Isaac mao works in different fields such as research and development, business and social work. Educational learning technology researcher, software architect, science and technology industry commentator. Mao Zemin is currently the vice president of Weizhong Venture Capital Group (China) Co., Ltd. (UCI), engaged in professional venture capital. From June 5 to 10, 2002, Mao Yushi and Zheng founded China Blog Network and launched "China Blog Experience Collection", which was the earliest online forum in China to discuss blog technology and culture. The Evergreen Education Fund he participated in funded public welfare projects such as Smile Library, trying to promote the efficiency and transparency of color fans with high technology. Isaac Mao is also a venture capitalist. He served as vice president of Weizhong Venture Capital Company to help Focus Media go public on Nasdaq.

Chinese name: Isaac Mao.

Mbth: IsaacMao

Occupation: software architect, etc.

Graduate school: Shanghai Jiaotong University

Main achievements: Being a future star of China software entrepreneurs.

Representative works: Education is an area that needs strategic management.

outline

IsaacMao, graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University. E-learning researchers, preachers and entrepreneurs. Committed to the research and development of learning/educational technology, as well as research, consulting and venture capital in the new education industry, he is the founder of the concept of "connected education system". Initially working for Intel, he founded Fang Yi Software Company and served as CEO. He is currently the executive director and consultant of many IT companies. Member of ACM human-computer interaction group. His main research interests include educational economy, learning technology, human-computer interaction technology, software engineering and complex organizational systems.

1994 Isaac Mao graduated from the Computer Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University and entered the Architecture Laboratory of Intel Corporation. At that time, he still agreed with the successful model of elite creating the world. The experience of Microsoft, Lotus and other companies shows that individual talents can create brilliant achievements.

By the end of 1990s, something changed his mind. After personally participating in some commercial operations, he found that commercial companies may engage in things that run counter to the public interest. "In the past, I have been doing technical development on Microsoft's platform. But the rise of Linux and the vigorous development of free software inspired me to think, in the future, will there be a small voice or technology from the people that will promote social change? "

In those years, he also contacted many foreign foundations. "I am not attracted by their seemingly lofty goals. What I care about is behavior patterns. There is a business model in the business field, and the government is the ruling system. In the folk, there is also a set of methods and a sustainable model. For example, how the foundation operates, how to monitor the flow of funds, and how to get the support and constraints of donors. Whether the implemented actions are effective or not, and who will evaluate them. How can they be recognized by the local social system? This is what I care about. "

The free software movement showed Isaac Mao that besides government and business, there is a third force, that is, social forces can play a powerful role. Compared with commercial forces, social forces are characterized by strong penetration and ubiquity, and can play a regulatory role in nuances.

Personal realization

Representative papers

1. Education is an area that needs strategic management.

2. The interrelated laws of learning

3. Construction rules of learning

4. Chaos law of learning

5. Ensure the success of e-learning in teaching design.

6. Understand the intelligent building module of the object-connected education system.

7. Open it and educate the content.

8. Looking at the development of distance education industry from the University of Phoenix.

9. Global e-learning: Calm down.

10, developing teaching design and creating complete learning

1 1. This is the wealth of distance education.

12, Inheritance and Innovation-"Great Education Concept" in the Changing Era

13, equality, mutual trust, sharing and openness

14, blog will become an important tool for education.

Main achievements: In June, 20001,it was named as the future star of China software entrepreneurs by far eastern economic review magazine.

Other positions: executive director and senior management consultant of Fang Yi Software Company; He has served as management and technical consultant for many IT companies.

Venture capital experience

Isaac mao allocates his time to different fields, such as research and development, business and social work. He is an educational and learning technology researcher, software architect and technical industry commentator. Now, he also has an important identity, that is, Vice President of Weizhong Venture Capital Group (China) Co., Ltd. (UCI), engaged in professional venture capital. Over the past few years, apart from blog projects, he is most proud of and of course the most successful, which is Focus Media, because this enterprise has developed rapidly from zero to IPO.

1, establishing an innovative value chain

Weizhong Venture Capital Group (China) Co., Ltd. (UCI) was established less than two and a half years ago, but it invested 12 projects in China. As the vice president of the company, Isaac Mao touches more than 500 investment projects a year, and talks about 1 2 projects almost every day. Judging from the number and company situation, it seems that every place has opportunities to make money, but "if you spread the money over all the opportunities, it may be difficult for every opportunity to get enough room for growth."

