Behind a brand, there is an entrepreneur’s story.

Mr. Zhu failed in his entrepreneurial transformation and later received tens of millions of angel investments from Lei Jun. He only made towels and focused on quality and users. He was called "Towel Brother".

Mr. Zhu’s entrepreneurial journey started smoothly.

He was once an executive of Shenzhen Rainbow Shopping Mall Co., Ltd. and has very rich experience in the traditional retail industry.

Later, after my daughter was born, I decided to quit my job and start an e-commerce business.

It was 2011, catching up with the golden age of B2C e-commerce. Mr. Zhu chose the home furnishing industry, using the OEM model to sell more than a thousand daily necessities such as alarm clocks, towels, cotton pads, cups, etc. .

Wholesale products from small factories, affix your own trademarks, and add beautiful pictures.

Because these products did not have brands at the time, Mr. Zhu seized the opportunity. By the end of 2012, the company's sales reached 150 million yuan, and its profit reached 30 million yuan within two years.

Ranked first in the Internet segment.

The company is doing well and attracting capital.

On that day on May 23, 2013, Mr. Zhu said he remembered it very clearly.

This was the day when he and Lei Jun met for the first time, and it was also the day when his products were criticized for being useless.

Lei Jun said that building a brand requires "focus, perfection, reputation, and speed." You can't do this.

After listening to Lei Jun’s words, Mr. Zhu was very angry and thought to himself, his product has ranked first in its segment within two years and earned more than 30 million, but now it has become rubbish. .

After returning from Beijing, although Mr. Zhu also realized that the dividends of his OEM model were about to disappear, he had not yet figured out the company's transformation direction.

Later, Mr. Zhu came across Lei Jun’s news from time to time and discovered that his mobile phone business was valued at more than 10 billion US dollars in three years. He thought to himself, this person is so powerful.

Then his business model has reference value.

So Mr. Zhu got started and led his team to cut down his more than 1,000 products to just over 50. He only made high-quality products and focused on quality and users.

But how can transformation be so easy?

In two years, this approach caused him to lose more than 20 million yuan.

Seeing poor management and less and less money in his hands, Mr. Zhu decided to see Lei Jun again.

During the second meeting, Mr. Zhu brought 50 of his products to Lei Jun.

As soon as they met, Lei Jun said, "I have been waiting for you."

Not only that, Lei Jun bought Mr. Zhu's products one after another in the past three years.

But the conversation changed, and Lei Jun’s question confused Mr. Zhou again.

"What are you going to do?"

In the past, more than a thousand products could be said to be the Chinese version of Muji, but these fifty products were nothing.

While Mr. Zhu was stunned, he also realized the root cause of his failure.

So, when Mr. Zhu returned home, he selected the product with the highest sales volume and the most repurchases based on sales volume and repurchase rate: towels.

What if I just make towels?

When Mr. Zhou told Lei Jun his idea, he received an investment of 10 million from Lei Jun.

In 2015, Mr. Zhu started his new journey.

A good towel should be made of good fabric, which is absorbent, soft and lint-free.

In order to perfect the product and find the best quality cotton, Mr. finally spent 6 months and found the cotton he was satisfied with in Awati, Xinjiang: long-staple cotton.

Traveling across more than half of China, Mr. Zhu saw the cotton-producing areas of Xinjiang for the first time, and this scarce long-staple cotton only accounts for less than 1% of the world's cotton production.

This kind of cotton is exposed to sufficient sunlight, picked manually, and screened to ensure the quality of the cotton. The natural water absorption of towels made from it is 6 times higher than that of international high-quality products, and it feels soft and has almost no lint.

Many towels are sizing, adding softeners and dyes during the production process. But for this high-grade raw material, Mr. Zhu uses purely natural processing techniques to produce the highest quality products.

Mr. Zhu’s towels were born.

This ingenious product sold 150,000 pieces in just 7 days after it was put on the shelves, and became the only designated towel brand for the G20 Summit.

On the road to entrepreneurship, risks and opportunities arise, and all the seriousness and efforts are worth it!

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