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In 2000, 56-year-old Feng Yucai left university and founded my country's first database company - DAMO Limited.

Feng Yucai started teaching at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1976, and was engaged in the research of the prototype of the self-developed database. In 1988, he successfully developed the first prototype of the database management system with independent copyright in my country, CRDS.

In 1992, the DAMO Database Multimedia Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, led by Feng Yucai, was formally established. The research team was mainly composed of professors, graduate students, and undergraduates from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Today, many executives of DAMO Data came from the initial team.

Under the support of the "Innovation and Innovation" policy, on June 12 this year, DAMO Data landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with an issue price of 86.96 yuan, 19 million shares issued, and a total fundraising of 1.652 billion yuan. On June 12, DAMO Data soared 256.49% to 310 yuan per share at the opening. Currently, DAMO Data's market value is about 16.34 billion yuan.

According to the prospectus, from 2000 to 2019, DM Data has been continuously making breakthroughs and improvements in core database technologies. Its core "DM" series database products have been continuously iterating on the basis of DM2 developed by the former DM Database and Multimedia Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In 2019, DM launched DM8, a large-scale general-purpose database for big data and cloud computing.

How did a university teacher build a listed company with core technological advantages in more than 20 years?

Dialogue with Feng Yucai.

1

Talking about values

Dagang Observation: The path taken by DAMO is a typical example of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities. What are the key factors here?

Feng Yucai:In fact, there are many enterprises run by universities, and we are not the only one in Wuhan. In the whole country, Neusoft Group is a successful one. However, it is difficult for us to transform scientific and technological achievements. I think the core problem is the mastery of core technologies and the values ​​of this enterprise.

What is the purpose of your company going public? Because most companies go public for everyone's financial freedom. We at DAMO do not think that going public means we have achieved a big goal. Going public is just a milestone on the road ahead, and it does not mean that we have succeeded.

Of course, if the performance is not good after listing, I think it is still because of the lack of core technology.

Recently, the industrial park in Chengmai, Hainan Province has been very successful. I went to see it and it was very comprehensive. Even the primary school, middle school and kindergarten were very beautiful. No science and technology park in Shanghai, Wuhan or Beijing could be as good as it. However, the other party told me one thing, which reminded me of our manufacturing industry.

He said, "We are going to spend 1 billion to buy a manufacturing system from Siemens. Why do we have to spend a huge amount of money to buy manufacturing software from abroad?" At that time, I thought that in fact, some of our companies did not develop core technologies after going public. Moreover, after going public, the financials were realized and many people left.

Our values ​​at DAMO are not like this. Mao Zedong reported at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee in 1949. The general meaning is that many of us are worthy of being heroes in front of the enemy, but we may lose the battle in front of sugar-coated bullets. We have won and succeeded, but this is only the first step of the Long March. If this is also worth our satisfaction, then we seem very insignificant.

I had set the purpose of listing DAMO 20 years ago. The first was to enhance the brand, which has now achieved this effect; the second was to attract talents; the third was to standardize corporate management; and the fourth was to liberate the financial affairs of employees.

We need to master the core technology in this field. If our manufacturing enterprises can do this, there is no need to spend 1 billion to buy Siemens. If an enterprise does not master the core technology, it will not last long because it is controlled by others.

There is an article online saying that DAMO will have 300 million this year, 400 million next year, and 500 million the year after, as if it is that easy. It is not that easy. The market challenge is very cruel. Now that DAMO is listed, the goal is even bigger.

I am very worried about our isolation among peers. More than 280 companies, including Huawei, are engaged in our R&D, so this challenge is very cruel. It is not a severe problem, but cruel. The construction of the market is also cruel.

Our advantage is that we have solved the bottleneck problem compared with other peers. This is a core technology and cutting-edge technology. Secondly, my team is relatively stable. We are making commemorative medals for the company's more than 20 years, 15-20 years, and 10-15 years. I would like to give you a spiritual encouragement in advance.

2

Talking about selecting and employing people

Dagang Observation: To overcome technical bottlenecks, talent is the most important. Do you have anything worth sharing on selecting and employing people?

Feng Yucai:First of all, the gap between China and the United States cannot be judged solely by GDP. The most important thing is to look at colleges and universities. Education involves the next few generations. Including the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, such as cutting-edge technology, especially originality, we are far behind.

Because I have been a teacher for decades and have been running a business for more than 20 years, I am very clear about the value orientation of both sides, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

The values ​​of some universities are to write papers, write books, win awards, get professional titles, get salary increases, and put an end to the past. As for whether these achievements are useful, it is quite small.

More than 20 years ago, before I started a company, I established a research institute. I wanted to change this situation. Why is it so difficult for our college students to find jobs? In fact, there are many people who want to find vacancies, but they can't match them. He said he can take exams, but I want someone who can solve problems.

Just like what we said in college, a person with a GPA of 5 is not necessarily a talent, because the purpose of his study is to get a GPA of 5, and a GPA of 5 may not necessarily solve problems. We need to cultivate students' ability to analyze and solve problems. What kind of people do companies want? People who can create value for me.

So after I joined the company, my values ​​changed. In school, it doesn't matter whether your products sell for money, but you have to write papers and win awards. In school, the purpose is to win awards and be nominated as an academician. If you can win the second prize of the national award, you can be nominated as an academician.

