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arts｜"chinese entrepreneurs" reporter yan junwen

edit｜yao yun

source of header image｜interviewee

"tell him that even if it is 150 billion, if he (luo yonghao) gives it to me, i will not accept it. i will never send him this thing (make a video to apologize)."

on august 27, in the zihui venture capital office in shanghai, zheng gang told china entrepreneur in an irrefutable tone.

photography: yan junwen

on august 26, luo yonghao published a 15,000-word article, one of which was titled "clarifying the truth about the long-term rumors and defamation spread by zheng gang, an investor of smartisan technology" (hereinafter referred to as "clarifying the truth").luo yonghao admitted that smartisan technology and zheng gang had a loan of 15 million yuan, which was not repaid when due. the main reason was that zheng gang, as an investor in smartisan technology, launched a rogue lawsuit for repurchase and "spread rumors and slander" on the internet.

luo yonghao wrote in the article: "if i personally return this money to his company on behalf of smartisan technology, it must be the last and final payment before the finale of 'true return', and the prerequisite for giving it to him is that he shoots an online video with an extremely sincere expression admitting his mistakes and apologizing."

luo yonghao even said that if zheng gang did not do this, he would donate the money (referring to 15 million yuan) for charity purposes.

in addition, regarding luo yonghao's alleged plan to sue, zheng gang said that this is very good and the lawsuit is welcome. "i welcome it very much. i would love to. if you sue, you provide evidence. then i will refute it and throw out the evidence. it will be a matter of seeing who can beat whom."

in response to luo yonghao's statement that "zheng gang struggled for a long time, but only managed to win over 20% of investors to force me to repurchase, which is far from the 50% explicitly stipulated in the legal agreement", zheng gang said that they have filed an arbitration on the repurchase issue and the trial should be held soon. "we don't want to discuss specific details to affect the arbitration, which is confidential."

in luo yonghao's post, the only sentence that zheng gang agreed with was "this person's mind has always been confused and he doesn't have much logic." zheng gang said, i do things with emotion and sensibility, which is my characteristic as an angel investor.

after luo yonghao issued the statement, zheng gang responded immediately on his wechat moments, "the moon only lets you see one side, you can never see the other half... wait until i can explain the facts with reason and evidence, and use pictures and texts and videos to convince normal people (i don't care about you and me)."

source: screenshot of zheng gang’s moments

zheng gang said that currently zihui venture capital has less than 10 people, who are busy with investment business while responding to luo yonghao's remarks. "i don't know when i can figure it out, but someone has already offered to help deal with it."

regarding zheng gang’s statement above, an insider close to luo yonghao told china entrepreneur:"if zheng gang is concerned about personal feelings, luo yonghao is concerned about friendship. luo yonghao has already repaid 824 million yuan, so there is no problem for him to repay the 15 million yuan loan for smartisan technology, and his priority can be ranked very high. but (zheng gang) asked luo yonghao to be concerned about friendship, and he also found those investors to stab him in the back and go to arbitration. in the end, we can only handle the matter impartially."

"we are collecting evidence and looking for lawyers. zheng gang will receive a letter of indictment soon," said the insider.

the whole story of the dispute between zheng gang and luo yonghao

as an investor in smartisan technology, zheng gang and luo yonghao were once very close. zheng gang once called luo yonghao "china's steve jobs", and whenever someone questioned smartisan technology, he would personally fight back.

since leading the a round of investment of 70 million yuan in 2013, zheng gang has invested a total of 162 million yuan, accounting for about 11% of the shares. at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, smartisan technology was in trouble, and zheng gang borrowed 15 million yuan from smartisan technology. in order to raise this huge amount of money, he mortgaged his property. but it still couldn't stop the "bankruptcy" and sinking of smartisan technology.

during the sweet period between the two parties, zheng gang blindly gave away thousands of hammer phones. even the receptionist and cleaning lady at zihui venture capital received hammer phones.

in 2022, zheng gang comforted luo yonghao among the investors of smartisan technology, "even if there are setbacks or detours, they are tuition fees for the next success. as long as everyone knows that you are still on the road and have not given up, everyone will feel that they have invested in the right person."

luo yonghaosource: visual china

in january 2023, a change occurred. zheng gang "blasted" luo yonghao in his circle of friends, saying that he was "one-sided" and "two-sided", for example, he did not hold a shareholders' meeting or a board meeting for three years. at the same time, he also said that the newly established vr company was valued at us$190 million, but luo yonghao only took out 3.5% to compensate the investors who had previously invested rmb 1.5 billion, and the agreement was unethical.

luo yonghao immediately clarified, but zheng gang still questioned luo yonghao's "despicable and shameless". in may 2023, the two met, and zheng gang recalled that"since i took the lead in proposing the buyback, he thought it was just a matter of official business. in addition, smartisan technology owed him 15 million yuan, and he said he would also handle it in a fair and impartial manner, and asked me to sue smartisan technology."previously, luo yonghao had resigned as the legal representative of smartisan technology. the two parties failed to reach an agreement and parted ways unhappily.

