There are many reasons why startups fail, and the top two are always:The company runs out of money or the partners have conflicts.
I think the reason our company has been around for 8 years and is still going strong is not only because we caught a wave of internet financing bonuses, giving us enough ammunition to explore and grow; but more importantly, I've been lucky to have some great partners who have worked well together over the years. The most important reason is that we share very consistent core values.
What prompted this reflection was a message Cong sent me today while we were discussing what we should do with Web3:
"We should be pessimistic optimists—having low expectations for the future, but as long as it's worth it, we should firmly go for it."
"When a promising new project comes your way, you might assume it will be hard to succeed. But if you believe in the project and want to work on it even if there’s no profit, then by all means, you should give it a try."
This also reminded me of something from a few years ago when we tried our hand at blockchain business and wanted to do so-called community operations. At that time, the number of users in TG groups was an important indicator for investors to judge the quality of a project. So, we were learning how to build these groups, but found that most of them were full of CX tricks without providing real value. After studying for a while, Qi decided not to waste time on this and told me:
"Actually, I spent a lot of time recently focusing on building TG groups and observing the dynamics inside. My feeling is quite negative. I think spending money and time on these false indicators is not worth it at all; instead, we don't have enough time to carefully consider how to incentivize users within the project itself."
"For a period of time, we were hesitating because, due to financing needs, we were focused on optimizing indicators beneficial for financing. But as we went along, we realized this wasn't our style at all."
"Sometimes the things right in front of you can confuse you, but if you stretch the timeline, you'll find that they're just fleeting clouds."
"Let's focus on what we do best. We understand and accept the world, but choose the path that suits us best."
Cong and Qi are both extremely intelligent individuals and long-term thinkers. They've helped and inspired me greatly over the years. While external investors, advisors, and mentors can offer some advice and guidance, it's the internal partners who truly understand the whole picture and whose interests are highly aligned that can more effectively discuss issues, think through problems, propose solutions, implement them, and grow through iteration and retrospection.
Sometimes finding a good partner is harder than finding a good spouse. I'm grateful to my partners for sticking with me through thick and thin over the years, sharing both glory and shame. I also hope I can grow faster, make the company better, and give my partners a good return.