Therefore, Isaac Mao's investment strategy is to establish an industrial chain, so that investment projects can support each other and integrate with each other, so that each company has enough room for growth, "establish business incubation bases, discover investment projects and attract entrusted investment funds", and form a relatively complete value chain or ecological circle. Isaac mao hopes that this will become a new successful model of venture capital.

Isaac Mao's current plan is to invest in 5-8 projects every year, but he thinks it is better not to invest in 8 projects, so that he can concentrate more. "Because there are many projects, although the lineup looks very strong, if there is not enough energy to help it, it may have an adverse impact on the company's management, resource utilization and actual development."

Most venture capital first pays attention to the high-tech field, especially the IT field, and Weizhong is no exception. IT projects account for almost two-thirds of the investment projects of Weizhong. Isaac mao believes that IT itself, as the frontier of technology, is undergoing some new changes all the time and needs higher technological innovation, so it is more likely to change people's lifestyles. Therefore, an IT company can really become a listed company within three to five years, and its market value can immediately turn over astronomical figures. This is also a reason why venture capital loves this field.

Of course, in addition to the IT field, other high-tech fields are also of great concern to Isaac Mao. Mao Isaac is most interested in those projects with rapid response mechanism and innovative business model.

The key is to have entrepreneurial spirit.

I have come into contact with many unique entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams, but in Isaac Mao's eyes, I have never seen a truly natural and perfect entrepreneurial team. "Some of them do have some advantages, which may be technology, management and marketing, but they just have strong ideas or do better in some aspects."

But Isaac Mao believes that imperfection is normal, and the key is that this entrepreneurial team should have "entrepreneurial spirit". "Many teams have realized that he has an innovative idea, and he may be very excited every day and fully involved. I think this is very necessary. If a team does not have this entrepreneurial spirit, we may not watch it. "

It is also very important that "an entrepreneurial team must have the ability and mechanism to respond quickly." In terms of entrepreneurship, Isaac Mao has several classic theories, one of which is that "any team must completely walk through the mistakes of others in the process of entrepreneurship."

Isaac Mao thinks this is the inevitable development of the company. "Even if you remind him of these problems, he may still experience this mistake again." And some teams can react quickly, realize their own shortcomings, avoid or solve these problems, so as to seize the opportunity in the process of market competition. "Quick response and seizing the opportunity means becoming a market leader, and we all know that the market value of the first and second place in the market is often more than twice as different. From the perspective of capital, venture capitalists will of course talk to the first team first. "

3. Establish the rules of the game

It is not easy for venture capitalists to find a good investment project, and it is not easy to establish a good relationship with the entrepreneurial team. In fact, the question of which is stronger and which is weaker often arises between the two. But no matter who is strong or weak, it is not good for both sides. Therefore, before investing, Isaac Mao will communicate more with the entrepreneurial team, first clarify some principles and reach the foundation of cooperation. After the investment, it actually becomes a joint operation of both parties, so there must be a close and harmonious cooperative relationship.

Isaac mao said that in the past, after the venture capitalists finished their investment, what remained might be "praying", that is, praying for the success of this project. And he likes to think of venture capital as "InvestmentandPlay", and everyone plays an entrepreneurial game together. As a good game, of course, there must be the main points of the game. He believes that there are three main points: first, there is a basic game rule that everyone should abide by together; The second is to have good game content, that is, the investment project itself should be innovative and exciting; The third is to establish the goal of a game, that is, what kind of result you want to achieve.

Therefore, Isaac Mao believes that first of all, we can reach a consensus, and then on this basis, we can integrate the different views of both sides. "It is necessary to discuss and even argue about some things, but this should be a' constructive confrontation'. It is necessary to discuss different viewpoints and go all out towards a common goal. If these aspects are' playing well', then things should be moving in the right direction. "

Because of this idea, so far, Isaac Mao has a good relationship with the entrepreneurial team he invested in and the project has developed smoothly.

4, playing is the heartbeat.

