SegmentFault: a successful startup created by Chinese 90’s

A start-up frenzy has gripped China since Premier Li Keqiang encouraged people to innovate and start their own businesses last March. The country's "post-90s generation" of entrepreneurs — a term describing those born in the 1990s — has come of age. They are bold digital natives brought up in the founding era of Internet giants like Tencent and Alibaba, and unafraid of failure. Products of the Internet, and rapid economic growth and globalization, these young entrepreneurs have their own stories to tell.

自从去年3月中国国务院总理李克强鼓励自主创业以来，一股创业狂潮席卷了中国。中国的“90后”创业者——即出生在1990年代的企业家们——已渐趋成熟。成长于互联网巨头腾讯和阿里巴巴成立的时代，这群新生企业家是大胆的数码原住民，他们从不畏惧失败。关于互联网产品，快速的经济增长和全球化，这些年轻的企业家们有着自己的故事。

Listed as one of "China's 30 under 30" by Forbes last year and initiator of China's hackathon – an event gathering programmers to collaborate on software-related projects – Gao Yang sometimes generates more attention from his past experiences than for his business project.

作为福布斯2014年“30位30岁以下创业者”之一的高阳，首次将黑客马拉松活动引入了中国，活动中，程序员通力合作开发一些软件相关项目。但是，人们有时候对高阳过去的经验的关注胜于他的商业项目。

Born into a rural family in Shandong province in 1990, Gao enjoyed no advantages and failed the college entrance examination, or gaokao, in 2008, a test considered by many the only way to success.

高阳1990年出生在山东一个农村家庭， 2008年高考落榜，当时许多人认为高考是成功的唯一途径。但是现在他成功了，他有了自己的公司并且声名远播。

But still he succeeded, judging from his company and present fame. The secret to his success, unexpectedly, is also the cause of his failure in gaokao, his enthusiasm for the Internet.

出乎意料地是，他成功的秘诀，也是他高考失败的原因，那就是他对互联网的热爱。

Gao developed his huge interest during his third year of high school where he spent a lot of time on Renren, a Chinese version of Facebook, while other students remained busy preparing for the exams. Unsurprisingly, he failed.

高三时，高阳花了很多时间在人人网上——中国版的Facebook——他对此产生了极大的兴趣，而其他学生一直忙着准备考试。意料之中，他没有考上大学。

"My network building started in the online community," Gao said, "I have so far added about 2,000 contacts on the website. Now I have friends in almost all Internet companies".

“我的互联网之路始于这些网上社区，”高说，“到目前为止我已经在网站上加了2000名好友，我的朋友几乎遍布所有的互联网公司”。

After the exam, he took a job in a logistics company where he had free access to Internet. He continued his exploration on SNS and began learning programming.

高考后，他在物流公司找到了一份工作，在那里，他可以自由访问互联网。他继续探索SNS并且开始学习编程。

A year later, Gao quit and went to a university after taking an adult entrance exam only to find college life not suitable for him. He left after three months and joined in a startup company doing social network game.

一年后，高辞职去工作参加了成人高考，进入大学却发现大学生活并不适合他。三个月后，他就离开了学校加入了一个创业公司做社交网络游戏。

"I was lucky to join the company when social network game was popular," Gao said, "When I left the number of employees had risen to 60 from 7, and its capital flow had grown to 100 million yuan ($16.13 million).

“我很幸运，加入公司的时候正是社交网络游戏受欢迎的时候，”高说，“当我离开时，员工人数已从最初的7人升至60，它的流动资本已增至1亿元。

"It was the first time I felt the power of Internet startup companies," he said.

“那是我第一次感受到了互联网初创公司的力量。”他说。

Gao began a new career with AngelCrunch, an online Chinese community that connects startup companies and angel investors, setting up SegmentFault, an online Q&A community for programmers. Without management, the community saw more than 2,000 registered users in just months, making Gao realize the potential in providing services for programmers.

接着，高阳在天使汇开始新的职业生涯，这是一个在线华人社区，连接初创公司和天使投资者，他还建立了SegmentFault，一个程序员的在线问答社区。没有管理，社区在几个月就拥有了超过2000的注册用户，这让高阳看到了为程序员提供服务的潜力。

Having been thinking about starting his own business for some time, Gao, with two friends, quit their jobs and registered a company for SegmentFault in Hangzhou in June 2012, marking the official beginning of their entrepreneurship.

