Why Do Tech Founders Keep Building for Over Two Decades?

Wood has spent 21 years in entrepreneurship, experiencing youthful passion and building a tech company that has lasted 13 years.

First startup: Utopia – The Dream of Free Youth

Wood first encountered computers in third grade and the Internet in university in 1995. After graduating in 1996 he joined Xiamen Xinda, working on website construction, entering the Internet early.

In 1998 he launched his first startup, driven by a fascination with Linux, open‑source software, and the book “Open Source Anthology”. He also cites four subjective motivations for entrepreneurship: doing what a job can’t, enjoying uncertainty, desire for control, and disliking being controlled.

He started the venture with friends to create something they could decide themselves, finding joy in building a custom PC together and handling all roles from product design to deployment.

The first product was an enterprise email system built on Sendmail, whose configuration was notoriously complex. Wood and his teammate learned it from scratch, marking a period of rapid technical growth.

1.5th startup: Forced Growth and Split

In 2000 a listed company invested, forming a new company “Langchuan” and moving to Beijing. Wood describes this as a “1.5th startup” because the venture continued a previous project but lacked a proactive choice, leading to passive industry change.

The team grew to hundreds, but Wood remained focused on technology, neglecting management, which contributed to a split when a senior member left with half the R&D team.

He acknowledges personal responsibility for the split, noting that as a technical leader he failed to adapt his role as the team expanded.

Second startup: 13 Years of Continuous Growth

In late 2006 Wood co‑founded a new company, learning from past mistakes but still facing challenges. The team initially focused on technical research, with a strong commercial partner handling sales and market needs.

Key decisions included entering the APM (Application Performance Monitoring) market in 2007, when domestic solutions were lacking, and later expanding to mobile and server monitoring in 2013, despite high risk and initial product setbacks.

Strategic votes were used to decide whether to sell the company during a 2010 acquisition offer; the team chose to stay, believing new opportunities would arise.

Wood emphasizes the importance of anticipating technological trends such as mobile internet and 4G, which guided the decision to persist.

Product Development Insights

Wood stresses the need for early security mechanisms, third‑party code evaluation, and continuous security training for developers. He highlights the importance of SaaS versus private‑deployment models, noting that large Chinese enterprises often require on‑premises solutions for data security.

He believes SaaS growth hinges on data security, standardized trust, and a healthy cloud ecosystem.

Currently, Wood oversees several product lines, with dedicated product managers (often former engineers) handling responsibilities. He advocates “eating your own dog food” – using the company’s own products to gain user perspective.