Guest Profile: The CEO of Shanghai Heqiyue Information Technology Co., Ltd. founded a social platform for starting a business and finding partners-Love Partnership, and has accumulated 200,000 registered users, including 40,000 entrepreneurs and business owners with real-name certification. Director China of Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Program, since 20 15, more than 100 student enterprises have graduated from SLP 16 week training, and many student enterprises have obtained VC institutional investment including China Acceleration after graduation.
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1. What should I pay attention to for the first partnership?
The answer to this question is actually a set of methodology. I hope to share this methodology with you, especially to help you solve some problems that will arise in the initial stage of cooperation.
In fact, there is a strong uncertainty in the initial cooperative relationship. This uncertainty may come from the project itself or from people. At the beginning of the cooperation, everyone was curious and thought that the other party could do something, and the other party could bring some special skills to help the project. Of course, all these things can happen, but in the end, you will know the truth.
From a personal standpoint, we can't let these risks be completely uncontrollable. We should try to reduce such an uncertainty, which is why there is such a set of methods. Let the two sides have been discussing such different issues when they meet, when the partnership has not been formally determined, when we sit down face to face for the first time, including what do you really believe? What are your personal goals? What the hell can you do? How much can I invest? How many risks can you take?
2. Can the partnership agreement be written into the articles of association? So as to have more legal effect?
In fact, the current articles of association are basically templated in all industrial and commercial bureaus in China. If you go to the industrial and commercial bureau to register a new company, and there are some things in the articles of association that the local industrial and commercial bureau teacher can't understand, then he will basically not let you register this company, so it is not very feasible to write the partner agreement into the articles of association.
Moreover, these issues we are talking about today have not directly risen to the legal level, because these issues have not been fully touched by the law, and more are soft cooperation between people, and then we will consider whether our own capabilities are complementary and how many risks we can bear.
I don't suggest that you try to write the partnership agreement into the articles of association, but we can write down the ten conclusions we just gave you. Some can be written into internal agreements, which may not have full legal effect, but they can be used as memos for everyone. Even in the construction of the core team of partners, we have experienced a formal and systematic method, so we can write down every conclusion for future use.
3. The possibility of cross-regional cooperation?
I think cross-regional cooperation is entirely possible. Because my own partner and I are not in the same city, there are partners in other cities. This possibility depends on which part of the team the partner is responsible for. Some roles may not need him to be with the team, but they need him to develop different businesses in different cities.
Now that the Internet is so developed, our team will use some online collaboration tools. I also suggest you try. These collaboration tools can actually solve the communication and collaboration problems between the two parties.
Everything is easy to talk about in the early stage. What if there is a gap in partner ability or a change in later state?
I think this question is a very good question, and it is actually the last module we will talk about today. Each partner's ability may be applicable to different stages of the whole project. Of course, in the early stage, everyone needs a process of understanding. Then when you start a business, you will be relatively accustomed to thinking things well. Entrepreneurs give themselves a lot of chicken blood, and he must be habitually optimistic about the development of the whole thing, everyone's investment, and everyone's ability to show. This is normal.
However, when the company encounters difficulties, you will find that the ability of some partners may not keep up, whether subjectively or objectively. You need to have such a prerequisite or an agreement to deal with such a possible situation. Even employees may not be competent for their jobs due to subjective or objective reasons, so there will be such a provision in your labor contract. Before hiring, you may tell him what will happen if this happens, and you may make a set.
Of course, how to formulate this assessment standard is actually quite artistic, because the partner is actually the earliest employee in your company. He joined your company under the most uncertain circumstances. Maybe none of your business has been operated on a large scale. It can't be evaluated in a simple way. There is no uniform answer. I can only say that every project is different and every situation is different. You can make an assessment method that suits your actual situation and discuss with your partner how to make the assessment method. I think it can perfectly show the tacit understanding between you and your partner and potential partner. When talking about a good thing, everyone smiles and is optimistic, but when talking about a bad thing, you can see some essential things.
5. Is there any good distribution method for technology occupation and capital occupation?
Capital occupation and technology occupation are very common situations. A project must be funded by someone. It is easier to work out how much you will pay, and then the whole project will have a simple estimate. What I want to talk about is the technical profession, some non-traditional internet entrepreneurial projects with certain subversive significance, or some new model entrepreneurial projects. The investment of people, technology and personal wisdom is actually very important. Therefore, capital investment can be regarded as an early angel investment. With this money, the project can be started, but the resources, technology and wisdom brought by the people behind it will definitely make the project go far.
If the project is successful, my suggestion is definitely that the partner founder who can bring technology and wisdom will become the main beneficiary of the project, but unlike capital stocks, technology stocks have been invested from the first day because it takes time. If a partner only works for a day and a month, his technology shares actually contain very little gold. This is the mechanism of time exchange of technology stock equity I mentioned just now.
If you are a technology partner, or a partner with resources and intellectual assets, then your equity is exchanged according to time, which is different from the distribution of capital joining. The first time you join the capital, you get the equity. If you leave your job in the first year of technology joining, you will generally not get equity. For example, you can get 40% equity in four years. If you leave the project within the first year, you will not get any shares. If you only work for one year after the first year, you can get 10% after the first year, and then you can show linear growth quarterly, monthly or even weekly.
6. If it is a partnership, you must have time to invest. If you have a part-time job, how to ensure the investment of partners?
