Million - Annual - Salary Series 012: Why did a private equity expert from Tsinghua University give up a million - dollar annual salary to start a business? What did he see that was worth going all in for?
36Kr "Career Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
Behind most six - figure annual salaries, there is always a bonus boost.
Although a six - figure annual salary has become a label for countless public accounts to tease in their titles, it must be admitted that it is not easy to achieve. Behind each six - figure annual salary story, there are a large number of bonuses driving it. Region, industry, mentor, occupation, personal talent... We believe that these dimensions determine the odds of a person's career development.
The amount of annual salary is not the only standard to measure success and happiness. We neither want to teach everyone "Machiavellianism" nor write stories of "survivorship bias". This series will take you to explore the choices made by each interviewee with a six - figure annual salary at critical moments and their visions for the future. May we see the direction of the bonus tide from it.
"I can work 15 hours a day, but I don't advocate everyone doing so because I've always been used to it."
When it comes to female entrepreneurship, people's first reaction is often to put aside their past glorious achievements and be more interested in their "balance between work and family".
Xu Danqing is no exception. After she started to be interviewed frequently, she was often asked this question. She gave birth to a child in December 2022, and was affected by ChatGPT in January 2023 and returned to work on business trips. Xu Danqing only took a one - month maternity leave. Then in March 2024, she registered a company, and in June, she gave up her six - figure annual salary job and left to start her own business. At that time, Xu Danqing's baby was only a little over one year old.
"On the one hand, I want to be her role model and hope she can have an independent personality; on the other hand, as a mother, I don't want her, so small, to bear the responsibility of 'Mom didn't start a business because of you' in the future."
Regarding how to balance family and work, Xu Danqing's answer is: first find yourself.
Beyond the identity of a mother, Xu Danqing has a brilliant resume: graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's and master's degree, won the Siebel Scholarship [1] during her school years, is the founder of Hao Fenqi and Luobo Investment Research, the general manager of Xiaomi Financial Division and the general manager of Allconnect Data Center. During her postgraduate studies, she was the counselor of Yang Zhilin, the founder of Dark Side of the Moon, and the project guidance teacher at school was Professor Tang Jie, the founder of Zhipu AI. Her senior schoolmates include Wang Xiaochuan, the founder of Baichuan Intelligence, the founder of Mianbi Intelligence, the founder of Renrendai, etc... There are no shortage of cross - border opportunities around Xu Danqing.
However, in a sea of opportunities, finding one's own exclusive domain is actually a difficult problem. And those who can be unwavering until they become entrepreneurs after finding it are even fewer.
Xu Danqing is an action - oriented person. When she was an undergraduate at Tsinghua University, the intense discussions among the senior brothers in the laboratory inspired Xu Danqing's interest in personal investment. She opened an account at a securities firm at the school gate that day - this became the beginning of her career.
She enjoys the state at work and the feedback brought by the results. During her entrepreneurship, Xu Danqing's daily routine is: get up at 7 am and arrive at the company at 8 am; work until about 10 pm and then go home to accompany the child to sleep. This is her fixed parent - child time with the baby. After the baby falls asleep, at 12 pm, she will open a book or read some cutting - edge papers to spend a quiet time and usually goes to bed at 1 am. This cycle repeats.
After more than a decade in the workplace, Xu Danqing, who has been an executive for more than half of the time, was immersed in the "halo of big companies". In February 2023, after rejecting the invitation to be an executive from one of the six AI unicorns, Xu Danqing began to think about what she really wanted to do in the next ten years.
It took Xu Danqing a year to figure out this problem, but only one day to execute it: in March 2024, on the day she figured out what she wanted to do, Xu Danqing went to register a company - just like herself 15 years ago, a 21 - year - old who wanted to enter the investment industry.
What Xu Danqing wants to do in her entrepreneurship is something that she can understand and achieve inclusiveness.
[1] The Siebel Scholars is an international scholarship program established by the Siebel Foundation in 2000, with an amount of $35,000 (equivalent to about 200,000 RMB). Tsinghua University only has 5 places each year.
