Exclusive interview with Carl PEI, Head of Global and Co-founder of OnePlus by Jonathan LY, VP of ESSEC Chine.
Jonathan LY: How did you become an entrepreneur ?
Carl PEI: I think entrepreneur is not something you necessarily become. It’s just the way you are. I started making my own website when I was twelve years old. We had a teacher who taught everyone in the class HTML and I just took it from there. Just learning how to get more traffic on a website, doing link exchanges, doing affiliate programs. So I’ve been running my own stuff since age twelve basically.
Jonathan LY: What happened then ? How did you get to develop theOnePlusbrand ?
Carl PEI: I had, when I was fourteen, one of the biggest websites in the world for downloading games for free. It was not super legal. So my parents had me to close it up for a while. After high school in Stockholm, I went to China for a year where I did my own exports. So eventually we made our own brands of MP3 players, put our logo on it, made a whole website and sold it across the world. It’s kind of similar to this but much lower quality and much lower scale. I think it’s just, it’s always been fine for me to be filled with new ideas. When I was in school, everything seemed pretty boring to me. I guess it’s just something where I didn’t really fit in.
Jonathan LY: Fair. Can you tell me more about your background ? You’re Chinese national and speak fluently Sewdish. How come ?
Carl PEI: I was born in Beijing but I left when I was four years old. We grew up, we lived in New York and then Stockholm. My passport is Swedish now.
Jonathan LY: Alright. Let’s go back to the OnePlus concept. How did you get the idea of this phone, how did it begin ?
Carl PEI: So OnePlus, it’s basically, we saw that the phones available on the market were not good enough. Noone in our team was using an Android phone. We were all using iPhones. Then we wondered, what if someone put as much care in an Android phone as much as Apple did with the iPhone. That’s where we saw an opportunity.
When you ask people, what’s the best smartphone manufactured or puts the most effort in the products ? People would say Apple. But we ask, who is number two ? There’s no clear answer. Some people say Samsung, some people say HTC. This confusion can be explained by the fact that noone actually cares. That, is precisely, where we got our idea from. It’s actually about caring about the product and making an Android phone.
Jonathan LY: So you’ve used an iPhone before. Did it inspire you ?
Carl PEI: I’m a huge techie. I’ve used iPhones, Samsung Galxy S2, Xiaomi for a week. I got the first iPhone. So when I saw the presentation, I bought it from my friend in the US. He had to pay a $450 cancellation fee from AT&T. And then he shift it to me, I shield-broke it and I unlocked it myself.
Jonathan LY: Thank you for your reply. Let’s switch to the company now. Headquarters are in Shenzhen but your brand is all over the world. Are you going to expand your offices ?
Carl PEI: We’re pretty scattered around the world actually. So we have a team in Shenzhen, Beijing, not Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore, Bangalore, soon London. So it’s developing and expanding pretty fast. Most of our users are not from China, let’s say, like 80% are outside of China. So it makes sense for us to get as close as possible to our users.
Jonathan LY: Therefore, you’re hiring a lot nowadays ?
Carl PEI: We usually have pretty small teams in the initial location but yes we’re hiring a little bit.
Jonathan LY: What would be your advice for Business School students who would like to get in the OnePluscompany ?
Carl PEI: We don’t have a good program to run someone up. So usually, when a company is mature, they will have a trainee program, a graduate program, an internship program, a rotational program. We have nothing of that because we’re so young and we have to go really fast so right now we need people who have experience, who have already done things before. In the coming two or three years, when we get more established, we can start developing these programs of HR. But right now, we don’t have a lot of positions for applicants who are just fresh out of school and still look for guidance. […]
Maybe, the dream company OnePlus [you’re seeing from outside] and the actual OnePlus isn’t the same right. When you look at a company outside and inside, it’s pretty different because of all the issues you face inside. But once you get a little bit of experience, there’s no gap anymore and applicants can apply to our positions.
Jonathan LY: Thank you very much for your precious time and all your answers. I hope colette will be filled again with more than 18 OnePlusTwo for the next colette release on Friday or Saturday. Anyway, sales have already started on OnePlus.net since 10am CEST and you’re going to give us hot information through your Twitter account @getpeid. We’re looking forward to hearing from you soon and wish you a great launch for this wonderful item.
