Alumni Entrepreneur Share - Startups: A Game of Survival

Speaker: Mr. Eric Haomian Wang

Date: 29 Oct 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 6-7 pm
Venue: LTB
Title: Startups - A Game of Survival 創業是一個有關生存的游戲

Abstract:

I am not here to teach you how to run startups. Instead, I just want to share some personal understanding and experience. You might not find a highway to success from this sharing, but I hope it could at least save you some detours. You may also have different opinions on some issues, but everything I share is the fact which comes from my own experience. Today, I am going to talk about teamwork, VC, products, ideas, and most importantly, how to survive. Running startups is to survive, and then it is the first time you are able to stand on the rings.

我在這裡不是教你如何創業，只是分享我的對創業的理解。你從我這裡無法得到創業成功的秘訣，但也許可以少走一些彎路。我所說的一切你可以不贊同，但都是事實，因為，這些都是我的經歷。我會談到關於團隊、關於融資、關於產品、關於 idea，但最重要的時關於生存。創業的首要就是先生存下去，只有生存下去，才有資格談成功。

Speaker:

Mr. Eric Haomian Wang is CSE alumni. After reading a book about Silicon Valley in the middle school, he became addicted to startups. He started his first venture, a website for students to publish their essays and diaries, during his first year in the middle school. However, after three months' operation, it failed because of short of money for the web hosting service. Then Eric started his second venture, a search engine of the BBS systems for the Chinese universities, during his undergraduate study in USTC. But he also failed. However, failures cannot stop Eric's passion. Although he got an offer for the PhD program in HKUST, he decided to transfer to the Master program and started to work in Oracle Research and Development Center in 2009. In 2011, he resigned from Oracle and started his own business with an angel investment. After that, he has been dedicating to running startups ever since. So far, his company has a few products, among which the most "successful" one is the website "www.code4app.com". This website is currently one of the biggest and most famous iOS development communities in mainland. He earned his first bucket of gold when the website was acquired in November of 2013. After two months, he started a new company named "CosBeauty" and served as CTO. This company is committed to produce intelligent beauty equipment and explore the potential market of smart devices. However, the primal motivation deep inside his mind is to establish a pure Internet company. So he created LinkMob studio with the money he earned and another angel investment in August 2014. This company dedicates to creating cool and funny mobile apps. To summarize, Eric's entrepreneurial career can be summed up with one sentence: struggling on the way to a bigger success.

自初中讀到一本有關硅谷的書之後，Eric 就無可救藥地迷上創業。高一做了第一個網站，給其他中學生發布個人的作文和日記（有點類似多年之後的博客），無奈三個月之後，服務器沒錢付費而以失敗告終。本科就讀於中科大（USTC），大四那年第二次創業，做一個國內所有高校 BBS 的聚合與搜索引擎，同樣失敗。之後，幸獲 HKUST 垂青，拿到攻讀博士的獎學金。在 HKUST 兩個月之後，創業的欲望再次燃燒，於是半途而廢，轉讀碩士。09 年金融危機，就業市場哀鴻遍野，幾個 offer 被收回之後，去了甲骨文深圳研發中心。兩年的螺絲釘生活根本無法阻擋創業欲望再次燃燒，而這次一發不可收拾。11 年辭職創業，同年獲得天使風投，從此一直走在創業的路上。創業三年多以來，做過頗多產品，唯一算得上”成功“的只有一個網站：www.code4app.com。該網站目前是國內最大最活躍的 iOS 開發社區之一。網站於 13 年 11 月被收購，收獲人生第一小桶金。沉寂兩個月之後，再次上路，應朋友邀請，一起創建 CosBeauty 並擔任 CTO，該公司致力於制造智能美容儀器，一腳踏入了火熱的智能設備市場。但內心還是希望做一家純粹的互聯網公司，於是在 14 年 8 月，投入之前賺得的所有資金，以及另一位深交多年的天使投資人的投資，創建 LinkMob（凌墨互動），致力於創造酷而又有趣的移動互聯網產品。創業生涯至今可以用一句總結：一直沒大成，一直在努力。