Ou Ruibo CEO Wang Xionghui: Using evolution to play smart home

In this interview, Wang Xionghui, CEO of Ou Ruibo. Wang Xionghui was born in Meizhou, Guangdong. In his memory, his interest in electronics can be traced back to before elementary school. In rural areas where spiritual and material life are not rich, cheap and easy-to-get small electronic products are more accessible than sleek and fashionable toys. So he found everything that could be dismantled around him, made small hardware modifications, borrowed a secondary school tutorial, learned the radio foundation, and used a small bully of less than 100 yuan to learn QBasic programming. Returning home from school every weekend, there are always small appliances sent by neighbors waiting for him to repair.

This pile of old and new transistors and filters obviously contains some magical power, and the dream of this young town is constantly filtered, magnified and reshaped. At the age of 28, with the explosion of the product - computer diagnostic card, Wang Xionghui earned the first bucket of gold in life, and then embarked on the entrepreneurial road of smart home.

Chris Anderson, editor of the former Wired magazine, said: "The digital revolution has entered the core of the real world." Undoubtedly, under the general trend of the Internet of Everything, the bits constructed with code will become the dominant force in the hardware field. The problem is that you can see the ultimate form of the next 10 years, but it is difficult to define the priorities of the second half of the year. Entrepreneurs who are in a "revolutionary" mentality will inevitably cross the hard reefs of design, R&D, manufacturing and marketing when they cross the soft and hard borders. Every step forward is a challenge to the inherent discourse system, and thus touches the harder core of the "real world."

Wang Xionghui is a typical "Southern Department" entrepreneur, low-key and down-to-earth. Even if his past record is good, he still keeps his words cautiously and does not talk about "revolution." In this uncertain zone with blurred boundaries, he is looking for a deterministic methodology that always follows the essence of hardware, leaving the "smart" cloak and looking at the value of use. In his view, before the birth of the real "platform", the hardware market will remain "fragmented, polymorphic, long-tailed", and the Internet's "winner-take-all" is not effective for the time being. The geomorphology of the atomic world will inevitably be changed by bits, but in the moment, the ability to play "140 words of Twitter" does not mean that you can use the same logic to make a "flying car."

In the final analysis, good products are still the foundation of success. The difficulty is: How do you do it to give them soul and character? Jobs once said that touching LSD is one of the most important things in his life. It is not difficult to see that the same influence on his thoughts has to count the Japanese meditation he was obsessed with when he was young, the value concept of "less is more", and the "civilian poet" Bob Dylan. The superimposed combination of all the elements, the individual shape is rich and rich, which makes Steve Jobs' unique product philosophy.

Wang Xionghui was deeply influenced by the theory of evolution. He firmly believed that only rigorous reasoning can produce real innovation. In the five-hour interview, the first three hours were based on the full expression of the rational thinking product concept. For the remaining 2 hours, it was completely handed over to the film and poetry. Hong Kong, separated by a river, has given Wang Xionghui an important enlightenment of popular culture. With a 78-yuan chip, he successfully converted the old VCD sent by his relatives into a DVD, and he became fascinated with Hong Kong movies. He especially appreciates Xu Ke, and even can sing out the lines in "Swordsman". "White bones are like birds flying, and the world is like water."

The love of poetry is a long-standing thing. Although he has already put a pen on it, Wang Xionghui can still remember the sentence he wrote when he collected the wind at the seaside. The sea of ​​Zhanjiang is quiet and empty, with only starry sky, bonfire and singing. At the time of the tide, some people found a big seashell. The waves under the moonlight are glowing with silver, like lightning.

Absolute reason and sensibility coexist in the individual in a seemingly contradictory way. Each segment is like a prism, reflecting the faint brilliance of the heart. When all the gleams finally merge together, the source of life of the product is born.

Technical man Raiders: I heard that Ou Ruibo rejected Xiaomi’s strategic investment last year. Can you talk about how startups should look at similar opportunities?

In the development of Oribo, it has rejected two opportunities for investment and acquisition. The first time was at the end of 2013, the other party was an A-share listed company, and it intends to acquire us by means of buying shares and processing capital, and the price is tens of millions. During that time, the cash flow was very tight, and new product development required continuous investment. The economic pressure was great, and the whole team could not help. If the acquisition is successful, everyone's life can be improved immediately. For this reason, I intend to accept this program.