I can't solve this problem in a unified way, but since this topic can be thrown out, it is very important that you speak it out, and don't be afraid to offend the other party, and don't be afraid to destroy this imaginary good cooperative relationship, and speak it out at the earliest time and return to the question of part-time or full-time job. It's hard to ask everyone to work full-time at once when a project is still in its infancy.
In fact, this is difficult to guarantee, so I think part-time entrepreneurship is very common, especially on the platform of love partnership. Many members are looking for entrepreneurial projects on a part-time basis. For these people, they find a good project, and maybe the first time is the state of part-time investment.
So how to ensure that partners can invest in part-time jobs? As I said before, it is still necessary to agree and formulate an assessment method, whether it is the assessment of investment time or the assessment of effect. As for the specific assessment methods, each project is different, but it is a very important step to explore such assessment methods and throw this question out objectively.
7. How to find a suitable shareholder investment project in the initial stage of investment?
Because funds are basically the pain point of new projects, no funds are equivalent to interception. It is difficult to answer this question in a standard way, because it is very important for all new projects to find investors, but if you find investors, it is for the sake of money and money on the one hand, and to verify your entrepreneurial ideas on the other.
So when I suggest looking for investment, I am actually looking for angel investors who believe in the track you choose, the direction you choose and the value you pursue. Angel investors actually bring you more than money, because their money is absolutely limited. It is said that Xue Manzi, a famous angel investor in China, actually put down a project with a price of 500,000 yuan, but what the entrepreneur really values is the resources brought by Lao Xue and his own influence on the project platform.
8. In the process of cooperation, differences and complaints are inevitable. The initial stage of starting a business is difficult. How to deal with differences and ensure the stability in the early stage?
What kind of difference is fatal and what kind of difference is only superficial? I think you can describe many differences. Some differences are about products, maybe UI, maybe a promotion method, maybe some words in product sales. These are superficial differences and do not affect the core.
If it's a core disagreement, it's something that your team has agreed upon since the start of the business and can't be changed. For example, you just want to be a social platform, or you just want to change the way people communicate. This should be a very important reason why a team can be together. This should not be changed. If there are differences on this point, I think it is the core difference.
9. What's the difference between finding a partner to find money by yourself and a professional investment company to help us find a partner to find money?
I know that some investment institutions sometimes come to us because they also want to find partners for the target companies they invest in. Generally, such projects will not be in the very early stage of entrepreneurship. If it is an early project, the general investment company will not intervene to find a partner, because this is the most basic aspect for the founder to show his entrepreneurial ability and find his own contacts.
So in the early days, in fact, professional investment institutions didn't do much for them, and even if they did, I wouldn't suggest it. You should still talk to yourself through channels such as Love Partnership or your own WeChat circle of friends, because this process is actually a very good opportunity to verify your entrepreneurial ideas.
If it comes to the later stage of project development, such as the AB round or the later stage, at this time, actually looking for a partner is equivalent to looking for an executive, then you may provide some such services through some headhunting platforms or partnership-loving platforms to provide headhunting service who is looking for a partner for a late company but is actually more like an executive.
10. The departure of the initial partner has a great chain effect. How to properly handle this situation?
The departure of the initial partner does hurt the project, but if this happens, I think the founder should sit down and think about why. Did the partners leave because of the project or because of people? If it is a project, we should find a solution from the project. If it is a person, the partner may not be suitable for the project itself. The urgent task is how to find a suitable person to fill this vacancy as soon as possible.
Of course, if such problems occur in the later stage of the project, we can't avoid them, but if possible, we should do some preventive measures and preparations as much as possible. If the partners can't take their due responsibilities and have to leave, what constraints and measures do you need to take to stop the project?
1 1. When can investors or institutions be contacted for the project? What should I pay attention to?
Contact with investors is a very good way to verify your entrepreneurial ideas, so as to get some feedback, especially some investors with a certain depth in the industry, who are not very well-known, but at least know your entrepreneurial field.
So my advice is to try to contact them from the beginning. If you are in Silicon Valley, we have a saying that you can invite them for coffee at the beginning. You can talk to each investor for about half an hour, say, an hour. You don't have to say who you must get investment from, but this way can make you rethink whether your entrepreneurial project is feasible from different angles.
Of course, when looking for investment, especially some institutions or individual angel investment, you should know whether they know this piece. Therefore, if you don't read this piece, or don't understand it, you can't give you some constructive suggestions. You should have known before talking to him, so as to avoid wasting time. I still think we should waste as little time as possible. The most important thing for entrepreneurs is time, so be as efficient as possible and spend time where it should be spent.
12. Is the technology partner determined not to be with the founder who doesn't understand technology?
There is no absolute answer to this question, of course, it can't be said that there isno. Behind this question is actually an objective phenomenon, that is, the partners and founders of technical schools know nothing about technology or products, only know business, and there are indeed some cognitive deviations. These cognitive deviations will objectively affect the development of the project and be less efficient in some key decisions.
So back to our methodology today. If you are a founder who doesn't know much about technology, what you want to talk about today is a technology partner. Why did you start talking about this problem when you first sat down? In fact, you can start with the first module, because from a technical partner's point of view, his understanding of a project may be somewhat different from your thinking from a non-technical point of view, so you should dig deep into this from the beginning. What part of this project do you believe? Can your non-technical angle and your technical angle really come together?