One night in the winter of 2017, Cui Xueyuan, founding partner of TSINGTECH Ventures, as usual, met with some young investment managers at Wangjing Xiaoyi, a famous barbecue restaurant in Beijing, to discuss the new dynamics of the industry, new projects, new tracks and new investment directions.
Cui Xueyuan realized at that time that "blockchain is the most exciting" and will become the next hot spot, and it is also the best opportunity for him to raise funds and manage **, so he decided to be a ** and become a ** manager.
People who know Cui Xueyuan have a pertinent evaluation of him: a person who is good at seizing opportunities. In 2014, when his classmates chose to work in a foreign company, he chose to devote himself to China's Internet industryIn 2016, with the upsurge of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", he started his career as an investorSubsequently, at the end of the development of the mobile Internet, he decisively found the opportunity of blockchain and became a young manager. This year, he was selected for the "2023 Forbes China Youth Returnee Elite 100 Selection".
In a way, he has succeeded in moving from classical venture capital to web 30 Breakthrough in the world of investment. In the new investment world, of course, he has also had his youth and frivolity, and has experienced all assets being cleared to zero after high volatility. After the anxiety, he chose to learn the management style of the "old money" and became mature and steady. What's even more rare is that in the atmosphere of fast money, he sticks to the bottom line and remains cautious.
Devoted to the mobile Internet industry
After graduating from university, many of Cui Xueyuan's classmates are employed in foreign companies in the investment banking, consulting, and FMCG industries, and he believes that China's mobile Internet industry has a more sunny temperament and stronger growth, so he started his career at NetEase in 2014. In 2016, Cui Xueyuan jumped to Hejun Capital as an investment manager, completing the transformation from an Internet operation brother to a venture capitalist in the technology industry.
In Cui Xueyuan's words, "At that time, the world's hot money poured into Beijing, and the tide of the times was too big, blowing pigs up." "In the process of entrepreneurs and investors looking for business models, the field of consumption and sharing economy has also set off one outlet after another, the first-line dollar ** and industrial capital venture capital advantages are obvious, many well-known investors have also invested in a lot of very well-known projects at that time, and for Cui Xueyuan and other young investment managers who have just entered the industry, it is difficult to find good investment opportunities from the ready-made track.
At that time, Cui Xueyuan felt that VR, AR, and artificial intelligence were good investment opportunities, so he began to break through from these directions. In 2017, when the national policy was guiding technology investment, Cui Xueyuan participated in the investment and post-investment management of many enterprises, including Lingxi, Silicon-based Intelligence, Leke and Modern Century. Among them, the Modern Century project led by him has brought more than eight times the return in one year, and Leke VR currently has more than 200 VR store experience halls across the country.
After entering the investment industry for a year and a half, Cui Xueyuan feels that the model innovation investment in the mobile Internet has come to an end, and the primary market needs to find a new direction. With the rapid rise of blockchain. Cui Xueyuan feels that "blockchain is the most exciting" and will become the next hot spot. He wants to make a ** team to invest in blockchain.
Soon, he and some investors and friends entered the preparation of the new **. Relying on the outstanding performance of past investment and post-investment management, Cui Xueyuan, as the founding partner of the new **, has moved forward with every detail from the registration of the company to the fundraising to the formation of the team. With the funding in place, in early 2018, Tsingtech Ventures** was officially established.
As with the choice between foreign-funded companies and China's Internet industry, Cui Xueyuan's keen judgment of the opportunity was once again fulfilled, "I found this opportunity and believed that it was the best choice I could make at that time." "In the past 6 years, Tsingtech Ventures has established three ** teams, invested in blockchain security and auditing, public blockchain solutions and other tracks, and achieved more than three times the return on investment (ROI). At present, Tsingtech Ventures has a cumulative management scale of 1$500 million, $100 million under management.
From "zero" to metamorphosis
After reaping phased success in management, Cui Xueyuan's personal investment strategy once had a more aggressive moment. With the realization of huge returns and the rapid growth of personal wealth, he personally used to be crazy about leverage, with millions of fluctuations every day. By 2019, his personal assets were almost wiped out, and he was very anxious for a while, so he began to reflect on himself.
