There is such a group of investors. They have profound industry insights and are keen and decisive in decision-making. Identifying horses and unicorns in the treacherous world of venture capital has created one myth after another. Take Wu Shichun, for example, an investor who identifies potential in the venture capital arena.

1

In 2009, ten years after graduating from Jilin University, Wu Shichun’s third business venture failed. His first entrepreneurial venture occurred in 2002, making a video advertising system. In 2003, he went to Baidu and stayed there for a short period of time. After leaving his job, he and Sun Zhiqiang worked hard on enterprise communication tools for several years, but no one was willing to invest. After Wu Shichun decided to make cool news with Chen Hua, he made the investment immediately after meeting the first investor. Faced with the surprise of being suddenly recognized by the mainstream capital market, Wu Shichun and Chen Hua, who had swept away their early disappointments, were very excited. They went to have some drinks, then went to Huaqing Jiayuan to rent a house and go to BBS to recruit people, full of thoughts about the future. yearning.

If it hadn’t been for the incident between the founder and investors in 2008, Wu Shichun and Chen Hua might still be working on Kuxun. History can never be assumed, but the ending is disappointing. Kuxun has now been merged into Meituan, and both Wu Shichun and Chen Hua have started their own careers.

Wu Shichun has started many businesses, but has never been able to succeed. After being squeezed out of Kuxun by investors, Wu Shichun comforted Chen Hua and continued to look for the next outlet, aiming for the opportunity to make a comeback. Chen Hua realized the shortcomings of his abilities and finally went to Alibaba.

Around this time, Ye Kai, the founder of Wancrab Technology, approached Wu Shichun to seek investment. Ye Kai used to be an engineer at Kuxun, and later spent some time at Baidu.

At the dinner table, the two of them had not touched any wine. Ye Kai took Wu Shichun and told him what he had done in the past, what he wanted to do now, and how much money he could earn from it.

Half an hour later, Wu Shichun, who had no investment experience, was moved and decided to make the first investment in his "career" - 400,000 yuan, accounting for 20% of the shares.

Regardless of the later returns, compared to the current tens of millions of angel investments, this is obviously a good deal. This was due to the impact of the global financial crisis around 2009. The venture capital market was affected and capital entered a cold winter. It was also the cooling of the general environment that made Wu Shichun's first investment obtain a very high share price at a very low price. Later, Ye Kai borrowed 1 million yuan from Wu Shichun. Because it was a loan, he did not occupy any shares.

This investment completely changed his entrepreneurial career. Four years later, Wancrab Technology was fully acquired by Zhangqu Technology for 1.739 billion yuan. Wu Shichun’s 400,000 yuan received a return of 600 million yuan, a full 1,500 times the original investment.

This kind of return was obviously unexpected by Wu Shichun. "If I had thought of it, I would have invested more." Looking back on his investment debut, he does not deny that there was a lot of luck involved. The valuation is low and has not been diluted; on the other hand, it has also caught up with the mobile game trend.

2

The venture capital circle has always admired the story of becoming famous in one battle, and a return of 1,500 times is enough to impress any investor and entrepreneur. Friends saw that he was good at investing and encouraged him to switch to investing full-time.

In May 2014, Plum Blossom Angel was established. Before that, investment was just Wu Shichun’s side job, and he personally invested in more than a dozen projects. The establishment of the institution means that he has officially transformed from an entrepreneur to a full-time investor.

In 2016, he saw nearly 2,000 projects and invested in dozens of them, including Chehejia, Wukongbao, 99 Square Dance, HIGO, Cuncunle, etc. Including Changba, Qufenqi, Miya, Chizicheng, Fuyou Logistics, Mavericks Electric, FIIL Headphones, etc., Wu Shichun has invested in nearly 200 projects so far.

At first glance, the types of projects appear to be a jumble. Many angels in the industry have preferences or specialties, but Wu Shichun does not. Of course, he is not an all-rounder, but he takes advantage of the risk control thinking in Texas Poker.

To some extent, poker and angel investing are both games of probability. Bypassing those pitfalls that have been proven will naturally increase the probability of winning.

Therefore, Wu Shichun does not have a list of investment standards, only a negative list - do not invest in college students, do not invest in entrepreneurs who rely too much on relationships and resources, do not invest in those whose shares are too evenly distributed and founders' shares are too low, and do not invest in those who are too young. Too big, not suitable for couples. Other than that, everything can be considered.

Just like at the poker table, Wu Shichun can keep his brain running at high speed in a tense environment and calmly capture the opponent's psychology. Once he thinks he is right, he will turn into a wolf in the jungle and pounce quickly. Go up and finish the hunt.

Compared with the number of projects he has seen, Wu Shichun has not made many attempts, but he is sharp and decisive. The fastest signing took less than 10 minutes.

Under the leadership of this "fast wolf", Plum Angel became one of the top ten early-stage investment institutions in China just two years after its establishment. In the activity list rated by a certain media, "Kuailang" ranked among the top three.

3

Wu Shichun, who claims to be "quick in action but slow in speech", is also a well-known "King of Connections" in the venture capital circle. His connections can be seen from the lineup of LPs behind Plum Blossom Angel Ventures: Sequoia Capital Zhou Kui, Hillhouse Capital Zhang Lei, IDG Li Xiaojun, Meili Shuo Xu Yirong, Singba Chen Hua...

His partners Investment partners range from mainstream angel funds such as Mingshi Capital, Xianfeng Evergreen, Qingshan Capital, and Zhen Fund to well-known celebrities such as Zhang Ziyi and Gao Yuanyuan. "We are able to make independent judgments and are willing to co-invest with other institutions. Without the ability to make independent judgments, it is impossible to become an excellent fund; but if we do not cooperate with others at all, we may miss some good projects."

His Most of the investment targets are my friends, such as Chen Hua, Xu Yirong, and Wang Feng, who have been friends for many years. Kuxun, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei are all direct project sources of Meihua.

"I define myself as a super node and linker. Linking funds, linking LPs and entrepreneurs, linking resources, linking media, and linking financing between projects." Wu Shichun once said.

In Chen Hua’s words, no matter what happens, Wu Shichun can find someone to help you solve it. "Even if you want to find a Feng Shui master, he can find someone."

In addition to his natural tendency to make friends, this may be due to his awareness of the importance of friends since he started his business. "Network is useless when you are working. When you start a business, you find that being familiar with others is too important."

Wu Shichun's personality of making friends and helping others also determines the Plum Blossom Angel's gene - "help". At present, the "Plum Blossom Gang" composed of more than 200 invested companies of Plum Blossom Angel has become an emerging force that cannot be ignored in the venture capital circle. Members of the gang treat each other as brothers, helping each other and collaborating from time to time. This kind of atmosphere of "everyone helps me, I help everyone" is what Wu Shichun has been working hard to promote.

Conclusion

Wu Shichun summarized his investment style: down-to-earth, pragmatic and fast. For Wu Shichun, Meihua Venture Capital has never been an institution that chases the limelight. What he wants to chase are those smart young people. If you miss those hot projects, you will miss them.