I have the most shares in the company, but I hope that every employee who has suffered together can have income. In terms of fund allocation, I intend to distribute a portion of my income to employees. The vice president in charge of the acquisition, said that I was too real, because counted, even the front desk girl can be divided into 50,000.

After the framework agreement was finalized, the other party temporarily made some objections, slowing down the acquisition process. Just as the capital market began to turn into a fire, Softbank Saifu was looking for it, and was willing to increase capital, and only accounted for small shares. At the beginning of 2014, we got the millions of cash from Softbank Saifu, and the development track changed. Not only do employees' lives improve, but they also make greater investments in product development and talent recruitment.

The second chance appeared in July 2014, the other is Xiaomi. This strategic investment cooperation negotiation lasted for three months and finally did not succeed. The most fundamental problem is that there are huge differences in the product concept between the two parties. Xiaomi thinks that the router is the control center of the smart home. Ou Ruibo's switch products are only one of their grand puzzles, which is the value of the router +1; in the way of operation, Xiaomi I hope to follow the use of mobile phones, use smart ways to do smart homes, rely on low-cost explosions and online marketing to quickly spread.

In my opinion, the router does not become the entrance to the smart home, and many scenes of the smart home need to be installed and implemented, so it will definitely involve O2O. With the lightweight way of Xiaomi, it is difficult to really get into the family. Under Xiaomi's router-centric product strategy, we can't agree on the company's value judgment, profit distribution, brand use and so on. If I join the millet system, I can only become a small piece, and the future development will be limited.

Technician Raiders: Smart routers were once the focus of Internet companies. Why do you have different views on how to become an importer?

Regarding whether the router will become a smart home portal, I have done a lot of thinking, as well as some attempts at the product, and found that this positioning is wrong. First of all, the router is not a strong sense of existence, except during the installation process, most of the time left does not have any relationship with the user, and this sense of presence will not change because of its intelligence.

Second, from a technical perspective, the router works below the data link layer, far from the application layer. If the router is regarded as an entry, then the network link of the data link layer is not considered as an entry? The network layer of the physical layer is not counted as an entry. More extremely, all data and instructions have to go through the CPU, so is the CPU an entry?
In the long run, it is possible to become an entry product. There are two conditions that must be met: on the one hand, users interact with it on a high frequency every day. On the other hand, it must have a deep connection with our lives. The router only solves the connection of the work, it is a very low-level facility. From the logic of the product, I have completely denied the value of the portal.

I believe that no matter which direction you start a business, you should cut in from the needs of users. Entrances and platforms should be a result, not a product. Take WeChat as an example. The most important platform and portal of this mobile phone, back to two years ago, is just a chat tool. When everyone is using it, it is the entrance. The smart home or the Internet of Things is similar. At this point in time, the market needs not the entrance, nor the platform, but a single item that can be enjoyed by users.

This wave of intelligent hardware entrepreneurship has poured into a lot of people who lack understanding of the nature of hardware. The founder of a smart bracelet in China once said to me: to do the bracelet, the hardware is just the entry point, and the ultimate goal is the software inside. This sentence is correct, but to achieve, there must be a premise, that is, the hardware is done very well, so that others can use it to reflect the value of the software. Some startups want to be a platform, and some big companies want to be a super app. I don't think it's a time. If you can do a good job of basic functions, when there are enough people to use the product, there is a natural opportunity to aggregate into a platform.

Technician Raiders: In your opinion, what kind of essence should hardware follow? How to apply your understanding of hardware to the smart home market?

When I was in junior high school, I had read the book "Computer Heroes - Computer Genius to Change the World". One of the words was impressive until now: Jobs and his friends always take the trouble to put every wire. It's the same length, so that the product looks more beautiful. As early as the early 1980s, Jobs had already had this awareness. Don't just see Apple's success in software, but ignore its 30 years of experience in hardware.

