1996, with a bachelor's degree in engineering from Tsinghua University;
In 2000, he received a doctor's degree in engineering from Tsinghua University. 200 1, worked for Accenture, an international information consulting company, as a consulting manager, providing strategy, management and information consulting for many Fortune 500 companies.
In 2004, I left my job to start a business. In 2005, Lily.com, a dating website, was founded and served as CEO.
In 2008, he served as director of China Social Workers Association and director-general of matchmaking industry committee;
In 2009, he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the National Wedding Matchmaking Standardization Committee. "Entrepreneurship is someone's mental illness"
Ten years ago, Tian was a student in Tsinghua University. In his spare time, the small shop on the street moves back quickly in his eyes with the jingle of bicycles. Recalling this time, he smiled and said, "I admire those people who sit in the shop." Although the shops are small, they must take care of everything. This is also entrepreneurship. "
Tian was not attracted by the entrepreneurs on the cover story. In his eyes, the characters on the cover story are difficult to copy. Starting from small things and challenging yourself are the most important things for entrepreneurs. However, Tian's ambition is not to sit in a small shop and run a business. He has a great dream. Finally, in the internet world, he saw the opportunity to realize his dream.
Is Tian's classmate and old friend in Tsinghua University. While at school, they founded the earliest student entrepreneurship organization in China-Tsinghua University Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Association, and their idea of starting a business began to sprout at that time.
Lily. Com is Tian's second venture. He had a short entrepreneurial experience. "1999, I worked as a furniture decoration website for more than a year before my doctor graduated, and all the money I saved was spent." At that time, the financing environment of the Internet was not good. Later, all his partners left. "Some people leave quietly, and some people leave publicly. Capital and manpower are not enough to support the development of the company. His first adventure failed. Tian himself chose to work in Accenture Consulting, constantly learning and accumulating experience. His desire to start a business was not overwhelmed by temporary failure. " I still want to start a business. "
"Entrepreneurship is someone's mental illness," Tian said with a smile. Out of the pursuit of this state of life, he soon started his second venture.
"When I first heard the story of Yahoo, I knew that the Internet could give us the best opportunity. The first time I started a business, I didn't catch up with the wave of the Internet. In 2003, I felt that the second wave of the Internet came again. " He recalled the entrepreneurial environment at that time: "Entrepreneurs worked very hard to fight for relationships, resources and physical strength. We study computers. It doesn't matter, we have no background and physical strength, but we can achieve great things from a very low financial threshold.
Entrepreneurs must look at the blue ocean.
"As long as you have a computer and a network cable, you can start working," Tian said.
"You can never sit on the shore and imagine how you swam in the river. This problem will only be solved if you really jump into the river to swim. " He said firmly, we want to be the Internet of China, and we want to jump into the river. We will jump into the river and see how to swim in it.
Tian led the team to jump into the ocean of the internet firmly, for the sake of dreams and a sense of accomplishment.
I have decided to start a business on the Internet. In the direction of starting a business, Tian chose to be a social network. "in the era of WEB 1.0, information is connected, and in the era of WEB2.0, people are connected. I want to be a website that connects people. "
However, things are not smooth sailing. Financing difficulty is the biggest problem facing Tian. "Social networks have no future and no profit model." Investors' doubts and denials made his team fall into a narrow bottleneck. However, as Tian said, only by jumping into the river can you know how to swim. If you are wrong, you can change your swimming method. When we found that 70%-80% users of our website are looking for boyfriends and girlfriends on it, "then make a pure dating website."
So, after Valentine's Day in 2005, Lily Net was born.
Those hard days of lack of money
Because he had entrepreneurial experience, Tian was very considerate when he started his second business. "First of all, material life will be greatly reduced; Secondly, in the face of mental suffering, starting a business for a period of time may not be effective. You will whisper, you will settle accounts, your family will whisper, you will face doubts and pressures from all sides, and you will calculate your opportunity cost. If there is no breakthrough, you will' break up' with your partner; Because there was no money, the company starved to death ... "These were the worst plans he had ever made. Tian used" insipid "to evaluate himself:" It's not that I am not afraid of danger, but that I don't feel it easily. "
Because of "slowness", Tian anticipated those "worst cases". He told his team that if we do it for two years, one can't do the other. If we can't do it in two years, then there must be something wrong with our team. "After two years, none of us will mention it again." He and his team have made up their minds to do it one by one in two years.
