Post-80s Entrepreneurship Story —— Wang Tao, Founder and CEO of ——DJI Innovation Company

Entrepreneurship can't last three minutes, but you must stick to it. One or two failures don't mean anything. Persistence may not be successful, but if you don't persist, you will definitely fail. Here, I would like to share with you the entrepreneurial story of Wang Tao after 1980s. I hope you like it! Welcome to read!

The Prime Minister praised Wang Tao, founder of DJI UAV: "Your market share accounts for 70%. Is this achievement still small? You are a star. "

The world's largest consumer drone manufacturer, with a valuation of US$ 24 billion and a global market share of 70%, is the achievement made by DJI since its establishment nine years ago.

Wang Tao, founder and CEO of DJI Innovation Company, went to the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering of HKUST in 2003. Today, the sales of small UAVs developed by Wang Tao account for half of the world's sales, which makes "Made in China" stand out in the high-tech field, and its value has reached 27.9 billion.

//study abroad was rejected and there was no goal. Entrepreneurship starts in the dormitory//

Wang Tao, 1980, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Because of his good family, he liked model airplanes since he was a child. He once got a remote-controlled helicopter from his father. In his imagination, the helicopter is like an elf that can be manipulated at will. It can hover in the air and fly wherever it wants, but in fact it is not the case at all. The uncontrollable helicopter crashed shortly after taking off, and the rapidly rotating propeller left a scar on his hand.

"At that time, I wanted to make something that could automatically control the flight of helicopters." After studying in Hangzhou, Wang Tao was admitted to the Electronic Department of East China Normal University. In his junior year, Wang Tao, unwilling to be mediocre, dropped out of East China Normal University and applied for a world-class university. His goals were Stanford and MIT, but both were rejected. In the end, only the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology issued an admission notice, where he studied in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering.

In 2005, at the age of 25, I began to study the flight control system of a remote-controlled helicopter without a goal in life. Wang Tao, who is preparing his graduation project, decided to take the flight control system of the remote-controlled helicopter as his graduation project. He found two classmates to persuade the teacher to agree to their research direction. Does the core problem he wants to solve still stem from his childhood dream? Let the model plane soar freely.

With the HK$ 18000 given by the school, Wang Tao and others have been busy for half a year. However, in the final demonstration stage, the plane that should have hovered in the air fell down, and the failed graduation project got a C. This poor performance even made him lose the opportunity to go to a famous European Union school for further study.

Fortunately, Wang Tao's dedication was recognized by a professor, and he was able to continue his postgraduate studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 2006, Wang Tao and two of his classmates founded DJI Innovation Technology Company in Shenzhen. They work in a three-bedroom apartment, and Wang Tao takes out all the remaining scholarships obtained in the university for research. DJI Technology sold $6,000 worth of parts to customers such as universities and state-owned power companies in China, which were welded on their DIY UAV brackets.

The sales of these products enabled Wang Tao to support a small team, while he and several students of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology lived on their remaining university scholarships. Wang Tao recalled, "I didn't know how big the market would be. Our idea is also simple: develop a product that can support a team of 10 to 20 people. "

Due to the lack of early foresight and Wang Tao's strong personality, there are constant disputes within DJI technology. DJI technology began to lose employees. Some people think that the boss is very harsh and stingy in the distribution of equity. Two years after its establishment, almost all members of the founding team of DJI Technology left. Wang Tao admits that he may be an "unattractive perfectionist" and "hurt the hearts of employees at that time".

At the end of 2006, the company was in crisis. Lu Di, an old friend of Wang Tao's family, generously donated $90,000 (Wang Tao said this was the only time in DJI's history that external funds were needed) to help DJI tide over the difficulties. Later, Lu Di went to DJI to take charge of financial work, and today he has become one of DJI's largest shareholders.

In 2008, the first mature product interview. The first mature helicopter flight control system XP3. 1 developed by him came out.

20 10, an important figure Xie Jia joined DJI. Xie Jia is Wang Tao's middle school classmate. After joining, she played an important role in the development of DJI. She is in charge of marketing and an important assistant of Wang Tao.

20 1 1, DJI north America branch was established. Quinn, an American, ran a start-up company engaged in aerial photography at that time, and later helped DJI set up a DJI North American branch in Texas, aiming to introduce drones to the mass market. At that time, he put forward a new slogan for the company: "Possible future".

20 12 wishes the eve of dawn. DJI already has all the elements needed for a complete UAV: software, propeller, bracket, balance ring and remote control.

20 13, 1 year1October, "DJI Elf" was released. This is the first pre-assembled quadrotor aircraft that can take off at any time: it can fly within one hour after unpacking, and the first fall will not cause disintegration. Because of its simplicity and ease of use, "DJI Elf" incited the non-professional drone market.

//Non-standardized CEO//

In DJI, Wang Tao has two identities, one is CEO and the other is CTO.

It is difficult to define whether he is a qualified CEO. He rarely faces the media directly, rarely participates in public activities, and even misses the press conference. But for products and technology, Wang Tao is almost paranoid about pursuing the word "perfection".

