Leverage AI "Intelligent Enterprise Connect" to tap into the blue ocean of the manufacturing industry through a sharing model and seek angel round financing.
As the manufacturing industry transforms towards intelligence and digitalization, enterprises' demand for management consulting is becoming increasingly urgent. However, the traditional consulting model has long faced the challenges of "unable to find, unaffordable, and untrustworthy". A startup team named "Zhiqilian" is trying to reconstruct the delivery method of enterprise management consulting services through a "Didi-style" sharing platform and AI intelligent matching technology. The project has currently completed the development of the APP 1.0 version and entered the internal testing phase, and is seeking angel round financing of 8 - 10 million yuan.
Solving the bilateral dilemma of "million - dollar consulting" and "adviser idle periods"
In the field of enterprise management consulting, the pain points on both the supply and demand sides are also prominent. For enterprises, the cost of traditional consulting projects often starts at one million yuan, which is unaffordable for a large number of small and medium - sized enterprises. Even if they are willing to invest, they often face the dilemmas of "poor adaptability" of the solutions and difficulty in verifying the background of the advisers. Meanwhile, it is difficult for enterprises to quickly find practical advisers with experience in specific niche industries. On the supply side, a large number of excellent independent advisers are long trapped in narrow customer acquisition channels, with their incomes fluctuating greatly with projects, long idle periods between projects, and their personal brands unable to be effectively established. This structural contradiction of "enterprises can't afford, advisers can't get enough business" leaves a clear market space for platform - based matchmaking.
"Zhiqilian" chooses the manufacturing industry as its entry point. The team believes that driven by policies such as "Made in China 2025" and "Specialized, Sophisticated, Distinctive and Innovative", the demand for management upgrading of manufacturing enterprises is exploding. According to the research data of the project party, the scale of the Chinese enterprise management consulting market is expected to exceed 250 billion yuan in 2025, among which the scale of the modular "light consulting" service market (SAM) for small and medium - sized manufacturing enterprises exceeds 60 billion yuan. The main customer group in this niche market is small and medium - sized enterprises with an annual revenue of 20 million to 1 billion yuan. They have an urgent need for management upgrading, relatively limited budgets, and flexible decision - making, which happens to be the blank area that traditional consulting institutions fail to cover adequately.
Double - review combined with AI matching to make the "right people" visible and accessible
Different from comprehensive freelance platforms, "Zhiqilian" chooses to deeply focus on manufacturing consulting vertically, and its core capabilities are based on the dual foundation of "credit system + intelligent matching".
At the access stage, the platform has pioneered a double - authenticity review system of "educational background filing + case background check". Each adviser needs to provide educational certificates and undergo the platform's verification of past service cases when registering. After passing, a trustworthy professional profile will be generated. This mechanism directly addresses the long - standing problem of "inflated backgrounds" in the consulting industry and lays a trust foundation for subsequent transactions.
At the matching stage, "Zhiqilian" has developed an AI intelligent matching engine based on industry corpus training. The system constructs a "four - dimensional matching model" from more than 20 dimensions such as industry niche, functional direction, enterprise scale, and historical reputation, compressing the traditional process of enterprises selecting advisers, which used to take weeks, to minutes. Enterprise users can input their needs through voice or text. After the AI assists in disassembling the tags, the system will push a list of advisers sorted by matching degree in real - time, along with the reasons for the recommendation. As the platform accumulates data, the algorithm will continuously learn, and the matching accuracy will be continuously improved.
In addition, the platform has designed an online management tool for the entire project process, disassembling traditional consulting projects into modular products that can be delivered in a standardized way, such as strategic diagnosis, on - site lean production coaching, and salary system design, reducing the decision - making threshold for small and medium - sized enterprises to purchase. Through disintermediation, the platform claims to reduce the consulting cost for enterprises by 30% - 50%, while creating more flexible income space for advisers.
Launch with over 2000 enterprise resources and plan to achieve break - even in 18 months
The main body of the "Zhiqilian" project is Lingyi Planning and Consulting (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., established in June 2024. The team has a cross - border background of "consulting + Internet + manufacturing": the founder and CEO, Wan Xiaojun, an MBA from Sun Yat - sen University, has 16 years of enterprise management consulting experience and has served many well - known manufacturing enterprises; the chief technology officer is the former technology leader of a well - known Internet company, proficient in platform architecture and big data algorithms; the product and review director has worked in a well - known background check company, responsible for human resources background investigations.
Different from most startup projects starting from scratch, "Zhiqilian" has accumulated certain resources in the cold - start stage. The team is currently operating 3 video accounts in vertical manufacturing fields, accumulating nearly 2000+ enterprise customer resources; at the same time, it has established 7 - 8 consultant communities, covering nearly 800 adviser resources. These existing resources will serve as the bilateral user base in the early stage of the platform's launch. Through community conversion and content promotion, an initial transaction closed - loop will be quickly formed.
In terms of the profit model, the platform plans a three - layer income structure: the core is the transaction commission, with the platform charging a service fee of 10% - 20% for each completed order; followed by the membership subscription fees for enterprises and advisers, providing rights such as advanced demand release, priority matching, and unlimited access to the case library; in addition, it also includes value - added services such as certification service fees, advertising promotion, and sales of training tools.
According to the team's financial forecast, the platform plans to achieve break - even in monthly cash flow within 18 months after the funds are in place, and aims to reach an annual GMV of 1 billion yuan within three years. This round of financing will be mainly used for product R & D (optimization of the AI matching algorithm), market promotion, establishment of the operation and review team, and daily operations.
Currently, the APP 1.0 version of "Zhiqilian" has been developed and the internal testing has been launched, and the team is inviting seed users to participate in the experience. The team plans to accelerate product iteration and market verification through this round of financing, establish benchmark cases in 1 - 2 manufacturing niches (such as auto parts and electronic manufacturing), and gradually build a network growth flywheel of "strict review - excellent advisers - good cases - more enterprises".
Investors who wish to report or are interested in "Zhiqilian" can contact the author through 36Kr.