Who's the World's Top FA? Not Fan Bao

"Not Fan Bao"

April 27, 2026 | Qiu Mu | Funeral AI

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If you clicked on this headline, you already know the answer.

Allow me to introduce with great fanfare — the unicorn manufacturer whose products don't even need to officially launch to hit a $1.3 billion valuation; the King Maker with several "AI Douyins" and world-model projects in hand; the benefactor who set Melvin Chen on his path to Lovart; the firm that uses Mama Wu as Dou+ — Farsighted Capital.

As the most successful financial advisory (FA) in the current vintage of China's venture capital market, Farsighted's core playbook is manufacturing consensus and riding human nature.

Let's break down Farsighted's pump-and-dump "Flame Technique" into four moves.

01

Move One: Find a Big-Tech Senior Exec, Elevate Them to Godhood

The one true god of the 2025 venture capital scene: Liu Yu, founder of Vivix. Theoretically, the SenseTime lineage doesn't sell as well as the ByteDance lineage. But somehow it gets spun that the sequence he occupied at SenseTime previously produced Xudong Cao of Momenta and Junjie Yan of MiniMax — so he too must be destined for greatness.

This is pure reincarnated lama logic. Because this position produced the First and Second Living Buddhas, the seat itself must produce the Third.

The most impressive thing about this project: with barely a demo, and merely claiming to build a real-time interactive multimodal model, it already commanded a $1.32 billion valuation. Liu Yu even put the company valuation on his personal homepage 👍

It was after this (or perhaps earlier) that Farsighted unlocked a new valuation-boosting skill: "Mama Wu really likes it." More on this later.

I tried Liu Yu's Vivix a month ago. Setting aside how laggy it was, it felt roughly comparable to SenseTime's 3D digital human project. Maybe this version just isn't stable yet — I'll keep my expectations open.

Of course, this project also owes much to the vigorous support of former IDG managing director Yi Weishu. I later heard that Vivix's product final interviews were conducted by Yi Weishu himself.

I've asked many people: will Yi Weishu become the next Yutong Zhang? Those who didn't invest in Vivix say yes; those who did say no. What I know is that Yi Weishu is close to joining Vivix. The path of Yutong is long and arduous. Blessings ❤️

Because Farsighted is simply that authoritative, my friends didn't even welcome the God of Wealth on the fifth day of Lunar New Year — they kept sending me "summon Wu Biwei" (Farsighted partner, Melvin Chen's true benefactor), "summon Liu Yu," "summon Yi Weishu" 🙏

The same story played out in late 2024. As we mentioned in "YouWare Proves AI Founders Need Divinity," Leon Ming was able to raise tens of millions of dollars with zero product.

Because investors weren't betting on the product — they were betting on the founder's halo, on faith in the identity of "former Kimi product manager," gambling that Leon Ming could become the next Zhilin Yang.

Pure coincidence: Youware's FA was also Farsighted.

I've also noticed that Farsighted has a particular fondness for ByteDance-affiliated founders, including but not limited to:

• Yan Chuang Wanwu, which back in the day claimed: "Who understands coding better than someone who managed hundreds of algorithm engineers at TikTok and codebases with hundreds of millions of lines?"

• Lovart, Farsighted's greatest pride; Karpo, lifestyle agent + Hillhouse's grand gesture;

• OdyssLife, an AI necklace for dietary health monitoring; AirJelly, a proactive AI desktop assistant; Rezona, which added vertical scrolling and called itself "AI TikTok"; LinearGame, a gaming platform claiming to build AI interactive film-games.

How does this not perfectly mirror new fund Creekstone's investment thesis — "invest in ByteDance people, invest in trauma-survivors, invest in big-ambition-small-ego people" — let me complete the sentence: invest in people Farsighted can keep selling 🥵

It's basically gathering a collection of unfalsifiable Labubus to sell anxiety to investors with empty minds running on idle.

02

Move Two: Small-Circle Decision-Making

As a founder with divinity, naturally you can't show your face — you must whet investors' appetites.

The divine does not appear before mortals.

You ask where the founder is? Unavailable. What is the founder working on? Confidential. Why is the founder exceptional? Because they're building the next Douyin. You inquire which fund is investing — the answer is at least 5 term sheets (TS) already. You press for names? That can't be disclosed.

It's like a luxury boutique: the sales associate won't let you walk out with just any Hermès. For Farsighted's star projects, who gets to meet whom is by their arrangement. And ideally, specific funds get strong-bonded to specific people — one-on-one briefings on how scarce this founder is.

We call these investors "Hermès personal shoppers." Their main job is to mindlessly push FA-sourced projects within their institutions, ideally getting a TS on the first investment committee meeting.

Many investor friends have experienced this: they added a Farsighted project's founder early, consistently expressed investment interest, yet the founder kept making excuses not to meet — only for the project to suddenly appear at their own institution's meeting.

They later realized: the founder had already found their Hermès shopper inside the firm.

It's hard to say whether these shoppers' real boss is their fund partner or Farsighted. Sounds like they're basically doing internal FA work.

