Editor's note: Wang Ye constantly stressed that success is accidental and failure is the norm. Before Ninebot got that "huge sum," every step was on a wire.
Oral | Wang Ye
Interviewing and organizing | Liu Ye
(Ninebot executives)
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Lao Gao (Gao Lufeng) also studied mechanics and was my brother. We also did an entrepreneurial project together in 2003.
At that time, I was a senior and I didn't need to take a graduate school course. I was very busy. He just graduated and started a business. We worked together on a project called smart toys. This product was sold at the time more than 2,000 units, then quality control problems, manufacturing problems, capital chain problems. At that time it was too advanced and the program experience was really bad. It was bad. This company has more than the beginning of the year.
I told Lao Gao in the second half of 2009 that he hadn't contacted for a long time. At that time, he had just ended the group purchase project. Counting as continuous entrepreneurs, he had been fighting in the Internet circle and was always looking for opportunities.
Just as he knew the balance car, he felt that this matter was very reliable. We both went to Sanya and went to experience one. In fact, before the experience, our prototype has been made.
At that time we bought a four-wheeled old scooter, saw the back and installed our own control panel. Because the program and the control board are all ready-made, they are all things that we have pulled down from the robot. The gyro sensor, the attitude detection unit, and the motor drive board are also ready-made. We take the fly-line for two days. Take it out.
After all, we also think that this thing is very fun, but it's too expensive to be 70,000. Eighty thousand dollars is not a toy. It is a luxury. We must make it cheaper, lighter, and smaller.
Later, I borrowed a Segway from my friends and played it for everyone around me. All the people I played felt that this thing was very handsome, but I was scared by the price.
At that time, the company was on Zhichun Road, the Sigma Mansion. We played the car at the door of the company. After many people passed three sentences, how couldn't this thing fall? It was fun. Can I try it? After the trial, how much money, after he knew 80,000 yuan, I fuck. Just left.
Since 2010, we have all invested in it. At that time, I transferred four people from Borchon, including Zhongyuan (Chen Zhongyuan), Zhang Hui, and Shen Tao. These three are now our partners and there is a big fly (Xie Fei). Now Is the Deputy Director of our International Department.
Lao Gao has also established Ninebot in 2011 and called for full cooperation. However, before it was established, it has been operating for a while and is looking for angels to invest.
Because we are very clear that this 3 million can only make the machine, not enough to operate, and the old one took another 2 million investment, so our entire angel actually added up to 5 million, but voted in two different companies.
Fives
My goal at that time was very clear, that is, within ten thousand dollars, ordinary people could afford it. In fact, it is still too optimistic. Ten thousand dollars is not what most people can afford.
We analyzed the structure of the balance car, and initially estimated that there is an opportunity to achieve a cost of 8,000. Later, it was judged to be problematic. If the cost is 8,000, you cannot sell 10,000 yuan. You must also consider the dealers, resident, recruit people, pay taxes, and advertise.
The development of the first generation (Winner) was done for two and a half years. It took quite a long time. Today's seemingly simple matter has been bothering me for a long time. According to today's standards, the machine is still not mature enough. It is more like a state of engineering machine that has high performance and controllability, but is not enough to meet production cost and process goals.
We made 60 of the first batch and 200 of the second batch were all set. At that time, we sold 36,800 yuan and 39,800 yuan, and the cost exceeded 15,000 yuan. Because there are not many sales, the operating costs add up to more than 27,000 yuan, there are channels to open stores and the cost of sales.
In fact, for start-ups, running water is a very important thing. It means that someone pays for your value. You have the opportunity to optimize the value chain. If you have gross profit, it is okay. If you do not have gross profit, you will end up. There is no net profit for gross profit. This is normal.
At that time we were saving money and spent less than 2 million RMB on the entire mold. According to our current practice, it is 5 million to 6 million. At that time, we actually made many sacrifices.
For example, it is possible to open the mold directly without precision machining. However, at that time we chose to open a blank mold. After the blank has got the product, we have to do a lot of finishing, that is, the mold is cheap and expensive.
Because there is no money, you can only save money on molds and spend more on volume production. Many of the finer things on the design do not dare to use. The fear is that the investment is too large and the research and development expenses are too high. I can't afford it.
It was the most difficult stage, that is, at that time we basically completed the design of the “Big 9†and we needed money to make it. And it was very clear at that time that we were fully capable of reducing its cost by another half, and that we had to cut it by half again. The performance was very good and very beautiful.
But we didn't have enough money to do it. At that time, nobody knew the balance car. No one was optimistic about the business. So I think I need a grade.
From May 2012 to May 2013 we already have a complete fiscal year data. Not bad, we made almost twenty or thirty million dollars in the first year.
The Middle Road voted for us to be Pre-A. At that time, the first generation of products had already sold 10 million yuan. At the end, Zhong Lu had invested 12 million yuan, and the New Angels had invested 4 million yuan. After the 16 million yuan came in, we only integrated the two teams from the legal point of view. Before we all worked together, there was no name.
That was the happiest thing for us in the past few years, because we know that close that deal, we will be able to do a successful thing. The brothers went out on the day and all of them drank two drinks.
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Balance car is very small. In 2013, Easystep did the most, and it is said that sales have reached 100 million. In fact, we started at about the same time, but we are slow. The direction that Easy Step started with was a small car. We started with a high-performance car.
At that time, I didn't think so much about it. The main reason was that the car wasn't fun. It was only a means of transportation. What we wanted to do was a cool, powerful feeling. There was a roar of the engine, gear, and a mechanical feel. thing.
At that time, our office was in Wangjing. Most of the R&D people were in a private house in Tiantongyuan. That house had a rent of 7,000 pieces, 300 square meters, and two floors. We transformed all the basements into laboratories. We wanted to be able to make ourselves. Bloody car.
Its implementation seems to be a coincidence.
From a business logic point of view, if Tesla started with a car like the Beiqi E150, it would not be so famous. Even if he did, he would be a car factory in California. He wouldn’t Occupy the headlines of major media, it can not be a source of such an idea for electric vehicles to counterattack.
Ninebot is a representative of high-end balance cars in the past year or two. We issued Dajiu in November 2013, which counts as a product of rivers and lakes. There is no better performance than it is on the market, except that the reliability may not be as strong as the Segway in terms of torque and handling response.
It was also the time when the team was most full of expectations. There was no money before. Many of them wanted to do it. Now that we have a huge sum of 16 million, we did a lot of adventures, but these adventures have finally come down. After the release of Dajiu, the response was also very good. When we had a meal together, we also said that we had to buy Segway one day.
Expand reading:
Wang Ye (Reading): From Asimov to Ninebot
Wang Ye readme (below): let everyone use us a wheel
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