Today, the whole game industry and the real-time 3D software industry is a sensation!

World-class real-time 3 D software companies Unity pioneered unique IPO (also known as

For everyone in the game industry, Unity has always been a name. The San Francisco-based company supports the world with its unique software, tens of millions of mobile games and millions of game developers. Games developed with technical support from Unity are widely known in China and the global market.

As of June 30, 2020, unity's real-time 3D platform has been established in the worldone hundred and ninetyThere are 1.5 million active creators in many countries and regions, and 2 billion monthly active users use unity platform to develop applications. Top 100 game studios with global revenue in 2019, includingNinety-threeAll of the game studios are customers of unity. Among the world's top 1000 mobile games (apple and Android markets) in 201953% Are developed using Unity platforms, in the Chinese market76%All new mobile games are developed by Unity.

In addition, unity has been providing technical support for VR / AR developers for many years: 201960%VR content is based on unity engine, while ar content is developed based on unity engine90%The HoloLens content is based on Unity engine development. Unity fo50%The novice tour provides support, and its advertising reach ability is very wide.

In the past two years, unity has invested US $450 million in R & D in the fields of digital twin, industrial Internet, automobile, transportation, construction, VR / AR and digital city, and acquired applier, deltadna and finger Tool companies such as food, multiplay and vivox have brought more functions to it, and further realized the goal of becoming a one-stop integrated platform to meet the needs of all creators.

Unity has top customer groups and partners worldwide, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, BMW, Honda, Volvo, Daimler, Hyundai Kia, Lexus, Disney, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Tencent, Alibaba, Netease, headlines, etc.

Unity was founded by David Helgason, Nicholas Francis and Joachim ante in a dark basement in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2004. At that time, the three young people were full of longing and love for the game industry, but they also saw the difficulties in the development of the game industry. In particular, the game development engine had been monopolized by some big companies for a long time, and they had to buy and use it for hundreds of thousands of dollars or even more, which blocked countless game hobbies and developers in the world.

So three young people put forward a loud sloganThe game engine is an affordable and easy to use game development engine for game developers and enthusiasts all over the world. In this way, three young people with great vision set sail!

But they soon found that the first mountain in front of them was the presence of countless terminals and operating systems of different models and manufacturers in the industry. After each game development is completed, it takes a lot of time to translate it into another system, in which there is a lot of secondary development work.So their first mission is to develop a software that can make a good game run on all platforms with one button.

With this idea, they developed the first game engine in the industry that could be implemented in this area, thus breaking the pattern of developing their own unique game engine relying on their own hardware and software environment in the game industry.

But soon they found another challenge, when all game engines on the market needed powerful CPU and storage to run on powerful servers, and in an era when the tide of personal computers and mobile phones was coming, There must be a more powerful

It has been proved many times that every great change in technology and society will produce new and subversive companies. So unity is really on the road to challenge other game engines in the market.

The emergence and growth of great science and technology companies are inseparable from the industry. If you turn to another country on the European continent, Britain, in 2004, the development of another well-known technology company also entered a critical moment of its destiny. The company's name is arm, a computer chip technology company that today occupies more than 90% of the global mobile phone and edge terminal market. If we turn over the history of ARM development, 2004 happens to be the first year when it officially entered the mobile phone market.

That is to say, such a jump has established the dominant position of arm in the mobile phone market today. In the same year, the rise of unity in the game software industry almost reflected the status of arm in the industry

Both companies focus on mobile phones and the end market; they both have platform-wide compatibility; they have computing capabilities that require minimal computer chip storage; and they even have products that enable them to

All these have laid the strategic direction and foundation for their success today. In fact, this is one of the places that later investors look at them.

Back in the dark basement of Copenhagen, one of the three founders' fathers wrote the first check to support their children's entrepreneurial aspirations. The company's subsequent development was also overwhelming,here we areUnity was released as a Mac extension tool at the Apple Global Developers Conference in 2005 and won the Apple Best Mac OS Systems Picture Design Award.The European continent has been unable to resist these three young people's dream of becoming a world-class technology company, so they turned their eyes to San Francisco Silicon Valley, the holy land of world technology and venture capital.

They first came into contact with Sequoia Capital, known in Silicon Valley as the first brand in venture capital. Sequoia Capital, which is interested in them, offered a small condition after talking to its founders:

Roelof is also an unknown figure in Silicon Valley and venture capital. He used to be a famous Silicon Valley PayPal in America

Unity, which has changed the battlefield and got big brand venture capital, is now at a higher commanding height. Use their team's excellent technology and sensitivity to the market to make new progress. 2007 is an important year for the mobile phone industry. Apple launched its first smart phone. With its novel, convenient user interface and innovative app mall, Apple has subverted several other traditional mobile phone market monopolized markets for many years.

