AI Native Builder: You Can Always Find a Way to Say Hello to the World | Buming Entrepreneurship Camp

On the evening of January 9, the fifth edition of the Booming Camp set sail in Beijing against the wind. This marked BlueRun Ventures' first gathering with entrepreneurs in the new year.

This edition focused on AI. Since mid-December, over 400 "voyage applications" had poured in. Most applicants were between 26 and 30 years old, with nearly 80% being founders. The majority of projects were at seed stage or had yet to raise funding. Applications clustered most heavily in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou.

In the end, 21 AI Native Builders were selected. More than half of these entrepreneurs were serial founders — one had already embarked on their third venture at age 22. They gravitated toward education and gaming, and were equally eager to deconstruct social dynamics and metaphysics.

Outside, the howl of an old order coming apart. Inside, the developing image of a new course being charted.

At the opening ceremony, Terry Zhu, Managing Partner at BlueRun Ventures, offered a metaphor about time. He referenced the argument in Outliers — that particular years and months can influence whether someone is more likely to achieve success. The current wave of AI enthusiasm happened to coincide with the post-'97 generation entering that volatile early phase of career exploration. Especially from 2025 onward, "we've distinctly felt the wheels spinning faster and faster, nearly lifted off the ground by the winds of AI," Terry Zhu said. "This edition of Booming Camp may prove to be a particularly meaningful one — 2026 will be the Vintage Year for this camp." But the focus wasn't exclusively on the post-'97 cohort. Four entrepreneurs over 30 served as "anchors," sharing experience with their younger peers while still maintaining youthful spirit and curiosity.

Notably, everyone cited internal drive when discussing their motivation to start up — curiosity, fairness and justice, interestingness, meaning. Fu Qiang, Investment Partner at BlueRun Ventures, mentioned that he had been contemplating what constitutes a good life since ten years ago. His conclusion now: being with like-minded people, doing meaningful things — that is perhaps the good life. What pleased the organizers was that this edition attracted many people who wanted to use AI as a tool to create better lives for users.

Four entrepreneurs in this camp were major content creators with million-level followings. This was likely the most influencer-dense edition of Booming Camp to date. Some displayed ample performative energy and comedic timing on camera, yet revealed remarkably rational, restrained sides at camp. Another creator never showed their "true face" online and attended the entire camp masked — only to spend an hour during the lunch break discussing science fiction, immortality, and human consciousness with BlueRun colleagues.

One 22-year-old creator harbored grand ambitions, seeking to transform education single-handedly. Another, an influencer who studied metaphysics, said his destiny was written with the characters for "entrepreneurship." He proceeded to read the faces of fellow campers and BlueRun staff. Expression is becoming an increasingly vital component of entrepreneurship. Often, the person is seen first; the product follows.

Malcolm Gladwell proposed a formula in Outliers: success = 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. The organizers and participants prepared the 10,000h SHOW, where everyone used a single image to display their 10,000 hours devoted to something they loved. Those 10,000 hours, in some sense, explain who you are — your taste. A common formulation among participants: if you love entrepreneurship, you'll definitely love...

One person had boxed for ten years; no boxer avoids getting hit, he said, and neither does entrepreneurship. Another had spent a decade in game education, witnessing children who played ultimate frisbee in downpours now studying at Harvard. Someone presented Caesar III, a game older than 70% of the campers — the origin of their gaming life. Another displayed a Cixin Liu science fiction short story collection, read daily in childhood until winning the Galaxy Award themselves... Of course, many simply showed their first product demo. The story behind going from 0 to 1 encompasses far more than 10,000 hours — only fellow entrepreneurs truly understand.

On the second evening, the group spent Booming Night at an Italian bar. One table gathered the technical founders, who spontaneously simulated pitch sessions, each offering feedback to teammates. One participant said: "I'd been holding back at a big company — many ideas couldn't be fully expressed. But at that table, everyone had that same resolute determination to go out and start something. It felt incredible."

Past midnight, those who remained weren't heavy drinkers — they were technical founders. Word has it they each eventually entered flow state.

Despite the organizers' efforts to create opportunities for interaction, some introverted entrepreneurs still didn't get adequate chances to introduce themselves. One participant wanted to join other tables during Booming Night but couldn't find the right moment. Another sent a long message afterward, saying they had wanted to share their feelings at closing but were too nervous, afraid of trembling with a microphone in hand.

