Source Code Capital's Yungang Huang: The Essential Quality for Entrepreneurs Is a Resilient, Bold Spirit of Exploration

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Source Code Capital invests in technology-driven innovation,

in the creation of lasting, genuine value

As you can see, this generation of entrepreneurs is undertaking a massive migration: from the fading waves of the internet and Mobile Internet toward harder-core technology tracks; from "model innovation" to "fundamental innovation."

We believe that China is now — and already has — produced a new breed of entrepreneurs with a fresh character. Last November, 36Kr launched the "X·36Under36" nomination initiative, precisely on this premise. Our aim is to discover potentially great entrepreneurs earlier and across a wider range. To strengthen and enrich our understanding of entrepreneurs, in this "large-scale social experiment," we will invite more people to share their perspectives on entrepreneurship and China's business ecosystem. They may be professors from renowned institutions, already-famous entrepreneurs, or investors who have seen it all. This time, we are joined by Yungang Huang, Partner at Source Code Capital. Source Code Capital is one of the fastest-growing representative funds of the VC 2.0 generation. Founded in 2014, it now manages 35 billion RMB and has invested in over 300 companies. Huang has a deep understanding of how the internet and new technologies penetrate and transform industries. Since 2019, under his leadership, Source Code has begun deploying in the "technology + biomedicine" sector, leading investments in METiS Pharmaceuticals, Bota Bio (Enhe Biotechnology), Sibionics, DeepWise, and Nutshell Therapeutics, among others.

In this interview, beyond topics frequently discussed in previous expert interviews — such as "entrepreneur capability models" and "new venture-investor relationships" — we also spoke with Huang about his understanding of the current "technology + biomedicine" landscape. He noted that technology + biomedicine is a highly specialized field, where most entrepreneurs are PhDs or postdocs with deep vertical expertise. Yet biomedicine today is in fact a massively cross-disciplinary domain. In areas where founders have capability gaps — such as technology application, startup financing, organizational design, and commercial market operations — investors should focus on filling those horizontal needs.

Worth mentioning: since the launch of the "X·36Under36" nomination initiative, entrepreneur registrations have surpassed 650, covering 20+ sub-sectors including AI/robotics, new consumer brands, and healthcare. Registration is still open — click to enter the application link. Once again, we thank every entrepreneur for their trust in 36Kr. The following is Yungang Huang's oral account, edited by 36Kr:

The Most Valuable Quality in Entrepreneurs Is "The Courage to Explore"

We can divide contemporary entrepreneurs into three categories: senior executives who have spun out from large companies with abundant industry resources; founders who, from the moment they left campus, were determined to build something of their own; and the currently surging wave of returnees and scientist-entrepreneurs.

Compared to when I first entered this industry over a decade ago, the cognitive upgrade among today's entrepreneur population is strikingly evident. Back then, both investing and entrepreneurship were hazy endeavors — you had an idea and everyone just went and did it. What did entrepreneurship really mean? Most people only had a partial understanding. But today's entrepreneurs mostly have clear exploration paths. When meeting investors, they increasingly know the process and key modules of entrepreneurship, whose money to take, and how to go public later. How do we choose which entrepreneurs to walk alongside? I see it as a three-level pyramid capability model —

Entrepreneurial qualities matter most; these form the "base" of the pyramid. For instance, one's original intention must be sound — the purpose of entrepreneurship is to solve problems and create lasting, genuine value, not simply to make money. They also need certain innate traits: intense curiosity about new things, intelligence, diligence, rapid learning ability, and so on. Among these qualities, I believe the most precious is "the courage to explore." How do we understand "courage"? This courage is an active choice made after seeing the essence of things and the truth of matters clearly — it is full of rationality, not recklessness. We consider this "courage to explore" a higher-order quality. It requires entrepreneurs to constantly step forward to face challenges — what we often say: do what is hard but right.

The second layer of the pyramid is the entrepreneur's strong commercial intuition for their chosen field, having a sound business model design from the very start. Last week, chatting with a CEO, he proposed an idea: a company's "underlying code" should have no more than three lines. For example, one e-commerce company's underlying code had only two: first, never earn from merchants beyond their bottom line; second, prioritize the C-end user experience. Later, their warehousing, logistics, and other modules were all optimized on top of these two underlying codes. I strongly agree — this shows clarity about what kind of company one wants to build.

