Returning to Dollar-Denominated VC: Like Joining the Nationalists in 1949? | A Conversation with Xing Meng, New Partner at 5Y Capital

This week's episode of Crossing is a bit different. We're shifting gears from our usual topics — previously on Crossing, when we talked about AI, we focused on the latest technical breakthroughs in Silicon Valley and China, AI entrepreneurship, and investment. But we rarely discussed the "people" and "stories" of the AI era, which is something both Ronghui and Koji are deeply interested in.

Xing Meng, our guest this week, has been making headlines. After five years as COO of DiDi's autonomous driving division, he's returned to the dollar-denominated VC world as a partner at 5Y Capital. In our shared group chat, friends half-jokingly called him the "most beautiful contrarian" in the industry — like joining the Nationalist army in 1949. One journalist even commented that "Meng joining 5Y shows dollar VC can still attract top talent," which left everyone laughing and crying at the same time.

Meng's career move surprised everyone, and people have been trying to figure out his thinking behind it. Last week, Koji had a 90-minute call with him and found that Meng doesn't care about these assessments at all. He's calm, at peace with himself, knows what suits him and what he loves. So standing at life's various crossroads, his choices may seem spontaneous and willful, but they actually follow a clear pattern.

Meng's choices and the thinking behind them resonated deeply with Koji — even offered a kind of comfort — so we invited him to record this episode.

Beyond choices, entrepreneurship, and life, Meng will also share where he sees opportunities in dollar VC and AI right now.

Finally, everyone should check out Meng's podcast, Tech Is Not Boring.

🆕 Crossing launches a new segment: Crossing Bulletin Board. In this segment, we'll invite friends of Crossing to share updates on their latest products, events, hiring, and more.

📰 This week's two bulletin board items come from two previous guests:

⏰ 01:26 Chunxiang Zhao's new product: "Stranger Alarm Clock" App 🎙️ 02:35 idoubi's new product: "PodLM": AI Podcast Generator

🟢 Part 1 — On Entrepreneurship, Career Choices, and Self-Knowledge

05:49 Everyone who meets me asks: Why did you return to dollar VC? 07:21 "When the industry is down, that's when you have a chance to make change" 11:01 "Growth means you can't escape change" 18:22 If you only like and excel at "0 to 1," are you an excellent CEO? 19:19 "I'm not the most hardworking, nor the strongest executor. But everyone has their own capability model — I'm built for pioneering work." 24:31 Went to MIT for my MBA to start a company 36:27 The resonance and comfort Meng brought Koji 44:15 How do you evaluate your two startups? 49:59 What's one piece of advice you'd give yourself when you first started out?

🟢 Part 2 — On VC and AI

50:49 What's most exciting about returning to VC? 54:44 Why didn't you choose to start your own company? 57:05 In the current AI wave, what opportunities excite you most?

Subscribe to the Crossing podcast 🚦 We track the industry transformations and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology. Crossing is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together "active agents" of the AI era, exploring and embracing new changes and new possibilities with them.

👦🏻 Host Koji: Co-founder of The Fair and Tangdao. I believe technology, especially AI, will fundamentally transform society and empower humanity. Welcome to chat with me, bounce ideas, and connect on what's next. Koji on Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: Works at a tech VC, former Silicon Valley correspondent for Yicai Weekly. Ronghui on Jike

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