Unity also seized the opportunity, and for a long time since, unity has been the best tool for developing IOS games. Since then, it has successively supported various game platforms, including PS and Xbox. Up to now, it can support more than 20 platforms.

In a flash of time, in 2011, the growing unity needs new capital injection in business development. So the company launched a B round of fund-raising activities. At that time, unity, which was only a little famous at that time, actually received eight investment letters of intent from Silicon Valley first-line investors in the process of their b-round fund-raising, which can be described as fierce competition. Among the eight investors, a fund with a Chinese background is in the spotlight, and its name is West summit capital.

Huashan Capital (WestSummit Capital) was founded in 2010 by Yang radium, Chen Datong and other alumni from Tsinghua background. At the beginning of its establishment, the fund was supported by China National Sovereign Fund and CITIC Capital. Its mission is to become China's best high-tech fund with a global perspective. We have cast a series of excellent technology industry leaders, such as Zhaoyi Innovation, Anji Microelectronics, Segway-Ninebot, Core Microelectronics (VeriSilicon), United Optoelectronics, MOVIDIUS and so on. Silicon Valley is also one of their investment areas.

Under the leadership of Yang Lei, Huashan team had an in-depth conversation with unity team and then CEO David helgoson, and saw the unique industry of the company. In particular, they think that they have a strong core competitive advantage in the field of mobile phone development thinking and technical products. At the same time, with the help of Huashan capital's familiarity with the Chinese market, unity will one day have huge business opportunities in China's huge game and software market, so Huashan capital decided to issue an investment letter of intent.

The waiting time of a week after the letter of intent was long. Almost all the other seven investment funds at that time were top-notch funds in Silicon Valley. Huashan capital, a new Silicon Valley fund, how to get investment qualification in this project competition is a test in front of Huashan capital.

The new week began. On Monday morning, Yang Lei received a call from David, the CEO of unity, representing the company. On the phone, David told Yang Lei:Can't help but their own excited Huashan team actually asked why you want to make such a decision? David tells Yang Lei that money is not the most important thing in the development of a company,What's important is the quality of the investors behind the funds and the huge strategic value they bring. During our contact with Huashan capital, we feel that you have smooth communication and advantages on Silicon Valley culture and Chinese market.

Especially the excellent background of your partners in the past, we feel very much recognized. I believe that you are a fund that can share with us the painful experience of our entrepreneurs and grow up together, and we can take a long road of entrepreneurship with us. On the other hand, we believe that China is a huge market. You bring us potential strategic value, not only capital, but also strategic significance in the future. This is especially true of other Silicon Valley funds. We already have the strategic value that Silicon Valley's first-class fund has brought us, and your fund has just brought us a piece of space that other Silicon Valley funds can't fill.

As a result, Huashan capital became the leading investor of unity round B financing, and Yang Lei became a member of unity's global board of directors.

After that, unity developed more rapidly in all aspects. At the same time, however, the board saw a new challenge for the company. To build a great company, we must further strengthen the leadership team, especially the CEO. Many CEOs and founders of start-up companies can transform their companies from zero to one. However, when they make one to ten, they will face many different challenges. If a founder CEO fails to complete this transformation, an excellent company may die in the middle of the road. Such cases can be said to be everywhere. Although the founders and CEOs at that time actually made great achievements and the company was developing continuously, the board of directors decided to bring in more senior leadership team and CEO.

At this time, a loud name appeared in the vision of the board of directors. His name is John riccatiello, and people familiar with him in the industry call him Jr. This man is a legend in the industry. He was the CEO of EA, a famous game content publisher. During his years in charge, the company's business grew rapidly and established a leading position in the industry. Later, he became a partner of another venture capital.

After that, he had the idea of retirement. Yang radium had become a good friend because he had invested in other projects. JR and Sequoia have also had many cooperation. His industry background, experience, ability, performance, charisma are almost impeccable next Unity leader. The road to CEO change is not a smooth process. The company initially resisted the new CEO, but the two board members worked closely together to resolve different concerns within the company. And finally got the full support of most people, especially the founder and David of the company.

With his broad mind and long-term vision, David also saw that such an arrangement would be a win-win result for the company and its founders. He actively cooperated with the company's adjustment and transformation, so that the company quickly entered a new stage. As expected, Jr did not live up to expectations. With a broad mind and modest attitude, on the one hand, he highly respected the existing founders and team, on the other hand, he actively cooperated with the board of directors, which made some of the company's rapid development.

In the following years, the company not only quickly transformed the products of a game development engine company into a diversified software company relying on advertising and developing into other industries. At the same time, the company pays attention to R & D and invests a lot of funds to strengthen the team of R & D engineers. Make the company for the future development laid a very solid foundation. At the same time, the company did not neglect the work of merger and acquisition, timely tracked other outstanding small technology companies in the industry, successively acquired more than a dozen small companies leading in the technology market, continuously strengthened the core competitiveness of the company, and the company obviously began to become a comprehensive software technology company.

