Qingshan capital Zhang Ye: I want to discuss a problem with Cui Jian

Any traffic bonus received by the brand side , Are short-term victories in the game , It's not sustainable . Only let consumers and you in the same camp , Only then can we have the qualification to play with the channel .

Zhang Ye doesn't look wild at all .

Neat cuntou , A blue casual suit , With a pair of white board shoes , Ankle exposed . It's a standard white shirt with a wide collar , The collar button untied the first , The cuffs are buttoned up . When talking about music related topics , His body movements will increase , The cuff just shows a small section of the white shirt —— It's like he referred to the course of business and leisure wear , standard , And a little serious —— It's not surprising , He came from serious music .

Zhang Ye has his own slash life . In the venture capital circle , He is the founder of Castle Peak capital , At the same time, it can play a disc for the cold start of the invested enterprise DJ. Recently, there was a screen swiping article 《 dear Consumer Entrepreneurs , Please recognize the reality 》, He is the commander behind the scenes . On the music platform , He opened an account as an artist , Sent two songs , In the introduction , His identity is DJ, It's a music producer .

1983 year , Zhang Ye was born in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang Province, which is famous for coal city and short track speed skating . Because when I was a child, I was introverted , Timid around strangers , Grandma changed his name now ：“ I hope it's a little wild .”

When he grew up, Zhang Ye found a balance between wildness and thoughtfulness . He's still playing 、 Sing , The song cover is also his three side faces , But at the same time, he is rigorous —— Participated in more than 2000 meetings in two years , Not a minute late .

2012 year , Zhang Ye graduated from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory of music ,2015 year , Established Castle Peak capital , Always focus on consumption and TMT Field investment . He didn't lose money , And didn't become a star investor , until 2020 year , A new wave of consumption is coming , Castle Peak capital bid farewell to the cold bench .

At the turn of spring and summer when the epidemic is repeated , We talked with Zhang Ye about the healing of music , By the way, I talked about investment .

01 Making music is a process of amplifying emotions , But investing is a process of compressing emotions

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Do you still like rock and roll ？

Zhang Ye ： I really like rock and roll itself , In terms of form and kernel . I like form because of nostalgia , Like the core is like this spirit . The core of rock spirit is more like a kind of independence or rebellion , This can resonate in any era , It won't be out of date at any time .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： The spirit of rock and roll has changed a lot over the years , I remember a book about rock and roll in the 1990s , It's called 《 The wounded flowers are in full bloom 》, Write about the first generation of rock people , Recently, Cui Jian has engaged in online live broadcasting , It also evokes the memory of many people , Did you see it ？

Zhang Ye ： I didn't see it all , Just watched some clips .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： If you have a chance to talk to Cui Jian , What problem do you want to communicate with him most ？

Zhang Ye ： If I talk to him , I'd like to talk to him about , Rock spirit is a hard core spirit . Actually , There are some people who are against the times Walker , Go in a different or opposite direction than most people . Where's the retrograde , This is bound to happen , Is to find the people around you go away one by one , Become a figure behind . This includes possible missed love , Lost friendship or lost youth and other . Even if you can be honest , Be able to handle it as if it were light , But there is no regret . When regret happens , What role does that soft part of your life play in life ？

I'm also thinking about this , Especially when you hear a song or see a good movie . So if you have the opportunity to discuss with Mr. Cui Jian , Want to talk about this topic .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： This is a particularly good question , Do you think years will soften Cui Jian or the rock people of that generation ？ If years can't make him soft , In fact, it's hard for other forces to change him . Did you feel this change from that concert ？

Zhang Ye ： It's rare that people can't be flattened by time , There may not be one in an era . I think maybe flattening the edges and corners is a logical process , This is something everyone has to face , It can only be said that there is no way , This is the world .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Your experience is rare in the investment circle . Investors study science and Engineering 、 There are all liberal arts students , But few people study music . Everyone thinks music is very emotional , Investment is a highly rational thing . Go back to your experience , Would you like to tell a story about and music .

Zhang Ye ： I don't learn music very early , The students who study music in our school , Basically, I started learning at the age of three or four , Like I learned from high school , It's already a halfway monk , It's equivalent to more than ten years behind others .

I went to Russia to study music in high school , I can't speak a word of Russian when I go , be a stranger in a strange place , I don't know anyone , I went straight through . In high school , Invigilator The teacher said If the purpose of this high school is to enter the University , Then you may have to go to high school for 15 years . I loved music very much , Say fifteen years , I study . The result is that after three years of normal high school, I was admitted to college , It's not easy to understand .