2015年8月11日，ESSEC Chine副主席李旭平，参加了在巴黎colette举办的OnePlusTwo手机全球首发。李旭平对Carl PEI，OnePlus（一加）的联合创始人兼全球总监，进行了独家专访。以下是专访内容：
李旭平：你是如何成为一个企业家的？
Carl PEI：我认为企业家不是一个你需要去成为的目标，而是一个做你自己的方式。我从12岁开始做自己的网站。当时有个老师在班上教HTML，我就是在课上学来的这些知识。还有学习如何通过友情链接，联盟计划给网站带来跟多的流量。所以我基本上从12岁就开始处理自己的这些事物。
李旭平：之后发生了些什么？你是如何想到发展OnePlus这个品牌的？
Carl PEI：在我14岁的时候，我拥有世界上最大的免费游戏下载网站之一，但是这个网站不是那么合法。所以我的父母强迫我把它关闭了一段时间。在斯德哥尔摩完成高中学业之后，我来到中国，花了一年的时间来做自己的出口业务。最终我们创立了自己的MP3播放器品牌，创建了网站，在产品上加上了我们的logo，并销往全世界。但这些产品的质量还是较差，规模也不大。我觉得我总是喜欢一些新奇的想法。当我在学校的时候，我觉得那些事情都特别无聊，我觉得只是没有找到真正适合我的东西。
李旭平：能跟我们聊聊你的背景吗？你是一个华人，能讲流利的瑞典语，这是怎么实现的？
Carl PEI：我在北京出生，但是4岁的时候我就离开了那里。我先后在纽约和斯德哥尔摩生活和长大。现在我是瑞典籍。
李旭平：好的，让我们回到OnePlus的内容上。你是如何产生做这个手机的想法的？
Carl PEI：关于OnePlus，首先我们发现手机行业的市场供应并不充足。我们的团队里没有人使用安卓机，我们都用的是iPhone。然后我们就在想，如果有人能够像苹果公司对iPhone那样，对安卓机投入足够多的关注，那会是怎样一番情景。所以我们就发现了这样一个机会。当我们问别人，你认为最好的智能机，或者是制作最用心的智能机是什么？人们会说是苹果。但当我们继续问：第二名呢？答案就不那么固定了。有人说三星，有人说HTC。产生这个困惑的原因是没有任何一台（安卓机）真正得到了足够多的关注与用心。这就是我们如何产生这个想法的，实际上（这个想法）就是真正用心去做一个产品，去做一个安卓机。
李旭平：所以你之前用过iPhone, 它有没有给你启发？
Carl PEI：我是一个科技控，我用过iPhone，三星Galaxy S2，还用过一周的小米。当我看了iPhone的发布会之后，我就从我美国的朋友那里买来了我的第一个iPhone。为此我朋友还要向AT&T（美国电话电报公司）支付450美元的解约费，然后他把手机寄给了我。我自己把手机给越狱解锁了。
李旭平：谢谢你的回答。现在让我转到公司这边来。公司的总部在深圳，但你们的定位是一个全球品牌。你们会扩公司么？
Carl PEI：实际上我们在全球已经有较多的分部了。我们在深圳、北京、台北、新加坡、班加罗尔都有团队，很快就会建立伦敦的团队。实际上我们扩张得非常快。我们大部分的用户都不来自中国，大概80%的用户都是非中国用户。所以尽可能接近我们的用户非常重要。
李旭平：那么，你们现在招了很多员工？
Carl PEI：一般在初始阶段我们都是小团队，但是现在我们也开始招一些人了。
李旭平：你对那些想要加入OnePlus公司的商校学生有什么建议么？
Carl PEI：我们还有一个很好的机制来应对。一般来说，一个成熟的公司会有一整套机制，像是毕业生、实习、轮岗机制。目前来说我们没有这样的机制，因为我们这个公司还是太年轻了。我们需要保持快速的发展，所以我们需要有经验的，之前已经做过相关工作的员工。在未来的两到三年内，当公司有一定规模后，我们会开始建设相应的HR部分。但是现在，我们没有很多职位能够提供给需要指导的学生已经刚毕业、没有相应实习经历的学生。或许，想象中的OnePlus公司（外界看来）和实际上的OnePlus公司不是那么一样。当你在不同的位置去看的时候会有很大的差异，因为你会面临很多内部的问题。但是一旦你有一定的经验后，你就能成为我们岗位的合适应征者了。
李旭平：非常感谢你的宝贵时间和你的解答。我希望在下次周五或周六的colette发布会上面能够看到colette有更多的样机（我是超过300人的队伍中的第22名，但手机只有18台）。总之，这款手机已经在中欧夏令时早上10点，于OnePlus.net网上进行发售。你也会通过你的Twitter帐号@getpeid来跟我们分享最新的消息。我们期待你的消息，也祝愿这个产品的发布会圆满成功。