But after I joined the company, I had another bias, which I want to reflect on, that is, I did not do project appraisal 20 years ago. We founded the company in 2000, and only in the past two years did we think that we would be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and we might need to win awards to add weight.

Why is there so many universities and high-tech companies in California? Because teachers in Silicon Valley work part-time as consultants or even run businesses, and have many connections with society.

Of course, our teachers also run businesses, but if you are only doing it for financial reasons, that is not acceptable. That is why the United States can produce famous companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

We are also trying to change this situation. We have established connections with universities and signed agreements with them for joint training, such as doing experiments, or being teachers at schools, or inviting teachers from schools to come to us.

In the past, the "Second Classroom" of Huazhong University of Science and Technology was very successful and won many awards across the country. Now our chief architect is a student from the "Second Classroom".

The "second classroom" is for students who have not graduated from college, but participate in our research, and receive a monthly rebate of living expenses, which makes them feel very satisfied. Then they can do their graduation projects in enterprises, both postgraduates and doctoral students are welcome.

We have a lot of contacts with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and many of their doctoral students are here. In addition, we also have a lot of talents, and we are planning to further change this situation.

Dagang Observation: Do you encourage PhDs to go to universities or to companies?

Feng Yucai:This is a matter of values, and everyone has a different orientation. In the United States, it is difficult for PhDs to find jobs, and this problem also exists in China.

I trained several PhD students who wanted to work for the company, but I didn't hire them because there are different types of people. Some can write papers and take exams, but they may not be able to solve problems.

There are also opposite types. I used to teach a master's student who failed several undergraduate exams and had no chance of applying for graduate school. But later I found out that this kid was very talented and had strong hands-on skills. His parents went to Inner Mongolia or the northwest, and he has been playing with computers since he was a child. He is a computer dictionary. There is nothing he doesn't know. He is very talented.

I made an exception and let him study for a master's degree, but he dropped out after one year and went to Guangzhou, where he immediately became a manager. So my standards for hiring people are different, and I look at how they solve problems.

Dagang Observation: You have been investing in DAMO for more than 20 years. How do you plan your investment and financing?

Feng Yucai:As for investment and financing, I can only say that I am still a primary school student, or at most a junior high school student. I failed to raise funds twice at the beginning, and this is related to Everbright Bank. When I was in trouble, I remembered that Everbright Bank was still cooperating with me.

Since our establishment, we have signed a tripartite agreement with Everbright Bank, and later we got a rare credit loan, which is usually only available to listed companies. We didn’t have any collateral, and the only thing we could mortgage was our intellectual property rights, which people might not believe. But Everbright Bank was always there for us when we were in the most difficult times, so I am really grateful.

Our current financing is still far from the original expectation. The original expectation was 2.3 billion, and the final amount was 1.6 billion. We are the best in this period, because the Science and Technology Innovation Board's financing is several hundred million, three hundred million, five hundred million, and we are rare to reach more than one billion.

3

Talk about future development

Dagang Observation: Do you have the confidence to make DAMO a company like Apple?

Feng Yucai:We can only say that we have gradually developed in China, but there are still many areas that I am not involved in. We want to be a company like them, but it is still not easy.

Jiupai News: After going public, what changes have taken place in DAMO’s development direction?

Feng Yucai:We are not changing, but expanding. Once traditional enterprises become big, they will do everything from upstream to downstream as long as they can make money. This is too common. But we still focus on "specialization, precision and innovation", focus on the data ecosystem, and want to do a full stack and dozens of products. It was impossible to do more before, but now we have a certain amount of funds and 6 R&D bases. In the future, we may expand to world-leading products. Many of the products we are targeting now are not domestic products, but are meant to compete with the world's top products. We are confident in this. It is possible that some shocking products will be launched in the near future.

Dagang Observation: Are you preparing to expand overseas markets?

Feng Yucai:We are also actively expanding overseas markets, establishing connections with overseas customers and exploring cooperation opportunities. While consolidating the domestic market, we actively seize opportunities for international market development and continuously enhance the company's international competitiveness and market influence. Now we are actually also studying Wuhan's industrial layout, investing early, investing in small companies, and investing in technology.

Dagang Observation: How do you understand the country’s layout for science and technology?

Feng Yucai:In the early days, we all talked about GDP, which was all about consuming China's resources and causing long-term problems for the environment. The West was doing the front-end and high-end, while we were doing the low-end and making a little hard-earned money.

Now we need to develop high technology and new quality productivity, we can’t just exchange our resources and cheap labor. For example, in artificial intelligence and big data, what China lacks most is original innovation.

To solve this problem, we have to start with education. Why do people become less creative as they grow older? Their education limits their ability to innovate. This is also the gap in our educational direction.

Wuhan has made great progress. A student from Hunan once told me that if you give me the same treatment, I would rather go to Shanghai because I have more choices. But now, I feel that there has been a huge change.

What impressed me most was the idea of ​​“retaining one million college students”, which is still being implemented.

Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology are the representatives, and they all contacted investors through alumni. I remember that when I was running a business, I had an idea to move the headquarters to Shanghai, but I didn't move in the end.

In recent years, Dongxin Development Zone has supported and cared for enterprises, attracting enterprises from other places to come here, so now Wuhan should be ranked in the top 10 in the country, almost on par with Chengdu. This is mainly due to the return of talents.

[Source: Jiupai News]