The success rate of To B entrepreneurs who simply make products and technologies is not very high.
On January 9th, the “Shenxiang” Annual Opportunity Summit was held in Beijing. Qian Qianhui, the founder of Longzhong Xinyi Fund, gave a speech on “To B Venture Capital” to Hailong. He shared his observations and judgments about To B Ventures.
In the speech, he told Hailong that it is very shallow to understand To B enterprises as “serving enterprises” at this stage. To B enterprises should be divided into two categories. One is to serve enterprises and improve their efficiency. One type is customers who use their scenarios to serve To B corporate customers, namely B To B To C.
Xiang Hailong believes that when it comes to To B entrepreneurship, people who used to be purely product and technology enthusiasts are not very successful at To B.
“If you want to be a successful entrepreneur on the To B track, I think we must first have a prerequisite, that is, he must have a business mindset. From the day he wrote BP, he should understand how this company makes money. , How to live, what is the business model. “
Xiang Hailong also put forward a new wooden barrel theory at the “Shenxiang” Annual Opportunity Summit. He believes that the original founder favors all-round talents, and now he should find partial talents. He is particularly good at certain aspects. Ordinary people can’t catch up with him, look at things farther and deeper in their areas of expertise, and see things that others can’t see.
“The new wooden barrel theory is whether we can load water obliquely, with the longest side, it may be more. Now as the division of labor becomes more and more detailed, we can find more capable to make up for your short board. When people come to this company, we make up for it. At the same time, your strengths are particularly good, and you will be more likely to survive the entire competition. “
Xiang Hailong said that at present Qian Qianhui has created three empowerments, namely: Empowering sales in Taiwan, will combine the entire Qian Qianhui resources to build a sales team of thousands, to help invest in Company B sells its own products; in addition, it has the capabilities of management consulting and technology capabilities.
“Many of our members are able to use the same sales platform. In addition, we will integrate all technical capabilities, big data capabilities, face recognition capabilities, corporate messaging capabilities, The ability to check the landing, etc., is empowered to all members of Qianqianhui, so that their technical costs become very low.
With such a layout, modestyIn meeting the end-user process, the sink is equivalent to using the B-end as a channel, which can be made into the S To B To BTo C model.
“I recently invested in a game company. It’s a bit like in a bar. We customized him a bottle of beer for the OEM, so that he could satisfy his customers, and then slowly served more bars. I became a platform. Then, the market will be very, very big. In the end, you can add S, S To B To B To C, so the value is very large.
The following is the full text of the speech:
Thank you very much for the invitation of Shenxiang. Today I had the opportunity to participate in the activities of Shenxiang Annual Summit. I came to talk with Shenxiang Organizing Committee when I came here. What do you want me to talk about? It’s about talking about investment and entrepreneurship in the To B field. Everyone will wonder if the topic you are talking about today is chasing the hot spot, because in 2019, a lot of people started to pay attention to the investment in the field of To B, but in fact I am not chasing the hot spot, because in 2014 I have started to To B has invested in this track.
In 2014, I invested in a company called Zhongmeng, which was started by one of my students. When he left the company, I persuaded him not to start a business. At that time, he was not encouraged from the perspective of retaining talents for the company, but he was very determined to go out to start a business.
After going out for a while, it should be iterating. After the product was launched, he found me and asked me to give him some suggestions. I gave him some suggestions and re-made some strategic adjustments for him. He said Hailong you should just vote for me, because I want to get your coaching for a long time. Because he is also a student of mine, after I went out to start a business, of course, I hope he can achieve greater success, and I agreed at that time. So this became the first project I invested in 2014.
At that time in 2017, I was already thinking about my future. At that time, I was 40 years old. I was thinking about how to think about the future and how to layout. I was thinking whether the 40-year-old would do something of my own, so I was thinking. Make investment in To B industry track and some layout.
