Why did he dare to vote for Yu Shu 6 years ago? 丨Exclusive secrets revealed by early investors
Source | Pencil Dao Oral Statement | Edited by Yu Shu Early Investor Zhao Nan | Wang Fang Original title: Yu Shu Early Investors: 6 years ago, why did I dare to invest? 丨Exclusive Today (August 19), Yushu Technology officially landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and became the “first stock of humanoid robots” in A-shares. Yushu's issue price was 150.80 yuan/share, an increase of 629.44% after opening on the first day. The market value reached 444.9 billion yuan at this point. Earlier, Pencil Road had a conversation with its early investor, Zhao Nan, to try to restore it: Why did Yu Shu dare to take action when he was still very low-key? The following is Zhao Nan's oral statement. - 01 - Meet Uki, the first time I met Uki because of the four-legged robot, was in April 2020. It wasn't an accidental encounter. Beginning in 2019, I've been watching robot tracks in a systematic way. Basically, I've looked at all the directions I could see at the time: four-legged robots, underwater robots, food delivery robots, and even some consumer-grade products. After watching that round, I actually have a relatively clear judgment in my mind: the robotics industry is not a question of “whether it will happen,” but “when will it happen.” The real question is: which directions have been proven and which are just imagination. In my opinion, four-legged robots are one of the few directions that have been proven. Look at Boston Dynamics (Boston Dynamics). It has already made robot dogs, and customers are already using it. This incident shows a very important thing: robots are not sci-fi, but have entered the real world. But at the same time, it also revealed a more essential problem — the cost problem: people are too expensive, R&D is too heavy, and the supply chain is immature. At the time, Boston Power's problems were typical: the team was the top team in the world, and labor costs were extremely high; the R&D cycle was long and the investment was huge; even early products were still using diesel instead of lithium; in the end, they were sold by Google to SoftBank Vision Fund. However, this is not to say that there is no demand for four-legged robots; it is that the cost cannot support it. To this day, four-legged robots are still one of Uki's core businesses, so my judgment at the time was: Whoever can cut costs has an opportunity. Obviously, the Chinese team has an opportunity because we have a supply chain advantage. - 02 - Why invest? It was also based on this judgment that I visited Hangzhou for the first time in April 2020 and met Wang Xingxing (founder of Yushu). That meeting actually made me realize very quickly that this isn't a “just starting” team. It was 2020 at the time, and they've been doing it for three years. When Wang Xingxing was a graduate student at Shanghai University, he already brought a four-legged robot laboratory. At that time, he started working on xDog's algorithm. By the time we met him, he had a deep understanding of every detail of the four-legged robot's functions and procedures. In other words, while many teams are still “watching the track,” they are already building up technology. This is particularly critical in the robotics industry, as it is a typical “time for ability” industry. Many things can't be smashed with money; they have to be accumulated little by little. What really made me decide were a few more specific things. First, they have mastered the robot's core underlying ability. Many people think that robots are a “complete machine product,” but in reality, there are three things that really determine the height of a robot company: driver, sensor, and controller. If you don't have these three pieces in your hands, you'll always be just a system integrator. Meanwhile, in 2020, Yu Shu already has accumulated technology and patents on these three areas. This means it's not assembling products, but building underlying capabilities. This essentially determines its upper limit. Second, it's the customer. Many robotics companies “make products first, then find customers”, but Yuuki did the opposite — they already had customers in 2020, and they are not regular customers. At the time, their customers included companies such as Apple, Nvidia, Meta, and Google. These companies buy their robot dogs to use for AI training and algorithm training. Domestic customers are mainly universities. This matter is critical because it shows two things: first, the product is already available; second, the technology has been recognized by top technology companies. Wang Xingxing always pushes everyone to do one thing: make simple products that customers can accept, and sell them one wave first. Not to make money, but to train the company's entire R&D, production, and sales system by selling products. By communicating with customers, we can also find problems and iterate on products. Third, mass production capacity. I went to their company at the time and saw something very detailed — there was a warehouse next to their office building with a press machine that was used to mold parts. At the time, Wang Xingxing explained that a four-legged aircraft...
