At the age of 27, he sold his house and invested in DJI.

In the opening scene of the TV series "The Flourishing Age," the protagonist, A Bao, was not yet known as Boss Bao at that time. His good friend, Tao Tao, took out all his savings and even sold his wedding ring to raise money for A Bao to start his business.

Reality bears a striking resemblance. In 2010, DJI, which had been established for several years, was yet to gain momentum. Its founder, Frank Wang, had just experienced the departure of key team members. At this critical juncture, Xie Jia, his middle - school friend, resolutely sold his family house in Hangzhou to invest in DJI to help his old classmate.

Such opportunities were rare thereafter. Subsequently, DJI took off, and its valuation soared. Investors rushed to "board the ship." In the last round of external financing in 2018, DJI had become the one screening investors. Over a decade later, DJI's rumored valuation once exceeded 160 billion yuan.

Later, Frank Wang revealed in an interview that Xie Jia's emergency investment back then secured about 14% of DJI's shares. Unexpectedly, this act of loyalty later translated into a net worth of billions.

Selling the house to raise money for a classmate: An investment that changed fate

The romance of loyalty between men permeates this story.

In the second year of Frank Wang's entrepreneurship, due to the early - stage development of the company and internal disagreements, DJI's employees began to leave continuously. By 2009, three early - stage team members who started the business with Frank Wang, namely Chen Jinying, Lu Zhihui, and Chen Chuqiang, had all left DJI.

During this period, Frank Wang was inevitably depressed. He lacked both the funds for "blood transfusion" and the companions to fight side by side. In 2010, Frank Wang approached his middle - school friend, Xie Jia, but Xie Jia didn't have any idle funds to support his old classmate at that time.

So, the then 27 - year - old Xie Jia made an alternative and unexpected decision: He sold his family house in Hangzhou to raise money to invest in his old classmate, Frank Wang. Despite the long and arduous entrepreneurial journey, Xie Jia also "invested" himself in DJI. After 2010, he joined DJI, took charge of marketing, and became an important assistant to Frank Wang.

The specific amount of Xie Jia's investment and more details are unknown to the outside world today. An interview article in Forbes 10 years ago mentioned that Xie Jia held about 14% of DJI's shares, with an estimated value of $1.4 billion. In the "Hurun Global Rich List 2024" released by the Hurun Research Institute, Xie Jia's wealth reached 14.5 billion yuan.

Betting on an old classmate when he was down and achieving an astonishing wealth leap, such a story is truly rare.

Gong Hongjia, a well - known Chinese angel investor, also had a similar experience. In 2001, Gong Hongjia gave 2.45 million yuan to his old classmates from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Chen Zongnian and Hu Yangzhong, to invest in Hikvision. At that time, no one could understand this small company in the security monitoring field. Twenty years later, Gong Hongjia's investment to help his old classmates turned into 50 billion yuan, with a return of over 20,000 times.

On second thought, the simple rule behind these legendary investments is that the old classmates they bet on are actually excellent entrepreneurs.

The rise of a Hangzhou youth

Frank Wang, whom Xie Jia was willing to sell his house to invest in, said that he didn't admire anyone in the world.

Frank Wang was born in Hangzhou in 1980, three years older than Xie Jia. As a primary - school student, Frank Wang read a comic book about the adventure of a red helicopter and began to have wild imaginations about model airplanes.

People's obsessions in adulthood often stem from a moment in childhood. For Frank Wang, this might be the answer to where DJI came from.

His interest in model airplanes continued into middle school and university. Frank Wang went to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to study electronic engineering. At school, he developed a helicopter flight control system, laying the groundwork for his entrepreneurship. In 2006, he and two classmates came to Shenzhen, the manufacturing center of China, and founded DJI in an apartment.

Initially, DJI mainly sold complete model airplanes composed of parts to customers such as universities and state - owned enterprises. The profit model at that time was very simple. The customer would buy a machine, and the DJI team would send a group of people to give a demonstration. After the leaders watched, the machine would be put aside, and the customer would pay DJI hundreds of thousands of yuan.