Cui Xueyuan carefully observed the traditional investors around him, the lifestyle of those "old money", and their attitude towards money. He came to the conclusion that when investing, they pursue "slow is fast", do not pursue short-term high volatility and high returns, and "make money by not tossing". Cui Xueyuan's evaluation of himself is also very pertinent: "The reason why I was able to go from 0 to 1 was because I quickly seized the opportunity and dared to fight."But when you go from 1 to 100 and need to be a long-termist, you don't feel so easy. ”
To a certain extent, the failure and reflection after personal investment is also "helping to explore the way", with the lesson of "asset zero", Cui Xueyuan has more experience in management and is more mature in mentality. The returns of the first two periods of ** are very good, and they have survived big fluctuations, which is mainly due to the rapid development of the industry, coupled with the fact that "** can keep the bottom line and remain cautious." When it came to the third branch, Cui Xueyuan said that his mentality was very mature, and his judgment of the investment direction and rhythm was more accurate.
On the one hand, Tsingtech Ventures' investment decision-making is more perfect, with relatively fixed investment research, decision-making mechanisms and processes, rigorous voting mechanisms, and a set of project judgment logicOn the other hand, the investment team has a more mature mentality. The previous team members were younger, and there were many new investment recruits, but after a few years of honing, their investment skills have improved, and their mindset and way of thinking are more mature, rational and stable.
Currently, Tsingtech Ventures** has an overall return of more than three times. In 2022-2023, the valuation of portfolio companies that have not exited will increase by 50%-100%. In addition to providing financial support to portfolio companies, Tsingtech Ventures also assists startups in their rapid growth by providing strategic guidance, industry resources, market access, and business development support. The agency's portfolio spans startups in fintech, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.
Be a socially responsible investor
The surging blockchain and web 3The 0 field not only brings quick and huge returns, but also implies various risks and **.
Once, a start-up proposed a "risk-free" financing plan and exit plan to Cui Xueyuan. Cui Xueyuan admitted that as an investor, this risk-free proposal did seem tempting at the time, but their real idea was likely to use ** as an endorsement to reach out to other investors and raise more funds, and the company itself was not as good as the business plan wrote, which could make many investors suffer losses. "Capital should benefit start-ups that can have a positive social impact. ”
In 2021, Cui Xueyuan went to Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to pursue an MBA degree, hoping to improve his management ability, strengthen strategic thinking, and broaden his horizons. In the process of applying, he began to think about what the essence of investment is, what it means to him as an investor, and whether investment is compatible with his real dream, and he has figured out one thing, that is, investment is essentially to participate in the allocation of social resources. **The manager manages social wealth, invests in social industry, and through the distribution of social resources, it can not only contribute to the society, but also bring financial returns, which is the path of Cui Xueyuan to create value for the society and solve problems.
At the beginning of his career, Cui Xueyuan witnessed the changes of the mobile Internet to people's lives, and he also hopes to participate in such a wave and invest in companies that change people's lives, such as Didi Dache and Ziru. Of course, there may be very few opportunities to invest in such companies now, but he still hopes to be such an investor. With this belief, while studying in Singapore, Cui Xueyuan has extended his investment geography from China to the world, and his investment territory has also covered a wider range of tracks, and his team members are also located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.
Now pursuing a PhD at Singapore Management University, he hopes to delve deeper into the opportunities and challenges of Asia's fast-growing economy and further strengthen his theoretical and practical skills in business strategy and decision-making.
When it comes to judging the global economy, Cui Xueyuan is still optimistic about the Chinese market. "With the improvement of the macro environment and the improvement of the first-class issuance registration system, as well as the recovery of overseas listing activities, the exit channel of the primary market will be smoother. The overall heat will definitely pick up, but it will take a little time. ”
Talking about his recent life impressions, Cui Xueyuan mentioned an article he read in the doctoral program. This '90s academic article examines the dangers of overconfidence in return on investment. "Overconfidence leads to over-frequent trading and lower diversification, which in turn leads to significantly lower returns. At that moment, he recalled those days of his own aggressive investments in 2019.
The article was written by the organizing committee of the "2023 Forbes China Youth Returnee Elite 100 Selection".
Disclaimer: Forbes Insights is a commercial cooperation content, part of the research All data from partners and third parties, relevant views and conclusions are based on the above data research, not as any investment guidance and reference.