Among the 20 most popular robot companies this year, I've only invested in 5.

In this issue of "Blue hour", we invited an AI investor, Wang Sheng, a partner of Inno Angel Fund. At this year's World Robot Conference, the "Top 20 Most Investment - worthy Robot Companies in China" was released. On the list, 5 companies were projects he invested in during the first round: Accelerated Evolution, Songyan Power, Independent Variable Robot, Qianjue Technology, and Dongyi Technology. Based on the current valuation, two projects have returns of dozens of times, and two projects have returns of 10 times.

Digging deeper, the logic behind investing in those companies is not the same. If investing in companies focusing on the robot body is based on tactics - humanoid robots were not originally in his plan. It was Elon Musk and Jensen Huang who created the trend. At this time, what is needed is the ability to react quickly and keep up with the situation. Then, seizing Independent Variable and Qianjue Technology in the early stage relied more on strategy. One of these two companies focuses on the embodied brain, and the other follows the brain - like path. The courage to invest comes from an overall industrial layout and a prediction of the general direction of intelligent development.

There is also some regret, such as not investing enough. Wang Sheng's reflection is that if several companies all have great potential in the future, why do we have to choose just one and bet on who will be the champion?

There is a bit of a "humblebrag" in what he said. "Investing in all of them" is obviously not a realistic strategy. The sub - text of this statement is that he saw the opportunity early when the valuations were low. The essence of early - stage investment lies in identifying dividends and realizing the value of connections. The core is the word "early". I want to say that at the annual salons for popular investment tracks, the investors who have invested in star companies all talk about this kind of thing.

But his story is a bit special. When the founders of these new companies are looking for financing, they think of him first. In fact, it is because he endured a few years of obscurity and made some long - term plans. To put it more broadly, rather than talking about a successful methodology, it is more like a long - term career growth story:

A rock - and - roll youth, he joined the Internet industry right after graduation and was the 10th employee of Sohu. He started his first business in 1999 and received $4 million in investment from IDG and Vertex Ventures. However, due to the Internet bubble, his company didn't survive. Later, he had three more entrepreneurial attempts and sold his companies twice. After more than a decade of entrepreneurship without great success, he only verified one thing: he is not suitable for entrepreneurship.

Near the age of 40, he began to learn early - stage investment. When the wave of mobile Internet came, he was still a novice in investment. After a few years of accumulation, he caught up with the boom in cultural and entertainment investment. After all, he was once a literary youth, so investing in the cultural and entertainment industry was a piece of cake for him. Several projects with dozens of times of returns are credited to him. This seems to be more of an achievement based on experience.

Then the new consumption wave hit. He studied brand strategy, category positioning, and consumer psychology. However, after a lot of efforts, he found that some things cannot be learned just by studying. It depends on "sense". In other words, he encountered an investment track that cannot be reliably grasped by rationality.

Later came the chip, semiconductor, and new energy industries. Unfortunately, he doesn't like To B businesses. Although "usefulness" in a rational sense is of course very important, it is not his only criterion for consideration. It seems rare to hear an investor emphasize the importance of "liking" something. When a new trend emerges and there is a consensus in the market, people just follow it, learn from it, and embrace the wave. Why should they doubt?

The cost of going against the current is that he made few investments for several years. However, the wonderful thing about fate is that precisely because he didn't chase the seemingly more certain trends and indulged in things he was interested in, he happened to catch up with the AI boom and became one of the people selected by the new wave.

The above is the growth path of a 70s - born investor through different economic cycles. Wang Sheng has a science and engineering background, and rational thinking is an ingrained habit for him. However, his major career choices, whether it was entering the Internet industry, starting a business, or later choosing investment themes, all started from his emotions and always respected his own feelings. This is of course related to his identity. He is not a GP and doesn't need to bear the responsibility of answering questions from LPs, so he has a certain degree of freedom. Judging from the results, he didn't catch all the dividends, so this is not a success - story. But I think his life is also very colorful. People are inevitably pushed by the waves, but they are not completely helpless. They can still win a little space to preserve their interests and personalities. This is what I think is valuable about Wang Sheng as an investor.

If I had to choose a color to represent him, I would choose purple, which is a combination of warm red and calm blue, symbolizing the integration of sensibility and rationality. If I had to choose a specific color, I think bright platycodon color is very appropriate, a bright blue - purple, just like his bright personality when he laughs.

Rock and Roll, Internet, and Angel Investment

Liu Yanqiu: I'd like to start with you personally. Your WeChat video account introduction is about angel investment and rock bands. Actually, there are quite a few people in this industry who play in bands. Could you tell me why you like rock and roll?

