Editor's note: Even Menfanti, former co-founder of PICOOC, is the founder and CEO of Smart Powered Toothbrush.
Oral | Meng Fandi
Interviewing and organizing | Liu Ye
I stayed at Huawei for eight years and was a senior product designer. Can not be tired of it, mainly outside is too busy.
At that time, the smart hardware was very hot, but it was very wearable, crowdfunding was very hot, and money was not called money. It was called "hot money." In short, the ones that everyone sat and talked the most with were who had done what projects, how many funds they had invested, and how much money they had earned.
After drinking three tours, these things sounded particularly exciting.
The red dust across the shore is like a fire, and it's almost inevitable that I was shaken. After all, I am a designer and a mobile phone. In the fashionable words of the time, I would like to do smart hardware, which is a dimension reduction blow. So on a day when nothing happened, I think I was ready to change an industry.
At first, I saw the smart ring. I found a few friends and they all told me that it was a good thing. Let's do it together. At that time, I didn't think about signing any agreement at all. I realized later that this was even a start-up. And there is an advantage in Shenzhen, even if something is strange again, as long as you dare to mention, you can always find someone to do it. However, no money is definitely not acceptable.
I was optimistic about the situation at that time. After the hardware and software got a livelihood, I first found a small factory owner. He told me that there was no problem and I could definitely go to Kickstarter. After I heard it, I thought, well, then I'll go find money.
Prema rules, put the easiest thing in the end.
This can make me very tired. Zhang Yue was the last investor I saw for this project. According to my idea at the time, no matter what I did, I had to 'cheat' some money, so I could make this smart ring even if it did. I did not expect him to tell me, buddy, you do not fly this thing, we must do something else.
Thomas Schelling, a game theorist, said that if one side of the impasse is eager to be convinced, then you cannot force him to change his position, but rather give him a reason to change his position, which is the so-called "focal point."
Zhang Yue apparently seized the "focal point." My idea from beginning to end was to be a brand. In other words, if there were better hardware as a carrier, I wouldn't be willing to make a ring.
Compared with those of my friends before, Zhang Yue was almost too reliable. Three times, five by two, and I pulled me on the road to smart scales, so that I had a product PICOOC.
As I expected, PICOOC's first product quickly became an explosion. More than 100 costs, more than 400 prices, agents only took 10 points, sold more than 40,000 units in Yi Xun, and turned it over. What's even more exciting is that PICOOC is applauding and winning. One year spent three rounds of funding, Tencent, Jingdong also voted. Everything is particularly untrue.
Until Yunmai appeared, we didn't have a little bit of defense. At that time, our eyes looked in heaven.
The same product, they use 199 soon. This price card is very hard for us. Follow or not? We have not kept up until this issue has its significance. The facts show that the choice is more important than the effort.
In April 2015, when I left PICOOC, I hardly did any psychological construction. Because this matter is beyond my control and is moving in a direction that I do not want to accept. I can still do everything related to the product, but I can't get excited anymore.
If I learned how to change from a designer to an engineer at Huawei, in the two years of PICOOC, I basically learned how to turn from an engineer into a businessman. For this reason, I am grateful to PICOOC and thank Zhang Yue.
But it's time to start the next chapter.
After I found out, I was thinking about what to do next. I checked a lot of data and did a lot of research. The electric toothbrush is the only one that grows 100% every year. The market share is also very stable. How do you say, anyway, how do you see how to play this show, I also do a good job for months to prepare suppliers.
I usually drive to and from work, and open up to more than 10,000 kilometers in one year. Last year I opened more than 30,000 and all of them were running suppliers. The most embarrassing day I ran three, a total of more than 500 kilometers, and almost went back when I went back. A friend told me that you don’t want to die.
No way, electric toothbrushes, like other industries, have deep technical barriers and are basically monopolized by giants.
By way of example, Philips' high-end products use a technique called copper-free tufting. The equipment that can do this process around the world is almost all in Germany and Belgium. There is only one in China, in Yangzhou.
I went to the scene to see that the equipment to buy it to 10 million, a brush head mold costs 250,000 euros, have to invite German and Belgian engineers come specifically. The entire mobile phone mold, today, speaking, 2 million yuan is almost capped, and it has a small brush head more than 180 million, I was thinking about it. But I know that I will do this sooner or later.
Or bristles, 0.125 mm diameter, all rounded; implanted 1500, to ensure that each root is not pulled out at least 1.8 kg of tension. These are all standards, and it is difficult to reach consensus with suppliers in these areas. They do not tell you about values ​​and they care about whether they can make money. I told them, of course, but you have to cooperate with me to make quality and orders are enough.
In addition to seeing the boss, I have to go to the workshop every time. Tell the workers, Hey, master, do you open this mold? Come and smoke, and ask for help. If so, ask him. He did a good job on snacks, but he did not care.
By August 2015, the job was basically completed, and Soocare was also registered two months ago. At this time, I said to the outside world, yes, I started my business again. Although the new hardware is a huge pit, I still jumped into it.
Xiao Xinyu and Duan Yu of Xiaomi found me when I was in New Year. At that time, the prototype of the product of the Soocare X3 had already come out.
Fire and anti-theft anti-millet, this is a joke of the industry after the millet ecological chain up. However, from the moment I decided to do it, I knew that Xiaomi would do the same thing sooner or later, so it was my natural imaginary enemy.
To tell the truth, I was not so impressed with them at the time and it felt like a marketing company. Being voted for was equivalent to being occupied. This is a misunderstanding until it is completely resolved after contact.
Just a few days after Xinyu met the second time, Duanyu did not come. Duanyu brought in a former Oral-B engineer, a German. The two arrived in the morning and then followed me for a day. The factory helped me sort out the details and see where else could be improved. In the evening they went back and I thought in my heart that Xiaomi was doing a very good job and I had to stand with them.
But in the end can not be Xiaomi's ecological chain company, this matter is Dede Ge (Lou De) clapped. He is the general manager of Xiaomi's ecological chain and a good designer. This is actually a disadvantage for me because he knows very well that the designers are short-circuiting the product. So before I saw him, I didn't know what to do.
After visiting Deco in Beijing, he hardly asked me any questions related to the design. He cares about two things: how can I prove that my product is the best; how can I prove that I can sell well?
The first question is a bit embarrassing, because apart from the labs of big factories, there are no third-party institutions that test such things in China. Later, I simply found a Philips foundry, customized a set of equipment, measuring frequency, torque and other parameters.
The second question is divided into two aspects. I told Deco that last year I ran for months and there was no problem with the supply chain. Also, when there was just one buddy who joined Saks, I took him and Dege and said that afterwards, Philips I can use the channel.
Dege stayed with me on that day and had a lunch. He told me that at this age, do not lie to yourself. Later, I told my friend of Xiaomi that this sentence made me very touched.
When I was attracted by the outside, I felt it was lively. In the past few years, I discovered that the lively places are not long grass. Therefore, I still have to do a good job, at least for every dollar spent by consumers.
This is the bottom line, but the standard is definitely not low.