Smartisan

Smartisan is a Chinese smartphone and consumer electronics company founded by serial entrepreneur Yonghao Luo, who served as its CEO . The company entered the already saturated mobile phone market in 2014 with Luo's signature "idealist" branding and media savvy as a former English teacher turned tech personality . At a 2018 FreeS Fund event, Luo reflected on six years of building Smartisan, candidly describing the venture as entering a "red ocean" where the company's efforts were diluted by intense competition — calling the experience "ten times worse than 'working twice as hard for half the result'" . Smartisan's trajectory later turned distressed; by 2018 its core business had paralyzed, and the company accumulated roughly 600 million RMB in debt, triggering disputes with investors including ZiHui Ventures founder Zheng Gang over repayment terms . Luo's subsequent effort to settle these obligations — offering investors equity in his new venture Thin Red Line in exchange for relinquishing Smartisan repurchase rights — became widely known as his "True Debt Repayment Saga" .