Yang Ning: Entrepreneurs Who Can'T Stop

He is a non-stop entrepreneur.

At the age of 24, he founded Chinaren and sold the company a year later. He started the air network two times when he was 27 years old. He led the air network to NASDAQ at the age of 27 and became the youngest president of a listed company. Now, at the age of 32, he began to be an angel investor and catch up with the new business opportunities when he experienced the ups and downs of SP.

He is extraordinarily energetic. When he manages a company with thousands of people, he has his own diversity of life: he often goes to 798 of the abandoned factory buildings and drinks tea with his painters, chatting around with his beloved camera, listening to Jay Chou's songs and even singing "Compendium of Materia Medica" like those "fast men" in TV programs.

He is Yang Ning.

Yang Ning's first entrepreneurial idea was born in the university age.

One day in 1993, Yang Ning, an electrical engineering engineer at University of Michigan, was taken to a large computer room in school by his classmates.

There, he looked at his classmates through a browser called mosaic. He went to a website with a large red YAHOO LOGO. It was a website saved by two students at Stanford University using a school machine. It was a list of 40 websites. Below the list, the two students wrote, "we will keep looking at the good things on the Internet and then add them to the list."

This is the first time Yang Ning saw the legendary Internet. He was shocked. "At that time, I felt that this thing would change the world."

In the age when PC was rare, the Internet was only a small group of people in the school. Yang Ning and several students in the electronics department produced an idea of entrepreneurship that they thought was pretty good. They made a set-top box, allowing ordinary people to access the Internet through the TV set.

But they soon saw that Microsoft launched the Venus plan, thinking exactly the same as them, but saw the rapid failure of the multi billion dollar plan faster.

"No one would have thought that people in the last world would buy PC conveniently online, instead of using the set top box to access the Internet."

Yang Ning sighed.

In this way, his first venture ended when he did not really start.

In 1997, Yang Ning came to Stanford University with a master's degree in entrepreneurship.

"From 1997 to 1999 was the craziest time for Standford to start her own business," recalled Yang Ning excitedly. "At that time, YAHOO's market capitalization was in the ascendant, and eBay was also listed. 3 of the 5 most valuable companies (i.e. YAHOO, eBay, CISCO) were founded by Standford's students and teachers."

These famous entrepreneurs often return to school to give lectures and lectures, bringing Standford's entrepreneurial atmosphere to a climax.

"99 of our graduating class, 1/5 of the students are going to start their own business, which is also an incredible number in the history of Stanford University, which is so devoted to entrepreneurship."

Yang Ning has also become a member of these 1/5.

But the difference is that Yang Ning has cast his eyes on entrepreneurship in China, which has been away for more than 10 years.

During the winter vacation before graduation, Yang Ning returned to China with Zhou Yunfan and Chen Yizhou, who were studying at Stanford University. They came to the conclusion that China is the fastest growing place in the world.

"The fastest growing places in the world are here. Where are we going?"

So the three students, carrying the $more than 20000 seed fund collected by their classmates, returned to China to set up an alumni record of ChinaRen, the most popular school in China.

However, due to the lack of a profit model, it was difficult to continue one year later and sold to Sohu at the price of 35 million US dollars.

Summarizing this entrepreneurial experience, Yang Ning has no regrets. "We didn't understand anything at all. It was like a" blind horse riding a blind horse and walking by the river at night ".

Luckily, we were lucky. Finally, we did not collapse. We also succeeded in selling the company, rewarding investors successfully, and creating good reputation in the industry.

In October 2000, with the acquisition of Chinaren, Yang Ning also entered Sohu as CTO.

But after a year, Yang Ning and Zhou Yunfan both resigned and founded the air network.

The reason is simple: "I think we are entrepreneurs," Yang Ning said. "And compared with ChinaRen, the air network can make everyone more comfortable with the convenience brought by the information revolution."

Yang Ning insists that the day when mobile phones become the terminal of information entertainment will come.

He said that in the 80s and 90s of last century, 99% of the world's computers were used for computing. No one at that time thought that computers could become an entertainment and network terminal. They could play Internet, online games, listen to music and read the dishes.

The same is true for mobile phones.

"We hope that everyone can understand the mobile Internet. Most of the mobile phones can access the Internet, but many people do not know or do not have this habit."

Therefore, in the slogan "mobile Internet surfing the air network" played in the air network, "mobile Internet" has become the first four words of publicity.

However, the bandwidth is too small, the cost is high, and the content is relatively scarce. It is almost random to list which one can make people lose confidence in mobile Internet.

Yang Ning has seen endless opportunities from it. "Emerging technology is not mature at all, but it is not easy to use and expensive. It is not as good as the original technology.

When this happens, emerging companies have the opportunity.

Big companies do not think they are as good as they used to be. For example, the PC Internet will feel that the Internet is much more information and fast, making money so much. Why bother to make wireless?

Yang Ning believes that "when a certain critical point is reached, the wireless Internet will rise at once. It may be faster than we think, because China is developing too fast."