Tian firmly believes that his website will not starve to death: "A website will cost a lot of money to do, but if it can't be done, it will cost very little. We will program it ourselves. The worst case scenario is to send one of our founders out to work, which can at least support a company of 6 or 7 people, so they will not die within two years, and there is nothing to be afraid of. " He set himself a deadline of two years, firmly believing that he would get through it smoothly.
Those hard days in the early days are unforgettable. At the beginning, Tian had only two employees and a computer. "The construction period is tight, and these two employees often work alone, one sleeps and one wakes up to replace the other." Later, because they couldn't afford to hire regular employees, in addition to the entrepreneurial backbone, part-time students in the summer vacation became the first batch of employees. Tian's home became the company office, and six employees had their own computers on the dining table.
In Tian's eyes, lack of money is the most difficult thing on the road to entrepreneurship. At the beginning of the venture, Tian team made their own angels, and successively invested 1 10,000 RMB, which developed. "When there is no financing, we only have more than 654.38+0,000 RMB in our hands, which is not enough for one day's expenditure. When we transformed to Lily.com, the company only had RMB 200,000 left, and we relied on it to distribute. But he firmly believes that Lily.com will definitely get the money.
Regarding fund-raising, Lily.com has also experienced a change of ideas. Tian said that financing was always considered as a necessary condition for getting things done, but in the process of finding investors, it was found that if things were not done, the success rate of financing was very small. "After several conversations, we decided to forget it, don't waste time, concentrate on our website from now on, and then go to finance when we feel good."
After half a year, the number of users in Lily.com increased rapidly, and Lily.com was quickly recognized by investors and successfully raised funds. Tian told entrepreneurs: "If it is difficult to raise funds, it is actually not done right at all. As long as things are done, it is not difficult at all. It is very difficult for people to put money in with just one piece of paper. "
The second obstacle to Lily.com's development is the financial crisis. If the profit model is not established, the market will be very scary. Tian is also worried. However, the income from membership fees ushered in spring for Lily.com. "Now the income model of membership fees is growing very fast. When this growth reaches the bottleneck, we will further explore other income models. " It can be said that the financial crisis has become an opportunity for Lily.com to find a suitable profit model. On the other hand, blind date programs like If You Are the One have brought about key changes in public marriage and love, and Lily.com has also ushered in new opportunities.
Entrepreneurs must enjoy competition.
After experiencing the most difficult days, Lily.com has ushered in the warm sunshine, and the popularity of the whole online marriage and love industry has also soared.
"I see more opportunities. The pressure of entrepreneurs must be what you think is worth bearing. If there is no chance, why do you choose to be under pressure here? " Tian said to him.
In the face of fierce homogenization competition, Tian believes that there are so many people doing it, indicating that there is a market. "As an entrepreneur, you must enjoy the competition. Competition is precisely the charm of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship without competition is meaningless. " At the same time, he also pointed out that this competition must be a competition in which everyone is growing. According to relevant forecast data, the scale of marriage and love market will reach1900 million yuan in 20 15 years. In such a huge market, Tian must enjoy competition, and the improvement of the overall attention of the industry is also the welfare brought by competition.
On the issue of maintaining lasting competitiveness, Tian said that it is good to build a model that others can't copy or surpass, while marriage and love websites are less competitive in business model, and they need to build brand assets through marketing and long-term accumulation, and build a good company through establishing a unified management system and efficient execution. He believes: "A good company can continue to operate a good product, which is a way to establish competitive barriers."
At the same time, Tian's team also tried to make it look different through innovation. The biggest difference between Lily.com and other dating websites is the premarital check-up and registration in real-name registration system. Lily's future plan is to be a marriage expert, which is our lasting strategy.
Now, Lily.com has developed to a certain scale, and has the next plan. Tian said that the preparation for listing will be completed by the end of this year or early next year.
Making a way out of nothing is Tian's understanding of entrepreneurship, and he himself is walking on this thorny road. He wanted to start a business, so he went to work. When you have a strong team, forward-looking technology and good execution ... success may not be far away.