MaHui Entrepreneurs | When Startup Life Becomes Their Way of Living

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A Special, Ordinary Day

#MaHui Entrepreneurs Resilient and Bold, Exploring Without Cease

When we return to the present, on International Women's Day — a day that is both special and, for them, utterly ordinary — we look back and listen to entrepreneurs and investors reflect on the spirit of entrepreneurship.

What is the entrepreneurial spirit?

Is it relentless exploration, a curiosity that never quiets? Or the courage to reject convention, the audacity to overturn what came before? Is it fierce discipline, extreme obsession, the capacity to endure what most cannot? Or is it the ability to read people completely, to navigate the world with clarity — or perhaps decisiveness, integrity, and fairness when facing hard choices?

The 20th-century economist Joseph Schumpeter answered: a force of "creative destruction." Management scholar Peter Drucker later expanded this concept, emphasizing the power of seeking change — defining entrepreneurs as those who actively pursue change, respond to it, and treat it as opportunity.

When we return to the present, on International Women's Day — a day that is both special and, for them, utterly ordinary — we spoke with Shanshan (Shan), founder & CEO of emerging domestic skincare brand PMPM; Risa, co-founder & CEO of global metaverse social platform BUD; Shen Qiancheng, co-founder & CEO of platform-based allosteric drug discovery company Nutshell Therapeutics; Liao Lanxin, founder & CEO of "Thank You Tea," a new species of "smart milk tea station"; and Source Code Capital investors Dandan Chen and Tong Sun, to hear their reflections on the entrepreneurial spirit.

Q: What circumstances led you to start your company, and what changes do you hope to bring through entrepreneurship?

Shanshan, Founder & CEO of PMPM: I wanted to build a brand group, with different brands as vehicles for expressing and communicating with the world — this was identical to my original ambition to become a director. PMPM carries the idea of seeing the world as both small and vast, seeing all kinds of beauty; this expression is incredibly diverse and abundant. Our second brand, NodOff, creates a highly conflicting magnetic field through art and architectural aesthetics, giving you intense sensory stimulation and self-confidence within it.

Risa, Co-founder & CEO of BUD: For me, entrepreneurship wasn't some monumental decision. I'm fairly decisive — I found a good entry point, met the right co-founder, and made the decision quickly.

I'm deeply convinced that many things have enormous potential in the virtual world. I genuinely enjoy the creative process, and I truly hope to build this product so more young people can experience the joy of using this medium and the joy of creating.

Shen Qiancheng, Co-founder & CEO of Nutshell Therapeutics: We had long-term accumulation in this technical field. There actually aren't many original technologies in drug discovery R&D domestically, but we believed allosteric drug development would see major growth and represented a future direction. We happened to meet people interested in this technical direction, and we started building together. We hope to bring this good technology to the world.

Liao Lanxin, Founder & CEO of Thank You Tea: What truly drove me to start a company was my accumulated experience and observations in the tea beverage industry: the sector faces two massive burdens — labor costs and rent — plus standardization challenges. A machine-made milk tea model can solve these industry pain points. For users, we're not building machines for the sake of machines; we're using this format to deliver cheaper, better-tasting, more convenient milk tea.

Dandan Chen, Investor at Source Code Capital: I learned about the investment industry through my own entrepreneurial experience. Source Code was one of my earliest investors. After concluding that entrepreneurial transition, my experience as an advisor at Source Code ultimately led me to commit to investing as a lifelong career.

I believe human potential is unlimited. Through investing, I hope to accompany and witness entrepreneurs realize their dreams, becoming an active force in the continuation of human civilization.

Tong Sun, Investor at Source Code Capital: I was previously a journalist covering venture capital and internet entrepreneurship, rising from reporter to lead writer to editorial committee member. Right when Cao Yi was starting Source Code, I resolutely chose to join him. It wasn't that I had some grand ambition from the start — through continuous learning and engagement with entrepreneurs, I gradually developed a desire to help them. I had been covering VC, technology, and internet entrepreneurship, from reporter to editorial committee member, and I felt it was time to channel that accumulated experience in a different way. Cao Yi was founding Source Code then, so I joined without hesitation. Being able to discover technological waves at their earliest stages, unearth their value, and have sustained conversations with the brightest minds — that's tremendous. The more entrepreneurs you meet, the more certain you become of your choice.

Q: As an entrepreneur, what inner strength sustains you when facing internal and external pressure?

Shanshan, Founder & CEO of PMPM: At first it was mission and vision — building a great brand that enters millions of households, like a film with massive box office. This era will certainly give birth to truly great Chinese original brands. These great brands don't just solve practical problems; they create spiritual resonance and aesthetic pleasure. That's a tremendous mission. Second, when I think about how millions of consumers — for example, PMPM consumers who read my handwritten postcards, with nearly 2 million households displaying our refrigerator magnets — that itself is magical. The third anchor is the comrades beside me. They have excellent backgrounds; what are they doing grinding away at a startup? I deeply respect them. For myself, entrepreneurship is very much a training ground. It aligns completely with my worldview and beliefs.