But in companies that do well in the hardware field, their products follow the essence of hardware: not only have the value of use, but also the ultimate in user experience. The founder of GoPro loves surfing, and later focused on the sub-sector of extreme sports cameras, even COMS has been optimized and customized; in 2006, the founding of Xinjiang, it is hard to eat the micro-controller in the field of drones.

There are two brands selling the best bracelets in China, one is Jawbone and the other is Misfit. Misfit uses a steel structure, and the metal is opaque, no matter how thin it is. So the question is, how can the 12 points of Misfit be able to make light transmission? These 12 light-transmissive points with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm, each consisting of 150 small holes, 1800 are invisible to the naked eye. Fine holes made Misfit.

Specific to the smart home field, for the emerging "smart" products, I will first ask: Abandoning intelligence, is it useful? How big is its market? For example, a smart air detection product has been done for two years. The sales volume is less than 10,000. The reason is because in ordinary households, there is no need for special temperature and humidity or carbon monoxide sensors, no matter whether it is smart or not. Smart is a feature upgrade, but it does not create new product forms.

I believe in the theory of species evolution, the species that exist on the earth have their reasons for adapting to the environment, and the products that exist on the market are similar. I don't want to be an inventor, but I am more willing to be a product manager than to create a brand new product from scratch, but to make a better experience of existing things through technology and design. Therefore, when planning products, I will be cautious, starting from specific scenarios and looking for some places to win the future.

For example, one of the important products we cut into the smart home market is the “switch”, and many companies that have entered this field have chosen to use “lights” to solve lighting control. The reason most people give is that the lights can be changed directly. This thinking is correct at first glance, but it is not. Whether it is to intelligentize the switch, or to intelligentize the lamp, I think it takes a long time to understand.

First of all, the user has been very clearly educated, the role of the light is to illuminate, and the role of the switch is to control the light off. Under the current situation, that is, using the APP remote control, it is impossible to completely break off the switch; secondly, the switch is used frequently and has a large number, which is suitable for use as a sensor network. Its height of about one meter and five can easily sense people and the surrounding environment. After adding data mining, intelligent judgment can be formed.
Of course, the function of automatically turning on the light, turning off the light, and adjusting the light, for most users, may be just a sub-item, not a pain point. But if you can make the price close to the ordinary switch, have a better design, and have intelligence, it will break the original competition mode.

A 500-yuan Nokia phone can make calls, and Apple's 5,000-yuan phone is still acceptable to users because users will evaluate their investment and return to see if the product creates value. We have done a very successful diagnostic card product, the cheapest products on the market at that time, as low as 6 yuan, 8 yuan, and our diagnostic card is the most expensive to sell 80, the cheapest is also 30, still created Very high sales. The switch products are similar, the cheapest switch on the market, no circuit board, only structural parts, the cost is only four. A normal quality switch with a slightly better quality should be sold to 30-40. We have already set the price between 60-70, which is completely within the acceptable range of some users. As long as the technology continues to advance, it will gradually be accepted by the public.

Technician Raiders: Where do you think about the product's "evolution"? Is there any other methodology worth sharing?

The concept of product evolution comes from past failures. I once worked on an infrared mobile remote control. At that time, I considered such a requirement: in ordinary households, electronic products such as TVs, air conditioners, and set-top boxes are equipped with remote controls. With more and more remote controls, the more management and use will be. The more trouble you have. If you can have a device instead of all the remotes, isn't it good? So we launched a product with thousands of infrared code libraries for air conditioners, TVs, and DVDs, and designed a cool flying saucer for it. Exterior. I did not expect to sell only 20,000 or so after the listing, and the sales volume was far lower than expected. The result of reflection is that the product is too innovative, almost a new invention, and this new product form needs to undergo a difficult user education process, which is difficult to accept in the short term.

In the subsequent product planning, I treated innovation with a more rigorous attitude, thinking about whether each innovation is true innovation and whether it is a valuable innovation. To complete this kind of thinking, you must be able to push the product logic back. What you have done without the functions of others does not mean that you are very powerful, but to demonstrate the full reasons for doing or not.

