If you mention the "cold winter" of entrepreneurship again, many people will laugh at you for being out of date. The cold winter period that has engulfed capital and entrepreneurs has started in 2015, and has swept through 2016 in the form of a snowstorm. Every day for the past two years, startups have been funded, startups have been terminated, startups have gone out of business. According to statistics, 846 enterprises received A round of investment in 2014. In the wake of the venture capital bubble, investment and entrepreneurship have become fashionable sports. However, after less than two years, these projects were supported by the capital, most can not stand the test of reality and time, and soon fell into trouble. Almost all of these 846 companies went bankrupt, making "Round B death" and "Round C death" the economic buzzwords of the year.

Capital is always profit-seeking, but capital always has a certain blindness, it is easy to form a bubble but also easy to break the bubble instantly. In fact, among the investors, 30% are "smart", and 70% of the investments are not very smart. They seem to raise a lot of money to invest, but investors often lack understanding of the industry, and most of them still choose to follow venture capital. Throughout 2016, the number of investment institutions compared to the same period last year, appeared to halve or even precipitous decline, such as Capital Today represented by individual funds have not invested in new projects for nearly a year.

Entrepreneurs vs Capital: Where to go

For entrepreneurs dormant in the winter, alive, really difficult. However, it is very rare for a company to grow into a big company without a single winter. Even BAT companies have gone through great disasters. Entrepreneurs in the winter first determine whether their entrepreneurial direction and business model is appropriate. There is a golden saying in motivational science that "choice is greater than effort". In the field of entrepreneurship, choice is actually the direction, and the correct direction of entrepreneurship and the feasibility of business model are more important than simple efforts. The previous capital boom has spawned a start-up boom, and some entrepreneurs are more like catching a "fashion". And the arrival of the "winter" just give entrepreneurs a chance to reflect, as long as your entrepreneurial direction and business model can withstand the test, capital winter is not terrible. Second, entrepreneurs also learn to use this opportunity to build a healthy team ecosystem. Optimism in the era of capital mania encouraged entrepreneurs to expand blindly. In the history of the Internet, the giants that have finally won in their respective fields have never beaten their competitors by numbers. The importance of core team is very obvious, the most famous is the 18 Arhats founded by Alibaba, Baidu's initial team lineup is only about 10 people. Therefore, in the cold winter of the start-up company, on the basis of retaining the core team, choose to lay off staff, shrink the scale to reduce non-essential expenses is also one of the feasible ways to winter.

Just as entrepreneurs go through the "cold winter", even the most "smart" capital can have a hard time finding the right investment opportunities during the "cold winter". Xu Xiaoping, a famous investor, once shared his investment failure experience. He believed that an excellent startup company that can be successful needs one of the following six elements: good product marketing, good team atmosphere, concerted efforts to share the same bed and dream, excellent talent team, strong risk control ability, and the heart of awe for customers.

Indeed, after experiencing the bubble, entrepreneurs and investors are having a deep reflection, and after the test of the market, entrepreneurs and capital will have the opportunity to work together again, create brilliant opportunities? The answer is yes, the wave of entrepreneurship has started and will not stop, and there are still endless opportunities for entrepreneurs and capital.

Innovation in China: The clouds to the sun

In 2006, Beijing, Zhongguancun, Innovation CHINA DEMO CHINA ushered in its debut, hundreds of viewers, several investors, several entrepreneurs, together opened the era of venture capital. Since then, DEMO CHINA has not stopped its pace of innovation. From the original innovative products and services, business model display platform, DEMO CHINA has experienced 10 years of transformation. Today, it has become the largest DEMO DAY in China and a landmark in the field of mass entrepreneurship and innovation in China. Every year attracts nearly 10,000 of the most potential start-up enterprises to sign up; More than 2,000 domestic top investors, including Xiong Xiaoge, Xu Xiaoping, Shen Nanpeng, Yan Yan, Deng Feng and Long Yu, attended the event. Since 2015, the number of participants in the summit has exceeded 10,000, helping more than 500 enterprises raise more than 3 billion yuan in total. In the past ten years, Sinovation China has been built into a grand event of China's venture capital industry, connecting more entrepreneurs, investors and third-party institutions.

Innovative "6+3" mode created by DEMO CHINA: 6-minute project presentation plus 3-minute guest comments. Entrepreneurs will present the project in any way (including and not limited to PPT, song and dance, rap, experience, etc.) within 6 minutes, and quickly answer the "questions" raised by the judges in the following 3 minutes. This DEMO mode can strengthen the interaction between the project and investors and investment institutions, and increase the exposure rate of the project rapidly in a short time. When entrepreneurs respond flexibly to emergencies, they can effectively enhance their brand image and deepen the impression of judges and investors present.

2017 Innovation China Opening Spring Summit will be held in April 2017, and the recruitment of Innovation China "Angel Team" has also started. 2016 (autumn) Innovation China launched a new DEMO competition - "Angel Team" mode beta1.0 has been successfully held and received great response, 2017 Innovation China opening Spring Summit will launch the "Angel Team" 2.0 mode. If you have experienced the wind and rain entrepreneurs, if you still have the courage to brave the difficulties, join the "angel team" and innovation China together, jointly clear the fog of capital, to find the direction of the future.