Two years ago, Wang Tao once said in an interview: "I am a product manufacturer. I just want to make the product well and let more people use it. "

In the early days of DJI, Wang Tao made a wish list. According to the characteristics of UAV, the three problems of stability, clarity and transmission distance were solved, and the later product line of DJI was launched according to this list.

The three problems in this list correspond to the three technologies of DJI: pan/tilt, aerial photography and transmission system.

"In the past, drones had a lot of inconvenience in operating experience, which blocked a large number of ordinary consumers. We believe that with the technical accumulation of DJI, we can launch a highly integrated product to solve this pain point and create value in one fell swoop. The success of the Phantom series proves that our decision is correct. " Wang Wei said.

In the company, what he emphasizes most is the word "taste". "In our father's generation, China has always lacked products that can impress the world, and China manufacturing has always been unable to get rid of the situation of gaining market by cost-effective advantage. In this era, successful enterprises should have different ideas and values, and DJI is willing to concentrate on making really good products to reverse this less proud status quo. "

This is more reflected in the simple style of products and the company as a whole.

The grasp of taste permeates the company. Company employees sometimes supply fruits every afternoon, and the pictures of these fruits are processed by the administrative staff to ensure the quality of the pictures.

Michael, a partner of Sequoia Capital? Michael moritz once wrote on his linkedin: "DJI's Elf 2Vision is basically equivalent to a flying AppleII."

DJI also relies on products to enter the American market and become a brand comparable to Apple.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, is one of the few people that Wang Tao appreciates. He compared himself to "great minds think alike" Steve Jobs. "He has many excellent qualities, and his practices and ideas have also brought me a lot of inspiration. Naturally, I will love my house and my dog. " Wang Wei told reporters.

Unlike most CEOs, Wang Tao rarely appears in public to talk about products. He and DJI's public relations team controlled the public's access to this information because they were afraid that the public would pay too much attention to Wang Tao personally, thus distracting them from the product.

This taboo even goes far beyond the average CEO. He even missed the launch of DJI products, from Elf series to Osmo with pan-tilt camera, and then to agricultural and forestry plant protection drones. At every epoch-making press conference, Wang Tao often only lives in press releases.

For Wang Tao, the product contains everything he has to say. Whether the public accepts it or likes it, he is not prepared to defend his story and mental journey during research and development.

It is precisely because of the rapid development of drones in DJI that many investment institutions are rushing.

20 18 April, DJI's new round of 10 billion US dollars equity financing was exposed. DJI, a maverick, adopts an unusual financing method, that is, bidding financing, which requires investors to subscribe for a certain number of shares and actively bid for a high proportion of bonds, which are three-year overseas interest-free bonds, which means that investors have to pay their investment money to DJI without interest.

At present, there are several versions of DJI after financing, namely $24 billion and $22 billion. It is estimated that Wang Tao's worth has reached 45 billion, which is closer to the real value, and the outside world has no way to verify it. Compared with its popularity as a unicorn, DJI's information is not transparent.

With the spread of the trade war this year, after the United States "attacked" Huawei, DJI also became a target. However, DJI is not worried about raising taxes and banning purchases. Instead, he chose to be positive. In the face of tax increase, DJI chose to raise prices, and the ban on purchase restriction even caused contradictions within the US military. The Pentagon has no choice but to approve the purchase. In June this year, when the US military once again warned that DJI was unsafe, DJI had been regarded as "the second Huawei" by netizens. Why is DJI so crazy? Because DJI is a high-tech enterprise that really goes to the world by technology, is all this just? Speak by strength.

? How do novices find their own entrepreneurial projects?

1, find the pain point

The pain point is the trouble you encounter in life, and then solve this trouble. You will find the pain point of the enterprise in the free profit model and become the just need of the enterprise. You can get applause if you like it, just follow!

2, looking for market segments!

Look for the blue ocean from the Red Sea, look at the big companies, see what they have not done, and cut into the market from this blank.

3, the field you are good at, or the skills you have!

To put it simply, a friend who used to make Maotai-flavor cakes made delicious cakes. I asked him how much he charged, and he said he wouldn't teach you the secret recipe of 3 thousand yuan, but only taught you to make cakes. Teach the secret recipe 6000 yuan. It's a pity that he didn't grow up. He just did it himself in the shop.

In fact, he can get a franchise chain, which is very profitable.

The basic students of the "free profit model" have only one recipe for making bread, which has made 6 10 branches popular all over the country.

4. Update or integrate resources on the existing basis.

Upgrade existing technologies or products, or build new projects through the integration of some resources.

5, product structure adjustment

Combine different products or different functions together.

Related articles:

1 later. 80, entrepreneurial story-Wang Xing

Inspirational story of hard work after 2.80.

Entrepreneurship story after 3.80

Post-4.80 Entrepreneurship Story-Zhang Yiming

5. Entrepreneurial stories, 6 successful entrepreneurial stories