel investors to co invest the origin.

Before and after 2000, the major banks in the United States had to store, categorized, and monitored their mail according to the requirements of the Sarbanes act. This is very difficult on the original mail server system: the original system only supports sending and receiving mail. This makes the IT Department of Wall Street banks face a paradox: if we want to comply with the rules, we must move the mail system; if we move the mail system, we may cause the whole company's mailbox operation to be abnormal. "If CEO can't get the mail, it will be furious."

Li Tong, who was still working at Merrill Lynch, thought the problem could be solved. The solution he proposed from MIT computer department was to make a hardware memory next to the mail system. The switch would automatically store, classify and monitor mass mail information from the network. This company was later www.jatheon.com.

"If you can do it, we will buy it." In the absence of specific products, Li Tong found the CTO of the Bear Stearns bank through friends, and the other side expressed this intention after 20 minutes. JC technology financing, products, customers. In this process, "connections" are considered by Li Tong to be very important: his first angel investor is a professor of MIT, and MIT's alumni network provides other angel investors.

After giving the letter to the new investor and management team, Li Tong returned home with the original capital. At that time, the sales volume of JE was more than 10 million dollars a year. "The first project in China is Internet communication (www.tokiva.com), and its operation is also good." The company currently has about 2 million users, covering 198 countries and regions.

The Idea of Internet communications also comes from the "personal problems": business people are constantly traveling, "I have more than 2000 dollars per month for my phone calls". Skype can't be used directly on mobile phones. "If we try Skype through data network, the cost will be even higher than that of telephone." What should I do? Customers can send their phone numbers to the platform of Internet communication by SMS. After that, Internet administrators will connect the phone number to the back-end server of VOIP, which is cheap and easy to use.

Cross border entrepreneurship is geek's favorite?

Venture and invest at the same time. Don't think this is Li Tong's pioneering work. Li Tong, for example, for example, Elon Mask.

Mr. Mask's most famous label is one of the original founders of Paypal. "He also makes investments. His current identity is the two companies' CEO and chairman".

After leaving Paypal, Elon Mask founded SpaceX and Telsa. SpaceX is a The Aerospace Corporation. Before the launch of the first rocket into space in the fall of 2008, NASA and other governments and agencies and other kinds of outer space civilian and military satellites have made 5 mistakes in the SpaceX. Telsa is an electric vehicle company, its electric vehicle Telsa Roadster average price of $109 thousand, owners of the "global wealth list". Telsa went public in 2010, but before that, the company had burned about $230 million in venture capital.

To be a geek is a natural price. Elon Mask, proud and persistent, is said to have had few bank accounts for some time and needs to meet with friends.

"From my point of view, it is not recommended that everyone invest and start their own business." Li Tong's reason is that because time, capital and so on are the resources that must be taken up by both venture and investment.

The reason why it can be taken into account is that the original capital is focused on the Internet, and it is also good at Internet entrepreneurship. The three elements of "market, technology and certain funds" can cooperate with each other. Li Tong said that doing things is not afraid of difficulties and fears, but the key lies in the right way. After running several start-up companies' experience, "I feel more enjoyable", and "a small road between home and company" ensures time and energy.

What's more important to Li Tong is that he has two great partners. The two men focused on technology and products, operations, and Li Tong, who was sensitive to the market, formed an iron triangle.