考虑过一段时间后，高和两个朋友决定自己创业，他们辞去自己的工作，于2012年6月在杭州注册了公司SegmentFault，这标志着他们正式开始创业之路。

"Programmers are the No 1 productive force of the Internet. If their creativity and vitality can be fully stimulated, the Internet industry will see better development," he said. "SegmentFault is more like a shared community rather than a problem-solving tool. It proves its meaning and value by gathering this group and providing good services for them".

“程序员是互联网的第一生产力。如果能充分激发他们的创造力和活力，互联网行业将会得到更好的发展，”他说。“SegmentFault更像是一个共享社区，而不是一个解决问题的工具。通过聚集这一群体，为他们提供良好的服务，它证明了其意义和价值”。

The startup made slow progress and, with no investment, the team had no income and depended on their savings.

公司刚启动时进展缓慢，没有投资，团队没有收入，他们只能靠之前的储蓄度日。

As five months passed, the idea of holding a hackathon came to the three during a brainstorming session.

五个月后，他们三人突然灵感来袭，决定组织一次黑客马拉松。

Hackathon, unlike the negative Hacker, is an instant event where computer whizzes get together to develop problem-solving projects against the clock. Moreover, since manufacturers, investors and headhunters are also involved, it serves as a good platform to seek talents and projects.

黑客马拉松并不等同于负面的黑客，它是是一个即时事件，把计算机奇才聚集在一起快速解决一些项目问题。此外，由于制造商，投资者和猎头也有参与，它也是一个去寻找人才和项目的好平台。

The event was well-known in some foreign countries, but few had been organized in China. The company's plan successfully attracted 150 programmers and, thanks to Gao's network, many companies also agreed to cooperate.

黑客马拉松在外国非常知名，但在中国几乎没有举办过类似活动。公司的计划成功地吸引了150名程序员，依靠高阳的人脉，许多公司表示愿意合作。

It turned out a success, both for hackathon and SegmentFault. Though the event didn't bring any profit for the company, it helped establish trust with technology companies.

事实证明这是一次双赢，不管是对黑客马拉松还是SegmentFault都是成功。虽然没有为公司带来任何利润，但它帮助SegmentFault与科技公司建立了信任。

In July, 2013 SegmentFault and Baidu jointly organized another hackathon, which attracted more than 2,000 programmers from five cities and generated several hundred thousand yuan for the company. The event also marked the largest hackathon in Asia and SegmentFault shot to fame with user numbers rising to 100,000.

2013年7月，SegmentFault又和百度联合主办了一次黑客马拉松活动，吸引了来自五个不同城市的2000多名程序员，给公司带来了几十万元的利润。这也是亚洲规模最大的黑客马拉松， SegmentFault一举成名，用户数量激增到10万人。

With the success of holding hackathons, Gao's team expanded and the SegmentFault community began to see a profit. Last year Gao set up a branch office in Beijing and acquired millions of yuan in investments. At the same time he was listed by Forbes among "China's 30 under 30", a selection of 30 young entrepreneurs below the age of 30. He was then 24.

黑客马拉松的成功举办，使得高阳的团队开始扩大，SegmentFault社区也开始盈利。去年高在北京设立了分公司，获得数百万元的投资。同时他被入选为福布斯“30位30岁以下的创业者”，年仅24岁。

"Once you have the young and worthy developers, you seize the future of the Internet," Gao said, "Our users are young and the project we are working on is also young in China".

“拥有年轻的和有价值的开发人员，你就能抓住互联网的未来，”高说：“我们的用户是年轻人，我们的项目在中国也很年轻”。

Speaking of the advantage of the post-90s in entrepreneurship, compared with post-70s and post-80s, Gao said the post-90s group has more understanding about themselves. They don't compete with large companies for resources, instead attracting others with a similar culture.

说到90后创业的优势，高认为，90后相比于70后和80后，对自己有着更好的认识。他们不与大公司竞争资源的优势，而是用相似的文化来吸引其他人。

"People say luck is very important, while I think good luck comes with good mentality," he said, "My character has brought me many good opportunities and gathered many interesting persons. I am like a connective point, doing useful things with a lot of people.

人们说运气非常重要，而我认为好心态才能带来好运，”他说，“我的性格给我带来了很多好机遇，聚集了许多有趣的人。我就像一个连接点，与很多人一起做有用的事情。

"The era of programmers has come," Gao said, "I want to be the magnet that draws together all the geniuses".

“程序员的时代已经来了”，高说，“我希望自己能像磁铁一样把所有的天才吸引到一起”。