Exclusive | A Conversation with Liu Guangyao: After Everything Fell Apart

By Muxin Xu

Edited by Jing Liu

Liu Guangyao is back in the spotlight. As the founder of fashion brand bosie, he first broke through in 2023 with a viral post titled "I, Liu Guangyao, Raised 500 Million RMB, Resigned as CEO at 28," in which he announced his departure from bosie to pivot to building a personal brand. By then, bosie had already closed eight funding rounds.

Then last Wednesday (August 15), Liu publicly released his divorce statement. Almost simultaneously, a 10 million RMB loan agreement between bosie and An Huailüe, former chairman of Sinbioway Pharmaceutical, began circulating across social platforms. The following noon, Liu published an open letter on his personal WeChat public account titled "To Ms. An Ji, Chair of Sinbioway Group: If This Can Be Tolerated, What Cannot?"

Only now does the full picture emerge — the 100 million RMB Series B2 round from a personal investor in January 2023 was also the beginning of what would become this marital dispute.

Liu Guangyao seems to have the makings of an internet celebrity. Two months after stepping down as CEO, he had already amassed a million followers. It was during the height of Zibo barbecue mania, and one of his videos — about how he became Zibo's top scorer on the college entrance exam and got into Peking University — went viral. Now, as AI and going-global narratives sweep through the industry, Liu told Waves: he's starting another company.

Last weekend, Waves spoke with Liu by phone. He discussed the dispute, the fallout from public opinion, his new venture, and the life circumstances shaped by his personality. Given the private grievances involved, we've omitted or softened certain details.

At last year's WAVES conference, Liu gave a speech. Because he had to catch a flight to a fashion show, he sprinted straight from the stage to the exit the moment he finished. Four or five people chased after him — the organizers who wanted to thank him, staff members, and his own assistant.

In a sense, this is a classic slice of Liu Guangyao's life story — he seems to enjoy being pursued, living at the center of the vortex, and reveling in it.

After the Storm

Waves: Two days on, how are you doing?

Liu Guangyao: I'm in Hangzhou. I've been playing League of Legends since 10 a.m. straight through until now, because the best way to resolve an emotional crisis is to physically exhaust yourself.

These past two days I've gone through three stages. First, I was completely fired up, so I wrote that post in ten minutes, exploding two years of grievances in an angry outburst. Second was panic — I saw the view count surging and felt things were spiraling out of control, that my personal venting was fermenting in the public sphere. The third stage, where I am now, is mixed emotions. My WeChat Moments are full of people who care about me, but when I step back and look, the internet is flooded with people cursing me out — a huge contrast. Though I mostly think I deserve it, I'm already a bit numb.

Waves: Do you regret it now?

Liu Guangyao: I'm a contradictory person. If I could do it over, I probably wouldn't do it this way, but now that it's happened, it's hard to say I regret it. I'm just very sorry.

Waves: Of the criticism out there, what do you think is misinterpreted?

Liu Guangyao: First, the gay marriage fraud accusation. Second, the emphasis on the identity gap between small-town test-taker and second-generation rich. You can say I was eating soft rice with a hard mouth, or that my emotional expression toward my ex-wife was too impulsive. But those two narratives are absurd.

Waves: Looking at the whole dispute, where do you think you went wrong?

Liu Guangyao: My personality. I've always oscillated between extreme rationality and extreme emotionality. The emotional part is only 5%, but when it erupts, the force is overwhelming. This has been a disadvantage in both my entrepreneurship and my life. For example, with bosie's Huaihai Road store, we could have taken a 500-square-meter space, but instead we went straight to 2,000 square meters without assessing our loss threshold.

Waves: How has this episode affected you and your personal brand business?

Liu Guangyao: I'll probably cool off for a while. I used to think I was pretty successful at being a content creator, that I could handle public engagement well. This taught me otherwise. My personal brand accounts will remain suspended indefinitely, because if people hate you, don't like you, there's no point in making them sick — that's just how I am. If I'm not needed, I'll leave on my own.

You can't get 1.4 billion Chinese people to seriously understand you. People will latch onto one thing: you took money and didn't pay it back, and you're still cursing the other side. They won't pay attention to how much of this is venture capital narrative — they'll just see it as a kept-man story. By the way, "kept man" is a label I gave myself, so it's been somewhat disappointing for my view of human nature.

Preparing to Start Again

Waves: Besides the suspension, what are your plans?

Liu Guangyao: Keep starting companies, no question. The new project, simply put, is an AIGC-driven customized e-commerce brand for overseas markets.

Waves: Will you raise funding? At what scale?

Liu Guangyao: Initial capital is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of RMB.

Waves: Will bosie's existing investors be in the new project?

Liu Guangyao: No, this time it's strategic funding from an industry player.

Waves: How will you handle relations with your old investors?

Liu Guangyao: I'll transfer all my personal equity in the new project to bosie in full. I think this is my way of answering to bosie's existing shareholders.

Waves: If you're starting another company, will you keep building your personal brand?

Liu Guangyao: Yes, but not as the focus. I was just joking with a friend — we spent a year building an IP, and it got less traffic than a single day last Friday. At the end of the day, IP is the face. If a person truly wants influence, wants to be respected, they need substance.

