dkrc Chapter 40 New Year Defense Line
Chapter 40 New Year Defense Line
January 3, 2017, the first working day after the New Year.
Su Chen sat in his office, a title written on the whiteboard in front of him:
[Key Objectives for Q1 2017]
three things.
I. Consumer-grade: Monthly sales are stable at over 2,500 units, and the dealer network has expanded to six major regions across the country.
II. Plant protection grade: HY-AG completes small-batch trial production and achieves the first batch of commercial delivery.
III. Technical Reserves: Complete the flight control architecture design for the next generation of F2 products (codename F3) – based on the technical disassembly of Mavic Pro.
The third item was initiated by Su Chen in the virtual disassembly lab on New Year's Eve.
DJI's Mavic Pro is set to officially launch in the first half of this year. This foldable consumer drone will completely reshape the industry landscape—its portability, image quality, and flight control capabilities will leave most mid-to-low-end manufacturers with no room to survive.
Su Chen had no intention of directly competing with DJI—that would be suicidal. What he wanted to do was to understand DJI's technological direction in advance and then find the gaps it had left.
The core selling points of the Mavic Pro are portability and image quality. It targets individual consumers—travelers, vloggers, and selfie takers.
Hongyuan's clients are small businesses in county towns—wedding companies, real estate agencies, and scenic area promoters. These people don't need portability; they need stability, durability, ease of use, and low cost.
The two customer groups have almost no overlap.
This is the gap.
But the gap won't last forever. DJI will eventually turn around and reap the rewards in the low-to-mid-end market. Su Chen needs to secure Hongyuan's customer base tightly enough, deepen its service and channels sufficiently, and maintain the technological advantage in flight controllers before that day arrives.
At the same time, the crop protection line must produce products and generate revenue as soon as possible. Consumer-grade products are the foundation for survival, but crop protection products represent the true future.
Su Chen put down his pen and picked up his phone to take a look.
There are three unread messages.
The first message comes from Meng Xiaoxi: Four new distributors in East China have signed contracts and will begin distributing goods this month.
The second suggestion comes from Zhang Lei – Xiao Chen, a newly recruited flight control engineer, proposed an optimization suggestion for the F2 firmware's energy-saving mode. The solution is feasible and testing has already begun.
The third point comes from lawyer Fang Xu: Tianying's design patent lawsuit has officially entered the filing process.
The first two are good news.
The third piece of news was the bad news we expected.
Skyhawk was not content with just sending a lawyer's letter—it actually took the matter into legal proceedings.
Su Chen wasn't worried about the lawsuit itself. The appearance of quadcopter drones was highly homogenized within the industry, and the design patent for Tianying was legally untenable. Fang Xu had already prepared ample materials to respond.
What worries him is the signal behind Tianying's actions—the price war failed to crush Hongyuan, the propaganda war was countered by the white paper, and now the focus has shifted to a patent war. Lu Weimin is testing Hongyuan's defenses step by step, looking for weaknesses that can be exploited.
Moreover, Su Chen knew that, based on his memories from his previous life, Skyhawk would make an even more radical decision in 2017—poaching talent.
They weren't trying to poach ordinary employees, but rather their core technical personnel from Hongyuan.
In his previous life, this kind of thing was commonplace in the drone industry. When technological barriers could not be overcome through direct competition, the simplest and most brutal method was to directly poach the other party's technical talent.
Su Chen considered it in his mind.
Hongyuan's current core flight control team consists of six people—himself, Zhang Lei, and four newly recruited engineers. Among them, Zhang Lei is the most crucial.
Zhang Lei is the second-in-command at Hongyuan Flight Control. Although the core architecture was designed by Su Chen, Zhang Lei has undertaken a significant amount of engineering and team development work. If Zhang Lei were to be poached, it would create a serious technological gap in the short term.
Su Chen needs to do two things in advance.
First, accelerate the transformation of technology from "individual ability" to "organizational ability"—enable the four new engineers to independently undertake core development work as soon as possible, reducing dependence on any single individual.
Second, provide sufficient incentives for the team—not just salary, but also aligning their long-term interests.
Su Chen picked up the phone and dialed Fang Xu's number.
"Attorney Fang, I need your help with something—design an employee stock option incentive plan for six people on my core technology team."
"Okay. What percentage should be reserved in the options pool?"