Wang Sheng: I started playing the guitar in junior high school. In that era, there was a special thing called "bootleg tapes". These were smuggled music tapes that were seized and had a hole punched in them. However, many of them could still be played. Sometimes, you could just tape them up and continue using them. I was exposed to foreign music through these bootleg tapes and thought it was amazing. Later, when I went to college, I bought an electric guitar and planned to form a band. To be honest, our level at that time was not very good. And in that environment, it was very difficult to make a band successful. Unlike today's kids, who can be immersed in a good music environment from a young age and play the guitar very well.

Liu Yanqiu: People who were into rock and roll or other niche music in that era seemed to have a special affection for bootleg tapes.

Wang Sheng: Yes, at that time, the development of Chinese pop music was not very advanced, and the music styles were very limited. People usually listened to more Hong Kong and Taiwanese tapes. However, the music resources from Hong Kong and Taiwan were also limited, and they mainly borrowed a small part of the Japanese pop music style. So, when many people were exposed to the music on bootleg tapes, they were very surprised to find that there were rock, metal, and electronic music. It was like opening a new world, and the impact was quite strong.

Liu Yanqiu: It's like when you were exposed to this music, you were in your adolescence. At that stage, people often have a lot of ideas and emotions to vent, and rock and roll just met this need?

Wang Sheng: You're absolutely right. When I was in college, I always thought that my future career should be in the music industry.

Liu Yanqiu: So, why did you deviate from the music path later?

Wang Sheng: Because I found that it was very difficult to make a sustainable career in the music industry. Although the music industry was not well - developed at that time, there was still a band circle. After getting in touch with it, I found that it was extremely difficult for people to make a living from music. In addition, when I was about to graduate, I started to get in touch with the Internet and was attracted by this new thing.

One of my good friends, Yao Yong, was the guitarist of Mu Mu Nian Hua. When we were in college, he had his band and I had mine. We even performed together. After graduation, he also played in a band for a few years, but finally decided it wouldn't work. Even Mu Mu Nian Hua, which was relatively successful among bands, he chose to leave. After leaving, he founded a technology company and a game company.

Liu Yanqiu: The term "rock and roll spirit" is often mentioned in the rock and roll circle. Do you believe in the so - called "rock and roll spirit"?

Wang Sheng: First, we need to figure out what the "rock and roll spirit" really is. When I was young, I thought the rock and roll spirit was about being anti - society and irritable. But later, I gradually realized that the real rock and roll spirit is actually free will - doing what you want to do, creating the music you want to create, and expressing the views you want to express. It was only later that I truly understood this.

Liu Yanqiu: After getting in touch with the Internet, did you feel that there was some kind of internal connection between rock and roll and the Internet? I once read a statement saying that "the Internet was the rock and roll of that era".

Wang Sheng: In China at that time, both rock and roll and the Internet were very new things. At that time, rock and roll was called "underground music", and the bands we played in were also called "underground bands". The Internet was in a similar situation at that time. For example, when people first started using IHWNet, only a small number of people were trying it out. Everyone did it just for fun.

At that time, I did these things more out of my instinct and interest, not because I saw how great this thing could be in the future or how many benefits it could bring. I just simply thought it was interesting, so I was willing to believe in it and invest in it. This feeling is actually a bit similar to the state of some young people believing in cryptocurrencies later.

Liu Yanqiu: Is there any common ground between playing in a band, making music, and doing early - stage investment?

Wang Sheng: From a rational perspective, investment is actually a complex and comprehensive thing that requires a wide range of personal knowledge. Young investors are easily trapped in technical details. However, it is very difficult to do a good job in investment just by studying investment techniques, reading others' interviews, or even taking courses in college. It's more like "copying a cat and painting a tiger".

It is actually necessary to understand culture and history. In terms of an investor's knowledge structure, macroeconomics and microeconomics are a must. Knowledge related to psychology, sociology, human behavior, and business and management are all relevant to investment. Most good investors are also interested in philosophy. However, this knowledge should not just be a hodgepodge. The key is to be able to connect them and form associations, which will be of practical help to investment. In addition, I think the core of investment is also related to curiosity. You need to be curious about many things and have creative thinking.

Personally, I think investment is really suitable for me. As for whether I am really suitable for investment, more practice is needed to prove it. Because my ability to focus is not very strong, I am curious about many things and interested in many fields. It is very difficult for me to focus on one thing for a long time and make it perfect day after day. In contrast, I prefer things with more creative space.

