Tan Yifan

    ceciliatan2006@126.com

    BUSINESS success sometimes makes people arrogant. For Chen Weiwei, a Shenzhen-based serial entrepreneur and investor, it bolsters him when he challenges such arrogance.

    Chen didn’t dissemble his defiance toward upper crust investors when speaking with the Shenzhen Daily about his struggles setting up a local Angel Investors’ Club. As a man with rich entrepreneurial experience and resources, he actually took action to form a group where he could spread his philosophy that every startup needs respect and support and that Angel Investors should positively influence young entrepreneurs rather than only focus on making profits.

    Chen established his “Shenzhen Grassroots Angel Investors’ Association” two years ago. Today, the club is made up of hundreds of small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs.

    “We all share the similar belief that an Angel Investor should share the same ideals: investing is risky, you may earn nothing, but you won’t be too upset because you have incubated a project or helped a young person,” Chen said.

    Lonely maker turned

    furious investor

    Chen started his Shenzhen dream when he was 19. He once worked for a printing company and then tried to set up his first company in 1994, but soon failed. He earned his first pot of gold five years later when he started making sparkling badges and sparkling balls and sold them at the first China Hi-Tech Fair in 1999.

    His business expanded when he decided to upgrade the traditional wax-hand-print gifts he saw in Hong Kong in 2004.

    “It was very interesting, seeing tourists make molds of the own hands in wax at Victoria Peak. I wanted to cooperate with the producers to shorten the wax’s cooling time and make the wax heat resistant,” Chen said.

    But the producers of the novelty were not interested in working with him, so he decided to make his own brand and improve the product. Chen then stepped into an art business, beating other knockoff makers and turned his product into special souvenirs for various sports games and other big events.

    Chen said building his businesses was a lonely path because few people had the mindset of investing in others in the late ’90s in China.

    When he was introduced to new investors two years ago in Beijing, he expected to successfully sell his ideas to celebrity entrepreneurs whose names were often related to famed venture investment cases.

    But Chen was rather disappointed.

    “Few of them were willing to exchange business cards with me,” Chen recalled. “They were very snobbish to the entrepreneurs, even to someone like me who has already succeeded in certain fields.”

    Chen said he was frustrated. “Investors and startup business people attend such events because they want to cooperate. However, most of those who approached the investors were taught to be ashamed of themselves. They were not real angel investors.”

    When he returned from Beijing, Chen decided to team up with local entrepreneurs to form their own investing association, one which required no admittance fees and aimed to reach out to young and small businesses. In his words, he wanted “to grow with grassroots.”

    Angel means giving

    Chen said he wants to encourage more entrepreneurs to be part-time Angel Investors.

    “It is common to meet investors from various backgrounds in America. They may not be millionaires, maybe some only invest US$10,000, but they enjoy encouraging makers to innovate,” Chen said. “I wish more Chinese entrepreneurs would notice this trend and be willing to give their money, advice and resources to help young people and startup companies to realize their dreams.”

    Chen said Angel Investors are like tutors. They help makers choose the right path, build their business mode and sell themselves.

    “A real Angel Investor knows well the need to be patient and prepare for possible losses,” he said. “The investor should be an expert in his or her field and lead young entrepreneurs deep into that area.

    “But some investors only project negative influences to young people,” he criticized. “They lure young people to brand their projects, exaggerate the estimated value of their project and then sell the team to the next highest bidder. They tell the young makers to deceive the market and hint that money will be returned easily.”

    Thus, Chen said, there are some people selling proposals to investors and young creators who only want to be speculators and try to earn quick money.

    “The environment has worsened since more investors and young makers who only want to make quick cash have joined the circle, but at the end of day, the real Angel Investors and projects will remain, they will work as partners,” he said.

    A makers’ hub and a real economy

    Chen said that through all the projects he has screened and based on the people he has met, he believes entrepreneurs in South China are more hard-working and practical.

    He said compared to those entrepreneurs in northern cities like Beijing, Shenzhen-based entrepreneurs are low-key and have a strong executive force.

    “Usually, southern entrepreneurs tend to first invest their own money and time into their project. Then, when they make their product and want to expand, they will then look for an investor. But northerners are more interested in promoting themselves and selling their ideas,” Chen said.

    Likewise, he said southern investors prefer to invest in projects that have already proved themselves.

    “Southern entrepreneurs are more like real ‘makers’ — they are doers and seldom brag about themselves. The atmosphere for innovation in Shenzhen is much better than in other places,” he said.

    Chen said that after 30 years of hard work and a complete chain of production, Shenzhen is already a makers’ hub.

    “I can find any kind of material I want just within a 30-minute drive in Shenzhen, but in Beijing or Shanghai, it took me hours of looking before finally giving up. That’s why this city is a real makers’ hub,” he said.

    Chen also added that to retain the vitality of innovation, local entrepreneurs should do more research on how to connect traditional industry with the Internet.

    “I resent projects such as online apps; they only add a fake success to the real economy. What an innovator should do is make real products, explore the connection between the real economy and the web economy, thus we can avoid Internet bubble economies,” Chen noted.

    “A real Angel Investor knows well the need to be patient and prepare for possible losses.”

    — Chen Weiwei