Interview with Chen Yiqi of Dialogue Through Innovation: Solving the Pains of Mass Production of Lawn Mowers, Design First as the Core and Supply Chain Matching in Advance | Exclusive Interview by Hardcore Tech

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Peng Xiaoqiu

In 2022, Chen Yiqi, who had left DJI, was looking for a startup direction.

At that time, the attention on lawn mowing robots was rising, and Chen Yiqi also conducted in - depth research. However, he found that the real incremental opportunities were in North America, not in Europe, which was highly focused on.

Since traditional lawn mowers in North America lagged behind in aspects such as intelligent upgrading and automation transformation, but the local users' demand for efficient and convenient lawn mowing tools was becoming increasingly prominent, the obvious gap between the two gave rise to huge market opportunities.

Of course, there is data to support this judgment. According to the Statista report, among about 250 million gardens in the world, the United States accounts for 40% of the market with 100 million gardens.

This is the largest and most difficult market to conquer. The prevailing suburban culture has created a large number of single - family homes, and the average garden area in North America far exceeds that of European countries. American users who prefer "bigger is better" instinctively doubt small - sized automated equipment. Coupled with the diverse climates from the cold north to the hot south, which have bred extremely lush and tough grass species, the intelligent lawn mowers used in Europe seem inadequate here. What they need is a powerful solution that can conquer vast grasslands of several acres.

In addition to the market opportunities, Chen Yiqi also judged that "solving users' trust and experience first, and then gradually upgrading" would be a better entry point. Therefore, the first product of Zongguan Innovation adopted a semi - automated solution + assisted driving solution as the entry point: equipping the lawn mowing robot with a user - controllable remote control to make the operation more in line with users' habits and eliminate doubts, and on this basis, providing assisted driving functions to lower the operation threshold; at the same time, taking hardware performance as the core breakthrough point to give priority to solving pain points in basic functions such as cutting and getting out of trouble.

Zongguan Innovation Mowrator S1 (Image source/Enterprise)

Most other players choose full automation. Perhaps because of this differentiation, the Mowrator S1 remote - controlled intelligent lawn mower of Zongguan Innovation raised one million US dollars on Kickstarter and completed all deliveries within three months. As of now, the cumulative shipment volume has reached thousands of units, making it one of the few players that can stably ship in batches and achieve profitability.

Instead of blindly following the short - term dividends of the mature market, Zongguan Innovation chose to deeply cultivate the blue - ocean field with long - term value. In Chen Yiqi's view, breaking out of the traditional path of "relying on the cost advantage of the supply chain and getting involved in the involution of production and manufacturing" and turning to both ends of the smile curve, truly focusing on product definition, R & D, and brand building from scratch, this strategic choice is more in line with the transformation logic of the new generation of entrepreneurs.

"If the previous generation of entrepreneurs relied on manufacturing capabilities, our generation pays more attention to understanding consumers' needs through technology, obtaining reasonable profits by creating new value, and then feeding back R & D iteration to form a positive cycle." Chen Yiqi said.

The following is the transcript of the interview between Yingke and Chen Yiqi, the CEO of Zongguan Innovation. The content has been edited:

Targeting the North American market

Yingke: Zongguan Innovation was founded in 2022. When entering the lawn mower track at that time, what opportunities did you see?

Chen Yiqi: Since 2022, multiple teams have successively entered the lawn mowing robot track. In 2024, many similar products also emerged in the crowdfunding market.

We are one of the few startups in this field that can deliver products immediately after the crowdfunding ends, and the average unit price of our products remains relatively high, reaching 2400 US dollars. From the beginning of entering the track, we judged that the European market would fall into homogeneous competition, so we targeted the US market.

Facts have also confirmed this judgment. After long - term cultivation by traditional brands such as Husqvarna in Europe, users have a fixed perception of the product form, but most of its upgrades stay at the level of micro - innovations such as "changing from buried wires to wireless" and "adding GPS and visual functions"; although some leading brands have considerable shipment volumes, they face great cost pressure. If there is inventory backlog, they even need to reduce prices by 20% - 30% to clear the goods, falling into typical price involution.

In contrast, in the US market, due to the lack of a mature product definition, the product form and technical route need to be redesigned from scratch. Although the upfront investment is large and the technical challenges are high, it can avoid homogeneous competition.

