Always on the Road, Looking Forward to Every Wild Adventure | A 5Y Capital Team Building Story
Once a decision is made, no mountain stands in the way.
An incomplete group photo of 5Y Capital at the snow mountains (some colleagues couldn't join due to work commitments and COVID restrictions)
In late June, we kicked off our team-building trip to northwest Yunnan.
Over the course of this journey, we trekked through snow mountains, canyons, and grasslands. Some routes weren't easy, but the places least touched by human footprints hold the most spectacular scenery. In a way, travel shares something fundamental with entrepreneurship and investing — all three involve facing the unknown, testing both physical stamina and mental resilience, and all require the conviction that once a decision is made, no mountain can stand in your way.
Why climb a mountain? In 1923, after two failed attempts to summit Everest, British explorer George Mallory was asked by a reporter, "Why climb Mount Everest?" He replied: "Because it's there." Pure, simple, focused on the path ahead. He had resolved to go up, and the path would carry him upward, to wherever he aspired to reach.
For the 5Y team, though, this trip meant more than just "challenging ourselves" — it was about "shared experience." Hiking through forests by day, gathering around a campfire under the stars at night, we came to understand more deeply what teamwork really means.
Enough talk — here are the highlights. And stick around for the giveaway at the end :)
Hiking
" The flat and easy places attract the most travelers; the dangerous and remote attract the fewest. Yet the world's most magnificent, extraordinary, and wondrous sights are often found in those perilous, far-flung places that people rarely reach — which is why only those with true determination can arrive there."
— Wang Anshi, A Record of Mount Baochan
Conversations Under the Stars
" Don't do what's comfortable. Don't wait to be fed. Instead, strive and struggle to search. Do the difficult thing, and find what is truly valuable — because it's buried deeper than ever before."
Team
" The individual is weak and helpless, like Robinson Crusoe drifting alone. Only with others can he accomplish great things."
— Arthur Schopenhauer
Scenery
" To contemplate for a while a piece of ore far more beautiful than anything humans have created; to smell the depths of a narcissus and discover more knowledge hidden in its fragrance than in all our books combined."
— Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques
The Other Side
"Work everywhere you go, on call 24/7 for founders"
A Few Easter Eggs
" The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road
One final little surprise. We had a mobile coffee truck along for the ride (to keep everyone's energy up for serious work, obviously =.=). We carefully selected three different beans: one called "Madness," one called "Belief," and another called "Imagination."
These also represent what 5Y Capital stands for — if the you that others see as crazy starts to be believed in, the world becomes a better place.
As for what "Madness," "Belief," and "Imagination" actually taste like? Come visit 5Y Capital and find out for yourself :)
Giveaway
Share a memorable travel destination and what it meant to you in the comments. We'll pick 3 winners to receive a 5Y commemorative T-shirt. Note: deadline is 24:00 on July 6. Please reply with your shipping info within 24 hours of notification, or the prize will be forfeited.
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital), currently manages approximately USD 5 billion across USD and RMB dual-currency funds. We believe that if the you that others see as crazy starts to be believed in, the world becomes a better place.
BEIJING · SHANGHAI · SHENZHEN · HONG KONG