Waves: Is being an "internet celebrity" helpful or harmful for your new venture and fundraising?

Liu Guangyao: Like marriage, it has its pros and cons. The upside is that more people know who I am, and whether with bosie or my personal brand, I've achieved certain results. People believe you can get things done — that matters. The downside is clear: from internet celebrity to CEO, from front stage to back stage, you have to readapt to the identity shift. But I think my main job is still CEO.

Waves: What lessons did you take from bosie?

Liu Guangyao: Three.

First, people. You need a team with stronger professionalism and clearer division of labor. In bosie's early days, I made all decisions alone, maybe pulling in a co-founder at most.

Second, money. bosie was too extravagant in the past, lacking budget awareness, risk control awareness, bottom-line awareness, and cash flow awareness. With the new venture, we'll prioritize cash flow and project survival.

Third, strategy. bosie was greedy for scale, obsessed with speed and size. The new project will be more patient.

Finally, there's macro market selection. bosie certainly had many internal problems, but from 2022 onward, we also took heavy losses due to the economic environment. Looking back now, many new consumer brands that chose offline retail have died. That's an objective factor — we need to choose a market that better fits the project.

Waves: You lived through the new consumer boom. Do you feel a gap starting a consumer brand now?

Liu Guangyao: Actually you need to adjust your expectations of the environment. I think it's already pretty good that we can get money to start a company at all right now. Everyone knows entrepreneurship is hard, especially without resources, without family supply chains or platforms. I don't have such a big ego that I must immediately do something huge. Someone once read my fortune and said I wouldn't make it big until after 40. I believe it — it's decent psychological comfort. If I don't succeed before 40, so be it.

Entrepreneurship is locally painful but globally happy. Entrepreneurship is fundamentally for happiness, not for some outcome. Looking back today, if bosie had died, would it have been better for everyone? What I mean is, when something is wrong, you should end it as soon as possible. You shouldn't consider sunk costs. Marriage is the same.

Drama and Responsibility

Waves: Announcing a new venture while your personal drama is exploding — how do you view outside skepticism?

Liu Guangyao: Skepticism is normal. This whole thing is full of dramatic elements. For me the approach is simple: I try not to read comments as much as possible. I don't need to turn around public opinion or please anyone — I'm not acting, I don't need box office. Many people think every step you take is a calculated, systematic operation. It's not. Once someone crosses a certain line, if I don't like what I see, I'll go after them. That's it. It's not because I'm from a grassroots background that I don't care — I'd be the same if I were a second-generation rich kid. That's my personality, my worldview.

Waves: A large part of public opinion isn't on your side.

Liu Guangyao: Most people are just watching the show. But I don't know why — a lot of women online don't seem to like me very much. I know there are comments about phoenix men, kept men, and I can understand that. But what makes me happiest is that people who truly know me support me and trust me. I saw this comment:

"If you knew Liu Guangyao, met Liu Guangyao, spent time with Liu Guangyao, you'd know he might be slightly flashy and proud, maybe a bit foolish and soft-hearted, but he's genuinely a good person."

I have many flaws, but one thing is my foundation: if I'm not convinced, I'll fight.

Waves: What's your MBTI?

Liu Guangyao: INTP. I'm 80% I, very introverted.

Waves: Have you thought about careers outside entrepreneurship?

Liu Guangyao: It's hard for me to work at a company. Actually I've thought about writing a novel, making a film, or becoming a soccer coach. But these things require money on one hand, and a relaxed mental state on the other. I'm still a vulgar person — I'm still quite interested in the things of this mortal world.

Waves: What would the novel be about?

Liu Guangyao: The Death of a Ten-Billion-Unicorn.

Waves: There always seem to be dramatic things happening to you. Why is that?

Liu Guangyao: Sigh, I don't get it either. You can probably sense that overall I'm a relatively rational and calm person. Maybe it's some strange constitution. The current spread of public opinion, and what happened with bosie back then — these definitely aren't things I wanted. I definitely wanted to build something solid and take it public on my first try.

My first 20 years were quite stable. I don't know why things got so dramatic after entering society. Maybe fate changes too fast — I just want to survive.

Waves: Do you like being at the center of the vortex?

Liu Guangyao: No. It's a bit out of control now. Yesterday morning they told me this hit number two on Weibo's trending list. I'm relatively numb to it now, already desensitized — life's rate of change is too fast. But I'll publish a book at year-end, a miscellany called Ten Thousand Days of Galloping. Looks like I'll need to add this chapter.

I don't reject drama, but my drama ends with that long post. End of story. Next I'll focus on my new project. We're already hiring, still short many core people. If you want me to keep entangled in this, absolutely not — I'm not taking the black-red celebrity route.

Waves: Do you think you're a responsible person?

Liu Guangyao: On this point I can say without modesty: I'm very responsible in my career. I've had many chances to run away, to shut down the company quickly, but I didn't. Actually bosie isn't a completely failed investment either — five of our twelve institutional investors made money.

Also, I can take legal responsibility for this statement: for any venture I undertake in the future, I'm willing to carry all existing shareholders' equity until they can eventually exit.

Image source: Unsplash

Layout: Nan Yao