Many people believe that venture capitalists must be more accurate and farther than themselves if they want to invest in entrepreneurial teams. But Isaac Mao thinks this is inaccurate. In his view, the vision of an entrepreneurial team itself may be more important, that is, the entrepreneur's own expectation of the company's long-term development direction in the future.

Of course, venture capitalists also have a vision, which is called "meta-vision" by Isaac Mao. "This is also very important. In other words, venture capitalists need to know what the general trend of society and market is, but you are not sure who will succeed in this field, or it will do well in a few years, so we intend to share this vision with the entrepreneurial team. "

Relatively speaking, entrepreneurial teams actually know more about what they are doing and related fields than venture capitalists. Therefore, Isaac Mao believes that venture capitalists must have a good "learning spirit and attitude". "If you just sit facing south, you may not see good opportunities and projects, or you may not be willing to admit the value of the team, so this is a test from a personal point of view."

From the company's point of view, isaac mao believes that venture capitalists must judge whether an entrepreneurial team is capable and can become a potential market leader, which is the biggest test. Because this will lead to the most direct result-"either profit or no loss." The biggest difficulty is, "how to integrate technology and creativity with the background, experience, management, marketing and other concepts of the entrepreneurial team."

"There is still a big challenge, that is, venture capitalists should give enough support and support to the entrepreneurial team." Isaac mao said that there is a famous "six-month death theory" in the field of venture capital, that is, once a team invests, it will not do well within six months, but may accelerate its failure. Just like many ideas can't be proved without investment, and once invested, it may prove that every road won't work. "So when judging some projects, we often ask ourselves whether these projects really can't be done without money."

Whether it is learning attitude, making judgments, understanding a new field, or management support after investment, Isaac Mao has a feeling of "playing heartbeat", which is both challenging and stressful.

5. Investing in China means investing in the future.

Isaac mao, a graduate of Shanghai Jiaotong University, worked for Intel Corporation, and later founded Fang Yi Software Company and became a professional venture capitalist. He believes that such a development process may actually be experienced by modern people: "technical work-management-entrepreneurship-investment".

"Maybe it's because I just have this knowledge and interest, and I don't think managing a company is enough to satisfy my appetite. The same is true of venture capital, so you can invest in more fields and see if some value can be maximized. This is a natural process, I have never designed it. It's just a coincidence and some good partners. "

Isaac Mao felt that he had not really changed. Now he manages many projects, in fact, he will still combine some ideas of the original management of his own company. I used to do some professional work, but today I am still interested in some technical fields, including development trends, social impact, and what will change people's behavior or lifestyle.

For the future technology, isaac mao pays more attention to social software and social networking sites, and a new business model built around this new technology-social networking sites.

He believes that the change of the Internet in the next few years is that users will create more and more content. In the future, production will be decentralized, and users will publish their own content and create their own content. Isaac mao will invest in ten similar projects in the future.

"I am an idealist. For me, work is life, it is a part of life, and the fun at work is the realm I want to pursue in my life, that is, I hope that many things can become better. "

Isaac mao always foresees a more perfect future. He prefers to communicate with others and share his beautiful vision, so he likes to write a "blog". At this point, he showed his innocence. In the words he wrote on his blog, "Evil and justice coexist in business and network, and the name' blog' is disgusting because it is abused by some people, so I am a blogger, an ordinary person who likes to share and record, not a' blog' alongside hackers."

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurial teams also need to share. Isaac mao believes that the circle of venture capitalists in China is actually very small. "In such a big market and such a big circle, information flows quickly, so honesty is very important. It doesn't matter if you are unsuccessful, but you must let everyone know that you are an honest and valuable person. "

"Today, the entrepreneurial team in China will come to us through various relationships. We don't just go to see some projects. Many projects are recommended by social networking sites. We trust them or have some contact with the front end. We can see that most teams have a strong sense of entrepreneurship, and we can see that there are more and more people with entrepreneurial spirit in China. Therefore, we have repeatedly told foreign venture capital partners that China is full of entrepreneurial blood. Victoria's philosophy is' Victoria gathers wisdom and invests in the future of China'. "

For the future, isaac mao believes that "China's entrepreneurial team may need four to five years of training in these areas, and some training has already come out in the first round. But I think it may take one or two waves to have a large number of mature teams. If you combine venture capital, if you have some mature experience and ideas, you will have more chances of success. "