To Create the Soul of a Product, One Must Be Born for It, Leo Liu, Founder of Ennoplus

Global From Asia
E-Commerce Entrepreneur Interview TV Show
Episode 03: To Create the Soul of a Product, One Must Be Born for It, Leo Liu, Founder of Ennoplus

Leo, Founder of Ennoplus

Leo Liu entered the business in 2006, their earliest product is Solar Fountain. Naturally, they want to provide sellers with the strongest protection we can so that they feel safe investing in their products.

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Ok thank you everybody for tuning in.

We’re at the Global From Aisa Cross Boarder E-Commerce series.                                          

We’re here in Shenzhen China.

Today we’re at Innoplus- it’s a solar light factory-and we have with us the co-founder Leo.

Leo thank you for coming.

Hi everyone I am Leo Liu, the co-founder of Innoplus.

Our company has its principal business in outdoor solar lighting.

Thank you

So how did this start?

I heard it was 10 years ago you started this. What’s the story?

We started the current venture in 2015 but in fact we have been in the solar business for 10 years now

We have done many products, such as outdoor sports, solar fountain and LED lighting

However during this 8 to 10 years we found that we had not accumulated too much useful experience

that would help us deliver great products.

So we decided in 2015 that we would create a company with a real vision

I think making a product is more than making something for sale.

The main thing is to make something that you can pour all your dreams and interest in.

and it ends up helping its users

That’s why we created Innoplus

Our goal is to make a congregation of all the creative talent

take the vision in those talented minds for products

and make them into real products

Ultimately this will let all the overseas customers, be it American or Japanese

use our products

Feel its usability and practicality

We hope to create products that are good value and both price and usage

This is our vision

We hope to turn everyone’s dreams into reality

and benefit the end users on the way with good products

Our company has so far invented a lot of new user experience

Some of our products are quite well received by the customers

We think we have completed the first step of this entrepreneurship project

Innoplus in actually a re-imagining from zero for us

A refreshed perspective

made in China
I hope to make more people recognize our Made in China

Let them know that China can make very good products too

Not just Korea Japan or Hong Kong

China is also one of the finest

That’s the story but what would you say is some of the experience that you and your team of co-founders have when you started

I entered the business in 2006

Our earliest product is solar fountain

In the beginning I was working for another company

There were only two people when I joined

The initial intent was to do 2.4G wireless transmission

like the audio devices that we see nowadays

We worked together for a little more than a month

It was in a residential area

There was a solar panel and a pump on the terrace

I saw this contraption that used solar power to make a fountain go

and thought this to be a great idea

a very good product

I asked my boss

“Where did this come from and how does it work”

He told me that this was made by a Thai to beautify their garden

I asked why the product was not continued

He told me that there was simply too few orders

so I took a number of photos of the product

and a self-made video that shows how you would operate a solar pump

And I uploaded it to 1688.com which was the hot thing back in 2006

Alibaba

About 15 days after that

Many clients contacted me, expressing interest to sell this product overseas

I thought it was great

I built a batch of the thing completely by hand

about 200 of them and sent them out

After that big sale, about 3 months later

I consulted with my clients

and asked them where they sold the product to

Domestic or overseas？

They said they sold it on this thing called eBay

That’s how I got to know the first E-commerce businesses back in 2006

Those who started on eBay at the very dawn of E-commerce

As the product sold more and more

Some clients brought their requests to us

asking if we could make other things with solar power

Apparently environmental protection was big overseas

and they hope this ideal of a clean environment would propagate

They asked me if I could apply solar power to lighting or household power generation

so we began to try to make these things

The technology we had was only enough to make fountains

I left that company in 2007

because I felt that I could bring out the product potential more on my own

My ex-boss thought that the only thing that mattered was making money

but I felt that products should change and improve constantly

So I left my original company in 2007

and registered a company of my own called Guangyu Tech

The name was just for a name’s sake

The point was to make hand-made products by myself

Like if someone says he wanted solar power generation, I would make a solar charger

If it was lighting I would make a solar light

Some said they wanted a fountain that could float on the water

So I made the prototype floating fountain that’s selling best now on eBay and Amazon

The design began there

Some foreigners liked to fish

but If the fish is put in the barrel too long it could die.

So I developed a solar oxygenation pump

From my very first venture in 2007 till now.

I have never stopped developing the product.

I think solar power is amazing.

It’s a new energy that’s very friendly to the environment

and it brings convenience to many.

