When he quietly sits down and greets you in a modest way, you may find it hard to connect this amiable young man wearing a brown shirt to a successful young entrepreneur at first sight. He just identifies himself as a basic black T-shirt lover and a man of action who truly lives his life “to at least 150 years old”. However, as the conversation goes on, the logic and philosophy behind his discourse exactly showcase his entrepreneurship.
Gong Huachao is the C.E.O. of Luckey, a Chinese start-up focusing on smart hardware and algorithm innovation which he launched in 2014. He is also an industrial designer, a shoo-in in designing competitions, a photography fanatic, a careful observer of life, and a reckless dreamer. From his witty talks, we may get a glimpse of his self-mockery-kind-of attitude towards life and work, and what’s more, the creativity, perseverance, boldness, and great vision of the future innovators. He changes the stereotype of the so-called “beat generation” of the post-90s in China.
Luckey was founded in correspondence to Gong’s determination to turn his designs into tangible products and to realize his vision to turn the tide of “made in China” or even “copied by China” to “created in China”. In his pursuit, the first and most widely known attempt was the Luckey Nums Ultra-Thin Smart Keyboard, a 0.22mm-thick glass pane with a patented advanced software, which aimed at helping users enter numbers with a trackpad and interact with items in MacBook more efficiently. Nums helped Gong bring back the “Best of Best” Award of the Reddot Design Award when he was a sophomore. The story of Nums began early with a toy camera in a lucky draw he won when he was a child. “That was the first prize!” Gong still seemed to be rather thrilled talking about this little toy camera. The camera cultivated the little boy’s love for photography, which led him to the photography course where he got to know about the Reddot Design Award and decided to give it his best shot. “I felt so lucky about the toy camera, I mean that’s the first prize and also the seeds for my future vision and that’s why I named my company ‘Luckey’,” Gong said. But he was also quite sensible after winning this mega-prize. “The award is not an end but a start to incentivize me to bring the fruits of innovation and technology to more people,” Gong said. Since then, he has devoted himself to materializing his design, drawing 54 different drafts of the keyboard and testing for each draft's functionality. After graduation, unyielding to the temptation of a high salary, he bore the pressure of starting a company to realize his dream. That was how Luckey came into public sight with the endorsement of the fifth round of funding.
Now, Nums has become a hit in various e-commerce platforms including Shopify, bringing convenience and efficiency to users around the world. Gong has contributed his part to the great vision of “created in China”. The philosophy about innovation and originality with Chinese characteristics and the same sense of social responsibility behind every product Gong has designed hold the key to his success.
“Designers, instead of engineers, may also be the boss”, Gong said, putting himself as an entrepreneur dedicated to designing. “We need to think about the needs of the users instead of blindly pursuing the technological breakthroughs. That’s where true innovation begins.” For Gong, it is the need of the people from which a certain product is born. Hence, from the very beginning of his design, Gong has been thinking about what inconveniences people may encounter and how he could resolve them. “It’s like picking different stones repeatedly and putting them back," he said. However, this is only the beginning of innovation. To roll out an innovative Chinese brand and shake off the stereotype of China being a copycat in the global market, Gong has also incorporated Chinese elements into his design. “We are not talking about concrete totem or images such as dragon or phoenix, we are talking about something intrinsic to the Chinese people, something that can truly signify the Chinese people,” Gong said. He seemed to have plenty to share. He cited examples of the color and structure of the Imperial Palace, emphasizing that these elements satisfied the cultural and spiritual needs of people at that time. "While today, to integrate Chinese elements into the products, we need to extract the essence of traditional Chinses history and philosophy behind the patterns and apply it to solve the problems popping up in modern society. To simply reproduce the patterns is merely another form of copy, "Gong said.
Gong also believed in corporate social responsibility. He started from SDGs to Telsa’s electric cars and pointed out that e-vehicles, during their manufacturing and charging processes, were actually emitting almost no less, if not more, carbon. “They are just playing tricks, shifting the emissions from the road to the factories.” In his product designing process, he has always taken environmental factors into consideration. The cost-effective phosphor powder was once on the list of the printing materials of the glass keyboard. But due to its damage to the environment, Gong turned his eye to metal ink coating, which has proven to be the right choice. “Therefore, our glass keyboard is totally eco-friendly”, Gong smiled in a proud way. He also showed concerns for the vulnerable groups. The design that won him the 2016 American Idea Award was the Interactive UI rehabilitation system for children suffering from cerebral palsy. With the slogan of “Maximize joy, minimize harm”, the system featuring gamification provided a solution for children with cerebral palsy. “The children are really suffering and I want to do more,” he said determinedly. He also shared plans to design masks for children with cleft lips. From his various competition experiences, he caught the trend of integrating SDGs into designing, including climate change and environmental issues. He apparently showed concerns for the public good and SDGs, proposing that more competitions of this kind should be encouraged to mobilize youths to view the design from a broader perspective and contribute to the global problems facing humankind. “That couldn't be nicer.”
About the Author: Zeng Yi is a journalist at SRP's Writing and Interview Department.
本文编自SRP社会责任家对龚华超的采访