I set up a company called Shanghai Licheng Enterprise Management Office in March 2017. In the same year, I invested in another company called Niu Niu Bang. After doing this for a few years, this company has six points in the country. Company. At present, the company has not raised a penny. The company has been profitable from the beginning to the present, and has not been financing. So I have done a lot of research on this track in 2014. I am a To B entrepreneur myself. To the investor who finally became a To B, I will study the To B track from the perspective of investment. At the same time, I was also an entrepreneur of To B.
When we talk about To B track investment, we must first understand what a To B type company is.Is very critical. Of course, many people think this is not the obvious thing-To B is the service for the enterprise. I think this understanding is very shallow.
What is a To B business? I understand it this way. I have divided To B businesses into two categories:
The first category is the services that this company provides to help another company improve efficiency.
For example, it provides a product and service to help the company, such as management software, to help the company’s financial work improve efficiency; or personnel management systems, warehouse management systems, etc., to help companies better manage employees and improve their internal The overall management efficiency, this is a To B type company.
There is also a To B type of company’s products and services that use its scenario to serve customers and customers.
This may sound a bit confusing. Let me give you an example. For example, when Junyao produced milk, many consumers did not know this company, but the milk you might drink when you go to a hotel is provided by Junyao. For example, when we go to a bar to drink, in fact, there is a kind of wine in it that is beer, which may be customized for him by Qingdao. For example, a small bottle of aluminum beer can not be bought outside, and it is specifically for the bar.
The products or services provided in this way are actually what I just said-to provide a product and service to an enterprise, and this enterprise uses these scenarios and services in its own scenario, and then satisfies its users and customers. This is another To B business. I personally prefer the second type of To B business.
Why do I prefer to look at To B type companies? One is an internal cause, and the other is an external cause.
What is internal cause? I have been working for more than ten years. I have been working as a To B service. It should serve 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in China, as well as some large enterprises. I have done a lot of communication for them, and I know what pain points they have. The other is that I actually saw the growth of the To B companies we serve, from a small company to a very large company. Of course, I also saw many To B companies die.
Then the internal cause is that I am very familiar with the To B industry.
What is the external cause? I think China has now reached a stage of consumption upgrade. In fact, the goods and services available on the market are now in a good state from the earliest and relatively scarce goods and services. Now that consumption is upgraded, The products and services I buy must be of good quality and service, and I must be happy after consumption.
If it is a period of flooding of goods and services, everyone ’s consumption habits are to find better products orWhen serving, then we can better understand product and service providers in the entire industry, better understand these companies, and better provide these companies with some enabling services, so that we can better meet the terminal’s The needs of users and consumers.
So there will be a lot of people in the whole ecology who are more concerned about the construction of the B-end ecology. For example, Ali rates the entire merchant end, empowers him in all aspects, and puts some restrictions on them, including the United States. Mission is the same, even today’s headline will be the headline number, why do you want to do it? It is to make the content more controllable, the content and services provided to consumers more authentic and reliable, and better quality.
I think that after developing to this stage, how to better empower and serve the B-side enterprises, and then better serve the needs of the C-side, this is the external reason I tend to look at To B-type enterprises.
For both internal and external reasons, I particularly like, research and invest in this track. What kind of person is more worth investing on this track?
I think that some people who can only make products and only technology can make the To B track. The success rate is not very high. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur on the To B track, you must first have a prerequisite, that is, he must have business thinking. From the first day of writing BP, you must understand how this company makes money and how to survive. What a business model looks like.
In the past few years, many entrepreneurs may say that I started my business first and got money. When I reach a certain stage, I will consider how to make money and think about making money in the process of starting a business. Not now, I think as an entrepreneur now, from the first day of starting a business, you should think about what your company’s business model looks like and how to make money.
In addition, I think that in the process of starting a business, especially at the To B track, the vertical track you choose must be very good, and I hope that the person you choose is very, very long in some respect. Yes, he is much longer than others.
I think there should be a new wooden barrel theory now. Originally, we thought that finding an entrepreneur should be all-round, and it should be an all-round person. In fact, this kind of person is difficult to succeed. Now we should find a bias. He is particularly good at a certain aspect, and grows so long that ordinary people cannot catch up with him. He has such a strong point in this field. He sees things far and deep, and sees things that others cannot see.