Of course, not just anyone can become a Hermès shopper. FAs don't give you good projects upfront — the price of admission is mindlessly pushing several "accessory" projects through your committee first.

Why these shoppers cooperate with FAs, beyond unverifiable rumors, is largely that they believe their own projects can be manufactured into stars by Farsighted.

Venture capital is entirely a consensus game, and Farsighted has truly mastered consensus manufacturing: tell ten people in the market a project is exceptional, and when its product remains temporarily unverifiable, word-of-mouth will make it truly exceptional.

If at this point HSG, Hillhouse, or IDG issues a TS, every institution will beg the FA for a meeting.

And founders know: if your first round includes money from the top three, the next round becomes easy. Of course, for a true big brother like HSG, it's best saved for a later blockbuster — just as in gaming, you don't want to take Tencent's money too early.

A fun aside: HSG now requires that investment committee memos indicate which FA represented the project.

Information networks are just too manipulable. In any circle, truly independent thinkers are rare.

This is the principal-agent problem facing large institutions. Partners are mostly in their forties or fifties, at most using iPads in daily life, not even computers, let alone AI products. They can only listen to their agents' reports, then claim they're "judging people."

Judging people basically means judging titles. So it's easy for junior staff to bring founders with decent backgrounds to their bosses — founders who simultaneously serve the agents' own interests.

03

Move Three: Mutual Bluffing, Using Mama Wu as Dou+

Investors love Texas Hold'em for a reason — dealmakers are bluffing masters.

Bluffing is standard FA operating procedure. Start with a TS from one of the "Three Imperial Families" (HSG, Hillhouse, IDG) — which may not even commit — then use this TS to shop around for allocations and bid up the price.

Bluffing HSG? Say Hillhouse is in. Bluffing Hillhouse? Say HSG issued a TS. Sometimes you don't even need a TS — just saying it's going to committee is bluff enough. Best of all: run two financing rounds simultaneously, and tell investors the next round's lead is already locked.

This industry is full of smart people. The problem with too many smart people: everyone wants to copy answers, terrified of missing what others know. Even if it's pure air, if your rival issues a TS, you have to issue one too. The recent classic case: Rezona.

From multiple sources, I obtained Rezona's complete funding history: Round 1, Jinqiu Fund invested at a $15 million valuation — utterly unremarkable. Early 2025, Round 2 began: initially Meituan Longzhu invested at a $50 million valuation, with the Three Imperial Families also looking around the same time.

News of committee meetings quickly reached Ant Group's strategic investment team, which rushed through an emergency committee meeting and offered a doubled valuation — using the Three Imperial Families' committee attendance as ammunition.

During fundraising, Rezona's product had just launched, and with help from Indian compatriots, achieved explosive user growth — perfectly matching investors' requirement for "data growth showing slope." Shortly after, Rezona closed a round from two strategic investors at a $200 million valuation.

Extremely perfect execution. Respect 🫡

This is also what frequently happened in the primary market over the past year: within one week, a project undergoes zero factual change, yet the entire venture capital world suddenly goes into frenzy. Secondhand information spreads like a virus; anxiety spreads like plague. Investors race to issue TSs; valuations multiply several-fold on the spot.

Beyond fully mastering the above, Farsighted has upgraded this move to "Mama Wu really likes it."

Mama Wu can indeed be a bigger bluff. Because even for founders of Lie Guo or Qi Junyuan's caliber, VCs cap out at low hundreds of millions in valuation when there's no product data. Only big tech can help them close loops above $1 billion.

From my understanding, the greatest reassurance Farsighted offered investors for its biggest star project was: Alibaba is going to invest.

Drop Mama Wu's name, everyone feels Alibaba can take the exit, making it safe to push. If Alibaba pulls out, there's still Ant, still JD.com. If none invest, they'll comfort you: next round for sure. Basically using Mama Wu as Dou+, and Mama Wu definitely doesn't know Farsighted exists.

I consider this pure treatment of big tech strategic investment colleagues as bag-holders. Too wicked — someone please forward this to Ant's strategic investment group chat 😭

One common-sense fact: true big shots don't connect with FAs.

The compensation structure of venture capital makes it impossible for FAs to genuinely bind with mid-to-senior levels of top-tier dollar VCs. Only numerous frantic junior investors desperate to ascend to heaven have the motivation to deeply bind with FAs.

Master "Ladder-to-Cloud" kung fu: left foot steps on right foot, rising into thin air.

04

Move Four: Agenda-Setting, Targeted Information Drops

Once their small-circle hype is complete, it's time to release noise into the market.

The specific method: find self-media (like Z Finance) to drop stories, publish some headless-tailless press releases, to agenda-set the primary market.

Looking back, sometimes a project gets mentioned in the market out of nowhere — and two weeks later, a headless-tailless funding announcement drops. Then brainless third-tier VC partners ask their junior investors in meetings why this project hasn't been brought up.