If they had continued with such a business, there might not be today's DJI. As if guided by an ideal, Frank Wang was indeed not content with just earning such "easy money."

In 2010, the year when Xie Jia joined, 30 - year - old Frank Wang, after experiencing the dispersion and reorganization of the team, led DJI to develop its first consumer - oriented product based on flight control technology. In 2012, DJI launched the first product in the "DJI Phantom" series of integrated consumer - grade aerial photography drones.

A fierce explosion followed. From 2011 to 2015, DJI's sales increased by about 100 times. By 2024, DJI's revenue had exceeded 80 billion yuan. To date, DJI's valuation exceeds 100 billion yuan, becoming a business card of "Made in China."

This has rewarded those friends who bet on Frank Wang when he was unknown - besides Xie Jia, there are also Lu Di, a friend of Frank Wang's father, and Li Zexiang, Frank Wang's tutor. Interestingly, their trust in Frank Wang was not just about investment; they all "got involved" and became part of the team behind Frank Wang.

For example, in 2006, which Frank Wang described as "the only time in DJI's history when external funds were needed," Lu Di invested about $90,000 in DJI. Then he joined DJI to be in charge of financial work and held about 16% of the shares. The "Hurun Global Rich List 2024" shows that Lu Di's net worth is 17 billion yuan.

In the first half of 2008, Li Zexiang and Zhu Xiaorui, a young teacher in the field of robotics from Harbin Institute of Technology, jointly invested 1 million yuan in DJI. Zhu Xiaorui then became DJI's chief scientist, and Li Zexiang became an early advisor and the chairman of the board of DJI. His corresponding shareholding was also destined to yield a substantial return later.

The advancing Chinese hardware

In a blink of an eye, DJI's last round of financing was in 2018.

This Chinese hardware company once made a confident move in the investment circle. In April 2018, DJI raised $1 billion through a bidding - based financing method. It also required investors to subscribe for a certain proportion of Class D common stocks with no returns (essentially interest - free debt) to be eligible to invest in Class B common stocks.

Under such harsh conditions, nearly 100 institutions still submitted margin deposits and bidding applications after the first round of bidding. The subscription amount exceeded DJI's planned financing amount by 30 times. Due to the high investment enthusiasm, DJI had to conduct multiple rounds of bidding to screen investors.

DJI's move was almost an isolated case among Chinese hardware companies at that time. After all, looking back 10 years from today, hardware investment was a niche track. Investors generally believed that "investing in hardware is like buying lottery tickets, with high uncertainty and low returns." Some partners directly rejected hardware projects and turned to investing in the Internet.

Changes have occurred quietly. Today, more confident companies have emerged in the Chinese hardware field.

It's worth mentioning Insta360, which competes with DJI in the action camera field. It was established in 2015 and occupies more than 60% of the global panoramic camera market. In June this year, its market value on the STAR Market once exceeded 120 billion yuan. Among the startups, the Plaud AI recording pen from Shenzhen has recently gained popularity. Although it is priced from $159, its global sales have quickly exceeded one million units. In August this year, the Snapmaker Color 3D Printer U1 launched by Shenzhen Kuaizao Technology caused the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to crash due to a surge in traffic.

Amid the excitement, hardware investment has also become popular again.

An investor said bluntly on a social platform: "This year, the growth of startups, the performance of large companies, and the performance in the secondary market in the hardware track are all inspiring." Investors who used to focus on games, semiconductors, etc., have unconsciously started to look at hardware targets such as AI glasses, AI recording pens, and companion toys.

DJI once opened a gap, showing the confidence of Chinese hardware in having a market but no proper valuation. Now, this scene is about to repeat itself, and Chinese hardware has entered an advancing era.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Feng Yuchen and published by 36Kr with authorization.