The former "little brother" learned from Lei Jun to forge ahead.

Less than a week after the official announcement of entering the drone market, Dreame Technology officially announced its foray into the automotive industry, aiming to build "the world's fastest car." It is reported that the first pure - electric product will be benchmarked against the Bugatti Veyron and is planned to be unveiled in 2027.

Yu Hao, the founder and CEO of Dreame Technology, mentioned in an all - staff letter, "This is not an easy decision, nor is it a mere pursuit of the latest trend." Back in 2013, while studying at Tsinghua University, he and his team wrote their first automotive project plan. They spent 12 years "waiting for the right 'timing' for Dreame." He believes this is a "life - or - death" expedition, but he also believes that "great dreams are always born out of fearlessness."

The letter also revealed that Dreame Technology has become the "absolute leader" in the cleaning field with products such as robotic vacuum cleaners, ranking first in the market in more than 20 countries and regions. "For this reason, many people call us 'China's Apple'."

According to IDC data, in the first quarter of 2025, the global smart robotic vacuum cleaner market shipped 5.096 million units. Dreame Technology ranked third with an 11.3% market share, behind Roborock and Ecovacs. According to multiple media reports, Dreame Technology, which has not yet gone public, had a revenue of about 15 billion yuan last year, though this information has not been confirmed by the company.

Yu Hao has been extremely high - profile this year. In addition to drones and cars, Dreame Technology also entered the power bank, action camera, TV, and robot markets in the first half of the year. This company, which emerged from the Xiaomi ecosystem, began to dilute its association with Xiaomi in previous years and has become even more aggressive this year. It seems to be trying to shake off the industry impression of "a robotic vacuum cleaner company" all at once. Some media even suggest that he wants to "recreate a Xiaomi."

After the news of car - building hit the Weibo hot search, the social platforms were filled with question marks. "Isn't this a company that makes robotic vacuum cleaners?" Many netizens were surprised by the association between such a company and the Bugatti Veyron. Some netizens played a prank by posting pictures of road sweepers in the comment section, asking, "Is this the kind of car you're going to make?"

Interestingly, just one day before the announcement, He Xiaopeng, the founder of XPeng Motors, said in an interview program, "If you want to harm a buddy, you should persuade him to build cars."

Actually, there were rumors last year that Dreame Technology had launched a car - building project. According to business registration information, a series of automotive business companies named "Star Project" were established one after another since November last year. After equity penetration, the actual controller is Yu Hao. According to Cailian Press, Zhan Zhongguo is the CEO of Star Cars. He previously worked at BAIC Group, and currently, there are about 700 - 800 R & D and design personnel.

This is not the first robotic vacuum cleaner company to build cars. In 2021, Chang Jing, the chairman of Roborock, Yu Hao's direct competitor, launched his car - building project, Jishi Motors. However, in recent years, as competition in the robotic vacuum cleaner market has intensified, investors have attributed part of the company's falling stock price to the founder's "side projects." Jishi Motors' products have not ranked among the top in many industry market reports.

Yu Hao's entrepreneurial philosophy has always been "either don't do it, or be the world's best." He once said that many people avoid large - scale businesses due to fear of risk. As a result, most people flock to small - scale business sectors that account for only 1% of the global economy, while in the 99% "blank" areas, the density of talent and the investment of high - quality funds are far lower than in the crowded sectors.

He is confident in his understanding of products. For example, in his view, Dreame can enter the large - home - appliance market because "what truly understands the pain points of Chinese families is not the parameter tables in the laboratory, but the tens of millions of floors'redeemed' by robotic vacuum cleaners, floor scrubbers, and vacuum cleaners, the hundreds of optimized cleaning paths, and the countless Dreame engineers who have dealt with dust on the floor."

In an exclusive interview with him by 36Kr, a technology media, the title "I Am a Madman" was used. The article mentioned that he is used to putting many leading companies in the "opponent's seat." "Only by benchmarking against the strongest opponents can you become stronger." He firmly believes in this.

In that all - staff letter, he said that he is not an adventurer starting from scratch but wants to stand on the shoulders of the "giants of Chinese manufacturing." Based on his current product planning, outsiders speculate that the "giant" may be none other than his senior and investor, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Group.

Against the "Consensus"

In media reports, he has a "prodigy" persona. He was born in Nantong, Jiangsu in 1987. This child, who would later be recommended to Tsinghua University, showed the trait of "self - learning" from a young age.

When he was 12 years old, his family was building a house and needed to lay electrical wires. He had no idea what a circuit diagram was, but he managed to figure out a double - control circuit. He conducted experiments by connecting switches to batteries and succeeded. After learning circuit knowledge in junior high school, he found that the circuit he designed was completely different from the one in the textbook but used less wire. Looking back on this later, he was "proud" that he has never found a double - control circuit like his at home.

In high school, he forced himself to come up with a patent idea every week. Although most of his ideas had already been thought of by others, he believed that this greatly trained his thinking ability.

He has loved airplanes since childhood. When he had the opportunity to be recommended to Tsinghua University through the physics competition, he did not hesitate to choose the School of Aerospace Engineering.

His high talent also corresponded to a budding sense of "rebelliousness" - he has long had the awareness that the consensus should be questioned.

In 2007, he wanted to participate in the "Challenge Cup" at Tsinghua University with an airplane project. His tutor said that it violated the basic principles of airplanes and asked him to give it up. He thought it was fine and that it only violated his tutor's own knowledge. He spent his spare time on this project and finally won the first prize.

In 2009, he launched the "Sky Workshop," a cross - disciplinary technology team dedicated to building airplanes. He highly advocates the "engineer" culture - a qualified team member should have the ability to break the rules, be enthusiastic, self - sacrificing, dedicated, and closer to practice.

