ã€World Wide Web Reporter Zhang Zhiying】 Steve Hoffman, founder of Silicon Valley Investors & Founder Space, returned to Beijing and Shanghai a few days after his visit to the Caribbean and returned to Silicon Valley this week. He travelled around the world and met entrepreneurs and investors from various countries. Looking at the circle of friends around him, I can not help but cause my curiosity: Will the entrepreneurial culture and enthusiasm of different countries be different? With such doubts, during his brief stay in Beijing, we asked about one morning to talk about his observations on the venture capital environment in various countries. Hoffman told the Global Network reporter that in his eyes, the two places with the most potential for entrepreneurship are: Silicon Valley and China. New York Values ​​Data Silicon Valley Values ​​Business Potential Hoffman first mentioned the entrepreneurial atmosphere in New York. In the context of Wall Street bankers as the main industry, most investors in New York tend to be conservative. They rely on the data and believe that retrospective history can predict future performance. Although all are in the United States, the business climate varies from city to city. In contrast, in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, not only entrepreneurs are willing to take risks, investors are also big adventurers. “I talk about investors first. Investors decide entrepreneurs. Because investors decide whether or not you can get funding and decide the direction of entrepreneurs.†Huffman said: “Investors are adventurers, and entrepreneurs are adventurers. ." For Silicon Valley investors, as long as there are substantial benefits, they are not afraid of the idea is crazy, but even if the failure, because they put money in many different companies. Huffman said, "This culture is very mature in Silicon Valley. They accept: high-risk, high-paying. They care about commercial potential: how much influence can they have on the world by looking at these ideas?" The way in which Silicon Valley investors evaluate this influence is: Will the company have the opportunity to become a monopoly in this field in the future? Hoffman gave me a typical example: Amazon. Amazon was founded in Silicon Valley in the United States, and the market value of the company is still considered to have great potential today. "Because what Amazon does is not how much you can earn now, but how much you can earn in the future. How do investors know it? Because they do see it, it will become the e-commerce giant." how to say? Amazon initially focused on selling books and selling books was very simple, but investors would think that if you can get online, you can get other things and you can slowly enter other fields. However, this is only useful for the starting market value. But why is Amazon's market value still higher? Because of each step, they constantly prove that they will monopolize the e-commerce industry. First, Amazon opened its own platform and allowed all competitors to sell products on the platform. At first, people were confused. But if you can see the big blueprint at the time, you will understand that whenever a seller sells the same product, Amazon can collect information about the seller: who is their customer, how much is the price, and what areas are sold. The seller’s customers become Amazon’s customers. And Amazon got the lowest price, because on this platform, you can see the price of many sellers. Amazon maintains a competitive low price, and in the future it will be able to become mainstream and profit from small profits and quick turnover. It is reported that Amazon has 85 million Prime members in the United States. Further, Amazon doesn't even need to think about ways to increase profits. Its approach is smarter than that, because with artificial intelligence and big data, Amazon will know how much you are willing to pay for toothbrushes and mobile phones. On the same product, it charges different people, but you don't know it at all. In addition, Amazon knows how many people in San Francisco will buy toothbrushes every day. Commodities have already been sent to nearby stores. They can make accurate predictions about inventory and delivery. Few people can compete with them. This is why Amazon's market value is crazy. Silicon Valley investors look at: In the next five years, where will this company be? The situation of Alibaba and Jingdong is similar to Amazon. We also see such market value in Tencent. In other words, how much Tencent earns today is not important and the future is important. "When an investor observes the potential of a company, I don't care how much it makes today, or even lose money. On the other hand, even if you earn ten times, it doesn't make sense to me. The point is, can you dominate the field in five years? "Huffman said that this is the typical value of Silicon Valley business. The way capital operates is exclusive, which is the only way to control the market. Only if you can control the market can you master the future. Hoffman said that when he hatched the business, he was looking at helping these entrepreneurs to monopolize the market. Central America Caribbean Venture Capital Trends Traditional Business Huffman visited the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean of Central America a few days ago. There are many wealthy businessmen here, but these investors also value the data and are quite conservative. Compared with Silicon Valley, their investment targets tend to be traditional businesses. What they care about is: Can they grow? If you can, I will invest. Hoffman invited the local television station in the Caribbean Curacao's entrepreneurs faced difficulties. They wanted to take the risk-taking spirit of Silicon Valley, but local conservative investors could hardly pay for it. Hoffman said that he will visit the Caribbean again in August because local entrepreneurs want to invite Hoffman to teach the investors of the area "the business outlook of Silicon Valley." When the peak is over, Hoffman begins talking about China. Chinese people want to succeed is one of the strengths of the challenge is the trust China has great advantages in culture and market. Culturally, China has a culture of doing business. China has many entrepreneurs who are smart, crazy, willing to pay a price and dare to venture and want to succeed. In the market, China has a population of 1.2 billion, which is unmatched by other countries. China is a unified great nation in history. As early as the Qin Shihuang, it unified the writing, measurement, and currency. Unification is very important to business. This is why there is one thing in China that can produce explosive growth. Dropping a taxi, Mobike, Midea, WeChat and other applications are all good examples. This is why India and Indonesia have vast market and entrepreneurial potential, but they still lag behind China. In addition, the EU’s challenges are also not uniform. However, Hoffman also pointed out that China's biggest challenge is trust. Compared to the United States, which has a mature legal system as protection, Chinese investors are afraid of investing money. The founder ran and never returned. Chinese investors do not trust trustworthy founders at first. They must trace the past history of the founders. Or, they must have many friends in common, because when this person has links with more and more common friends, he cannot easily leave all networks. Can win more trust. However, trust does not mean that it is a good business. Small Israeli country but with business mind, Japan and South Korea are more afraid of failure For Hoffman, Israel is an incredible country. A small country with a population of only 8 million is like a city in Beijing and Shanghai. Although Israel lacks natural resources, neighboring countries are not friendly; but they have a high level of education, there are many smart people, they have a business culture, but also business minds, the business model is similar to Silicon Valley. In addition, Hoffman said that Japan has a huge advantage in talent and the market, but unfortunately the most talented people have gone to large companies and few start-up companies. In addition, South Korean talent also has many talented, hard-working people, but the market is too small. In addition, Japan and South Korea are more afraid of failure in culture and are reluctant to take risks. The management of superior authority makes it impossible for people to make mistakes and is not conducive to the growth of innovation. As for Australia, although they have business minds, but because the population is small and the market is small and culturally lenient, unlike the Chinese people who are so eager to succeed, they become Australia's restrictions. "Actually, there are smart people around the world. But culture will determine the entrepreneurial potential of a place," Huffman said.