Hardware product manager, be sure to do enough market research and analysis before the product launch. For example, if we want to introduce a black plug, we will first evaluate the black type of products through the sales volume of Jingdong, Taobao and other shopping malls. Does anyone have similar goods? What is the shipment volume? Through these specimens Make a preliminary judgment. In addition to the color, the more complicated is the functional trade-off. Some people will propose to add a battery inside to make a mobile power supply. It is proposed to add an automatic power-off protection function after the mobile phone is fully charged. Counting dozens of function points, we must consider the user's acceptance level and push back each function feature.

When Jobs returned to Apple again, he cut a lot of products, including the tablet at the time. Although he later used a lot of tablet technology in the iPod. Jobs first made the iPod, because the demand for listening to the song was very clear, and then turned the phone into Smart, grasping the user's thinking and making the product transition smoothly. You will find that the closer you are to reality, the easier it is to succeed.

There are many methodologies for making products, but more is to have a rigorous attitude. From this perspective, I don't think that I am a maker. Compared with the narrow sense of the maker, entrepreneurship is a business behavior and must be responsible to users and investors. To make a product from the perspective of entrepreneurship, you should first regard it as a commodity, not a work of art that only you can appreciate. Similar to making a commercial movie, the box office must be good enough. Such a business can contain art, but it is not purely personal art, but a strong business act. So when I'm planning a product, I don't choose the way that is very cool and Geek, but close to the market, made in a language that the public understands, and let them be willing to pay for it.

Technician Raiders: What was the product you first made to make the market and users successfully pay?
Before I started Oeruibo, I had a computer intelligent diagnosis card and earned the first gold in my life. At that time, I was doing hardware research and development in a semiconductor company, and my technical ability was very recognized in the same graduate class. Just a small partner wants to do something and pull me to discuss business. Because I like to repair computers when I was reading, I knew about the diagnostic card. I chose to start from this direction.

A popular diagnostic card on the market, plugged into the PCI slot of the computer motherboard, can diagnose the hardware failure of the underlying computer and output an error code. There are more than 100 common error codes. Unfamiliar users must check the manual to know the specific cause of the failure. We made improvements on this basis, added the LCD screen, used text to indicate faults, and gave simple maintenance suggestions.

The product has been made, and how to sell it is a problem. When we went to Huaqiang North to promote, we encountered a local snake that specializes in diagnostic cards. This monopolistic channel dealer is very overbearing and threatens to buy shares. Otherwise, we will not only sell our products, but also copy our circuit boards. Let us Can't stand.

I hate this way and hope to break through the monopoly by relying on my own strength. So I made a lot of adjustments. First, I simplified the program and reduced the cost of the circuit chip from 10 to 4. Secondly, I changed the process suitable for small batch production to a process suitable for mass production. Good factory processing; then launched three versions in one breath, because as long as the new products can be continuously introduced, they are not afraid of the price war. In the end, we went to the next home of the channel, one counter and one counter. Through the online Taobao store data told the store, selling our products can make money, and finally successfully cooperated with more than 20 stores. In this way, this product hit a red, successfully sold more than 100,000, net profit of more than 2 million.

Technician Raiders: How did you get on the road to entrepreneurship?

The diagnostic card project continues to generate profits, so we registered the company, and the partner who initiated the business started the daily affairs. I worked as the chief engineer and developed the second product, the GSM mobile phone remote control socket.

The inspiration for this product comes from the newly purchased cylinder-type electric water heater at home. Because the electric heating was very wasteful, my mother asked me if I could make a time switch for the water heater. I think this idea is very reliable. At that time, WiFi was not so popular. So I used the GSM control module to make a remote timer. I can control the circuit interrupt by just making a call.

Later, I made this timer into a socket. I first found a male mold set, and the user feedback was good. I then found someone to redesign the appearance. The sales of this product is also good, almost bought more than 200,000. The success of two consecutive products in the market has given me a lot of confidence. The Internet of Things is a good general direction. It can make products that change the lives of ordinary people, making me feel very happy.

However, things have changed, business has developed smoothly, and the differences with partners have deepened. I hope that the company's cash flow can be used for the next step of development. He believes that the housing market is good and should invest. The result of the negotiations was that he left the company, took away most of the cash, and diagnosed the product line. I sold the property purchased during the 2011 dividend and gave him the remaining money in batches to buy back the shares in his hands.