over the next year or so, zheng gang posted content on douyin and video accounts many times, questioning luo yonghao's "true return" personality. recently, zheng gang participated in a talk show event of the shanghai investor circle and said, "i threw a 'life buoy' to luo yonghao, but it would be better to throw a hammer" and "investing in luo yonghao is worse than feeding a dog."

this talk show was the direct trigger for luo yonghao's "15,000-word article on august 26". luo yonghao announced this 15,000-word "article" during the live broadcast, and called it "luo yonghao's monday blockbuster", which will be released simultaneously on 7 platforms.china entrepreneur noted that luo yonghao joined kuaishou specifically for this purpose. as of press time, luo yonghao's kuaishou fans have exceeded 40,000.

luo yonghao's "magnificent article" consists of two parts. one is "the second season of "true return" - from 600 million to 1.3 billion", in which he claims that "true return" has paid back a total of 824 million yuan. he also said that he will use all legal, compliant and business ethical methods to "hype up" the business, such as partially resuming the wedding and funeral hosting business, and repaying the remaining more than 500 million yuan of debt as soon as possible.

the other article is "clarifying the truth about the long-term rumors and defamation spread by smartisan investor zheng gang". this "clarifying the truth" states that in the past year and a half, zheng gang has made countless personal attacks, slanders and rumors on social networks and some self-media, and said that he would sue zheng gang.

luo yonghao mainly mentioned two points in this article:first, from a moral, logical and legal perspective, zheng gang’s behavior of forcing luo yonghao to repurchase the shares is completely untenable.after much effort, zheng gang was able to get more than 20% of the investors to force me to buy back the shares, which was far from the 50% stipulated in the legal agreement.second, it is true that smartisan technology borrowed 15 million yuan from zheng gang’s institution that year, and it is also true that it did not repay the loan when it was due.if luo yonghao is to repay the money, the prerequisite is that zheng gang must shoot an online video in which he admits his mistake and apologizes with an extremely sincere expression.

in response, zheng gang said that he lent 15 million yuan to smartisan technology. "first, i was optimistic about luo yonghao's future. second, i believed in him. seeing that i was helping him in his time of need, he would be able to repay my kindness. i don't need to express gratitude. you just return the money to me. it's that simple. as a result, he can now say that i lent the money to the company, not to him personally. so don't you think i am angry about this?"

zheng gang said,the dispute between him and luo yonghao has nothing to do with equity or money; the problem is just this person (luo yonghao).zheng gang also reflected, "i over-believed that if i did these kind things, the other party would be grateful and repay me. it's that simple. this is the story of the farmer and the snake."

a quarrel that hurts both sides

luo yonghao and zheng gang are typical cases of entrepreneurs and investors falling out after the "grassroots development" of china's past entrepreneurial boom.

this brought endless troubles to both of them. for zheng gang, zihui venture capital, where he works, has no fundraising plan in the past two years. his main job now is to empower enterprises, such as assisting enterprises to go global. at the same time, he has also invested in some ai companies, such as a project called "gege ai", an ai car repair project, and recently invested in a project related to ai games.

zheng gang source: interviewee

zheng gang has never invested in a project as influential as momo, inke, and chubao. to this day, the years of the honorary certificates placed on the desk of zihui venture capital are mainly 2017 and 2015.

for luo yonghao, he is always involved in "arguments", "debates" and "controversies". from wang ziru and fang zhouzi in the past to zheng gang now, even if he wins the arguments, it seems to the outside world that he is getting further and further away from his past extreme focus on products. at the same time, this has also caused constant tearing and division among luo yonghao's core fans.

what is the correct relationship between entrepreneurs and investors?

as luo yonghao said in his weibo article, investing can result in gains and losses. investing is not borrowing. when a venture capital investment you made on your own decision fails, you have to admit it.

as zheng gang said, investment is semi-loan, and the investment agreement and repurchase terms are to protect both the founders and the interests of investors. zheng gang believes that investors can accept failure. most of the projects he invested in failed, and he accepted it. however, luo yonghao’s words “time is not waiting for us. by the time we made mobile phones, it was already too late” explained to investors showed that, in his opinion, luo yonghao was full of arrogance and self-esteem.

china entrepreneurs has interviewed many investors and entrepreneurs, and they all expressed similar views:investing is a game of human nature. brothers should settle accounts clearly. the bad guys are in front and the good guys are behind.

the following are four experiences that zheng gang summarized from investing in smartisan technology:

first, you need to be more sharp and strict in identifying true entrepreneurs. as an investor, you should have a stronger ability to identify people. this is very important. in fact, investment is about investing in people.

second, stay true to your original intention. now it seems that many people are avoiding things and not taking action. at this time, we should build up our confidence and have the ability to think in reverse or operate in reverse. this is very important.

third, as for lao luo, i supported him so willfully at that time. it was not that i didn't see the problem, but i selectively ignored and denied myself. i didn't control my own risks with the caution that i should have. i can relax a little, but i still have to be cautious, especially when i have already seen the risk points.

fourth, look at this kind of multi-investor project more rationally. the lesson here is also very clear. smartisan technology's board of directors is a mere formality, and club investments are basically failures. this person invested in the project, that person invested, and you also invested, so i don't want to follow, because there is no effective board of directors. especially when the founder does not give investors the rights they should have, if you see this clue, run away immediately.