"Within five percent."
Five percent. Su Chen quickly calculated in his mind—post-investment, he held 76.7% of the shares, and after reserving 5% in the option pool, it became 71.7%. Still safely above the 67% red line.
Even if there's another round of dilution in the future Series B round, as long as the ratio is controlled, we can maintain our bottom line.
"Okay, I'll have the proposal ready this week."
After hanging up, Su Chen dialed another number.
"Zhang Lei, are you free this afternoon? There's something I'd like to discuss with you in person."
At 3 p.m., Su Chen and Zhang Lei sat in the conference room.
Su Chen didn't beat around the bush.
"Zhang Lei, there's something I want to tell you in advance—in the next six months to a year, other companies might try to poach you."
Zhang Lei was stunned for a moment.
"Dig me?"
"It's not just you. It could be you, or it could be someone else on the team. After that article from Hardcore Innovation was published, the entire industry knew that Hongyuan had a team capable of developing its own flight controllers. This is extremely rare among small and medium-sized manufacturers. The most direct way for Tianying or other companies to quickly fill the gap in flight controller technology is to poach talent."
Zhang Lei remained silent for a few seconds.
"President Su, I won't leave."
"I know," Su Chen said, "but I don't want you to stay here out of loyalty—I want you to stay because of self-interest."
Zhang Lei looked somewhat surprised.
Su Chen continued, "I'm having Attorney Fang design an option incentive plan. The core technical team has six people, and a total of five percent of the company's option pool will be reserved. You'll receive the largest share."
"The exact figures are still being finalized, but I want you to know—you're not just an employee at Hongyuan; you're a partner in this company. As the company grows, your earnings will go beyond your monthly salary."
Zhang Lei listened quietly for a while before speaking.
"Mr. Su, to be honest, from the day you presented the F2 flight control architecture to me, I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere else."
His tone was calm, with the unpretentious sincerity characteristic of a technician.
"It's not about the money. It's about what I can learn here—those flight control solutions in your head—that you can't find anywhere else. I wouldn't go to Skyhawk even if they offered me three times the salary, because all I'd do there would be adjusting parameters for generic solutions. What's the point?"
Su Chen looked at him, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
"We'll proceed with the stock options," Su Chen said. "Loyalty is loyalty, and self-interest is self-interest. We need both for the company to go far."
Zhang Lei nodded.
"There's one more thing," Su Chen's tone switched to work mode, "What percentage of the daily development work can the four new engineers handle independently now?"
"About 60%. Xiao Chen is the strongest; he can already independently develop and test firmware modules. The other three still need me to mentor them for a while."
"The goal is to reach 90% within three months," Su Chen said. "You and I need to completely free our energy from daily iterations and focus on two things—the architecture design of F3 and the commercialization of HY-AG."
"F3?" Zhang Lei's eyes lit up.
"Yes. DJI's Mavic Pro will be released in the first half of the year. It will reshape the consumer market. We need to plan ahead for the next generation of the F2—not to compete with DJI on specifications, but to build deeper barriers to entry for customer groups that DJI doesn't reach."
"What's the specific direction?"
"Two words—durable." Su Chen wrote a word on the whiteboard. "The Mavic Pro is a precision electronic product for travelers. Our F3 is a production tool for small business owners in county towns. It needs to be as robust as a tractor—drop-resistant, waterproof, wide-temperature range, and low-maintenance. The flight control system's job is to maintain stability in harsh environments, which is something the Mavic Pro doesn't concern itself with at all."
Zhang Lei thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"I understand this approach. The Mavic Pro prioritizes lightness and agility, while we prioritize ruggedness and stability. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive."
"Yes. They don't conflict, but they don't overlap either. That's our living space."
The two discussed the details for another half hour. When Zhang Lei left the meeting room, his steps were lighter than when he came in.
Su Chen sat alone in the conference room for a while.
He wrote a line of small characters on the whiteboard:
[Talent Defense Line > Technology Defense Line > Market Defense Line]
Technology can be dissected, imitated, and surpassed. Markets can be impacted by price wars. But a cohesive team with shared interests and a passion for technology—that's the hardest thing to replicate.
In his fifteen years as a product manager in his previous life, Su Chen had witnessed too many companies collapse due to the loss of their core teams. He wouldn't let that happen to Hongyuan.