Xiong Yifang: The Wild Man

On the website of IT Orange, there is an introduction about Xiong Yifang: co-founder of Ehang, co-founder of Ghost intelligent aerial robot; witty entrepreneurial man, strong fat man, handsome version of Li Tianyi, square The best in dance.

Interactive topic: Are post-90s entrepreneurs reliable?

As a well-known "post-90s entrepreneur", Xiong Yifang believes that the "strong fat man" portrays his image more vividly, just like the head portrait of the "dumb" bear he loves; From the perspective of "the co-founder of Beijing Yihang Creation Technology Co., Ltd.", he felt that it was necessary to clear up two points: first, he was actually born in 1989; second, the "handsome version of Li Tianyi" needs to be changed. .

Last year, Xiong Yifang was still unknown. Since the launch of EHang Ghost in April this year, in just a few months, "any drone manufacturer in the world knows about EHang, and its intelligent Human-machine technology is still one of the best in China." Although he planned to accept the interview "seriously", the young man's unique self-confidence and geek-style wildness in his words could not be hidden.

Entrepreneurship without borders

Xiong Yifang said that he has been entrepreneurship since he came to Singapore to study at the age of 16. Graduated from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2011, and then went to Duke University Business School to study for a master's degree. For many years overseas, he has founded group buying websites, couples’ communities, and mobile PS development. “It’s not about starting a business, or it’s on the road to starting a business.” “It may be that he has a deep-seated peddler complex.” He joked to himself.

His self-deprecating spirit is also reflected in the WeChat Moments: "When I woke up in the morning and was swiped by alumni, my Duke Business School ranked first in the United States this year. I don't understand, it's me in school. It will drag down the school's ranking."

Years of overseas study, life and entrepreneurial experience have undoubtedly shaped him into a new human being "without borders". In his eyes, Beijing, Guangzhou, Singapore and Wall Street are all regional cities on the horizon. There is no superiority or inferiority, only whether the opportunity is appropriate.

Xiong Yifang's undergraduate degree is electrical and electronic engineering, but he prefers to make highly technical and geeky things available to everyone. This idea has been running through all his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2013, he applied for an incubator program of Duke University—DUKE SIP (Duke Summer Innovation Program), which provided free office space and a living allowance of US$7,500 by the school to start a business in Silicon Valley. Xiong Yifang was the only foreigner selected.

In Silicon Valley, there are one or two hundred new start-up companies, all of which are open-plan offices, and gather a lot of "smart people", and Xiong Yifang can communicate with them every day. Duke University will introduce Bay Area alumni and investors to meet and discuss with them every week and answer questions. Xiong Yifang sighed, "I was very happy during that time, with money and support, everything was fine."

However, "Silicon Valley seems to be open and anyone is welcome, but its core part is very closed and difficult to get in." With a deep understanding of Silicon Valley, Xiong Yifang decided to leave the United States.

Several ventures abroad were related to IT. Later, he came into contact with the field of intelligent hardware. Like Columbus discovered the New World, he found an exciting entry point - intelligent aircraft. He made a decision immediately.

"Beijing's air is not good, so I spend most of my time in Guangzhou. It doesn't affect anything. The company in Beijing is expanding, and the office in the United States is on track." Xiong Yifang said, "In the future, there will be various Running, location is not a problem.”

In Silicon Valley, few startups work overtime desperately. After 6:00 pm, all companies are empty. This is a great inspiration for his way of thinking. "Entrepreneurship in the United States is a profession. It's not for making a fortune. They still have their own lives." In his view, starting a business is not necessarily a bitter one, it is about doing what you like happily. "Be free or die", under the guidance of this ideology, he has been living a free life whether he is studying or starting a business. "When encountering difficulties, overcome them, constantly challenge myself, continue to expand, be free, and make EHang a world-class company by the way. This is my dream." Xiong Yifang said.

Spotting blowout products

From the experience of several entrepreneurship, Xiong Yifang believes that it is not so difficult for start-ups to obtain investment. Investors value the rate of return, which is a test of your business ability. "It doesn't matter how you do it, what matters is your ability to solve problems, your network resources, and the possibility and explosiveness of the product itself."

The "explosive" product Xiong Yifang is looking at is an intelligent aircraft. In the early morning of November 11, taking advantage of the domestic double 11, the ghost 1.0 drone of EHang was launched on the American crowdfunding network indiegogo. In less than 20 hours, 92% of the crowdfunding target was completed, and the funds were successfully raised for nearly 20 hours. 100,000. Following the launch of "Rolling Time", EHang once again entered people's field of vision with the attitude of technology changing life.

