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From New Oriental music teacher to China's most humanistic angel investor, the entrepreneurship mentor whose core philosophy is believing in young people
Xu Xiaoping was born in 1956 in Taixing, Jiangsu. After graduating from a music conservatory and studying in Canada, he returned to China and co-founded New Oriental Education Group with Yu Minhong and Wang Qiang, leading the study-abroad consulting and visa training business, helping build New Oriental into China's largest English training institution. After leaving New Oriental in 2006, Xu Xiaoping began systematically exploring angel investing, and in 2011 co-founded Zhen Fund with Wang Qiang, becoming one of China's earliest and most influential angel investment institutions. Zhen Fund's core strategy features very small checks (minimum $100K), very early stage (idea stage), and strong founder belief (believing in people more than projects), investing in hundreds of projects including Momo, Jiayuan, 51Talk, and Tianxia Yingxiong, with multiple achieving IPOs. Xu Xiaoping is known for his unique humanistic care — he views investment as empowering young people rather than profit-seeking, making Zhen Fund stand out in China's VC circle.
Xu Xiaoping believes the essence of angel investing is identifying and believing in excellent people, not evaluating business plans. A good entrepreneur can find good projects; a bad entrepreneur will ruin good projects. Therefore, 80% of Zhen Fund's investment decisions are based on founder judgment, 20% on market logic.
Source: 徐小平接受《中国企业家》专访，2012年 / 徐小平微博和演讲集录，2011-2020年
Xu Xiaoping positions his investment role as an empowerer rather than a hunter. He spends extensive time in life counseling and strategic dialogue with investees rather than just focusing on financial returns. This positioning has built extremely strong reputation and trust for Zhen Fund in China's early-stage startup community.
Source: 徐小平《把世界当书读》，2015年
Xu Xiaoping deeply believes that China's period of high-speed economic development is a golden era for young entrepreneurs, and the internet revolution provides equal opportunity for every young person with ideas. This conviction drives him to invest decisively when others hesitate, and to enter when others think a project is too early.
Source: 徐小平真格基金成立发布会演讲，2011年
Xu Xiaoping's own music and humanities background makes him believe that the foundation of entrepreneurial success is not technology or business logic, but the ability to understand human nature, tell good stories, and build emotional connections. This belief makes him particularly value communication ability and personal charisma when judging founders.
Source: 徐小平接受《人物》杂志专访，2017年
When evaluating angel investment opportunities, spend all time first judging the founder as a person: why is this person doing this? What is their learning capacity? How do they handle pressure? The business plan is just a reference.
When Xu Xiaoping invested in Momo, the business model was still very early stage, but Xu Xiaoping saw founder Tang Yan's character and execution capability and decisively invested. Momo later listed in the US and became one of China's most successful social apps.
The cost of angel investing is time, not money; fast judgment, fast decisions, and fast clear answers to founders wins the best early entrepreneurs better than 'deep due diligence.'
Zhen Fund is known for giving investment decisions within 48 hours — a stark contrast to the weeks-long due diligence of most institutional funds — but this speed is precisely what allows Zhen Fund to access the best early entrepreneurs who are unwilling to wait for lengthy approval processes.
The optimal relationship between investor and founder is not shareholder and investee, but mentor and student — the investor's value lies not in capital but in experience, connections, and psychological support.
When investee companies face difficulties, Xu Xiaoping often personally participates in crisis management, providing founders with psychological counseling and strategic advice rather than just pushing for performance. This mentoring relationship means that many founders invested by Zhen Fund still turn to Xu Xiaoping first when starting their second ventures.
Xu Xiaoping entered investing with a music and humanities background, paradoxically establishing a unique competitive advantage in the rationality-dominant VC world — demonstrating that the best business judgments sometimes come from non-business backgrounds.
Xu Xiaoping is known for believing in founders, but he has also experienced multiple difficult moments where investee companies needed to replace founders — this paradox reveals the eternal tension between founder sentiment and business reality.
1993-2006
Building New Oriental's study-abroad consulting and visa training business, accumulating educational and network capital
Co-founded New Oriental with Yu Minhong and Wang Qiang, leading study-abroad visa consulting and helping hundreds of thousands of Chinese students study abroad. After New Oriental listed on the NYSE in 2006, Xu Xiaoping gradually stepped back from front-line management.
2006-2011
Exploring new life directions after leaving New Oriental, systematically learning venture capital
After leaving New Oriental, Xu Xiaoping briefly lived in Canada, then returned to China to systematically explore angel investing, accumulating dozens of early investment cases that laid the foundation for later founding Zhen Fund.
2011-2018
Institutionalizing angel investing, systematically investing in China's early-stage startup projects
Founded Zhen Fund in 2011, with fast decision-making and mentorship culture as core strategies, investing in hundreds of projects including Momo and Jiayuan, becoming one of China's most influential angel investment institutions.
2018-至今
Spreading entrepreneurship and investment philosophy through books, speeches, and social media, cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs
Gradually transitioned from front-line investor to entrepreneurship education and thought propagation, systematically sharing observations on China's entrepreneurship environment and advice for young entrepreneurs on Weibo and at speaking events.