Entrepreneurship is essentially a process of making continuous choices. The right choice is more crucial than pure hard work. We always believe that choosing a more difficult path by avoiding involution will instead bring more long - term survival and development space.

Yingke: Previous data showed that the penetration rate of lawn mowing robots in North America was about 2%. Some manufacturers have concerns about user education. How about you?

Chen Yiqi: Undoubtedly, the scenario in the US market is more difficult: it has a high terrain complexity, diverse user needs, and more stringent requirements for technology.

When we visited offline and communicated with local users, we found that they generally had a trust barrier to lawn mowing robots, worrying that the robots could not complete the lawn mowing work in their own yards.

This "distrust" is the core pain point of the market and also an opportunity. When your product proves that the robot can efficiently complete the lawn mowing task, the market will naturally open up.

Yingke: The biggest difference between Zongguan Innovation and its competitors is that your first product is not a fully autonomous solution.

Chen Yiqi: Our first - generation product is positioned as an upgraded replacement for traditional lawn mowing tools. It uses the remote - control mode to specifically solve the long - standing pain point of mowing on slopes, which is different from the idea of directly adopting the fully autonomous solution in the industry.

A user is collecting leaves using the remote - control mode of Mowrator S1 (Image source/Enterprise)

Yingke: Why did you adopt the remote - control solution?

Chen Yiqi: In fact, in the United States, lawn mowing is a culture and an important activity on Family Day, which can bring a sense of stress relief. The users we target are those who like to do things with their hands and enjoy the fun of DIY.

In the past, lawn mowing was difficult to operate and had safety hazards. When manually pushing a lawn mower on a slope, people were prone to sprain their ankles and consume a lot of physical strength. Driving equipment on a slope might also cause roll - over accidents and even endanger lives. If only upgrading the traditional push - type lawn mower, the innovation space is limited - even if the thrust is optimized and the weight is reduced, users still need to be exposed to sunlight and dust, and may even feel uncomfortable due to grass - chip allergies.

After adding a remote control, users can easily and accurately control the lawn mowing equipment whether they are in a comfortable room or under an outdoor eaves, freeing themselves from dangerous environments and bad experiences.

Among them, our remote - control solution is not directly purchased but self - developed based on the lawn mowing scenario. The remote control of the first - generation product can achieve the same level of control accuracy as DJI's products, and it also has waterproof and dust - proof performance. After optimizing the feel and safety, the user experience is also better.

Yingke: In appearance, Mowrator S1 (the first product of Zongguan Innovation) looks like a small car and has a strong mechanical feeling. How was this product form defined?

Chen Yiqi: It was defined through step - by - step trial and error and iteration. Take the bumper as an example. The anti - collision design of traditional lawn mowers mostly borrows the relatively simple and scattered ideas from floor - sweeping robots. By connecting the floating cover and the main unit with rubber columns, not only is the appearance crude, but the protection effect is also limited.

In the anti - collision strip at the front end of Mowrator S1, we adopted an electronic skin solution. When the equipment collides with a person, an animal, or an object, it will immediately stop running. This module was completed by three employees in one year. The systematic engineering is difficult and the cost is high, but the experience improvement is significant. The large - area protection design can bring sufficient security to users; at the same time, it supports modular replacement. If a component is damaged, it can be replaced separately without replacing the whole machine.

In terms of wheels, we adopted a four - wheel chassis design, which has stronger power output and grip performance, can easily handle complex terrains such as potholes and gravel, and also has better climbing ability.

Yingke: The whole machine is also larger in size. Is it because of the consideration of the preference of North American users for heavy - type products?

Chen Yiqi: From the market perspective, the differences in product forms among different brands mostly stem from the choice of cutter heads: some brands targeting the European market continue the "small flail knife" design of traditional tools, and the cutter head size is relatively small; there are also those using the rotary - blade solution, but there may be problems such as missed cutting and blade collisions.

When we investigated, we found that due to the extremely large area of lawns in North America, small - sized machines looked out of place in such scenarios; we also investigated the data from channels such as Home Depot, and found that lawn mowing equipment with a 21 - inch cutter head had the highest market acceptance and led in sales.