Ghost was officially launched in China on May 22, 2014. It is the first quadcopter in China that can be controlled by a mobile phone. Compared with traditional unmanned aerial vehicles, Ghost only needs to use a mobile phone and a map. , A few simple buttons can complete the operation of the drone, including intelligent functions such as high-definition aerial photography, automatic hovering, night flight, automatic return, and real-time data display. Xiong Yifang said: "As a start-up company, the biggest innovation of EHang is to change the control method of drones." Ghost adopts the "map navigation" mode, that is, the remote control of Ghost is completed through the APP of the mobile phone. This method only requires the user Simply learning some operations during take-off and landing does not require them to master many skills of remote control aircraft, which is a mode that lowers the entry threshold for users. The mobile APP shows a map of the location. The user only needs to click a certain position on the map, and the aircraft can automatically complete the flight between the "AB" points. The user can intuitively see the flight on the mobile phone. Real-time status of routes and aircraft.

The "point-to-point" cruise flight mode gives Ghost more "wisdom" to fly autonomously, bringing users an infinitely expanded playable space. The practice of abandoning the remote control has greatly reduced the difficulty of the user's operation, but it has put forward higher requirements for the "intelligence" of the aircraft itself to cope with various uncertainties in flight. To this end, the Ghost R&D team has devoted a lot of energy to improving the algorithm for the stable flight of the aircraft and the prevention of unexpected situations.

The "point-to-point" flight of Ghost, which controls the route and automatic navigation on the mobile phone, can be used in application scenarios that require remote control and bird's-eye view in various industries, such as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor crop disasters, Collect real-time data of crops, or use it for real-time monitoring of forest fire prevention, and even be used for high-altitude patrols during post-earthquake relief, and throw relief items into the earthquake area without using helicopters.

At present, EHang has reached cooperation with Guangzhou Military Region, Guangzhou Unicom, Red Cross Society of China and other institutions, and its products will soon be applied to aerial photography, remote sensing mapping, forest fire prevention, power line patrol, search and rescue, Film and television advertising and other industrial and commercial purposes. In addition, Ghost will also be widely used in outdoor weddings, pesticide spraying and other scenes.

Recently, EHang has completed the cooperation with AutoNavi. Wei Kaiming, general manager of AutoNavi LBS open platform, said that with the development of mobile internet and the prosperity of smart hardware, LBS functions have been widely applied to APPs and smart hardware. AutoNavi LBS open platform will provide developers with two parts of free services, That is, the "cloud map" supported by the back-end and the front-end solution "API/SDK". Developers can build LBS applications on their own various APP platforms through AutoNavi SDK.

Talking about the cooperation with AutoNavi, Xiong Yifang said: "As a start-up company, on the eve of the industrial chain blowout, EHang must complete the accumulation of original technology capital in the shortest time. It is a solution. The API interface provided by the AutoNavi open platform has greatly helped us to quickly find the core developer group, so that everyone can use their brains collectively to make various flight-related software and hardware applications that are easier to use and more interesting.”

Geeks change lives

Xiong Yifang once shared a video of foreign netizens creating floating ghosts with flying machines, which inspired him to build a user community where fans can share their own GHOST gameplay with each other. At the same time, user feedback is the basis for product improvement, making EHang smart aircraft more professional and suitable for use.

"UAV is the most commonly used name, there are many types, but they all have one thing in common, that is, unmanned control." Xiong Yifang said, "The future of intelligent aircraft has more room for imagination, it even It can carry people." In his vision, drones can not only be used for aerial photography, express delivery, and delivery of materials, but of course people can be carried. Send it a command, it will send you to the destination, and then return to the flight automatically; after receiving the command, it will immediately appear where you need it... The scene in science fiction movies, driven by technology, is getting closer and closer to us .

What is the future of drones? Xiong Yifang gave a "Yifang" answer. He said: "It all depends on which applications you install on it." In his view, the future drone is a new application platform, and developers can provide This platform creates a variety of applications, and users are free to design various creative ways to use them.

"UAVs are in their infancy now, and there are infinite possibilities in the future. There is still a lot of room for exploration in the application of UAVs in the low-altitude field." Xiong Yifang said that there is still no unmanned aerial vehicle in China. The human-machine company is truly recognized by the world, which just gives him a chance. "I want to be the most B-class company in China. It should be a world-class company."

"For drones, the sky is not their limit, but they show themselves The stage." Xiong Yifang described.

So, for this wild young man, the journey of entrepreneurship has just started, and he has already attracted the favor of several investment bosses. The times have given him the best stage to show, so what can he do? To be his limit?