You can have power as long as you have sunlight. It could be stored in batteries.

All your favourite electronics suddenly become more convenient to carry around

Of course there were difficulties, too.

We had many failures, like the time when we received massive volume of complaints

telling us that our tech is not complete

Made in China product no good and so forth

but through extended development, improvement, upgrades, innovation, and stabilization

I am confident that our product have no significant problem anymore.

Even if you do find faults it’s with very low probabilities

At least our customers approval rating is now satisfactory.

In 2015, I was being well along with my partner on this venture

I thought only having a single product on the roster is too boring

I was still just a seller.

The basic business model was still simple retail

while I thought that true products should have the soul of their creator

A product with a soul

is more than just a compilation of metals sand plastics.

It is about looking at a need of daily life

and solving the problem with our product in a truly unique way.

It has to have good aesthetics and good function

satisfy the desires of the users.

We also think the price should be accessible to all

in order to spread solar power to all families, conserve energy resources

which is becoming crucial in this day and age when we can really see an end to our energy wealth

We hope that renewable energy would be more common

and break the perception that it could only work on a big solar farm

It can be used by every family, every person, right down to the kids.

Let them one day suddenly realize that “the light in the house is power by the sun”

“nothing else is needed”

“We only need the sun”

I hope our light spread in both physical and metaphorical ways to every family

Let everyone know that their outdoor could be brighter

and their nights safer.

OK great answer.
It kind leads into my next question
You’ve listened to your market

You listen to the sellers on Amazon and eBay,
And you build your own brand,
How do you choose the direction of your business and products, your R&D, your development?

Our product line now is essential just outdoor solar light fixtures

placed on walls , about 1 to 1.5 meters

However, we now have many new customer requests

that led to us dividing the products into layers

from the lawn and road at the bottom layer

to the stairs and fences

to the walls and the door light

and then to the roof.

So we now divide the products into specialized layers.

For example we have solar wall lights, solar door lights, solar roof lights

and solar lawn lights.

This is the new theme of our marketing.

We hope to section a household, give it more variety

and have a light at every point that one is needed,

bring lighting to roads, colours to gardens and walls

and the sun to every path we walk

The whole environment

Give it a sense of safety and lived-in feeling.

Our safety lights are mainly used in stairways and corridors,

garden fixtures,

and roofs.

Roof lighting is for cars.

When the house owner drives home, there will be a light at the garage to illuminate.

When he takes out the key at the door there is a light to help him see.

Everything is designed for ease and convenience.

That’s our current direction for development.

We also rolled out some new looks

but more of the functionalities are still in development.

Going back to our business models

One is call “Customized Development”

where a user brings to us an idea of the product he needs.

We will then use a decade of experience to make it happen

Give him what he wants.

The second is selling a planned catalogue of products by Amazon sellers

A good example of that would be the Enpore brand on Amazon

This is one of our major strategic partners.

They use their own brand on Amazon but the products are of our making

This has produced good results so far.

We are fairly high-rank on Amazon.

Our product optimization cycle is about 16 months.

Meaning, 16 months after a product enters the market, we will come up with the next gen version for it

because we aim to provide users with better, more friendly product each year.

The process actually resembles human evolution

with its constant improvement and upgrades.

The end user will feel this improvement

and the distance between him and the product will be shortened.

It does exactly what he wants

as if the catering is intelligent.

You are 3 to 5 meters from your door

a light gets lit up above your head.

You can now take out your key and open the door

feeling very welcome in your own house.

All the stress from work, instantly relieved.

Both of our business model

can technically be classified as customization.

One is customization by the request of the end user.

The other is a complete product line

customized for the different countries and regions.

The later takes into consideration what a light in a certain environment should do, its functions and brightness

in order to accommodate the local user.

We’ve talked a lot of business today

How about your hobbies, for fun?

While I do have many hobbies, they all have something to do with products

I think all things can be viewed as products

I like modification of cars for drifting

This is a childhood dream.

I felt when I was a kid that cars are meant to slide across the road.

The normal way of driving is too boring.

Cars should drift around corners.

This dream is carried all the way until today.

My wife told me that I am too old for that dangerous stuff

but I think danger is a part of manhood.

I like modding cars

but now I have a family so I can’t get too overboard with that

Chinese laws don’t give much room for auto modification either

But I am still hoping that I could have one made to my designs one day

regardless whether it would be permitted to go on the road.

So my first love is still product.

I like the creative merchandises you have overseas.

The masterminds really bring their ideas to bear

regardless of the commercial viability.

