What is the secret to success?, He has led a team to incubate two listed companies and resigned within the system to establish an incubator robot | enterprise | listed company
On the 2023 Global Unicorn List released by Hurun Baifu, three Shanghai unicorn companies, Muxi Integrated Circuit, Xinchi Technology, and Zongmu Technology, come from the same incubator and are named Chuangtu Jungle.
Since its establishment in 2015, this incubator has been based in Zhangjiang Science City and has incubated and served more than 80 technology enterprises with a total valuation of nearly 100 billion yuan. Among them, 2 enterprises have landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, 6 enterprises have been rated as national level specialized, refined, and new "little giant" enterprises, and 14 enterprises have been selected as specialized, refined, and new enterprises in Shanghai.
In the view of Dr. Ye Sen, founder of Chuangtu Jungle, the number of excellent enterprises incubated is the only criterion for evaluating incubators. In 2015, he resigned from his position as Deputy Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Pudong New Area and went abroad to establish the Chuangtu Jungle. In the era when the investment community focused on "Internet plus" and model innovation, he focused on "incubation+investment" in the two hard science and technology fields of integrated circuit and artificial intelligence. It has been proven that his judgment is correct, and the importance of hard technology innovation and entrepreneurship has become increasingly prominent in recent years.
Go to sea for "freedom" and mortgage two houses
In April 2015, Ye Sen submitted his resignation report after completing the preparation of the 13th Five Year Plan for Pudong New Area. Resigning and doing something else was his idea that had been brewing for many years. "I just want to be more free. At the National Development and Reform Commission, I am responsible for the comprehensive economy and I am very busy with work." In the office of the Chuangtu Jungle Incubator, the former department level cadre told reporters about his past.
Ye Sen, founder of Chuangtu Jungle
His understanding of "freedom" includes three layers of meaning: first, physical freedom, allowing one to independently manage their daily work without being fully arranged by their unit; The second is freedom of will, which allows one to do things according to their own will and ideas; The third is financial freedom, which does not mean being wealthy or wealthy, but rather being able to live with dignity while only doing what one likes. Being the "boss" on one's own can achieve all three freedoms.
"I once calculated that if a person had a bank deposit of 20 million yuan, with an annual interest rate of about 1 million yuan, they could achieve financial freedom." Ye Sen said, "After years of hard work, I think financial freedom is no longer a problem."
Behind achieving freedom lies the hardships of early entrepreneurship. He chose to resign in 2015 because he had paid off his mortgage at the end of 2014 and had an explanation for his family. Unexpectedly, after going into the sea, Chuangtu Jungle rented a building in Zhangjiang Science City, and huge financial pressure came with it - they had to spend more than 1 million yuan per month on rent and employee wages. However, for a period of time after the incubator opened, only Timi Robotics, a startup company, settled in.
Faced with pressure, Ye Sen had to mortgage his two houses one after another, with a total loan of over 10 million yuan. Due to office building decoration, vacancy, company daily expenses, and investment in startups, this money still cannot meet the company's cash flow. Every month, he calculates where the employee's salary will be for the next month and borrows money everywhere. Fortunately, many friends and old colleagues generously donated money to help him overcome difficulties.
"Internet plus" era selects hard technology incubation
Running an incubator is so difficult, why choose to enter this industry? Ye Sen told reporters that during his years at the Pudong New Area Development and Reform Commission, he had done a lot of macroeconomic planning work and participated in the formulation of the Pudong New Area's "Eleventh Five Year Plan", "Twelfth Five Year Plan", and "Thirteenth Five Year Plan". He had a relatively macro grasp of the economic development trend of Pudong and the entire Shanghai. "As early as in the 'Eleventh Five Year Plan', we proposed a strategy of combining institutional innovation and technological innovation, with a focus on developing high-tech industries such as semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, and software. Many startups in these industries are located in Zhangjiang, Pudong. I have researched many of these enterprises and found that most of them are tech savvy, but lack the ability to integrate resources, are not good at management, and even do not understand the domestic market."
Ye Sen believes that with his 20 years of government work experience, he can integrate some resources for entrepreneurs and make up for their shortcomings in management and macroeconomic judgment. And these services are exactly where the incubator functions.
In the field of incubating enterprises, he chose integrated circuits and artificial intelligence. In 2015, the "Internet plus" entrepreneurial wave was in the ascendant, but Ye Sen was more optimistic about hard technology entrepreneurship, because he judged that the global economic pattern was undergoing great changes, and the model of China relying on exports and the United States relying on finance was coming to an end. For a long time in the future, the main theme of China's economic development will be technological innovation dominated by hard technology, which is the only path from a major country to a strong one.