The way he recruited team members was quite "peculiar." It was an all - night test from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day to solve a problem. "Those who can 'endure' like taming a hawk will truly love this field," he explained.

This "fraternity" - style organizational culture with highly resonant values was partly transplanted into Dreame Technology, and many people followed him into entrepreneurship. It was a stage full of wild ideas. Besides airplanes, around 2010, they developed a smart watch that could monitor sleep and even experimented with self - driving cars.

Before starting his business, his curiosity and energy were mainly focused on airplanes. As a result, many media often describe him as "a Tsinghua University top student who gave up airplanes to'sweep the floor'." He often uses an example to illustrate his state - he has developed a magical skill since childhood to roughly identify the model of an airplane based on a brief view and the sound when it flies by.

After graduation, he unexpectedly switched his career path because of Dyson. In 2015, a vacuum cleaner from this British home - appliance brand became extremely popular in China, with an annual growth rate of over 200%. "Can we use airplane - building technology to create a technology company serving thousands of households?"

He targeted the high - speed motor, the core component of Dyson. The maximum rotation speed of domestic products is 20,000 revolutions per minute, while Dyson can reach 125,000 revolutions per minute.

He spent two years on research. The team had developed a working style since college: once they had an idea, they would act quickly and intensively, rapidly produce a prototype, and then the team would cooperate on the subsequent work.

He doesn't blindly believe in empiricism and rejects the "mass - approach". In his view, the most important thing is the previous process: use 2% of the people and 2% of the time to complete 98% of the work. He also mentioned in this public letter that the real barrier is not funds but the ability to create the "right product." "We will never waste a single cent on the wrong path."

In early 2017, the motor was basically successfully developed. Dreame Technology started making complete machines and officially joined the Xiaomi ecosystem at the end of that year, becoming a core partner in the cleaning field. Xiaomi also participated in multiple rounds of investment through institutions such as Shunwei Capital. With this, Dreame Technology quickly became a core player in the robotic vacuum cleaner market.

"The Madman"

In 2022, when Yu Hao was interviewed by "China Entrepreneur," he mentioned that as a member of the Xiaomi ecosystem, Dreame Technology was more easily trusted in the industry. There were many intangible benefits from R & D to sales and recruitment. However, while cooperating with the Xiaomi ecosystem, he always retained the independent brand of "Dreame."

Since the second half of 2021, Dreame has started to expand the domestic market under its own brand. At the end of the same year, a 3.6 - billion - yuan Series C financing was in place. Xiaomi Group and Shunwei Capital, as old shareholders, increased their investment.

Roborock has already achieved "de - Xiaomi - ization." What will happen to Dreame Technology, which is not controlled by Xiaomi Group? When Yu Hao was asked in 2022 whether he would follow in Roborock's footsteps, he didn't answer directly, saying, "It's logical for a Xiaomi ecosystem company to develop its own brand."

By then, Dreame Technology's sales in the overseas market were on track. In 2020, he set three sales targets: 10 billion yuan in 3 years, 40 billion yuan in 5 years, and 200 billion yuan in 10 years, showing his "ambition." It was logical to develop its own brand. Later, the "Xiaomi" traces on its official platforms almost disappeared.

However, in the entire consumer electronics industry, the home - cleaning market dominated by robotic vacuum cleaners is still narrow. According to multiple market analysis reports, the global market size of robotic vacuum cleaners is about $9 billion, with a growth rate of 10% - 20%. Dreame Technology has not disclosed its revenue composition, but the financial report of Roborock, a similar company, shows that last year, the revenue from robotic vacuum cleaners and related accessories accounted for 91%, indicating a high dependence on this product.

Dreame Technology has not disclosed its sales data in recent years. If the revenue in 2024 is about 15 billion yuan, it is possible to achieve the 10 - billion - yuan target in 2023. However, it will be very difficult to achieve the 40 - billion - yuan target next year with the current growth rate of the robotic vacuum cleaner industry. Especially if he aims for a sales target of 200 billion yuan in 2030, he must find other ways, as relying solely on robotic vacuum cleaners will probably not be enough.

He once described Dreame Technology's business model to "China Entrepreneur": "In the future, it will be a general - purpose robotics company. Of course, robots don't have to look like humans but should have functions such as sensing, processing, and execution. We need to continuously improve the 'heart' and 'brain' of robots. The heart is the high - speed motor, providing power, and the brain is image - based perception, recognition, planning, and control. With the heart and brain, we can expand into one field after another." And Dreame Technology's experience in high - speed motors is considered to have the potential to be extended to electric vehicles.

In "Thinking about Xiaomi's Entrepreneurship," Lei Jun explained the reason for Xiaomi's entry into the automotive industry: "The threshold for car manufacturing has been significantly lowered, with 30,000 components being highly modularized. In the past 10 years, the manufacturing cost of automotive power batteries has decreased by 80%, and there is at least a 50% reduction potential in the future." The essence of electric vehicles has become a "consumer electronics" product, which corresponds to greater room for efficiency improvement.

However, as AI has become the consensus in the domestic automotive industry, He Xiaopeng said that conservatively estimated, 50 billion yuan needs to be invested in AI every year. This arms race has reached a stage where only large companies can "play."

When Lei Jun launched the car - building project, the fact that Xiaomi cars were benchmarked against Porsche was made fun of by netizens. Yu Hao went even further and directly benchmarked against the Bugatti Veyron from the start. It's imaginable that many people think this benchmarking is a "joke." With such a scale, spreading out in multiple directions seems overly arrogant.

However, the story of how only the paranoid can succeed is constantly repeated among entrepreneurs. Whether Dreame can become the next Xiaomi can only be answered by time.

This article is from the WeChat official account "China Entrepreneur Magazine" (ID: iceo - com - cn), author: Chen Hao, published by 36Kr with authorization.