Liu Yanqiu: If you want to be top - notch in one thing, you can't just mechanically repeat at a shallow level. You also need to learn from other things, connect with other fields, and establish your own philosophy.

Wang Sheng: There must be a certain contradiction between these two things. When you spend too much time on very detailed things, the part of the grand vision will definitely be reduced. When you look at problems from a broader perspective or want to solve more problems, it is very difficult for you to focus on a very specific and micro - level problem. So, this is why I say that I think investment is very suitable for me because the things I want to do involve multi - dimensional perspectives and knowledge structures. As an investor, I need to grasp the scale and norms of investment, rather than standing in the position of a founder to grasp the details of a certain AI technology or application.

If two companies both have great potential in the future, why do I have to choose one and bet on who will be the champion?

Liu Yanqiu: Suddenly, I wonder if this is also the reason why many people misjudged Wang Xingxing. Investors may use a relatively diverse set of criteria to evaluate him, but in the field of robotics, you only need to be more specialized in a specific area, not as comprehensive as he is.

Wang Sheng: I think the opposite is true. Wang Xingxing is not a typical entrepreneur in the era of science and technology innovation. If you look at all the science and technology innovation projects being invested in, they are all related to which professor or scientist is behind them. At that time, there were two projects in front of us. We could have invested in Unitree, but we chose DeepRobotics, following the typical investment thinking in the era of science and technology innovation, which ensured a relatively high lower limit.

An important point is that Wang Xingxing has a product - thinking mindset. He understands the market and user needs very well and can translate these user needs into appropriate product expressions. At the same time, he can also build a complete set of technical and organizational mechanisms to support product and service expressions. So, if you look at his product definition for Unitree and its sales, they have always been doing well. However, Unitree's technical ability is not the strongest. They also don't provide industry solutions because Wang Xingxing believes that doing industry - related things is complex and not profitable, and it's not a relatively large - scale market. Later, as the capabilities of robots continued to improve, a consumer - oriented market emerged outside of scientific research. People started using robots for performances, which no one had expected.

In this process, you will find that if you look at these two projects at an earlier time point, you will think that the scientific research team has a high technical barrier, so the lower limit is high, but the upper limit is not certain.

Liu Yanqiu: So, after missing out on Unitree, do you still conduct reviews and reflections on this? If you were given another chance to invest, would your choice be different between a person like Wang Xingxing and a more typical science and technology innovation founder?

Wang Sheng: If we look back at the projects we invested in over the past two or three years and answer your question, I wouldn't choose just one. I'd choose both. We think both of them have great potential in the future. Why do I have to pick one and decide who will be the champion?

So, the point worth reflecting on is that our sense of selection was too strong in the past. The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) released a list of the top 20 most investment - worthy robot companies. Five of them were projects I invested in during the first round. However, I counted and found that 13 of them had communicated with us during the first round of financing. We had the option to choose, but I only invested in five.

Liu Yanqiu: Do you feel a bit regretful now?

Wang Sheng: It's not exactly regret. I just think it shows a problem. Of course, you can say that these 20 companies may not all succeed in the future, right? But that's just a form of self - consolation. The essential problem is that if we assume that this time point is very valuable and the valuations of these companies are growing very fast, if we had invested in the first round, we would have had very good returns by now, and I believe it would not be difficult to exit in the future. But why did we choose some and not others? Maybe there was a problem with our selection criteria and scale.

Liu Yanqiu: How will your current selection criteria and scale change?

Wang Sheng: The very important reason why we didn't choose to invest in those projects is that we were too certain about the future development of the industry, including the development of technological paradigms and the choice of models. As a result, we thought that any founder who didn't share the same judgment as us would take a detour. When many founders on the list came to us in the first round, what they were doing was completely different from what they are doing now, and it was almost exactly the same as the suggestions we gave them at that time.

Liu Yanqiu: So, does it mean that you have already seen the future development trend of this industry?

Wang Sheng: In the past few years, the development trends of all industries have been almost exactly in line with our judgments. We make our judgments one year in advance. So, the biggest problem is that we are too confident in our future judgments, and in fact, our judgments have always been correct. So, we sometimes look down on founders who are not in line with our judgment direction.

But when we come back to the essence of investment, it is ultimately a game about people, right? What they do is not the most important thing. The important thing is the people themselves. We have never denied that these are the smartest people. Although we see their short - term limitations, we cannot deny that when these people fully invest their time in this matter, spend more time understanding it