The new wooden barrel theory is whether we can load water obliquely. It may be more with the longest side. Now as the division of labor becomes more and more detailed, we can find more people who are able to make up for your shortcomings to this company, we have made up, and at the same time your strengths are particularly strong, you will be more likely to survive the entire competition Come down.
What difficulties do To B companies have in the process of starting a business? Actually, I think that all companies start with a difficultyIt is especially expensive when the scale is relatively small. For example, for a small company, he rents a house more expensive than others. Can other resources get better tax benefits? Can you get lower costs in the entire corporate promotion process? These should be considered very, very difficult for him.
Additional difficulties I find it very, very difficult for them to get customers. At the beginning of setting up a To B company, it may make a very good product, because it is difficult to reach customers during the process of sales. why? Because we know that if a consumer is going to buy a product, it is relatively simpler. It may be possible to write a description and buy it online, but if it is a To B product, you have to go into details. Even bidding and communicating with their marketing, personnel, finance, and IT departments are very troublesome things, so it is difficult to sell the product.
So the cost of sales is very, very high. On the one hand, the development cost is also very high. The startup company just started to buy some mature API interfaces. If you buy it, because the company is small, the cost is very high. If the other party’s API is not yet mature, you have to use it for secondary development before you can put it into your product. There is also the entire development cost. If you ca n’t do it, you can develop and find someone by yourself. The total cost is very, very High.
So I said that in the process of starting a To B company, you are facing great difficulties in all three aspects.
I registered a company in 2017—Shanghai Licheng Enterprise Management Office. My original intention was that I wanted to be a platform, an alliance, an organization, and empower these entrepreneurs through my alliance organization to make his entrepreneurship easier and more successful. This is how I founded this alliance organization and this platform. Original intention.
I named the platform Qian Qianhui. Why is it modest? Modesty comes from Hexagram 15 and Modesty in the Book of Changes, which represents modesty and tolerance. I hope that those who join my alliance must be modest to themselves and tolerant to others. I hope to join such a modest and tolerant attitude. The affiliate organization, with the support of this affiliate organization, makes his entrepreneurial business easier. At that time, I had a slogan in it: “Three mountains and five mountains, hundreds of rivers into the sea, a gentle man, and self-improvement.” It’s actually mountains. I hope that I will give them some empowerment and the role of land to help them succeed better.
At that time, I went to design this logo, and Qian Qianhui registered the three-character trademark. This logo was also registered. Let’s take a look at this logo. It is actually composed of four characters, called Shanchuan Ruhai.
Of the companies I invest in, the companies I directly invest in giveIt is named after the mountain, and then my fund investment is named after the river, because there must be a river when there are mountains and land, mountains and rivers into the sea, the sea is one of my words. This is actually a hexagram. In addition, I hope that it is a platform. I designed this LOGO to be inside and outside, just like Chinese coins. I hope that the members who join the Qianqianhui organization will be more strict with themselves and then be more tolerant with partners.
Here are some companies that I have invested in. There are about 10 companies that I directly invest in. There are more than 10 companies that I invest in funds. There are about 20 companies in total. There are several types of companies I invest in that are the second of the To B companies I just talked about. He actually does not B To B, but B To B To C.
Why do I prefer this type of business? For example, there is a short video in it, which empowers some manufacturers and large-scale apps, and empowers them so that they can easily open a video channel in their APP to meet the needs of their users. If we provide such a service, then there are many users or customers of this service. We serve one client and he serves all his clients. We are equivalent to a stakeholder.
There are very many users or customers who really use our needs, and this market is very, very large. So in the process of satisfying the end users, we are equivalent to using the B-end as a channel. What can we do for a while? Can be made into S To B To B To C. I recently invested in a game company. It’s a bit like in a bar. We give him a special OEM custom beer to make him meet his customers, and then slowly serve more bars. I will become a platform. Big. At the end, you can add S, S To B To B To C, so the value is very large.
I’ll stop here, this is my thinking about the entire To B investment. thank you all.
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