The day after camp concluded, a Bonjour Card was discovered on the office whiteboard — "tap to connect" revealed it contained a founder's introduction. We always find ways to greet the world, whether through long conversations or a small card.

The Booming Quest Tavern was a co-creation workshop about "resource exchange" and "intellectual crowdfunding" — anyone could freely post bountied tasks or freely solve them. Bounties posted by entrepreneurs: How to help OpenAI succeed? What is the endgame for education in the Post-AGI era? How to attract world-class design and AI research talent ten times better than yourself?

Substantial rewards: finding you a CXO, until found; connecting you with your most desired contact for a deep hour-long conversation; a repost or video collaboration from a Bilibili creator with millions of followers; introductions to US investors who can help you reach the next round...

On delivery day, these AI entrepreneurs escalated into "multimodality" with their presentation formats — mind maps, AI-generated slides, even interactive videos made with their own AI products. Oral presentation became the most "traditional" method. The density of substance was such that sharing ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Beyond peer co-creation, three guest speakers from BlueRun portfolio companies were specially invited to share entrepreneurial thinking and practical experience tailored to this cohort's backgrounds and directions.

The first was Wang Yu, founder of Qianshou Technology. He emphasized that entrepreneurship requires letting go of ego, focusing on the "thing" rather than the "I." In post-session feedback, participants repeatedly used three words: authentic, substantive, grounded. Next came Yutong Zhang, President of Moonshot AI. This was one of her rare in-person appearances over the past year, participating with her physical presence rather than virtually. A founder working on recruitment noted during exchange that Kimi receives roughly ten times the resume volume of comparable large model companies. Huaiting Zhang, founder and CEO of Yuaiweiwu, shifted perspective to another track, reminding entrepreneurs of issues they would eventually have to confront — organization, strategy, management, talent. One participant wrote in feedback: "Teacher Zhang scored above perfect."

In the "Entrepreneurship Behind the Scenes" session, participants shared hardships and realities "not to be spoken of outside." One founder, during their first venture, had maxed out six credit cards with their co-founder to make payroll. A Gen-Z founder learned to "drink in circles" to obtain a required certification for their product. Another shared a strategic misstep: leading the team to build a business that could generate 10 million in revenue, but missing the earliest wave of AI entrepreneurship. One even proposed creating a "Museum of Failure" to publicly display errors and examine their origins.

This session was originally designed for group representatives to present, but evolved into mutual Q&A among participants. As expected, those who best understand entrepreneurs are other entrepreneurs.

During the Booming AMA, BlueRun Ventures Investment Partners Jiang Zhixi and Fu Qiang shared their reflections and learnings from the investment industry. They were pressed by participants: "What was the real reason you passed on me back then? I'm not afraid of being labeled — I want to hear the truth."

More collisions followed: Should an entrepreneur with eight-figure self-sustaining revenue reject the next funding round? As 2026 approaches, where is the real breakthrough point for ToC applications? Do those at the top truly possess a replicable "success template"?

There were no standard answers here. As with the entrepreneurial stories they discussed, it was more about choices, intuition, and the human elements that cannot be computed by large models.

Terry Zhu had mentioned internally when discussing how to understand entrepreneurs that the deepest fears within a person can become rare but intense entrepreneurial motivation. Yet this layer of a founder's "fear" is not easily excavated.

The Booming Inside segment attempted to understand what truly drove these entrepreneurs at their core.

Many entrepreneurs in their early twenties mentioned fear of "death" — fear of not making good use of their time in this life, of not being remembered by the world. Some worried that people were increasingly forgetting how to love, how to create beauty, how to maintain curiosity; that the things they cherished were gradually withering. More pivotal life moments were chosen to be treasured privately in that afternoon at camp — "exclusive memories" belonging to all present. Borrowing one participant's words: may all entrepreneurs "bloom the most beautiful flowers on the path of letting a hundred flowers blossom."

If you were designing Booming Camp, what session would you most want to add? Expand in the comments. The top 3 most-liked comments will unlock exclusive Booming Camp swag. "Let's Booming!"

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