To be frank, at the time, I had the option to quit the company and take away millions of dollars. But doing so is equivalent to the life of the partner, because the team must follow me. After all, this company was founded by him. Although he could not agree on the company's operation, I still hope to give back to him instead of taking the company's assets in other ways. If I take the team away, I am sorry for him, and through the redistribution of profits and the cutting of the product line, he is free to choose the life he wants. Because it was handled well, even after going through the separation, my relationship with this partner was still very good. Later, when the company encountered difficulties, he also helped me manage the production line for half a year.

For me, 28 years old, millions are not decimals, but suddenly I feel that I can't use that much money. So young, what do you have to do so much? Is financial freedom so important to you? There are only tens of thousands of houses in Guangdong. If you want to improve your life for your parents, you can do it by working as an engineer. I want to give the team a better future than the immediate interests. The exchange of shares can give equity incentives to core employees and reserve option pools. I believe that after the power of capital is added, even a share of a point will have great value in the future.

After withdrawing cash in early 2012, operational pressures have become very large. The diagnostic card is split out, and the source of profit is only the outlet business. Smart homes have long battle lines and are much more difficult to make than small products. New product development, APP and cloud all require continuous investment. During that time, we couldn't afford a full-time iOS engineer, so we had to use outsourcing to make the CTO a lot of people, very hard.

Technical man strategy: hardware entrepreneurial barriers are high, as a startup, how to compete with the giant?
There is a big difference between the hardware and the Internet industry. If you do 10 Internet products, each with 100,000 users, then you are a failure. But this happened in the hardware industry, with 10 products, each with 100,000 users, which could generate almost 100 million in sales.

The hardware industry is a long-tailed, multi-state, fragmented market. Everyone has different views on tables and chairs, so products with different positioning and styles will not be eaten by one family. Last year, Vanke said that to use the Internet thinking to make a shirt, this logic is wrong. The shirt is doing well. Does everyone have to wear the same? Only when using very high frequency products, will it go. With the standardization of technology and industry, smart home is still far from this stage.

On the other hand, barriers to the industry will change in different historical periods. Ke reached the film empire, with a large number of patents and experts. After the emergence of digital cameras, the user's needs are still the same, but the way the technology has been implemented has changed. Sony, Samsung, and Apple have used CMOS technology to become the latecomers. Kodak’s original absolute advantage has become unimportant.

Mobile phones have also experienced a similar history. Motorola is stronger than high-frequency technology and the signal is doing very well. After Ericsson made a GSM cellular network, the communication cost was greatly reduced, from a large transmission tower to a connectable small base station, so the competitive advantage shifted from analog to digital. Later, thanks to the highly integrated chip launched by Qualcomm, Nokia developed, this injection-born company, is very good at hardware structure, and has an advantage in design. After the emergence of 3G technology, Apple, which is good at UI, won in content-centric competition.

So the same thing, at different historical time points, and different technological changes, its competition points have also changed. From a macro perspective, each product has its own rules, and every company has its own strengths.

I always think that the direction of the switch is correct. I need to pay attention to how I can make the switch better, and no one has done it better yet. I also often think about myself: What advantages do we have over companies like the Bulls?

The Bull is good at production. If there is no Internet of Things or cloud platform, in the past competitive environment, pure production, I certainly can't do the Bulls. But the switch should be done well, and the future must be combined with the data, and there is better interaction. The barriers of the industry have changed from production to soft and hard. At this point, I am at least at the same level as the bull. Even because of the soft and hard genes in our body, we will do better than it. Our strategy in production is to cooperate with the second and third place in the industry, the quality is guaranteed, plus our innovation, and the high-end products of the Bulls, PK, will be very fun.

Technician Raiders: What is your next goal?

The smart home sector is in the entrepreneurial window, similar to the early embryonic stage of the Internet, and can support the next 20, 30 or even 50 years of future growth. Most of this wave of entrepreneurs have not made much value, and should be immersed in doing things, rather than doing some fancy surface work.