Inspired by American TV shows, choose to find an intersection between artificial intelligence and finance ╱ 01
At the beginning of the career, choose to innovate along the company's strengths ╱ 02
From core technology to specific business, choose to see a more comprehensive perspective ╱ 03
Choose to return to the "old profession" of investment to complete the business closed - loop ╱ 04
Give up a six - figure annual salary and choose to start a business to realize your dream ╱ 05
Epilogue ╱ 06
Inspired by American TV shows, choose to find an intersection between artificial intelligence and finance
Age: 18 - 25 | Annual income: hundreds of thousands
In 2006, Xu Danqing was admitted to the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University as the top science student in the city. She was one of the few female students in the department at that time.
Her experience of teaching in rural areas during college planted the seed of "doing something inclusive" in Xu Danqing's heart.
At first, teaching in rural areas was just a hard requirement of the school. But the sincere children in the villages made Xu Danqing fall in love with it. For those children being taught, she was a "lamp of success", helping the confused "senior high school students - to - be" find their way forward; while teaching in rural areas brought Xu Danqing a sense of self - worth. After the teaching - in - rural - areas program ended, Xu Danqing would still add QQ friends with the students and keep in touch with them. She said, "Every time I help these children, I will think of myself who was also confused in high school."
2009 was a crucial year for Xu Danqing: in her junior year, she chose deep learning as her research direction in the laboratory. Influenced by the senior brothers in the laboratory, she fell in love with being a personal investor. For the investment she was interested in, she interned at securities firms and did private equity during college. She chose financial forecasting as her postgraduate research direction... Everything seemed to be predestined in Xu Danqing's career.
Xu Danqing was interested in artificial intelligence because she was chasing the American TV show "Person of Interest" in her junior year. Many years later, when Xu Danqing mentioned the predictive AI technology shown in the show again, her memory was still clear. Xu Danqing actively applied to join the Tsinghua Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which also made her one of the earliest people in China to engage in deep - learning research.
During her time at the Tsinghua Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Xu Danqing not only gained professional knowledge and peers but also played a crucial role in every step of her future career choices.
Xu Danqing started her own investment also influenced by the senior brothers in the artificial intelligence laboratory. "At that time, the senior brothers in the laboratory were also discussing this every day." Influenced by those around her, Xu Danqing developed a strong interest in personal investment. She remembered that on the day she wanted to start investing, she directly opened an account at GF Securities at the school gate.
The success of her first investment gave Xu Danqing more confidence. The first stock Xu Danqing bought was Little Swan. At first, this stock was affected by the overall market situation and the downturn of the industry, and its performance was average. But in the second half of the year, the stock price began to rise.
To do a good job in investment, Xu Danqing also chose the financial forecasting direction for her postgraduate studies. But investment not only requires academic accumulation but also practical experience is equally important.
In an era when internships were not yet popular, Xu Danqing had already interned at several securities firms. At the internship company, Xu Danqing also won the favor of her internship supervisor with her excellent performance and data - handling ability and was taken into a private - equity project. Most of the people in the project were senior people in the financial industry, and Xu Danqing was the only junior with relatively little experience.
At that time, 22 - year - old Xu Danqing held multiple positions: scientific research as a postgraduate, guidance as a college counselor, and a project as a private - equity startup partner.
To balance the three aspects of work, Xu Danqing developed the ability of time management. She first planned the large - block time for dealing with things: from 9 am to 3 pm to deal with startup matters, after 3 pm to write papers, and at night to talk with students. And she made full use of fragmented time.
Her brain was almost running at full speed every day, and Xu Danqing was already used to this rhythm.
Bonus review:
In 2006, on the eve of the rise of the Internet, Xu Danqing chose the computer major, occupying the dual advantages of university resources and the shortage of industry talents. But Xu Danqing did not choose the conventional programmer path. Inspired by an American TV show (yes, even top students watch TV shows), she chose the relatively unpopular but personally interesting artificial - intelligence major and became an early AI explorer in China. When she was young, Xu Danqing's decisiveness and determination in making choices were her abilities different from others.
At the beginning of the career, choose to innovate along the company's strengths
Age: 25 - 27 | Annual salary: hundreds of thousands
In 2013, Sogou saw the opportunity of deep learning and wanted to launch a new AI - related project internally. This idea attracted Xu Danqing, and she chose to join Sogou after graduation.