The top of the pyramid is the entrepreneur's "cohesion" — their ability to unite a group of outstanding talents. Entrepreneurship cannot succeed on original intention, courage, and industry knowledge alone. No entrepreneur can achieve their goals single-handedly. Whether executive entrepreneurs, student entrepreneurs, or scientist entrepreneurs, all need to gather diverse, excellent talents in different roles to complete the full commercial architecture of a startup. From Day One, we have faced entrepreneurs with the identity and mindset of entrepreneurs ourselves. I remember when I had just become an investor, on a business trip to Guangzhou to meet a founding team. The plane landed past 11 p.m. Past midnight, in a cramped office, the entrepreneur excitedly told us about his plans, his dreams, what he needed to challenge... Even now, recalling that moment, I am deeply moved.

Investors are meant to walk with people like this, through success and failure, fully supporting them all the way. Today, as technology development matures, more and more entrepreneurial opportunities emerge at the intersection of technology and industry application, with more cross-disciplinary hybrid innovations appearing and their sectors experiencing mini-booms. To better match with increasingly cross-disciplinary startups, Source Code has adopted an open, transparent, and flat organizational management style, encouraging investors to examine deals through cross-disciplinary approaches. For example, in many internal communication meetings, people from different fields learn from and discuss with each other; even during casual private dinners, different teams exchange and interact. At the end of last year, Source Code officially refreshed the "Code Force Entrepreneur Service Center," emphasizing that all staff must participate in serving founders, with the commitment of "All Code Force for You."

All "Love at First Sight" Is Mostly "Long Premeditation"

The growing number of cross-disciplinary and cross-business-model projects inevitably places higher demands on investors. How does Source Code grow together with entrepreneurs from different fields and of different types? We use U-Theory, which divides human consciousness and action into four stages, from top to bottom:

Open Ear (simply open your ears and listen, understand what you're saying);

Open Mind (accept different modes of thinking, put yourself in others' shoes);

Open Heart (open your heart, believe in others and more so in yourself, and thereby understand yourself better);

Open Will (recognize your desire to change; only by truly opening yourself can you clearly see the direction of your change).

This diagram is adapted from Otto Scharmer's U-Theory

To achieve growth, from openness to沉淀 to epiphany, every "open" is indispensable. We hope to resonate with as many as possible, go through the process together, and strive toward great entrepreneurial goals. To give an analogy: one reason Source Code moved early to deploy and support the biomedicine direction was recognizing the potential for innovative breakthroughs it contains; but more importantly, we believe in the tremendous change it could bring to human society. Biomedicine itself is a highly specialized field — its research and commercialization require long-term patience and conviction. Recently we've been communicating frequently with entrepreneurs in the healthcare space. Most entrepreneurs in this field are PhDs or postdocs who have spent years in endocrinology, oncology, clinical practice, and other areas, accumulating very deep vertical knowledge. Under the broad biomedicine umbrella, there are many cross-disciplinary projects. Frankly, it's difficult for investors to develop granular understanding of any specific technology in the short term. But entrepreneurship, beyond technology, requires building a large, diverse ecosystem. To some extent, investors and entrepreneurs can have a complementary capability relationship. Source Code can supplement their horizontal capabilities in understanding technology applications, startup financing, organizational design, and commercial market operations. One of our Series C portfolio companies is Sibionics, which makes continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices. Their GS1 Sibionics Glucose Monitoring System allows C-end users to view their real-time blood glucose changes through a mobile app. You can see their business ecosystem spans healthcare, technology, consumer, and other fields — a typical cross-disciplinary new species. Before investing in Sibionics, we did extensive preparation: thoroughly investigating the founding team, technical path, business model, and other dimensions. We also tried the product ourselves and did our own evaluation. By the time we met the founding team, we basically already had our judgment. The meeting was more about communication and confirmation, seeing whether our ideas matched. We found that the Sibionics team was already quite professional in the specific technical details of silicon-based glucose monitoring, and what investors could do was build on this foundation to enrich the capabilities and resources we could provide, seeing what more we could help with.

We often say that in investing, it's hard to have so-called "love at first sight" — most of it is "long premeditation," and ultimately depends on "long-term cultivation." In the process of accompanying entrepreneurs' growth, Source Code's culture also drives us to build a foundation with entrepreneurs: sufficient candor. It's hard to capture in a single word or relationship, but I think we can be a mirror for entrepreneurs — when they do well, we don't stint on praise; when they become complacent, we will definitely pour a "bucket of cold water" on them in time; when entrepreneurs give their all but the results aren't good, we also provide comfort and encouragement.

Entrepreneurship requires resilient, daring exploratory spirit, and courageous practice that unites knowledge and action. We hope to be partners on the entrepreneurial journey.