Author: Tian Daxia (@Web3Donny)

*The first draft of this article was written in November last year. The incident information involved in the article has been confirmed with Du Jun and officially released.

Singapore is over 30 degrees a year, which is the sixth year that Du Jun has moved to Singapore.

His hometown Chongqing is very similar to this place in summer. It is hot and humid, and often a torrential rainfall is pouring down, and the heat and coolness alternates, but the difference is,Chongqing has spring, summer, autumn and winter, while Singapore is midsummer all year round.

As a serial entrepreneur and investor, Du Jun has been struggling in the blockchain Web3 industry for more than ten years. There are praises and controversies in him. He knows investment and marketing.

It is undeniable that when everyone mentions Du Jun, they will add a lot of labels, but which one is true?

In October last year, ABCDE Capital held a global study tour of a Web3 Hacker Growth Training Camp held in Singapore. Against this background, I finally met Du Jun.

This entrepreneur with a net worth of over 100 million will feel when you see him:

“It seems that there is not much difference between my cousin who often takes me to play games at my second family.”

But it is such a person who seems very “down-to-earth” who has participated in the establishment of blockchain companies such as Huobi Group and ChainUP, and continues to stir up his own stories in the world of Web3.

Start a business when the wind blows, be your own wind

Du Jun said that he left his hometown Chongqing at the age of 17 and went to Beijing to become a veritable “Beijing drifter”.Later, with the keen sense of business, he accumulated his first wealth through domain names and other businesses.

2007年，杜均入职康盛公司，通过两届站长大会，他在站长圈以及互联网创业者群体中小有名声，在康盛也站稳了脚跟。

2010年，随着腾讯收购康盛公司，杜均迅速成为腾讯最年轻的P3级员工，并负责管理一支几十人的团队。

不过在入职腾讯后他才意识到自己过去的方法论过于简单。

“因为在一个复杂而竞争激烈的行业中，仅凭个人的简单经验是无法跟上时代的步伐和市场的变化的。

Therefore, every day he comes to the company, he only does one thing, that is, download Tencent’s internal knowledge materials and continue to learn.

He admitted that to this day, some of his working habits have come from Tencent’s time.For example, a large amount of internal information on the intranet can be learned at any time; interviewing hundreds of people has allowed him to accumulate rich recruitment and communication experience; a professional training system and work process will allow him to move towards a career.

At the same time, the most important thing is that I met many friends during this period and have been helping with the business.

Du Jun shares his experiences at Tencent on social platforms

In the “Alternative Investment Group”, buy Bitcoin for the first time

At the sharing session of the hacker growth bootcamp, Du Jun talked about the story of buying Bitcoin for the first time.

At that time, he had a group with his friends, and the name was probably“Alternative Investment Group”.

He joked that this group is very alternative, just investing in all kinds of “strange” things with friends.

“Anyway, the ones who bid are either flying in the sky, or running on the ground, or you have never seen it.”

Around 2012, when Du Jun first heard about Bitcoin, he communicated with a few friends in this “alternative investment group”. Anyway, it was all “alternative investment”, so the two brothers in the group decided to give it a try.

Recalling the entire purchase process, Du Jun said: “At that time, there was no platform to buy and sell Bitcoin in China. We happened to have a friend in Japan, so we asked that friend to buy it on our behalf.Everyone sent him tens of thousands of dollars.When I bought it, I remember it very clearly that it didn’t take long before we found that Bitcoin rose to nearly $200!”

“We thought this was crazy, and then we said this thing must be a scam!!”

“Surely so!”

Du Jun is still vivid in his mind at the scene at that time. At that time, he and several friends were scared by the increase in Bitcoin at that time, and felt that this new thing was too risky.

So in March 2014,Du Jun sold all the Bitcoins he had purchased before. Not long after, Bitcoin experienced a sharp drop, but it left him with a question to think about:

“Do you still continue to speculate in cryptocurrencies in the future? Or stay hereStart a business in this industry?”

At this time, he was impressed by the crypto narrative. He began to combine his previously accumulated entrepreneurial vision with cryptocurrency to explore new business models and opportunities.

“After all, buying coins is definitely not an entrepreneurial opportunity. It’s better to do something to start a business.”

It just so happened that Li Lin had always planned to start a business in the virtual currency field in 2013, so he pulled Du Jun, a good friend who is good at marketing.Together, we founded the then Huobi.

Du Jun’s story of encrypted rivers and lakes officially begins here.

The story of “Chinese aunties sing Bitcoin”

On November 15, 2013, an article about “Chinese Auntie Investigates Bitcoin” was crazily on the Internet. This was the first time Du Jun’s marketing team tried media marketing at that time, which caused a large number of media reprints, secondary creations and netizens.Discussion has become a classic case of Bitcoin marketing.