I think these people are dreamers

and who try to bring their dreams into the real world.

I feel that it is an art to focus on a product, a workmanship spirit.

I think the basic principle behind a product cannot be how much money you would make from it,

It needs a soul

That’s the only way it can woo others, make them think it’s as cool as you think it is

Sometimes my wife says I’m on the 60s.

She thinks I have no life

when in fact the way I have a life is to make good products.

The constant innovation and creativity

That’s what I enjoy most.

If I find a website where everybody is conversing about how to realize their ideas,

I could spend the whole night on it.

It makes me feel good.

I would start to think “could I do it if it was me?”

“How would I have done it?”

I think this is a challenge that one must undertake.

Set some standards into your professional life

Not just saying that my profession is to sell you stuff and take your money.

I feel that’s not how it is meant to be

It’s process is requiring excellence from yourself,

from your products.

Lean to look at products from different angles.

Don’t take the creation process for granted

and bring your passions and desires into the things you make.

Complete the task using your own thoughts and experience.

Product is now more than a merchandise.

So in short my hobby is my product.

It is all that I am.

Even my name card read: Born For Products.

That is my dream

In our company everyone has a different name card line

And mine is about my products.

Cool.

Very interesting talk today.

For the international audience, people watching today, what kind of people would you like to meet?

Customers, partners?

Our current clients are all Amazon sellers

and there are not many of them.

The number is few because we choose customization as our business.

We hope that all our Amazon sellers share our passion for quality

and use the platform to vertically develop the product, make it deeper

Not just taking products from us

and selling them on Amazon

to whoever that is willing to pay.

Our need is in sellers who could understand that

We build a product line

Customized for different countries and area

to meet the lighting requirements for every family

I hope our sellers could specialize,

Understand that a product is in a line of products

and get away from the simple retail of a single merchandise

I feel that everyone’s vision must be align for it to be truly accomplished.

Not all things can be accomplished by having a dream

but a dream is actually your pursuit for the product

It is your soul in the product.

So I hope no matter it’s in America or Japan

Selling from different countries and investigate their local needs more

and help us make our product more complete

bring more users closer to our craft

There are culture difference between our country and the rest of the world

different circumstances for living

So I hope sellers could bring in more information to help us understand that difference

about the facts of life overseas.

This could be great help to our product development.

For sellers, we don’t need many

but we hope to find those who are willing to specialize and ask of the products as much as we do

It’s the only way to better the products

It needs tuning after tuning, not short-sighted busy work.

Alright now for our next segment we have a couple follow-up questions for Leo.

Great interview, thank you.

My question I think a lot of people always worry or wonder

How do you get the investment or the money to start the business?
您是怎么得到创业的投资的？

其实创业至今我们所有的资金还是靠我们将货物卖出赚来的利润
So far, our capital has come from the profit of our product sales.

再次投资，再次投入研发
We bring those back into R&D.

Currently we only have two stakeholders in the company

I am one and Zhang Weibo is the other.

Because of that

we had no trouble bringing back the profit from our latest innovation

and putting it back into the business.

We didn’t take it all for ourselves

at least not personal gains.

Our profit goes straight into product development

So the funds for R&D

is sufficient at the moment.

This way of total investment in the product

has its own reward.

As long as the things you come up with at the end are good,

The risk factor is actually not that big.

So overall our company

is fairly competitive in the market.

My second question is

You have your own brand

It’s great that you talked about made in China, innovation.

Did you register a trademark?

Where did you register and how did you develop it?

So far our product mainly used rebranding.

The brands of products are generally our sellers

We do have our own Innoplus trademark

我们所有给卖家提供的产品都会提供知识产权保护
and we do offer intellectual property protection to all our sellers.

我们现在拥有知识产权专利的国家有美国、欧洲、日本、中国
We now possess IP patent in the US, Europe, Japan and China.

我们拥有四个国家的专利
Basically four major regions.

We apply for patents during the concept drawing stage with ID (InDesign).

When the ID draft is finished there will be a second application,

Then a third when the finished product is prototyped

So one product will have multiple patents attached to it

because it changes during development

and we apply for a patent each time it does

This way we expand the sphere of protection of the patent

make the protection more thorough

Damage of imitation can be minimized

I am talking about some unauthorized copies of our product being sold on Amazon

It is highly damaging to our sellers

Naturally we want to provide sellers with the strongest protection we can

so that they feel safe investing in our products

OK great thanks so much

Thank you