The first term of "Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Service +" Golden Seed Training Camp 2020 began on Nov 28. The ceremony was held in Zhongguancun Software Park, and a group of outstanding golden seed companies ushered in the "new semester" there.

Zhu Jianhong, deputy director of the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, said that technology SMEs are the most innovative group in Zhongguancun and that supporting these businesses means boosting technological innovation in Zhongguancun.

The Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone is the most concentrated and active area of China's technology SMEs. 

There are currently 16,000 national high-tech enterprises and 25,000 Zhongguancun high-tech enterprises in the zone, and more than 20,000 new technology companies are born there every year. 

From January to September this year, the total income of Zhongguancun enterprises increased by 10.9 percent. Also, the number of employees in the zone increased by 7.7 percent, the total exports increased by 20.8 percent and the number of patent applications increased by 13.4 percent.

Zhu stressed that although technology SMEs have still flourished during the epidemic, they face a series of problems, including financing difficulties, expensive financing, difficulty transferring achievements and insufficient entrepreneurial experience. 

To support the "Golden Seed Enterprises" in the Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone, the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, together with the Zhongguancun Development Group and Zhongguancun Entrepreneur Advisory Committee, will integrate resources and use the "Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Service +" Golden Seed Training Camp as the starting point to create a "growth camp.” 

To create a policy support system for companies at different development stages, the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee launched the "Golden Seed Project" specifically for start-up companies in 2011. 

The primary purpose is to select SMEs in strategic emerging industries that have strong development potential, to strengthen services and accelerate the development of these start-ups.

Over the past decade, 1,596 golden seed companies have been selected, including star companies such as iQiyi and Megvii Technology, and nearly 40 leading-edge technology companies in Zhongguancun, including Uisee Technology and Lingxi AR.

The Golden Seed Training Camp spans six months. Training is held once a month to create an in-depth service system for Golden Seed companies integrating "mentor consultation, practical training, industry analysis, resource empowerment and cooperative exploration" to improve students' capabilities and companies' innovative development.

In the first phase of the Golden Seed Training Camp, more than 20 well-known entrepreneurs and investors from Zhongguancun were invited as expert mentors. 

They worked with law firms, accounting firms and other professional institutions to provide services such as corporate strategic planning, corporate executive self-study, capital market connection and guidance on the listing process.

Gao Chunhai, chairman and president of Traffic Control Technology Co, is the mentor of this training camp. He believes that the training camp's lawyers and accounting resources can help entrepreneurs have a clearer understanding of entrepreneurship and how to run a business well. 

"By coming to the training camp, students can learn from each other and receive a cross-industry education, to capture the experience of the instructors and trainees in a certain field, and find ways to apply what they've learned," Gao remarked.

Gao also shared that his research and development of driverless subway vehicles originated from a sentence said by a professor at Stanford University: "Closed spaces create feasible conditions for unmanned driving."

Xu Dandan, founder and CEO of Lagou.com, is also an instructor for this training camp. Xu believes that "for entrepreneurs, there is no distinction between good and bad opportunities. The epidemic just pressed the pause button, but it allowed more traditional industries to embrace the internet." 

Lagou.com is an internet talent recruitment platform with more than 700,000 corporate users and more than 20 million job seekers. The institution "connected" many companies during the epidemic and launched training services for applicants. 

Xu's previous entrepreneurial experience made him realize that "organizational management is particularly important for a company." Therefore, during his training sessions, he will offer courses on organization management.

The 42 trainees who participated in this training camp were all selected from the 10th batch of Golden Seed Enterprises. 

Among them are overseas students, returned scientists, multi-award-winning university entrepreneurs, researchers who have come out of universities, corporate executives with rich industrial backgrounds and designers who won the Red Dot Design Award. 

Their companies involve information technology, intelligent manufacturing, life sciences and new materials and other fields.

CentralCloudIV is an academic company established by the Beijing Institute of Technology to implement the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. It is committed to promoting the industrialization of uncrewed vehicles and intelligent transportation. 

As a college student entrepreneur, Guan Chaowen, the company's co-founder, is the youngest student in this training camp. He hopes that "technology SMEs can develop better with the help of the Golden Seed Training Camp."

In the future, the Golden Seed Training Camp will begin promoting regular operation, establishing a training system, strengthening team building and assisting enterprise development. It will continue improving the quality of training and effectively helping Golden Seed companies solve the difficulties and problems of the development process.