He said that user education was 10 times more difficult than today, and when Huobi was registered, he got 0.1 BTC.

“0.1 BTC, who dares to give it now?”

“And offline activities, each lottery will give you more, get 1 BTC!”

Du Jun lamented that such marketing methods can never be returned because a BTC is really too expensive now!

Everyone knows the story that Du Jun, as Huobi CMO, brought Huobi to a golden age with Li Lin.

Later, due to regulatory policies, Huobi once withdrew from mainland China, and Li Lin also chose to sell his shares.Du Jun chose to go abroad to Singapore and continued to write about his entrepreneurial journey.

Go overseas to Singapore and let the crypto journey continue

Six years ago, Du Jun came to Singapore alone, allowing the company, individuals and families to take root here.

He said that in 2018, there were almost no blockchain companies in Singapore that were actually operating in Singapore except for a bunch of registered “foundations”.

“I felt lonely and helpless at that time, and I urgently needed to join the group to keep warm. Since then, I have been constantly inviting blockchain entrepreneurs from mainland China to Singapore.

Du Jun said that in the Web3 field, Singapore has a talent density, capital density and information density much higher than other places. This is the key to success, and this is also the reason why he will choose to land in Singapore.

Of course, after going overseas, many people were asking Du Jun that since the so-called “wealth freedom” has been achieved, why do you have to continue to start a business and make trouble when you come to Singapore instead of enjoying your life?

Du Jun did not directly answer this answer.

During a roundtable discussion not long ago, Du Jun asked the audience: “Ten years ago, everyone was asking what BTC is. Ten years have passed, and everyone knows what BTC is. Has the industry changed?”

It seems to have changed, but nothing has changed.

He realized that the field of crypto is still in its early stages, and there is still huge room for development and unexplored areas.

He also believes that the revolutionary potential of encryption technology and blockchain can change the current situation in traditional finance, social networking, media and other fields.

Therefore, he firmly believes that he can continue to play a role in this field and drive innovation and progress.

“If this industry still hasn’t made new things, I hope we can invest in more good Web3 innovative companies, and at the same time, I hope these companies can promote the development of the industry.”

This is also one of the reasons why Du Jun does not want to “retire on his feet”.

Therefore, over the years, he has been focusing on “investment”.

“We like to lead the investment, and 80% of the projects are led by the investors”

In August 2022, Du Jun and BMAN established ABCDE Capital, as a new crypto venture capital firm based in Singapore, ABCDE mainly invests in Web3 builders.

From the early Polyhedra Network, Particle Network, BeWater, Surf Protocol, to DeBox, Elven, Babylon, Bitmap.tech, B² Network, BitLayer, etc., all of these are ABCDE Capital.

Du Jun said: “So far, we have invested in almost 25 projects, and 80% of the projects are led investors, with relatively few follow-up investments.”

Regarding the recent popular BTC ecosystem, Du Jun mentioned: “With the emergence of new assets such as Bitcoin Layer2 and Inscriptions, Ethereum’s DeFi Summer may be repeated in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and TVL will be larger. However, Bitcoin will have a larger scale.The ecosystem is more decentralized, without VC and no one to guide the direction, innovation will be faster and more chaotic. In any case, we need to set out.”

Regarding what a good project is, Du Jun mentioned two standards.First, they focus on projects that can drive the industry, especially those that tend toward the technology level.

The second standard is to promote social development, such as applications-oriented projects.They look for projects that can solve practical problems and provide useful applications and services that can bring practical changes and progress to society.

In addition to the above two standards, another most important factor is,Is this project the only or first in the field?

In addition to direct investment, Du Jun believes that “incubation” is also important.He believes that incubation is a way to actively participate in and support entrepreneurs’ growth, and can cultivate more potential projects and talents.

“For example, the Web3 financial reporting platform Elven, which we participated in investing and incubating, is mostly in our ABCDE Singapore office. Everyone sits together every day and has time to communicate and discuss more, so that they can better polish the product.”.

He believes that entrepreneurs face many difficulties in the early stages of entrepreneurship, including market positioning, business models, etc.In this way, he can share his rich experience and knowledge with the entrepreneurial team, provide guidance on strategic planning, business development, marketing, etc., to help them achieve their business goals.

Accept controversy and misunderstandings

There was a manuscript about Du Jun in 2018 called “Door Man Du Jun”. Although six years have passed, Du Jun is still able to share the stories in it frankly.

“At that time, there were many big bosses or investors, Du Jun, you have become a banker, so let’s transfer the money to you and you can do it.But they later discovered that the real Du Jun was not only unable to be a banker, but was often cut off, and he was cut off and could not protect his rights even if he was cut off.”.