Throughout the development path of unity, we call it "unity"Upside down cakeAt first, the company starts from a seemingly small market and continuously increases its core competitiveness. At the same time, it merges and merges relevant edge enterprises, and gradually enlarges the cake from a small size, thus fundamentally changing its business model and expanding into a larger and broader market. This is indeed a typical successful case in business. It should also be a good example for many entrepreneurs to learn from.

In the development after unity, the company has conducted several rounds of financing. Dfj, a well-known Silicon Valley company, participated in the round C investment, and its partner, Barry Schuler, one of the most famous figures in the industry, participated in the round C investment As a member of the board of directors of unity, Barry's career battle for fame was that he was once the CEO of AOL, the largest Internet company in the United States at that time, and participated in the merger and acquisition of AOL and Time Warner, a famous American entertainment film company, at the height of the Internet boom at that time, which became a great event at that time.

After unity's round of investment, another Silicon Valley famous technology company fund, Silver Lake, was introduced. This fund invested in high technology and made large-scale M & A investment in Silicon Valley. Many famous examples of this fund include the successful transaction between Skype, an instant messaging company, and eBay. Egon Durban, general manager of Silver Lake, is a director of unity.

Silicon Valley's famous entrepreneurship Unity introduced independent directors to strengthen corporate governanceHe was one of the three founders who founded paypal with Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley iron man. Max favorite story in his spare time is the story of his co-founder PayPal Elomask who, because he could Elomask out of the company because he could not bear Elomask's corporate management style.

For this reason, he and Elon Musk for years no longer contact, by good friends against the enemy. Yet a few years later, on the day when PayPal pulled out of the company with great success, Elon Musk made a convincing phone call to Max:

In order to emphasize the diversification of the company and strengthen the financial aspects. The company also recruited a prominent female independent directo

What is more worth noting is thatEvery meeting of unity's board of directors is a very serious matter. The materials of the board of directors are usually sent out about a week before the board of directors. The materials are so detailed, with about 600 or 700 pages.Materials to the company's various aspects of business description, and special emphasis on the data, quantitative description.

When the board of directors is held, each member of the board of directors will speak enthusiastically, but not to others, and will put forward a lot of sharp opinions to the CEO. It is particularly worth noting that there is a special link after each board meeting, which is to ask the CEO to leave temporarily. The board members will comment on the CEO's performance in this quarter, and then inform the CEO of the opinions of the board members. The CEO always communicates with the board of directors in a very humble, generous, cooperative and friendly way, but with business point of view. Each interactive meeting between CEO and board of directors is fierce, sharp, friendly and harmonious. It can be said that it is an excellent model within the board of directors of a company, which is also a sign of a successful company.

I really hope that domestic start-up companies can learn from it. As we often say, companies that fail have their own reasons, but successful companies are the same.

Today Unity after 16 years of development from a startup to Wall Street's darling and super unicorn. Unity CEO on the morning of the jubilant Unity successful listing and soaring stock

Above CEO John Riccitiello roughly means:

Looking back today, the success of unity is by no means an accident. Due to the space limitation, it is impossible to describe the details one by one. However, it is undeniable that in a highly competitive business environment, your success depends on every step of solid steps. The quality of the company's leaders, the quality of the team and the desire for talents are almost the most important factors for the success of the company.

With the passage of time, Huashan capital has grown up with unity for nine years. In the past nine years, we have seen every step of the company's hard and joyful growth. When everyone is celebrating the success of IPO and obtaining huge business and capital financial returns, only a few people know the bitter story behind.All the stories tell us a truth: there is no shortcut to investment, nor can it be achieved overnight. What is needed is vision, industry experience, bold decision, sincere communication ability, human honesty and wholehearted investment, plus a little bit of luck.

Today's unity has changed from a simple game engine at that time to a new generation of real-time 3D software giants with multiple industries. John riccatiello's favorite sentence isAs an investor who has followed the development of the company for many years, seeing the development and successful listing of the company he invested in is like seeing his children finally go to the society and start to fly. This is an unforgettable experience for the company and himself. Once again, we wish unity to fly higher and farther!

Raymond Yang Yang radium

September 18, 2020 in Silicon Valley

Written on the listing date of unity NYSE

Brief introduction to the author: Yang Lei, currently living in Silicon Valley / Beijing, is a partner of Huashan capital management and co chairman of Silicon Valley High Tech Innovation Association. He was the CEO of handheld smart, with more than 25 years of experience in cross-border investment and management in science and technology between China and the United States.