Having been agenda-set so many times, I can now tell which projects are Farsighted's just from media headlines 🤓

Take Rezona: the moment its press release dropped, it was "four consecutive funding rounds," with investors interviewed saying "this project has been frequently mentioned in the recent primary market, with continued capital increases." Pure hack phraseology, zero informational content.

Or LinearGame: one glance at the headline "Silicon Valley AI Dark Horse Overturns Gaming, World Model Games Go Insane" — clearly fundraising momentum-building.

Who says China has no a16z? I see Farsighted as having a shot — a16z hypes and shills publicly; Farsighted manufactures consensus for small circles. It's basically Esoteric-Buddhism a16z.

Practicing Esoteric Buddhism in the Exoteric world — like Chun Doo-hwan's Hanahoe faction appearing in the South Korean military 👍

To summarize: Farsighted is the director; big-tech former senior execs are the actors; heavy ByteDance-betting Solo VCs (individual operators) serve as talent agents; waiting for big brothers to take the bait willingly.

Do VC partners care? One investor told me: Liu Yu's project is at what, over a billion valuation now? Paper returns are making money? The loop currently closes, so partners don't care.

Great, everyone wins. This shows the venture capital industry structurally loves Farsighted.

But isn't the reason people do venture capital because the market is more dynamic, more open, more encouraging of innovation? And isn't investing about building friendly relationships with founders? How did it become about building relationships with FAs?

I also don't believe Farsighted is the best choice for entrepreneurs. Take Youware again — sorry Leon, I'm calling you out again 😭

I remember in late 2024, asking AI investors: who's the most sought-after founder? Most said Leon Ming.

The FA said Kimi alumni are incredible; funds believed it; media saw funds believing it and followed suit. Fundamentally, because everyone would rather worship a divine seat than risk antagonizing someone with even a 0.01% chance of becoming "the next Yiming Zhang."

Only us young guns who destroy everything and look only at products would publicly criticize Youware's product form.

So is deity-manufacturing actually good?

Leon has experienced what it feels like to be a startup star, but who understands the taste of being force-grown, of being watched by the entire industry every moment 😭

Since everyone still enjoys garbage takes like "The Three FA Musketeers" and "The Four Heavenly Kings of Gen Z Investors," let me also outline the Four Flame Techniques of FA success: find big-tech senior execs to manufacture gods; small-circle decision-making; mutual bluffing using Mama Wu as Dou+; finally release headless-tailless press releases to stimulate the venture market.

Study hard and strive to become the venture market's next new king.

Let me also post Farsighted's Four Heavenly Kings: Liu Yu, Melvin Chen, Leon Ming, and Xiao Haodong (LinearGame founder) — so everyone can continue identifying star entrepreneurs.

Xianyu once asked what else I think about Farsighted? My assessment: when Fujian people enter the FA industry, they can indeed dominate.

Creating a market windfall, raising money continuously in the short term — FA interests are maximized. But for a founder with vision, abandoning their original direction to tell AI-Douyin and world-model stories for fundraising — does this really have success probability?

More than one investor has told us: most founders now treat fundraising somewhat like exam-oriented education. All efforts go toward the test; must ask investors and FAs what numbers to hit next year to secure the next round.

But not everyone needs to be swept into this game, and not everyone needs to believe in Fake it till you make it.

Finally, let me make a statement. This article has no financial motivation; we simply do it for fun, enjoying a primal pleasure of offense.

To deeply study Farsighted Capital, we spoke with many founders, investors, and FAs involved in Farsighted transactions. Our greatest feeling: all secondhand information in the venture market is garbage; only repeatedly verified firsthand information has reference value.

Because these 200 people in the venture market have at least 20,000 group chats; any information known by more than three people spreads to everyone within a day, spawning at least five versions.

Regrettably, many investors and FAs don't work hard themselves, instead resenting Farsighted Capital for working hard. In dealings with relevant parties, we heard several pieces of information wilder than unofficial history. What this article ultimately credits are firsthand accounts from verified parties.

Another feeling from deeply studying Farsighted: utterly unremarkable. Farsighted has no mysterious techniques. None of the above pumping techniques are Farsighted originals.

From SaaS to new consumer brands, the most successful FA in every venture capital cycle has practiced these techniques to varying degrees. Only now the cycle has turned to AI applications, and Farsighted has become the grand synthesizer of these pumping techniques.

Nothing new — just working hard on every detail, bluffing with slightly more care than peers, plus AI being an unprecedented epic-level windfall, plus lots of luck — meeting the right Melvin at the right time. Farsighted and Melvin Chen are truly a well-matched pair of fortunate lovers ❤️

Last of the last, my lawyer has warned me not to speak recklessly.

But I still want to say: the market is filled with situations where FAs offer kickbacks to both investors and founders. I believe this is completely groundless. This article absolutely does not mention any specific FA engaging in such behavior — if you have such interpretation, it is definitely misreading; please apologize to Wu Biwei yourself.

(This article's cover image was generated by ChatGPT; purely human-written; Xianyu also contributed to this article)

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