I'm at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of music in Moscow, Russia （ Hereinafter referred to as chaiyuan ） Ten years of studying music , I learned to compose music . The school divides music into two categories , One is called serious music , One is called non serious music . Serious music includes classical music , They don't want to use the word classical music , Because this word is easily confused with classical music , So use a serious voice LELAI replace , Non serious music is pop music .

I studied serious music composition , The serious music composition of chaiyuan actually has two very obvious characteristics .

First of all , The composition of serious music is a very rigorous thing . This problem has plagued me for many years , Shouldn't the goal of creation or composition be to sound good ？ Serious music composition doesn't work , Every paragraph you write , Every sound , Teachers have to ask you why you use this sound . You say? , I think it sounds good , It's absolutely not . Every sound you make , Every paragraph , Every structure , There must be a reason , Very rigorous .

The second characteristic , Composing music is a very professional thing . I used to be lazy when I was at school , As soon as you are lazy, say you have no inspiration today , No more , But in our daily training , Composing music is a profession , It's like going to work . You sit there , Dress neatly , Get your hair done , Eight or six hours of single-minded creation , Whether you have inspiration or not .

Actually , In the Russian school , So is literature . Russia has produced many great writers , He decided to write eight hours a day , Just like work , It's a professional attitude .

In the system training of chaiyuan , One is rigorous , One is career , But my original character is very indulgent , Very casual .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： What influence has chaiyuan's rigorous music thought had on you ？ Is this reconciled with the rebellion hidden in your character ？

Zhang Ye ： I was really troubled , How to deal with these two parts . Returning home to invest is different from making music , Making music is creating , You need to constantly amplify your emotions , Only in this way can the work be expressed by others . Creation is a process of amplifying emotions . But investing is a process of compressing emotions , Let your emotions fluctuate in a very small range . This conflict in me 2012 When I returned home in, I was very troubled .

until 2020 year , I haven't touched music in these eight years . until 2018 Around the year , I want to start this thing , Find out the relationship between rationality and sensibility —— The two don't actually conflict .

Take potted plants for example , Reason is like a flowerpot , Everything should be based on this flowerpot , Sensibility is the potted plants above . Plants can shape , You can trim it . I try to understand the great artists before 、 A great writer , Whether Wagner or Lev Tolstoy , It seems to be the same , The layer below them is purely rational , Superimposed sensibility on it .

I was very encouraged to find this . If so , You know your first principle should be rationality , Then try to control or adjust your sensibility . You can't have one without the other , Because it is a complete existence , So it's settled .

Zhang Ye . source ： respondents

02 Extreme concentration , Actively isolate the love of music

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Many great investors may have to find this way of reconciliation , warren · Buffett must be based on reason , But he's funny , Have your own understanding of life , Su Shimin, co-founder of Blackstone , You see what he wrote 《 My experience and lessons 》, There are also a lot of conflicts between sensibility and rationality . When you return home , How to enter the investment circle step by step from the music circle ？

Zhang Ye ：2010 In, he decided to make angel investment , I just wanted to , How to make angel investment , There are two ways to think , Or come back from graduation and find a job , Accumulate experience first , Or just do it yourself . Later I decided to do it myself , Not interested in looking for a job . What are the elements of investment ？ I combed it , First, have experience , Second, we should have contacts , Third, you may have money . Experience and contacts can , dispense , But money is a must , The key element is that you need money to “ Pay tuition ”.

I couldn't have raised money at that time , So I have to find a way to make some money by myself , Take my money back to invest , Keep paying tuition fees to accumulate your experience and contacts , Then make a fund . So before graduation , I did a lot of things , Saved some money . I saved almost when I graduated , Take the money back to Beijing , Start making angel investments . Later, Qingshan capital was established .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Investing is a bit like serious composition , It's a rigorous thing , It also requires a lot of expertise , How did you make up for these shortcomings ？

Zhang Ye ： yes , I didn't know anything at first .2012 year 11 month , When I got to Beijing, I got off the plane and said I wanted to invest , Like a joke , Where to invest ？ For whom ？ What is investment ？ I do not know! . I don't know anyone in Beijing , Some of the students I know are all musicians .

So I went to ZhongGuanCun coffee shop . At that time , Very popular American garage entrepreneurial concept , So I squatted in some entrepreneurial cafes , Squatted from morning to night for more than two months .2013 year 1 month , Squat into a project , I invited him to My house Work in the office . For a whole year , I'll work with him from designing products to finding people , Find financing , When it comes to business cooperation , Do everything together .

