In 2002, He Boquan completely left Robust, which he founded, and went to Harvard University as a visiting scholar. During this period, he began to plan his next life goal.

In 2003, He Boquan returned to China, and a company called Today Angel Investment was quietly established on the 32nd floor of Guangzhou Metropolitan Plaza. The boss behind the scenes was He Boquan.

He Boquan was 43 years old and officially began his journey to transform into an investor.

Shi Minjian, managing director of Angel Investment Today, revealed that at first, He Boquan only used the capital accumulated by his own industry to invest. Later, some business friends in the Pearl River Delta and even the Yangtze River Delta also used their idle funds to participate in He Boquan's investment.

some investment projects.

So far, He Boquan's Today's Angel Investment has not raised a formal fund. It only invests itself after having suitable projects, or finds some friends with good connections in the business world to invest together.

Therefore, in some projects, He Boquan would invest in the name of Today's Investment, and in other projects, he would simply invest in his own name.

In the eyes of the outside world, He Boquan's investment is relatively casual, obviously personal, and even lacks standardization and planning.

Shi Minjian believes that this may be the investment method that He Boquan deliberately pursues. Today's investment mechanism is better. Everyone has a calm mind and does not set too many goals for themselves. If they are too impatient, it will easily affect their judgment and lead to deviations.

This kind of investment method with obvious personal characteristics is more suitable for angel investment in China.

In fact, this kind of private partnership investment in certain projects has long existed among the private entrepreneurs in the Pearl River Delta. However, most of them were traditional industrial investments before. Not only did everyone participate in capital partnerships, but they also had to personally participate in the operation of the project.

Obviously, this is significantly different from the equity investment He Boquan made at this time.

He Boquan did not expect that his unintentional move might later become a benchmark for Chinese private entrepreneurs to avoid policy risks and break through the cracks of state-owned assets.

From 2003 to 2004, state-owned capital has taken absolute advantage in many fields such as coal, electricity, communications, finance, etc. To invest in these fields with high profits and quick results, private capital, as a disadvantaged group, does not have many investment opportunities.

And the policy risks are great.

How to break through became the first problem He Boquan faced.

When Zheng Nanyan found He Boquan through a friend, he described his business model to He Boquan - to create an economical hotel chain.

He Boquan has inspected local budget hotel chains in Canada and the United States before and is clear about the advantages and development prospects of budget hotel chains.

In 2004, there were very few budget hotel chains in China.

The existing budget hotel chains are not very large in scale, with few having more than 20 branches, and even fewer with more than 100 branches, because as the scale expands, the difficulty of management increases exponentially.

Although Zheng Nanyan had no experience in the economy hotel chain, He Boquan quickly recognized the project, and both parties jointly established the 7 Days Inn chain.

As expected, the 7 Days Inn chain quickly emerged as a new force and was successfully listed in the United States in 2009.

The 7 Days Inn chain should be the first project invested by He Boquan. Subsequently, He Boquan successively invested in Jiujiu Y, the online diamond seller Jiudian.com, the third-party financial management company Noah Wealth, and the physical examination and health management organization Aikang Guobin.

Later, Today's Investment turned its attention to financial services projects - Noah Wealth Management and Wancheng Financial Services Group.

He Boquan positions himself as an angel investor. He intervenes in the very early stages of the project, when there is only one IDEA, and works with the founders to create and assist in the management of the company.

Since the founding of Robust, He Boquan has been immersed in the service industry for 20 years. “He has a very accurate grasp of consumers’ consumption psychology and products, which is of vital help in judging projects. And traveling abroad

His experience enables him to grasp the pros and cons of these business models that have emerged in China from a high position.”

Shi Minjian, who has followed He Boquan for many years, analyzed.

At the same time, in the above-mentioned service industries, especially some high-end financial services industries, state-owned capital has not penetrated too much or even intervened, leaving a lot of room for development of private capital.

Shi Minjian therefore believes that this allows He Boquan's private capital to be able to operate with ease without being greatly affected.

So far, He Boquan has invested in more than 10 projects, and there are still at least 7 projects that he has not exited.