In the same year, the "Mind - Reading" function of Sogou Smart Input Method could "wisely" recommend online content when users were typing, realizing a seamless connection from input to browsing.
● Source: Wireless Smart Connected Intelligent Audio - Visual
Xu Danqing was responsible for the algorithm research and development of the "Lingxi Assistant" at Sogou. At that time, there was no "standard answer" like the Transformer architecture in the industry. She gave full play to the company's strengths, starting from Sogou's unique input - method data, and found the user's intentions and potential commercial - value points in the input - method scenario. Through algorithms and codes, she realized these ideas and then trained them based on data.
In two years, the Lingxi Assistant achieved commercial revenues ranging from tens of millions to even hundreds of millions. But looking at the market, in 2015, Toutiao set a myth of user growth with its personalized recommendation algorithm, achieving "over 300 million users in 3 years" and becoming the second - largest content - creation platform in China. Its influence gradually surpassed the traditional four major portals, including Sohu, Sogou's parent company.
Lacking the right timing and conditions, perhaps due to the wrong product form, although the Lingxi Assistant was quite successful, Sogou still missed the opportunity of the recommendation algorithm.
At that time, Xu Danqing thought: Although technology is important, those who do technology are always in the background, and their perspectives are trapped in the progress of the project and cannot see the whole picture. She wanted to stand in the "front stage" to see more and contact more real - world business.
In the same year, there was great progress in the application of artificial intelligence. In 2015, reinforcement learning represented by AlphaGo abroad made a major breakthrough, and Google proposed the Transformer model; in China, the visual - recognition technology that Megvii was good at solved key problems in fields such as security monitoring and financial payment. These developments heated up the AI industry.
But Xu Danqing did not choose to continue to deepen her research in technology along the trend. She left Sogou and wanted to contact specific business.
Bonus review:
In 2013, at the early stage of domestic Internet companies' exploration of AI implementation, Xu Danqing seized the advantage of Sogou Input Method's massive user data to develop the Lingxi Assistant and achieved growth. In 2015, among many technological phenomena, Xu Danqing grasped the commonality and found the view that artificial intelligence can play its greatest value in specific scenarios. And she continuously broke through herself, was not willing to be limited to the technical - end perspective, and actively jumped out of her comfort zone to pursue the transformation of her ability to a "technology + business" composite role.
From core technology to specific business, choose to see a more comprehensive perspective
Age: 27 - 32 | Annual salary: over one million
In Internet finance, the most core part is the risk - control system, and the most core of the risk - control system is data ability - Xu Danqing is best at capturing data, which is also an important reason for her to choose Renrendai.
After leaving Sogou, Xu Danqing joined the startup company "Renrendai". She was optimistic about the industry opportunity and also wanted to improve her upper limit of ability and hoped to run a whole business.
The P2P lending industry began to explode in 2013, and the number of platform institutions exceeded 2,000. According to public data, in 2013, Renrendai's annual transaction volume reached 1.569 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 342%; in 2014, the annual transaction volume was 3.728 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 138%.
But the other side of the wild growth was that various institutions flocked into the P2P lending industry. Since most platforms lacked good risk - control means and carried out business in a simple and rough way, the asset - quality situation of the industry was worrying.
The first challenge Xu Danqing faced when entering Renrendai was to build a risk - control system. The risk - control system is like the security door and monitoring system of an Internet finance company. It can distinguish which people are reliable when borrowing money and which people may run away after borrowing.
At that time, Renrendai's business was in an accelerating expansion stage, and the demand for a sound risk - control system was increasing day by day. "For the company, installing the security door one day earlier can reduce losses." This belief supported Xu Danqing, and she often worked overtime until late at night.
Compared with salary income, Xu Danqing pursued more the sense of self - worth brought by labor. After one year, the results of risk control could no longer bring as much help to the company, and the sense of value feedback to Xu Danqing was no longer so obvious.
Xu Danqing chose a challenging thing: to transfer to lead the Hao Fenqi business.
Hao Fenqi was a new business of Renrendai at that time. Compared with her technical ability, Xu Danqing was a half - novice in business ability. At the beginning, the team only had two or three people.
But in terms of work enthusiasm, Xu Danqing alone was like a whole team. In the first two months, based on the user experience