To 2015 year , Also know a lot of friends , People think I'm doing a good job , You can try institutionalization , Friends... A little support , Made our first fund , Established Castle Peak capital .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》：2013 Year to 2015 year , Is music still important in your life ？

Zhang Ye ： Completely deliberately avoided music , I haven't even taken the initiative to listen to the song , Passive... Yes , I don't play the piano , I don't want to , Music has nothing to do with my life .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Why did you pick it up later ？ Start writing again ？

Zhang Ye ： Yes , Start to recreate , But I don't have enough time and energy to create serious music , It takes a lot of time and effort , A symphony may take a year to write . Now pick it up , Go make some pop music 、 electronic music , It'll be easier . Now the digital level of electronic music is very high . from 2020 Year begins , Write your own songs in the form of electronic music .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： In the eight years without music , Past training in music , Did you play any role as an investor , Help you form a subtle logic ？

Zhang Ye ： Just like the two features of serious music mentioned earlier , Rigorous and professional . Everything else is the same , Be logical , You see a direction , I think there are investment opportunities in this direction , Every point of view must be supported by logic , It can't be subjective .“ I like this one ”、“ I think this person is good ”、“ I think this product tastes good ”, How to define good drink ？ What's the logic of good drinking ？ In the whole culture of Castle Peak , Great emphasis on logic , Any point of view must have logical support , Not just conclusions , There is no process .

Professional aspects are the same , We all treat everything with a professional attitude . such as , On average over the past few years , I'll probably drive... In a year 1100 A meeting . In the past two years, , More than two thousand will , I shouldn't have been late once , Not for a minute . It's actually not that important , What if I'm late ？ But this is the embodiment of our professionalism .

03 I found myself in the world of music

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： You decided not to make music from the moment you graduated , Or after returning home for some time ？

Zhang Ye ： Two or three years before graduation , I've already thought about it . When I came to learn music , Because I love learning , Just continue to treat it as something I love , I don't necessarily think of it as my career , As my career . I thought very clearly two years before graduation , After graduation, return home to make angel investment , Very clear . I started to prepare before graduation , Return to China at the moment of graduation and start angel investment , No detours at all .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： About what you want , Have you ever hesitated ？

  Zhang Ye ： Very clear , I know what I want from an early age .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： When I was a child, I decided to study music , At that time, it was not an alien in my hometown ？

Zhang Ye ： yes , The family absolutely disagree , Don't support . I want to learn music , The family doesn't support , I came back to invest after learning music , The family doesn't support . They think they're good at music , Good grades , Now we have to invest , How could it be , Just dreaming .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： When did the first dream about music begin ？

Zhang Ye ：10 year .10 My parents separated at the age of , When I left, I followed my mother , Got a good stereo , My father bought it before . My mother doesn't listen to this stereo , I use it to listen . It was just popular at that time Beyond Band , Bought a lot of tapes , listen Beyond The band's song , Then I decided to make music .

At that time, I listened to his songs every day , Often cry while listening , In fact, many of his songs describe his ideals , Life these things . Those songs still touch me . I said, OK, There are such people writing such songs , It can make children like me feel very much , It's a good thing , I want to do the same . So I pestered my mother , Said to learn guitar , Want to learn piano , But the piano is too expensive , Learn guitar .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： The first song you can play is Beyond Your song ？

Zhang Ye ： No , To learn guitar, you need to find a teacher to learn , You should learn what the teacher teaches you , The first song is 《 The grass 》, This is a compulsory course for learning guitar . It seems that it took me a month or two to basically learn what the teacher knew , So I started playing after two or three months Beyond It's my song , But the first song is 《 The grass 》.

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： When I was a child , Before embarking on the road of music , Are you introverted or extroverted ？

Zhang Ye ： Introvert .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： I found myself in the world of music .

Zhang Ye ： I am very introverted , It seems that I didn't call it when I was born , I don't know what it's called , It was called when I was two or three years old , Now the name is because I'm too introverted , The parents said the child was too afraid of strangers and so on , So I changed my name to Zhang Ye , I wonder if I can be a little wild . For this reason, my grandmother , Let me change it to this name .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： It's just that a person is introverted , Then he'll like rock and roll , That's why I use music to make up for the lack of my character ？

Zhang Ye ： Unclear , There may be .