Context: Grew up in Taixing, Jiangsu, later studied at the Central Conservatory of Music, receiving systematic music and humanities training
Decision: Took the music and humanities path rather than science and engineering
Reasoning: Natural passion for music and art; humanistic background ultimately became a unique advantage in business judgment
Outcome: Received systematic music and humanities training, laying the foundation for his later distinctive investment style
Lesson: Professional background does not limit career possibilities; humanistic cultivation often plays a role in unexpected fields
Context: Studied at McGill University in Canada, personally experiencing the differences between Chinese and Western education and values
Decision: Maintained an open mindset and deeply integrated into the Western academic environment
Reasoning: Direct experience of Western higher education enables truly valuable study-abroad consulting for Chinese students
Outcome: Gained deep understanding of Chinese-Western educational differences, becoming the core competitiveness of New Oriental's study-abroad consulting
Lesson: First-hand experience surpasses textbook knowledge; a consultant's value comes from real experience, not theory
Context: Returned from Canada and co-founded New Oriental Education Group with Yu Minhong and Wang Qiang, leading the study-abroad visa consulting business
Decision: Gave up comfortable overseas life, returned to China to start a business, betting on China's study-abroad boom
Reasoning: After China's reform and opening up, demand for studying abroad was enormous; his own study-abroad experience was the best consulting capital
Outcome: New Oriental became China's largest English training institution; Xu Xiaoping became an authority in study-abroad visa consulting
Lesson: Transforming personal experience into replicable training content is the most effective commercialization path for educational entrepreneurship
Context: New Oriental successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Xu Xiaoping as co-founder achieved financial independence and began thinking about the next phase of his life
Decision: Gradually withdrew from New Oriental management, seeking a new life mission
Reasoning: New Oriental had become a mature enterprise; Xu Xiaoping's entrepreneurial spirit needed new soil
Outcome: Opened a new chapter in life, ultimately transitioning to angel investing and finding a value contribution method more aligned with his personal characteristics
Lesson: Successful exits and transitions require honestly asking: what is it that I truly want to do?
Context: Co-founded Zhen Fund with Wang Qiang, with fast decision-making, small checks, and mentorship culture as core differentiation strategies, focused on angel and pre-A-round investments
Decision: Transform his humanistic background and New Oriental experience into a unique angel investment methodology
Reasoning: China lacked truly founder-centric early investment institutions — this was a value gap
Outcome: Zhen Fund became one of China's most influential angel investment institutions, nurturing a group of outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs
Lesson: The best business models often come from identifying value gaps that others overlook
Context: When Momo did not yet have a clear business model, Xu Xiaoping made a rapid investment decision based on his judgment of founder Tang Yan
Decision: Ignored the business plan, believed in the founder's potential and execution capability
Reasoning: Tang Yan's background (former NetEase executive), product intuition, and understanding of social products already exceeded most entrepreneurs
Outcome: Momo listed in the US (2014, MOMO); Xu Xiaoping's angel investment achieved tens of times return and became an iconic case of Chinese angel investing
Lesson: In early investing, believing in the right person is more important than predicting the right market
Context: Compiled years of entrepreneurship counseling experience and investment philosophy into a book, systematically articulating the relationship between humanistic cultivation and entrepreneurial success
Decision: Used book writing to reach entrepreneurs who could not be reached directly, expanding humanistic entrepreneurship education influence
Reasoning: The companies Zhen Fund can invest in are limited, but the entrepreneurs that can be influenced through writing are unlimited
Outcome: The book became one of the must-read books for Chinese entrepreneurs, further strengthening Xu Xiaoping's social recognition as an entrepreneurship mentor
Lesson: Writing is the most cost-effective way for investors to expand their influence; good content's transmission power surpasses any advertisement
Context: Through continuously sharing entrepreneurship views, investment cases, and life reflections on Weibo, accumulated over 10 million followers, becoming the most influential personal social media account in China's VC circle
Decision: Made social media the primary channel for entrepreneurship education and investment brand building
Reasoning: In the internet era, thought leaders need to interact directly with the startup community rather than just waiting to be interviewed by media
Outcome: Significantly expanded Zhen Fund's influence, attracting many high-quality entrepreneurs to proactively seek Zhen Fund's investment
Lesson: Personal brand is one of the most important assets for angel investors; public sharing attracts better projects than silence
Xu Xiaoping recommends this book at multiple entrepreneurship training occasions, believing Thiel's argument that startups should create monopolistic innovation rather than competitive improvement highly aligns with his founder selection criteria — they both believe entrepreneurship should create truly new value, not just do things better.
Xu Xiaoping repeatedly recommends this book in investor training and founder coaching sessions, believing Horowitz's honest descriptions of entrepreneurial difficulties and human challenges help founders mentally prepare better than any success-oriented book — highly consistent with Xu Xiaoping's mentor-style investment philosophy.
Xu Xiaoping uses this book as an important reference for understanding Silicon Valley founder mindsets, believing the first-hand founder interviews prove the common traits of outstanding entrepreneurs — reinforcing his cross-cultural comparison framework when evaluating Chinese founders.
Written by Xu Xiaoping himself, systematically articulating his humanistic entrepreneurship and investment philosophy, distilling years of New Oriental study-abroad counseling experience and angel investment practice into operational methodology — the most important primary source for understanding Xu Xiaoping's thought system.
Yu Minhong was Xu Xiaoping's most important entrepreneurial partner; New Oriental's success was the result of their complementary collaboration and the key context for Xu Xiaoping's business thinking formation
Y Combinator's founder model influenced Zhen Fund's early strategy; Xu Xiaoping partially borrowed from YC's batch investment and mentorship culture
Xu Xiaoping's founder-first and mentorship culture promoted the transition of Chinese angel investing from purely financially driven to founder-caring
Wang Qiang is the other co-founder of Zhen Fund, jointly building Zhen Fund's investment philosophy and culture with Xu Xiaoping
徐小平是中国最有人情味的投资人，他投资的不仅是公司，更是人的梦想和潜力。
Xu Xiaoping represents the humanistic side of Chinese venture capital — he sees entrepreneurship as a form of self-actualization, not just wealth creation.
