How can smart family startups break the waves?

This year, Google’s $3.2 billion luxury Nest, a strong shot in the smart home market, followed by Samsung’s plans to acquire SmartThings for $200 million. The wave of smart families is surging, and a number of companies, led by technology giants, are moving frequently to gain a place in the forefront. Start-up companies are one of the backbones that cannot be ignored.

As a member of the entrepreneurial tide, the wind vane has achieved good performance, and its fan series products won a number of patent certificates in 2013. In view of this, Electronic Enthusiasts Network interviewed Mr. Ma Yanwen, CEO of Wind Direction Technology, to share his entrepreneurial story, and how to lead the start-ups to quickly grasp the smart family opportunities and successfully break the waves.

Ma Yanwen, CEO of Wind Direction Technology Co., Ltd.

Thinking in the early stage of business

The wind vane was officially established in April 2012 as a company focused on intelligent life service operations. The related business involves cloud services, intelligent modification of end equipment, intelligent hardware, and sales of intelligent wireless modules.

Ma Yanwen said in his interview: "I once hoped that there would be a set of equipment and products that would bring a better life experience, but after a lot of price comparisons and research, I did not find a very satisfactory product."

Under such an opportunity, Ma Yanwen found that the smart market is at a critical point, the prospects are huge, and the products and ecosystems have not yet formed. In addition, the popularity of smart phones has greatly enhanced the intelligent experience. Hardware, software, and market maturity have made the perfect time.

Out of the trap

In order to get out of the differentiated route and get rid of the trap, the wind vane is based on providing a full set of smart devices and platforms covering the device, cloud and APP. Ma Yanwen pointed out that at this stage, the wind vane company mainly focuses on some things that can be put on the product. “The first step is to make the product faster, let the user feel good, and sell it, it is the key.”

After completing the small-scale trial production of hardware products, the vanelife platform was launched in 2013. "Why do this? First, purely product, it is unlikely that you will surpass traditional home appliance companies such as Gree and Haier. After all, the advantages of manufacturing are already in sight. Second, purely operating APP, with Tencent. In this way, a platform with a large number of users is difficult to compete. Third, if you simply build a platform-level outsourcing service company for others, there is no user and no road.” Ma Yanwen further pointed out that a new Internet company must be a fusion product and a fusion of data. Management, integration of external information integration and product integration. At present, such companies have not really occupied a mainstream position in the industry, and opportunities for entrepreneurs are even greater.

There are always entrepreneurs

The road to entrepreneurship is always a storm, but there will be wind and rain, and there will always be sunshine. Looking back at the bottlenecks encountered in the past three years, Ma Yanwen concluded: "First of all, smart home heavy push requires us to match the volume, the company is still adapting; secondly, it needs to withstand the relatively slow acceptance process of the market; again, the acceptance of big brands It’s a forced process, which is a huge risk point for the game.”

In order to cope with the above difficulties, the wind vane introduced a variety of wireless technologies, and opened more services in the cloud, completed the first generation engine in artificial intelligence, and realized sensor smart devices. If the window is opened or not, the time and air quality will be detected and executed, and the second generation intelligent interconnection engine being developed will realize more automatic judgment.

Open up profit channels

The wind vane is mainly for cooperation with companies that do traditional home appliances. While helping traditional household appliances to be intelligent, we also provide a full range of services to our customers with our partners' mature experience and customer resources. "From the beginning of the road to the present, we have completed the product display, sales, after-sales installation, after-sales service, etc. in more than 30 prefecture-level cities to help open up profit channels." Ma Yanwen said.

For the upcoming partners

“A summary of the three-year smart family entrepreneurship experience is a sentence: the single product is never too late, the platform road has a time window, it is difficult to turn back!”

At the end of the interview, Ma Yanwen said that it is not easy to do smart home. There are no successful cases. There is no set of templates and concepts and standards that can be referenced. "But efforts must have a direction. The understanding of intelligence is the first step. If there is deviation in understanding, the road will deviate and go further and further."

——This article is selected from the e-fever network April 2014 “Smart Family Special Issue”, please indicate the source!

For more information on smart family news, please pay attention to the electronic enthusiast "Smart Family Special"

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