Chen Wufu, The God Of Silicon Valley

Chen Wufu has a famous saying, "if you want to start a business, ask your family first.

They agreed to go to business.

On the day of his new business, every member of his family would invite all the family members of his team to have dinner together.

If this is the case, "the business of starting a business and doing business is the mission of heaven sending me down."

Chen Wufu said.

If I only earn money, I can retire at the age of more than 30.

Chen Wufu is not an idiot.

In 1999, he made an in-depth report on the front page and called it "industrial incubators".

In 2000 and 2002, he was voted the ten largest entrepreneur in the world by authoritative venture magazine.

In the 2000 years since he first started his business in 1986, he has "started 11 high-tech companies" and has been "retired" for a long time.

Take Cascade Communication, which was founded in Boston in 1990, for example, its market value reached $about 10000000000 after 1994.

Even in the golden age from 1995 to 2000, it is also a legend.

"But retirement is not what I want."

Chen Wufu wants to stand on the present node and constantly observe what the future will be and what will happen in the future.

Therefore, this introverted and shy person will never take the initiative to find someone to talk to in many places, but when he talks about entrepreneurship, he will be very different.

"Entrepreneurship can touch new things".

2001 was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at Optix, the optical fiber communication industry. Chen Wufu proposed to the general assembly that he should be awarded the "half life achievement award" because he had to do something related to entrepreneurship in the second half of his life.

"Many people are happy with me," Chen Wufu said, laughing at himself.

If the company he created earlier had a smaller scale, Chen Wufu would invite specialized CEO to manage or even sell it.

"I only enjoy the happiness in the first half."

This kind of "new and old" personality is destined to make Chen Wufu, an investor, only focus on early projects.

The acorn garden, which he founded with three other companions, is a breeding center for pioneering enterprises.

"Playing basketball to a certain age, should also be a coach."

Through acorn garden, Chen Wufu and his partners want to share their entrepreneurial experience with more people.

Chen Wufu's performance just happened to be shining.

Excluding the Cascade Communication listed in 1994, the Arris Networks, founded in 1995, was bought by Cascade for $150 million. The Ardent Communication launched in 1996 was bought by Cisco for $250 million, while Shasta Networks in 1998 was bought by the Nortel network (Nortel) at a price of about 350 million dollars.

"People often say that a lifetime of business success is very few."

Chen Wufu joked that perhaps it should be attributed to his name.

But apart from the joke, the fact that he tried to say is that "time makes heroes."

I am not smarter than others, but I am lucky that I entered the right industry at the right time.

Chen Wufu, who arrived in the US in 1974, graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department of NTU. He first obtained his master's degree in electrical engineering from University of Florida. Then he studied computer communication at Berkeley University of California.

At that time, the Internet application based on IP technology is rising. "The communication mode of the whole society is in the process of subversion".

In the American society from 1985 to 2000, the field of TMT is like a big gold mine everywhere. "You just bend down and you are just a piece of gold."

When Ardent was done in 1996, it was CISCO's initiative to find it.

CISCO invested $12 million to make Chen Wufu form a team. "Product is my recommendation, which is a combination of voice and image." after a year and a half, CISCO bought 240 million dollars for Ardent.

"This mode of cooperation was a new model at that time," Chen Wufu said. Because the market is good and the opportunities are many, it is the new model that some people dare to try.

If it is stable, no one wants to do so.

"At that time, I went to the people and said that as long as we join the entrepreneurial team, there will be about 1 million income, and they do not believe it."

As a result, the product was made six months later, and CISCO, who was eager to integrate the product with its own product, bought Ardent without bargaining. At that time, the $12 million invested in Chen Wufu spent only about 1 million.

"I'm very embarrassed," Chen Wufu said. This led him to become vice president of CISCO for a year, helping Ardent integrate into CISCO.

But it is still not the fastest time for Chen Wufu to start a business in 6 months.

In 1994, Arris Networks was founded for more than 2 months, and its products were limited to "some lines drawn on the blackboard". Large enterprises, including CISCO, liked it very much.

10 months later, Arris's product was molded, and Cascade bought it. "After all, it's our former company."

Chen Wufu changed his life 1977 years ago. He was also poor and white. He had no money and no entrepreneurial experience.

The young people from Taiwan, China originally wanted to change their destinies through reading.

Chen Wufu, who was applying for admission to Berkeley California, was "A in general."

Because of Berkeley's oral test, Chen Wufu, who spoke badly, failed unexpectedly.