Du Jun joked that he had been moving on this road and wanted to become this role, but he had never succeeded.

He said that in this circle,There is as much controversy as praise. You cannot control others’ descriptions of you. Others’ misunderstandings about you. The circle is bloody. It is enough for us to do our part well.

“Because some media are not completely responsible, the author will write some articles based on some of his subjective consciousness and subjective judgments, make some less objective evaluations of a person, and even fabricate some facts.Writing such an article also caused some misunderstandings among ordinary people or people who do not understand this industry.”

He said that integrity is the cornerstone of public relations. If you are a honest and honest person, there is no problem if you are misunderstood.

In this industry, when facing doubts and arguments, we are more about examining our own behaviors, decisions and opinions.Is a person willing to listen to different voices, discover your own blind spots and room for improvement, all of which are very important.

Therefore, he also advises young people,Don’t be frustrated or frustrated by the outside world’s comments about yourself. Instead, you should use it as a driving force for reflection and progress. You should be open and positive about the praise, questioning and debates given by the outside world, and face them with humility and courage.and accept them.

And he is also willing to spend time with young people and share his experience of struggling in this industry with everyone.

In October 2023, Du Jun shared his experience at the growth training camp

Hacker Growth Bootcamp Review:What are we talking about when we are talking about Web3 marketing?

Work, family and life

A few months ago, Du Jun met his friend who had helped him buy Bitcoin at Mt.gox in Tokyo.

This friend bought Du Jun’s first Bitcoin in his life in 2012. Du Jun also mentioned that he was also a user of Huobi’s top 100. He hadn’t seen each other for 5 years. He had a big chat during the meal, and later he talked about a topic.In 10 years of cryptocurrency, what regrets do each have?

My friend told him that the most regrettable thing was that he sold more than 50,000 bitcoins in 2015 and bought a big house in Japan and the United States. Fortunately, he gave birth to a few children in the big house. He joked that his second son’s name wasSatoshi Nakamoto.

Du Jun thought about the most regrettable thing in recent years. It seemed that there was only one thing that could not be satisfied, that was HECO.

In mid-April 2021, HECO had just exceeded US$12 billion in TVL, with an average daily transfer of more than 4 million, and a monthly fee income of US$10 million. The price of HT rose 10 times from US$3.5 to US$39, but due to domestic policy reasons.HECO had to cease operations in May.

“This is the only project that I have put in all my efforts (I personally invested $300 million, and I spent less than 5 hours of rest per day for 30 consecutive days) and ended up in failure, and it is also the most controversial project.”

To this day, HECO is still a stunning feeling in Du Jun’s mind, and it is also the entrepreneurial project he has reflected on the most.

He said that sometimes he felt that time passed quickly, sometimes he felt that he was basically confused and thought more and did less.Half of the time I spend with my children, half of the time I travel, mixed with a little work and study.

The sharing class that day ended, and everyone took the elevator with him. In the small space, everyone joked with him every word, and he also got along with us young people.

After going downstairs, I saw him waiting for the driver to pick him up. We asked him if he wanted to have a meal with us?He said he would go back to spend time with his family.

I always felt that blockchain experts were all alone in the world, and later I learned that he had already started a family and had a lovely daughter.

He occasionally shares some interesting things with his family on social platforms. For example, when his daughter was playing, she suddenly said her arm was dislocated and asked several doctors in Singapore that were on holidays. The emergency room may not be able to treat it. She thought that her daughter still wanted it.After a night of pain, he found a reset tutorial for Xiaohongshu, which was successfully completed in 5 seconds.

He said that he was a barefoot doctor at that time, but he didn’t expect that he succeeded in one go.

One side is work and the other side is family.When you founded so many businesses, when you asked him how he could manage so many businesses, he mentioned those partners who fought with him.

“Sometimes, many goals set are achieved half and half. If you have achieved them, you either have good luck or find the right partner. They have done things well, and I have played a very little role. I want to thank me here.Partners.”

Yes, everything is getting better,He also wants more partners or entrepreneurs to join the second half of the Web3 encryption field, jointly build the next generation of encryption network world, and create another golden age for blockchain Web3.

On April 5 this year, Du Jun will also lead Xinhuo Technology to announce multiple products that support the Bitcoin ecosystem at BITCOIN DAY, an event around the Hong Kong Web3 Conference. Everyone can continue to pay attention.

Written at the end

Last December, Du Jun passed by Ginza while traveling in Tokyo and saw the banner of Mitsukoshi’s 350th anniversary of his entrepreneurship, and felt a lot.

He wrote on the social platform that day:“I hope Bitcoin will last forever.”