At an online seminar organized by Tianjin University, where senior students about to graduate were invited to share their job hunting experience with their junior fellows, Tu Kangyu, a bronze medalist of a national college students entrepreneurship competition who started three businesses during his college life unreservedly told his business-starting experience and lessons he has learnt to the attendees,“Think very carefully before you start a business. But once you make up your mind, just go for it. It is really awesome and amazing”.
Tu Kangyu is an undergraduate of Tianjin University enrolled in 2016, majoring in Chinese language and literature. He started to think about how to start a business as soon as he entered the university.“The country has been encouraging entrepreneurship for a long time. I am a big fan of literature but I also want to try something different.”He pursued a minor degree of business administration, learnt about professional management knowledge and took internship in companies to gain practical skills.
“To start a business, we have a lot to learn. It is not that easy. We have to establish a certain business model, and try to make it profitable. Only in this way can it create any value to the society,” Tu Hongyu said. He expressed his gratitude to the university for the help and support it provides students who have an entrepreneur dream. “Our university sponsors a Xuanhuai Project named after the university founder Sheng Xuanhuai, a role model of innovation and reform, to train student in their entrepreneur pursuit. It serves as an enterprise incubator where you meet like-minded people who could be your future partners and learn the knowledge and practical skills necessary for starting a business,”said Tu Kangyu, adding that the project established a dual mentor system to provide each participant with two industry mentors who gave tailored advice to students. With his mentors’ help, Tu Kangyu visited 15 companies of the global Fortune 500 and met with over 20 CEOs and investors of domestic business giants. “Those experiences proved very valuable in my later start-up attempts,” Tu told the students at the seminar.
Tu started his first business when he was still a freshman with his two classmates. They applied for an office in the university’s entrepreneurial activity center called Maker Space which students can use for free if their business plan is approved by the university after a certain roadshow.
With thorough market research, Tu Kangyu and his two partners established a consulting company that provides helpful information for college candidates to find the right university and the suitable major out of a bunch of choices after they pass the college entrance examination. The monthly sales reached a maximum of 100,000 Rmb, which greatly exceeded his expectations. "After one year of operation, the company was acquired by an education and training institution."
Then Tu attempted the second start-up, trying to promote online yoga training, but he failed this time. "We lost all the money we made in the first business and were financially stressed out to maintain the team.” Distressed and self-blaming as he was, Tu tried to learn from the failure and seek a way out of it. He consulted with the university mentors and investors to find the defects and shortcomings of the second business model and explored possible means to save the business.
After much study and careful consideration, he decided to change the online model to offline, making full use of vacant stadiums in colleges and universities, and achieved great success. As of the year 2018, the yoga institution Tu founded served 3,000 teachers and students at Tianjin University, and has become the first on-campus yoga brand in Tianjin. They also produce high-quality online yoga content and have established in-depth cooperation with many well-known enterprises in the industry. “Our team are committed to connecting and serving 40 million yoga practitioners in China through the sharing economy, and improving the efficiency of the entire yoga industry by optimizing resource allocation”, Tu said proudly.
During his four years of college life, Tu Kangyu has successively set up three businesses and won many honors such as the National Bronze Award of the 5th China Internet + Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. He also served as the chairman of the Student Science and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Association under the Youth League Committee of Tianjin University, organizing multiple school-level events. "Create some value for the society." This is the entrepreneurial philosophy held firmly by Tu Kangyu.
By Wang Chen
Editor: Eva Yin