"Language skills can not be trained in universities, so I decided to go outside and mix."

The experience of "mixed" has made Chen Wufu have the idea of starting a business.

His first job was to sell technical support in a company selling machinery for banks.

In the process of dealing with salesmen, "they told me not to do technical work, but there is no future."

We can earn three million by going to a business and eating a meal. You can't make it all your life. "

Chen Wufu said, "they said a word that profoundly influenced me: the closer you get to money, the more likely you are to make money."

Chen Wufu's office was next to the bank. "I'm very close to money. How can I get it?"

Thinking over and over again, there are two ways: one is to strive to be the top of the company, the other is to start business on its own.

Socrates said, "know yourself."

After that day, Chen Wufu wore a pair of "tinted glasses": whether he heard a news from radio or from newspapers or televisions, it could trigger his thought: does this matter have something to do with my business?

"Second jobs in California, and the first job in San Francisco, the diagonal line in the United States."

But without hesitation, Chen Wufu went.

He thinks that computer technology is a developing direction in the future. Therefore, the first step is to know what is driving the computer.

The company in California can give him a job as a programmer.

"Where is the location and the salary is not a problem."

The only important thing is whether it can help the business.

After 3 half a year, Chen Wufu, who has become a department head of Wang an computer company, feels that his professional accumulation has been enough. He has been inquiring about whether a newly established company is looking for someone, "how the new company works, but I don't know yet."

Wang Wang, the then computer magnate, advised him not to be so adventurous.

Chen Wufu was now the father of 2 children, and the family had just bought a house.

But Chen Wu Fu, who was born in the tiger year and tiger moon, could not see the risk: if the new company did it, I would make it; if the company did not do well, I learned a lot of new things in the company, so it would be stronger.

There must be other companies willing to dig me in the past.

In 1981, Chen Wufu entered Bytex, a newly opened small company, with fourth employees.

When the business grew slowly, Chen Wufu, who was ambitious in 1986, chose to leave. He founded her first company CEC (Communication Equipment Corporation) in Lowell, a suburb of Boston. At that time, he was already the head of Bytex technology department.

Chen Wufu has a famous saying, "if you want to start a business, ask your family first."

They agreed to go to business.

On the day of his newly created business, every member of the team will be invited to dinner.

"After dinner, I will announce that this is not a welcome party (welcome party), this is a farewell party (farewell party)."

Chen Wufu said that from this day, the team would temporarily leave the family for the development of the company.

When CEC was founded, "there was no problem", so someone was willing to invest $2 million, and they wouldn't accept it.

The only 5 people in the company took two people out to help them work in order to make money to maintain the company's daily expenses, and the rest of the 3 people left for money.

But after 9 months, no new investor has been found. "Business plan has been changed and changed".

"The hardest part is that at the end of that year, wages are no longer coming out, and they will continue to tell people that bread will be there and there will be money."

At this time, Chen Wufu, sleepless night.

Finally, the money came to the door. "Half the share, but only 1 million dollars."

Once the year passed, the market could not be opened, but the money had already been used up.

What is more urgent is that the company has grown from 5 to more than 20.

Luckily, the last company investor helped to recommend another company based on trust in Chen Wufu technology and bought CEC at a price of 4 million US dollars.

"This is the most painful part of my career."

The reason is, "I didn't see the needs of the market".

This pressure, "the more entrepreneurial, the more experience you have, the more endurance you have."

Like a mountain, if you turn over, you will no longer feel the road ahead.

However, Chen Wufu prefers to devote himself to a sound entrepreneurial team. Besides skilled engineers, he also needs to know who will manage the market, to increase the income and reduce expenditure for the company.

"Especially in China, most of the reasons for a company's death are due to human reasons."

Chen Wufu said, "if we want to start a business, we should accumulate friends resources from now on."

Starting from the first company, Chen Wufu's entrepreneurial team is constantly changing, and his greatness lies in the fact that he can quickly set up an entrepreneurial team.

Maintaining a stable team is relatively simple for sustainable entrepreneurship, but the problem is "the maturity of new ventures takes about 5 years." if the core team is removed, the enterprises will die. Chen Wufu also "sees too many opportunities". It is impossible to wait until the previous industry is mature and then do second.

He has to make products before demand comes.

"It may not be clear what products the market needs in three years, but I can see clearly what products are needed in half a year and a year later."

This requires executive power.

So he must be able to find the right entrepreneurial team.