And welcome everyone to another Smart Money Circle episode.
I'm Adam Sarhan. With me today is Chris Lowe,
who's the founder and CEO of Aurora Mobile.
Ticker symbol is JG. Chris, thank you so much for
taking the time and welcome to the Smart Money Circle.
Hi, Adam. Hello everyone.
Thank you. So I always like to begin.
Can you please tell us your story and how you got to where
you are today? Sure.
So I complete my undergrad study at the University of China and
went on to earn a master's degree in computer science from
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
I have never worked out a traditional job.
Right after grade school, I jumped straight into studying my
own thesis. My first start was a developer
community called Matrix, which became one of the largest Java
developer community in China at the time of 2004.
This experience taught me just how important developer
ecosystem are. Later 2008 I call found their
server software a mobile social engine company.
Mobile Internet was just taking off then and that experience
helped me understand how mobile devices were changing the way we
access information. Then right in the mobile
Internet wave, I started our mobile.
We initially focus on push notification services for mobile
developers, which turn out to be our huge success and lay the
foundation for our IPO. Now we are embracing the AI
wave. We can launch an enterprise
grade AI agent platform to help developers and enterprise work
more efficiently with AI and boost the productivity.
Looking back, every star I have built maybe at the intersection
of a major emergent technology and developer needs.
It's just that, a stepping stone to the next.
Our mobile is truly the culmination of everything I have
learned and refined on the way together.
I love it. So, OK, that's a great story.
You serial entrepreneur like me, by the way, I've never had a
traditional job either, so I can definitely relate to that.
Kindred souls Chris, let's talk about your business or we're
mobile. What do you do and what are some
of your competitive advantages? Sure.
Our mobile is a tech company focus on customer engagement and
AI driven solution. We are listing on Nesta under
the ticket JG. We serve global enterprise
clients with our messaging and marketing automation platform,
engage that and also provide an enterprise grade AI agent
platform called GBT Foster AI. We believe data and AI will
fundamentally change the way business and customer interact,
and we are creating secure, powerful platforms to help our
clients operate with great intelligence, efficiency and
impact. Wow, I love that.
So basically what you're doing, if I understand you correctly,
is you're allowing developers and businesses basically
bridging a gap between AI and I guess a better developing
experience is for businesses that want that and then you're
able to put that together. Is that a good way of
summarizing it? Yeah, correct.
Love it. OK, beautiful.
Let's talk about risk management.
Chris, how do you handle risk as a serial entrepreneur?
You've started many successful businesses.
You're leading Aurora now. How do you handle risk?
And what are some mistakes you see people make with respect to
risk management? That's sure.
So being an entrepreneur is kind of like being a professional
race taker. I have always loved exploring
the unknown and race is a nature part of that.
I don't see race is something to run away from.
Let's say I have learned some hard lessons from taking on too
much race. These days my approach is more
balanced. I still believe in exploring and
innovating, but only if we can ensure operational safety and
resilience. Resilience at the same time.
I was seeing many entrepreneurs make the same mistake when it
comes to risk management, either ignoring basic safety boundaries
or stop exploring out of the feed.
I think both are extremists. A healthy approach is to build a
controllable risk framework and keep innovating pursuing
breakfast that remain within affordable and management
manageable range. Love it.
So next question for you, Chris. Yeah.
Let's talk about timeless lessons.
What are some timeless lessons you've learned along the way
that you'd like to share with the audience?
And so two things I can't bring that always hold true.
The first, always respect the market and always put your
customer first. The market won't accept you just
because you have great technology of between.
What determine how far you can go is whether customers are
willing to pay for what you are offering.
That's why when building a developer platform, marketing
marketing system or AI agent platform, I always put the team
to stay close to real user scenario, understand customer
needs and create a long term practical value.
Second, always surround yourself with the right person.
A great team can do way more than you expected, but the wrong
person can grow even can bring even the best strategy and
resources. In my experience, what really
helped me get through the hardest stage was finding and
working together with with people who believe in the vision
and will be into five way. That's why for me, choose the
right person has always matter more than choose the profit
project. I love that.
And what do you what criteria do you look for for the right
person? Is it a technical skill?
Is it a soft skill like interpersonal relationships or
emotional IQ? Like what are some of the traits
you look for? It should be visionary and share
the same vision with with the CEO, with me and with the
company and elf driving, yeah. I love that.
That's great. OK, next question for you.
What about some timeless mistakes?
Either you've learned, you've seen other people make them, and
how do you learn from them so you don't repeat them.
Yeah, I think the biggest mistake is to.
The biggest mistake is refusing to admit your own mistake.
So a lot of failure failure do come from making the wrong call,
but from not being willing to admit your met the wrong call.
So being able to reflect and looking at things from a higher
perspective is a skill every entrepreneur needs, I think.
Yeah, that's really, really powerful.
So you're saying if you went right, but the data says that's
a mistake, don't stay going right, adjust and go left or go
up or go down or whatever the case is.
Is that correct? Totally agree.
Yeah, love that. OK, next question for you.
Let's talk about leadership as a founder and CEO now of a
publicly traded company. Congrats again on the IPO and
all the success you've had. What makes a great leader, and
what are some lessons you've learned about leadership that
you'd like to share with the audience?
So truly does she isn't about control.
I think it's about unlocking potential.
You cannot make someone grow by micro managing that.
However, you can trust, empower and encourage them.
So they will often surprise you with what they can ask you.
But first that you have to find the right person you can trust.
So and the great leaders need free things.
I think a clear vision and real emphasis and consistent action.
So how how far someone can be a team doesn't depend on what they
what they're worth. It depends on whether they can
make people believe, get them to follow and work together toward
a shell go, I think. Yeah, that's really powerful.
So you're again, it goes back to the vision, I think.
I mean, clearly you're a visionary.
So you look at the big picture, you look at the vision, and then
you want to find people that are aligned with that vision.
So they'll overcome, they'll do the extra work, they'll go the
extra mile. And you don't have to tell them,
hey, go push, go push. They're actually pushing
themselves. Is that correct?
Right. Yeah, love that.
OK, let's talk about adversity. What are some obstacles you had
to overcome along the way, or how do you handle adversity?
And so over the past few years, I think China has gone through a
period of weak consumer demand and slow economic growth.
So a lot of companies have faced there is serious challenge.
So during that time, I learned my team in developing and
advancing our global globalization strategy,
successfully driving growth despite the broader economic
downturn. Meanwhile, the rapid development
of AI grow both new opportunities and new
challenges. We move, we, we move quickly
into the AI space, launching an AI agent platform for enterprise
and helping our clients apply AI in real business scenario.
So looking back, I will say we can successfully complete our
globalization plus AI strategy upgrade and there was no help
being possible with other teens, agility, adaptability and
exceptional execution. Got it.
Makes sense. And then let's talk about the, I
guess the final question. What's the best piece of advice
you'd like to give the audience or your 20 year old self?
Yeah, so, so for me, I were I would say if we could buy some
because for my 2040 years old myself, so be just kidding.
So kind of so honestly I would say trust the power of
technology and in the value of time.
That's how I feel about AI today as well.
I love it. All right, Chris, thank you so
much for coming on the show. Everybody, the ticker is JG and
you're on the NASDAQ and hopefully we'll have you on
again soon. This was fantastic.
Thank you, Adam. Thanks for your time.