He is also fond of collecting works of art. He even found evidence from his hobbies: after years of silence, the oil painting market suddenly grew blowout this year, and he made a big profit.

On the eve of the arrival of the "critical point", Yang Ning said the only thing he needed to do was to "endure loneliness".

His latest example is Robin Li.

Not long ago, Yang Ning and a group of friends came to Tsinghua to see the drama and passed the Peking University resource building. He pointed out to his friend, "see the little broken window on the two floor?

This building is the place where Robin Li had lived for three or four years.

At that time, the portal and online games were already very popular, but he waited until the day of search.

Another one that brings Yang Ning confidence is NBA, a partner in the air network.

"China has always been a football country. No one in China has ever seen basketball. NBA has made China a country of basketball from a football country by influencing young Chinese groups."

If you think that every president of a listed company needs to work for more than ten hours a day, you are wrong.

Yang Ning averaged eight hours a day.

He thinks he is a very efficient person. "I think long working hours are not a good thing. You need to know if you are wasting your time at work.

If it is meaningless to do this, it is better not to do it. "

He strictly works in such a sequence as important and urgent, important but not urgent, unimportant, urgent, unimportant and urgent.

At the end of the week, Yang Ning likes to take pictures around his camera, but what he enjoys more is the art re creation after taking pictures.

He plans to learn Photoshop well recently, and emphasizes that "it is not a wipe like a news picture, but an exaggerated picture."

In addition to the office, the 798 factory area of Beijing's big mountain is Yang Ning's most haunted place, where he gets together with his painter friends or a gallery or a gallery.

All of these hobbies, which seem to have nothing to do with science background, stem from Yang Ning's worship of Da Vinci from an early age.

"Da Vinci is an achievement in science, art and philosophy, but now the society is fragmented, and there are too few people like Da Vinci.

I am very happy that I know both technology and art.

However, as a businessman, Yang Ning is astute that he combines art closely with commerce.

He turned to the painter's friends and looked around the painting for collection. He had a special room to buy the paintings he bought.

Collecting works of art is not only a way of life, but also a way of managing money.

Another way to manage his money is to invest in angels. This brings him a new identity angel investor. He has invested in more than a dozen new businesses in IT and new media, including popular online, all of which are independent of the wireless Internet that we are doing now.

There is Yang Ning's philosophy of financial management - "do not put eggs in one basket".

Internet Weekly: you can't go to America with your parents when you are 10 years old. Why do you think of going back to China to start a business?

Yang Ning: in 1999, during the winter vacation, I went back to China with Zhou Yunfan and Chen Yizhou. We came to the conclusion that China is the fastest growing place in the world. Now that the fastest growing regions in the world are here, where else do we go?

You look back on the development of these 20 years. This may be one of the fastest growing stages in Chinese history. China used to be in the world rankings. It is a large population, and the economy is lagging behind. In recent years, you see entering the top ten, entering the top eight, the top five and the first three, and then immediately surpass Japan.

Internet Weekly: what is your feeling in the year of ChinaRen?

Yang Ning: at that time, I was very young and I didn't understand anything. I was very passionate and very energetic. Although I now say that we are very careful and cautious, when you have high consciousness and ability, you must be careful and cautious, and improve the executive power. It is limited to the limited ability and many things can not be understood. So what I conclude is that a Chinese sentence is called "blind riding a blind horse and walking by the river at night".

Internet Weekly: do you think Chinaren is too cheap?

Someone had a higher price before.

Yang Ning: if you want to sell, it must be sold at the market price. You can not say how much money you bought in the past, how much money do you sell, and the stock is the same. No one has ever talked about how much money you buy. Finally, the stock market of Sohu has gone wild, and the stocks we have traded are also soaring rapidly. There is nothing to regret, and the world is like that.

Internet Weekly: can ChinaRen satisfy your original ideal at the beginning?

Yang Ning: it has satisfied some of our ideals, because it has indeed changed the lives of many Chinese people.

So I think this is our ideal.

Internet Weekly: why do you want to start the air network?

Yang Ning: it is more sufficient for everyone to enjoy the convenience brought by the information revolution.

Computers can not be used by all people, and the operation is rather complicated.

China has 500 million people with mobile phones. It is a more comprehensive communication tool. Mobile phones are also cheap. Hundreds of dollars can buy a cell phone. Most mobile phones can support Internet access.

Internet Weekly: how long do you have to wait for the wireless Internet?

Yang Ning: I don't know. Like the Chinese stock market, when you are flat, you really don't know when your head is. If you really know, you would have bought it earlier.

I am very young now. We are very patient.

Only by staying lonely can we achieve great success.

Internet Weekly: now you are also an angel investor, do you plan to pition to investors in the future?

Yang Ning: I think so.

First of all, my main task is to be the president of the air network. This is certainly my most important task. I have not yet realized the ideal in the real sense in the air network, and there is still a long way to go.

Being an angel investor is a way of management of my personal assets. Part of my assets are invested in angels, supporting new businesses, the other is real estate, and the third is artwork, and these three are my main investments.

There is not much investment in stocks.