Photography ： Ren Yafei

04 Only let consumers In the same camp as you , Only then can we have the qualification to play with the channel

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Some time ago, we saw an article issued by Castle Peak capital , It's called 《 Dear consumer , Please recognize the reality 》, What was the starting point of writing this article at that time ？

Zhang Ye ： The starting point of this article is , Mainly because of the difficulties seen this year . This year is very difficult for consumer enterprises , Especially for start-ups , No matter from the storage brought by the epidemic 、 logistics 、 Difficulties in delivery , Or the international situation 、 Zhonggai shares, etc , All make consumer enterprises worse , Everything directly affects startups . The consumer industry has been very hot in the past two years , Especially the capital market is very hot , Many consumer start-ups are still stuck in inertial thinking , When formulating business and financing plans for this year and the next two years , More radical .

in fact , This is a very wrong behavior —— This is based on inertia , Rather than an analysis based on market conditions . For startups , This radical plan is likely to bring disaster .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Can you describe the specific embodiment of radicalism ？

Zhang Ye ： Many consumer startups are more flow driven . Is to drive the rapid growth of business through investment , Let the growth curve of consumer enterprises become steep . because VC Interested in fast-growing business models .

Now? , If we still maintain such a high delivery strategy , Drive business growth through traffic , In order to seek high financing , Form a business closed loop , It's not allowed . One is , The bonus of traffic is gone , Even high delivery , Nor does it necessarily lead to high growth . Two is , Even if it brings growth , It may not be able to get money , This closed loop is difficult to form .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： The paradox is , FMCG is particularly concerned about growth , No growth, no market , Without growth capital, I won't like you . How to adjust the logic of growth now ？ For example, pay more attention to repurchase , More focus on products ？

Zhang Ye ： First of all , To lower ROI Importance to the company's business , Reduce this data from a strategic level to a strategic level , Return to whether consumers like , This needs to be reflected through re purchase . second , Don't rely too much on online , Be sure to go offline . It is very difficult to do offline work for a long time , But I still have to do offline , Even a little . There is a big difference between online and offline playing methods , But offline is where consumer goods must go .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Some time ago, we discussed a problem , For new consumer goods companies , Where did the traffic go ？

Zhang Ye ： The current domestic traffic platform , Whether it's an e-commerce platform , Such as Taobao 、 Tmall 、 JD.COM 、 A lot of spelling , Or media platform , Tiktok 、 Well quickly 、 The little red book , The flow structure is also changing .

As a brand of consumer goods , Be aware that the platform is the channel for you . Whether it is the channel of commodity circulation , Or the channel of information circulation , They are all channel parties . Always remember , The brand side and the channel side must be a game relationship , Or multiple game relationships . In multiple game relationships , The advantages of the channel side are very obvious , In particular, the Internet channel has a very strong ability of error correction and iteration based on data . So in this game , The brand side must be at a disadvantage . Any traffic bonus received by the brand side , Are short-term victories in the game , It's not sustainable . The so-called flow dividend in the past , It's just a little bit of Dongfeng in the short term , Don't think it's your core competence , Don't think you're great .

Grasp this bonus , It can't be said to be the real ability of the company . Only let consumers and you in the same camp , Only then can we have the qualification to play with the channel .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： Now the investment of new consumption is cooling down or forced to cool down , Is this judgment accurate ？ What are the reasons behind it ？

Zhang Ye ： This is a very correct judgment . There are two reasons for the cooling of consumption ： The first is the cooling of consumption itself . In the past two years, a large number of consumer goods enterprises have been invested in the whole venture capital market , But the development is not satisfactory , So you may have to step back , Think again . The second is VC The overall cooling of the market . First quarter of this year , The whole country VC There is a constant voice in the market saying “ Winter is coming ”, This is the most intensive time I've heard in ten years .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： For entrepreneurs and investors , In this case, how to adjust the mentality ？

Zhang Ye ： Theoretically , The anti risk ability of consumer enterprises should be stronger than that of science and technology enterprises . Because after all, it's a seller , Cash flow is OK . Technology companies need to invest heavily in research and development , It may be many, many years before results can be achieved , Cycle is long , Once the capital stops in the R & D process, the company may not have it . The previous strategy of spending a lot on start-ups , It is not resistant to risk , Let's go back to the characteristics of consumer enterprises , We should take the maintenance of cash flow as the primary task .

《 Chinese entrepreneurs 》： If you were to write a song for entrepreneurs now , What can you write ？

Zhang Ye ： This year, 1 In June, I posted my first song , It's called 《When I Was Young》, It's for Entrepreneurs , Mainly about not forgetting the original intention , Don't forget your childhood dreams . Recently wrote a new song , It will be online in a while , The lyrics of this song are exactly what I want to say —— Never mind where the wind blows , You don't know where the wind blows , Just go your own way .

This article is from WeChat official account. “ Chinese Entrepreneur Magazine ”（ID：iceo-com-cn）, author ： Yao Yao , edit ： Ma Ji Ying ,36 Krypton authorized release .