Risa, Co-founder & CEO of BUD: My love for BUD, especially when users create something stunning with our product — that gives us tremendous motivation.

Shen Qiancheng, Co-founder & CEO of Nutshell Therapeutics: We founders come from fairly humble scientific backgrounds. It's simple for us: since we've thought through what we want to do, and so many people have placed their trust in us, and everyone is seriously committed, we just need to persist, build the company well, and never give up easily.

Liao Lanxin, Founder & CEO of Thank You Tea: My co-founder and I both believe this can succeed, and can become something truly massive. That's the biggest driving force.

Dandan Chen, Investor at Source Code Capital: Being able to devote a finite life to infinitely expanding the boundaries of cognition — the force sustaining me is "exploration and curiosity." The difference is: entrepreneurs are always searching for good answers; investors are always searching for good questions.

When I first started investing, I couldn't resist discussing operational details with entrepreneurs, once even arguing until we were red in the face. Now I understand that only by stepping back can investors listen better and form deeper connections with entrepreneurs.

Tong Sun, Investor at Source Code Capital: If you can discover a company early, recognize its value, and accompany its growth — and one day its products, technology, or services benefit an industry, a country, or even humanity — that would be an enormous source of excitement and fulfillment. If Source Code's participation can be found in companies contributing across various fields, that is tremendous validation for us, and our mission.

Q: What unique character traits and ways of working has entrepreneurship shaped in you, and what unique DNA have you brought to your venture?

Shanshan, Founder & CEO of PMPM: I used to be extremely idealistic and romantic. I believed in living exactly as I pleased. If I wanted to travel the world, I'd go — I sold my house with no intention of returning. After starting a company, I became someone with ideals who is simultaneously extremely realistic and grounded. I only add all-out effort and fearlessness to where my heart truly points. I went from someone naive and rather childish to someone capable of bearing responsibility. My coming-of-age arrived very late — it was only through entrepreneurship that it finally happened.

Risa, Co-founder & CEO of BUD: Entrepreneurship hasn't really changed me that much; it's more amplified traits and ideas I already had, and helped me grow very quickly.

Innovation and the pursuit of beauty are what we strive for. We're in a very new field without much to reference or benchmark against. It's a crossover between gaming, internet, art, and interactive media — requiring lots of innovation. We also care deeply about internal document formatting, using lots of emoji — that's a very distinctive part of our culture.

Shen Qiancheng, Co-founder & CEO of Nutshell Therapeutics: As a technology company, we relatively need to be calm and objective. Our overall company atmosphere is quite open, while encouraging respect and equality in science.

I feel I've become more comprehensive in considering problems, seeing issues more deeply and thinking further ahead. At the same time, I think more about people — my understanding of people has improved greatly compared to before. I'm also more stable; my psychology is rarely affected by the ups and downs of individual events. Actually, I've become more like a guy.

Liao Lanxin, Founder & CEO of Thank You Tea: When I was employed, I was very easy to get along with — good relationships with colleagues and subordinates alike. After starting a company, you realize everyone came together to make this thing work. The entire way of thinking and the demands on things and people become completely different.

Dandan Chen, Investor at Source Code Capital: The most precious gift entrepreneurship gave me was experiencing the complete journey from idea to product to full commercial闭环, deeply understanding what 0-to-1 really means. "One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things" — what exactly is that "one"? Also, entrepreneurship often requires solving entirely new problems in unconventional ways. This process creates strong positive feedback, making entrepreneurs increasingly willing to break rules and try things.

Tong Sun, Investor at Source Code Capital: Investing has been a reinvention for me, a second curve in life. The biggest change it's brought is the process of "exploring cognitive boundaries" and "deep thinking." For example, in media it was more "question and answer"; now interactions with entrepreneurs are more "discussion and deduction." Some genes have been better leveraged too — insight into products and people, sensitivity to industry dynamics, and greater empathy in human interaction.

Q: Do you have any holiday-related plans for International Women's Day? Click the blank space to see how they spend the holiday~

In them, we see a fresh interpretation of entrepreneurial spirit: entrepreneurship seems to have changed them, yet it also appears they forged their own unique entrepreneurial paths. When immense pressure strikes, it is the vision of building great brands, the responsibility shouldered for employees, the bone-deep love for their products and services, the self-driven habit of pursuing excellence grown into their very marrow — evolving from pure intuition to intuition tempered with reason — that ultimately sustains them as explorers who are both resolutely committed and calmly assured. There is no standard answer to what entrepreneurial spirit means. What is worth noting is that when asked about holiday plans for International Women's Day, their unanimous answer was: "None." Entrepreneurship has become their way of life, even on this day that is both special and ordinary.