Therefore, the product structure direction of Mowrator S1 became clear - adopting a 21 - inch cutter head. This parameter is the key to the overall architecture of the lawn mowing robot, which directly determines the appearance, weight, and core performance of the machine. Supporting components such as motor power and battery power need to be matched around it to form a complete power system.

Currently, we have formed a first - mover advantage in cutter head design and supporting system development. No brand in the industry has adopted a large - sized cutter head solution similar to that of Mowrator S1. But I believe that as each company deepens its understanding of the needs for large - lawn operations, there will gradually be a consensus on hardware structure design.

Yingke: What are the differences in functional experience?

Chen Yiqi: Mowrator S1 can handle slopes of up to 38 degrees, and new tire accessories that can support operations on 45 - degree slopes will be launched, basically covering all slope needs; with a cutting power of 1600 watts, it can ensure the cutting quality and can also handle harsh environments such as bushes and riverbanks.

It can cover various slope needs (Image source/Enterprise)

Specifically, it can complete tasks such as lawn mowing and leaf sweeping. For low - frequency needs such as snow removal, a lightweight design is adopted, and basic cleaning can be achieved by adding modules. In the future, we will add more functions such as handling garden garbage and pruning flowers, plants, and branches.

Yingke: How is the current sales volume?

Chen Yiqi: Since the release of Mowrator S1, the cumulative shipment volume has reached thousands of units, and the sales volume in 2025 increased by more than five times compared with last year; the product return rate is only 0.5%, and the after - sales rate is also controlled within 5%. In the first year of commercialization, the company achieved a balance of revenues and expenditures in March and is expected to achieve profitability this year.

Doing a good job in basic functions

Yingke: When most manufacturers in the market are making fully intelligent and automated lawn mowers, you chose the semi - automated route. Did you have self - doubts or anxiety during this period?

Chen Yiqi: The team had repeated discussions about "what the first product should be like". A real - world problem is whether today's fully automated lawn mowing robots can allow users to "mow the lawn without worry".

Technological iteration is an inevitable trend, but doing a good job in the current product and winning users' choices is the most fundamental. We believe that "doing a good job in basic functions first and then talking about advanced innovation" is very important. If a lawn mowing robot can't even do the most basic lawn mowing well, how can we talk about robotization and automation? Simply getting involved in involution in terms of technology or parameters is meaningless and will ultimately lead to a bottom - racing situation. It's just about having a slightly lower price or a slightly higher parameter than competitors, which is not value creation.

This understanding gave us a clear roadmap: the first - generation product focuses on mechanical innovation, striving to be the best in the industry in terms of core performance; the second - generation product will then promote fully autonomous functions, iterating step by step.

Returning to users' needs, as long as we follow this logic, we won't be anxious about external changes.

Yingke: Mass - producing lawn mowing robots is a major problem for many manufacturers at the delivery stage. For startups, is it difficult to find a suitable supply chain?

Chen Yiqi: We have a clear methodology for supply - chain management. Although there was no ready - made supply - chain resource at the beginning, a mature supply - chain system is our first choice. For example, suppliers that provide supporting products for new - energy vehicles. The production standards, quality - control capabilities, and delivery stability of such enterprises have been verified in high - requirement scenarios, so the cooperation reliability is stronger.

Selecting suppliers is also a process where "choice is more important than effort". We need to judge whether the other party's track matching degree, industry experience, annual output value scale, and technical ability match our needs through numerous screenings. High - quality suppliers will also evaluate the value of our cooperation based on their own standards.

This mutual screening can ensure the stability of subsequent production and avoid consuming too much time during the production - capacity ramping - up stage.

Yingke: In the early stage when the order volume was small, how did you solve the cost problem?

Chen Yiqi: The key to cost control lies in "design first", which is determined by the design - scheme standards rather than simply relying on the supply chain to compress costs. If there are cost hidden dangers in the design itself, it will be difficult for the supply chain to significantly reduce costs even with great efforts. The same is true for the yield rate and product quality.

At the initial stage of product development, we consider various scenarios, including failure scenarios, and formulate solutions through positive analysis; then we design experiments to verify the reliability and mass - production feasibility in advance, avoiding pushing untested products to the market.

Before finalizing the design of Mowrator S1 and the second - generation fully automated product under development, we have completed the matching and verification of the supply chain to effectively avoid problems such as delayed delivery and low yield rate.