The age of invention

Wang Yixiao, a 15-year-old middle school student who has recently launched a start-up company in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT

China's entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger, but are venture capitalists wise to invest?

Li Ailu likes to tell anyone who will listen that her son, a 14-year-old who was recently given 2 million yuan($325,256) in venture capital to develop a project of his own devising, was born to be an inventor.

"I remember a time when he was just one year old. He was crying his eyes out because he was sick and had to be put on an intravenous drip," recalls Li. "Then he saw a network socket, and he stopped crying."

In April, Li's son Wu Xingyun was awarded a Gold Medal at the 42nd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva for a computer simulation model that Wu is now developing into a system for "smart homes" - dwellings in which the electronic ecology of the home, from lighting to heating to the functioning of devices like smoke sensors and alarm systems, are connected through a communications network that can be controlled remotely.

Wu received the capital from an angel investor to found a start-up company shortly after the exhibition.

"The company [is developing] a comprehensive smart home system," said Wu in an interview with Sanlian Lifeweek Magazine.

The system, which utilizes "smart sockets" and "intelligent routers" developed by Wu, will make smart homes more automated, so that they will respond to changes in the inhabitant's preferences or routines without requiring manual input from the user.

"The system will be able to locate your position at any moment. When it detects that you are one kilometer from home, it will automatically turn on the air conditioner. If you return home earlier than usual for a number of days in a row, it will automatically change its settings accordingly," said Wu in the same interview. "The current systems on the market rely too much on manual control. At the moment, electronic appliances can only be controled with your phone. It's not user-friendly."

Prodigy and busy bee

Currently a third-year student at Beijing No.4 High School, Wu spends his recess and lunchtime hours hard at work programming, or responding to e-mails from investors and his start-up cohorts. Besides the time he devotes to completing his homework, his evening hours are spent in much the same way.

"Unlike most other students, he doesn't have any time to relax," said Li. "Almost every night, he will program until 11 pm or midnight."

Seeing the tremendous pressure that her son was under, Li tried to encourage Wu to slow down, but it only led the two to quarrel. Eventually, Li realized that this was the life that Wu wanted, and decided to support him in his endeavors.

"There are always sparks coming out of his brain," she said.

Wu is driven in part by what he perceives as the cutthroat nature of trying to do business in China.

Li said that when Wu first presented his inventions at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, smart home products were just starting to hit the market in China. But in the few months that have passed since then, the market has already become flooded with various smart home systems.

Another problem, said Wu in his interview with Sanlian Lifeweek Magazine was that copyright protections in China still left much to be desired. As soon as a new product hit the shelves, there would be imitation products within weeks, producing the same product at a lower price.

"It's like a swarm of locusts," said Wu.

The early bird catches the worm

While the venture capital given to Wu has attracted attention on account of his youth, Li Yan, a director at incubator space and cafe Cheku, said that budding young Chinese entrepreneurs were trying their hand at developing their own projects at an earlier age than ever before.

"As a result of the Internet, more and more teens are attempting to create their own projects," said Li Yan. "Typically, they're very strong in one area, such as hardware building or software programming, which they've developed by following their interests."

One such precocious young entrepreneur is 17-year-old Qi Linzhi, who like Wu, is a student at Beijing No.4 High School.

Qi is developing a smart phone app called Perspect, a navigational tool that allows users to plot their journey aided by a live view of the destination they seek to arrive at. The project received support from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program in Beijing this year, an initiative that gives first-time entrepreneurs mentoring, technical guidance, and opportunities for networking with other startups.

Qi decided to suspend his studies for the upcoming semester in order to focus his energies entirely on the project.