September Featured People: Young Tech Entrepreneur – Gao Chaofan

September Featured People: Young Tech Entrepreneur – Gao Chaofan

Interview & Translation / Liu Yan

1.Who are you? What do you do?

My name is Gao Chaofan. I am the founder and managing director of Meige Information Technology, a tech-firm focused on facial recognition technology.

2.What is your background? What makes you do what you do now?

My background is pretty complicated. My university study was the starting point of my tech career. I am graduated from Electronics and Information Technology at Shanghai University of Science and Technology, a not-so-great institution. The major wasn’t what I wanted either. I was interested in business administration because of my family background.

3.And this study was still the starting point of your entrepreneurship?

Yes. I didn’t own a computer before I entrolled in university, internet was unknown at that time. But I was pretty positive about my major and believed the computer skill would be always helpful for me to find a job. So I studied pretty hard in order to acquire many certificates on computer programming including all the Microsoft qualifications, which provided me an internship opportunity at a leading American computer technology company during my second grade. After half year internship, I realized programming job was not something I was passionate about, I was more and more aware that I liked to deal with people not machines. This was a big turning point of my life. After I finished my internship, I started a fake shoe business and made some money out of it. With these money, I had a chance to travel to the UK and visited some of British universities, which again opened my eyes: I realized there were so much to be learned to apply technology in different businesses. Five years later, I quit a high management job at a leading Chinese technology company and went to the UK to pursue my technology entrepreneurship study, which was the foundation of my current business.

4.How was your first job after leaving university?

Because of my outstanding performance during internship, I found a job as a programmer at a leading Chinese technology company. Soon I moved to a business development position and became a product manager. As a little product manager, I have learned everything about the business management from filling a form to designing logistic procurement, from quality control to marketing, from channel development to pricing strategy, etc.

5.How did this job lead to the path of entrepreneurship?

Three years later, I started to feel great about myself. So I left my company and started my own business. Without any experience, I ended up having only one RMB left in my pocket sometimes. With this one RMB, I walked to a client in Xujiahui to sell him our office automation software. He told me to leave right away after I gave him our quotation. But when I left his office, I had a 120-thousand-RMB-value contract in my bag. (laugh) The real reason was, I did the whole analysis for him why he needed to pay the amount I quoted and what kind of potentials and solutions our product could provide to update their information management system. In the end, he was convinced and signed the deal with us.

6.How did you start your current project?

Two years after my first business, I felt I had entered into a bottle neck and needed some time to do some reflection and re-planning to my future. I went to the UK with my girlfriend to study Technology Entrepreneurship at University College London. This master study has led me to my current project. This project was started pure out of interest by my classmates and myself. After I returned to China, we gradually started to realize its commercial value. In August we were able to show investor the real applications of this technology. Our project will focus on virtual make-up as key selling point, including three core technologies: facial recognition, color algorism and image warping. Several investors are supporting this project at this moment.

7.Who are the target customers and how do you satisfy their needs?

Our target customers are the young urban females who love using internet and cosmetic. For instance, you make a photo for yourself with your cell phone and upload it to the computer. We would be able recognize your face and start to put on make-up through simple clicks. The system will tell you what makeup you wear and where you can buy them and how much. In the beginning we have wanted to make it a SNS, but faced too many challenges. So we just focus on our added-values: First, the practical value of being a easy-to-use technology. Second, the commercial value, our ability to turn the curiosity and purchasing intention into real purchase decision.

8.As an entrepreneur, what is the biggest challenge for you? Finding the idea? Finding the team? or finding the investment?

Finding the team is the most difficult part. My current team is really good. There is not a lack of funding in China, what we are in shortage of is good project and good team to implement the project. Idea is just the starting point. How to organize a stable, innovative and hard-working team to realize your idea is the most important part for a startup. If you have a good idea plus a good team, the investment will come to you. Generally speaking, it is not easy to be an entrepreneur, so much pressure. If we fail, my team will lose their jobs. I feel so much responsibilities toward my team, the team will perform greatly if you treat them well and heartily. Many young people don’t understand this.

9.How did you find Xindanwei? How can Xindanwei support you as a startup platform?

I had a good look at your website! haha I really like the atmosphere here. The location is central and easy to reach and the cost is reasonable. To be honest, I didn’t expect too much when we just moved in, we thought it was just a workspace. But on the long term, we sincerely wish to be supported to find the right talents, foreign or Chinese. I heard Xindanwei was very famous among national and local media, we would be love to be promoted through this platform.

To Contact Gao Chaofan:
gaochaofan@hotmail.com

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