Integrated circuits and artificial intelligence are precisely in the field of hard technology. The first enterprise incubated and invested in by Chuangtu Jungle is TiMi Robotics, which belongs to the hardware artificial intelligence enterprise and is the first in China to define three types of medical robots: intelligent disinfection robots, logistics management robots, and intelligent medical service robots. As of the end of last year, this company has led the application for 91 invention patents and developed intelligent products covering more than 400 medical institutions in 28 provinces and cities across the country.
The titanium intelligent disinfection robot is used in makeshift hospitals.
"Chuangtu Jungle invested in TiMi in Angel Wheel." Ye Sen recalled, "There was only one reason for liking TiMi: founder Pan Jing was an entrepreneur full of ideals and passion, who understood both technology and the market. He led an executive team to create projects that were in line with future development trends and would definitely succeed."
"Chuangtu Xiaohotpot" promotes enterprise cooperation
There are still many excellent enterprises invested and incubated by Chuangtu Jungle, such as Xinchi Technology, a car specification chip R&D enterprise valued at 16 billion yuan, Muxi Integrated Circuit, a GPU R&D enterprise valued at 10 billion yuan, and Zongmu Technology, which is in the first tier of intelligent driving in China. Similar to TiMi Robotics, the founders and teams of these companies have mastered key core technologies and are full of entrepreneurial passion.
Hard technology enterprises invested and incubated by Chuangtu Jungle
According to the growth pattern of hard technology enterprises, Chuangtu Jungle divides the focus of incubation services into four aspects: first, helping entrepreneurs complete identity recognition and repositioning, achieving a transformation from researchers to enterprise managers; The second is to integrate innovative elements and assist enterprises in obtaining funding, talent, and product application markets through multiple channels; Thirdly, building an innovation ecosystem to find upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain for enterprises; The fourth is to alleviate the worries and difficulties of start-up enterprises, and assist in solving various troubles.
"Chuangtu Xiaohotpot" is a service form of this incubator. Chuangtu Jungle holds several hot pot banquets every month, inviting CEOs from various companies to gather together, eat self-service hot pot, and exchange their products and entrepreneurial experiences.
In this way, many collaborative projects have emerged at the dining table. Ru Liangfengtai and TiMi Robotics have teamed up to develop a digital twin hospital management solution, allowing ward service robots to conduct rounds and remote teaching through 5G networks; Anban Technology, relying on fuzzy testing technology, signed a contract with Muxi Integrated Circuit to search for software security vulnerabilities in the GPU solution developed by the latter; Xinchi Technology and Zongmu Technology leverage their respective chip and algorithm technology advantages to jointly develop intelligent driving solutions for mass production.
"Chuangtu Xiaohotpot" promotes communication among entrepreneurs
Provide suggestions for cultivating incubators and investing in hard technology
Recently, the "Implementation Plan for Cultivating High Quality Incubators in Shanghai" was released, with the goal of cultivating no less than 20 high-quality incubators by 2025, demonstrating and driving no less than 200 incubators to achieve professional, branded, and international transformation and upgrading.
"This plan has a great driving effect on the incubator industry." Ye Sen said, "Pudong alone has more than 100 incubators. Under the promotion of the plan, if each incubator can cultivate an excellent hard technology enterprise every year, then in 10 years, Pudong will add 1000 excellent enterprises, which is a remarkable achievement!"
When it comes to cultivating high-quality incubators, he believes that the discovery mechanism for early projects in hard technology entrepreneurship is important. The government can establish a database of early projects in hard technology entrepreneurship and open it to society, allowing entrepreneurial projects and incubators to freely connect and break the "building boundary".
Guiding more incubators to invest early, small, and hard is also an important part of cultivating high-quality incubators. Ye Sen believes that the government can study income tax preferential policies for early investment exit of incubators. If investing in early hard technology projects is successful, the returns can indeed be considerable, but behind a successful investment case, 10 or even more projects are needed as denominators. The current tax policy mainly involves withdrawing income tax on a case by case basis, and investment losses that serve as the denominator cannot be included in costs. In addition, compared to other types of investments, investing in early hard technology projects carries greater risks and longer exit cycles, but the income tax rates for these investments are the same.
"The tax system is a very good means of economic regulation. If a failed investment in an early fund can offset costs and the tax rate is lower than other investment products, I believe more funds will join the ranks of 'early investment, small investment, and hard investment'. Ye Sen said that Pudong New Area can play a leading role in studying the feasibility of pilot early investment tax preferential policies.".