The application scenarios of smart homes are too fragmented and cannot be as generalized as mobile phones and PCs. It is difficult to achieve interoperability between products. We now have 7 or 8 products, each of which corresponds to an APP, which is very unreasonable. Interconnection must be the ultimate trend, but how to connect, is still a question mark.

On a large scale, it takes some time for different brands to communicate. On a small level, at least my own products, we need to turn them into an APP and consciously connect them, although it is difficult to do so from the product. Very big. Next, I will take the initiative to connect with other products. As for who can become a platform in the end, history will decide.

This stage may go through 5 to 10 years, and we can't wait until everything is standardized. My attitude towards products is rigorous, optimistic and serious. I dare not say that I want to revolution. I just hope to be close to the market and be the base of the future, instead of taking the Geek route.

Our next product is a household plug that is positioned close to the Bulls' price of 99 yuan. I will make it look better and more practical. This product is mainly safe and energy-saving. When the current is overloaded, it will stop immediately and send a message to inform the user; when there is danger of lightning strike, it will help you absorb excess energy; when the host is turned off, it will automatically turn off. Display and stereo.

I am not trying to convince users to use "smart plugs" because the concept of intelligence is too abstract. I don't deliberately emphasize how smart it is, still return to the most basic needs, and then the extra features that networking brings. I only want users to use "my" plugs and they are at a price they can accept. When we continue to introduce such products, users will feel that Ou Ruibo is a company that makes products with heart, so they like us.

Techno Raiders: What are your hobbies?

I like watching movies, some classic films, I will watch them repeatedly, even more than 10 times. When I was in high school, my relatives sent an old CD player. Since I was a child, I liked tossing the electronics. According to the method I saw in the newspaper, I spent 78 yuan to buy the circuit board and changed this machine into a VCD. I saw it with it. A lot of Hong Kong movies.

My favorite director is Xu Ke. There is a saying, to get the prize to find Wang Jiawei, to the box office to find Wang Jing. But in the balance between business and art, I feel that Xu Ke is doing the best. This requires the director to make the film's caliber very wide, regardless of women, men or children, can see what they want to see.

In addition, Xu Ke is constantly changing the theme and challenging the limits. He can shoot the classic ghost film "Ghost Story", the fantasy movie "Swordsman", the realistic historical drama "Huang Feihong", the modern action film "The True Color of Heroes", the science fiction film "Fantastic Four", the suspense reasoning "Di Renjie", and love The film "Liang Zhu" and so on. While trying different themes, he still succeeds in business, which is his great point.
I like to try to figure out the director's intention and think about why he made the product like this. I found that Xu Ke knew very well who would pay for the box office. According to the audience's expectations, I chose different cast members to add different business elements to the film. For example, the story background of "Huang Feihong" is in the Qing Dynasty, which is partial and realistic, and the lens is more delicate. Martial arts director Yuan Heping is very good at making martial arts conform to physical characteristics, all movements are supported by very reasonable strength; the background of "Swordsman" and "Swordsman II East Unbeaten" in the Ming Dynasty, a long history, characters The attire is also more blurred and the lens is more abstract. Wu Xiaoming, a martial arts coach, is good at dealing with volleys and elegant movements. He throws away the physical aspects, leaves and flowers, and the metaphysical feeling comes out.

Xu Ke’s film is inseparable from heroism, such as the five "Huang Feihong", the background from the Nanjing Treaty, the Opium War, the Tianjin Treaty, and the Beijing Treaty. Huang Feihong also changed from a doctor who is ignorant in Foshan City to a national National hero of honor and disgrace. Personal growth is integrated into the grandeur of history. Each part includes awe of nature, and the level of thinking about the destiny of the nation is very rich.

I feel deeply infected by the feelings of home and happiness in Xu Ke’s movies. I have some heroic complexes, I don't want to live a life that is too mediocre, I hope to make a career and have value to society. Be a good company, become a NO1 in the industry, and be an excellent product for every family. This is my personal value realization.

Flexible Joint with Braids

Flexible Joint With Braids,Pipeline Expansion Joint,Pipeline Expansion Joint Pipe,Pressure Balanced Expansion Joint

Hangzhou Ehase-Flex Co.,Ltd. , https://www.ehasetech.com