Interview with the founder of E-Motion, Myron Gao

This interview is one that I will forever hold close to my heart. The entrepreneur I have decided to interview this time, in the light of the holiday season, is my father, Myron Gao. He has been and continues to be one of the biggest inspirations in my life. He did not come from a privileged household — he lived with his nine siblings in a small house in rural inner Mongolia. From the hard work he put into his studies, he was accepted into the Beijing Institute of Technology and since 1994, he has engaged in motion control technology, product design, and manufacturing. Now, he flies between China and the US, tending to the various branches of his international motion control company E-motion and his family. So without further ado, I introduce you to Myron Gao — my father, my inspiration, and entrepreneur.

Why did you choose to start your company E-motion?

I wanted to always work under motion control. If I joined another company, I thought: maybe this day I could work in motion control, but another day maybe I will have to work on something completely different. I wanted to always go solely in the direction of motion control so I began my own company.

What is this company like today?

Now E-motion is all over China and America. Both countries have E-motion branches. The main office is located in Beijing , but E-motion has grown into a global motion control company.

What are some of the biggest failures you have encountered in your startup?

The biggest failure is the difficulty of finding high-end engineers and retaining them. We lost some of our engineers in our engineering team due to the huge rise in competition from both mainland China and international companies earlier this year.

What are some of the biggest success stories regarding your startup?

When we first began the company in China, motion control was very new, so there were essentially no customers. No one possessed knowledge regarding design with motion control — including universities and colleges. It was a new direction. So, the biggest challenge was that we could not find customers. There were no customers because there was no market.

We started the business by writing a book. We worked with Tsinghua University to write a book about electrical mechanics. We also designed and manufactured electrical mechanical equipment for the lab classes in the university. We trained more university teachers and students. And in those years, many famous Chinese universities used our technology to train and teach students. Around 35 technological universities used our equipment to train people about mechanical automation and motion control..etc. We got really successful from training more people. This created the market. The beginning was very difficult, but now the motion control market is huge.

What are some of the differences of launching a startup in China and the United States?

Different locations and different times makes the market different. You should use different products and services depending on the market. In China, the market, for example, has more industrial fields. In regards to textiles in China, there is a huge market, but in America the textile market is not too big. On the other hand, in America, the market in semiconductors is huge, but in China it is growing slowly.

If you want success, you should find opportunities and pay special attention to different times and different countries, as the market is different. If you use the Chinese business style go to America, this will bring you risk. For example: since the semiconductor market is strong in America, we should provide high end drives, motors, but in China machine tools and textiles has a huge market so this market needs different products.

What is popular is [also] different. If you bring an American controller to China, but no one is familiar with this technology in China, you will not succeed. Additionally, the Chinese power supply is different from America’s. If you use American designed electro-board and use it in China directly, there may be damage and the technology may not work the way you wanted it to.

The marketing style is different as well. In China if you do good business you need to visit more customers, set up relationships, and make friends. This is very important. But in America, it depends on the quality of your technology more. You can sell this technology at a higher price and the American market will still like it. The high competition in China forces prices down and also demands high quality simultaneously.

What should aspiring entrepreneurs pay attention to?

I think if you want to do something, you should be clear and know the opportunities clearly. You need to have the knowledge. Something that is very important is practice and through practice you can find the opportunity.Thinking and analyzing is not enough. You should practice, and from practice, you will find opportunity.

Second, you should set up a goal and continue to pursue it. Always continue to go this way until you reach success. Third key to success is based on your ability. Your ability can include your knowledge, your skills, and your financial support. Relationships. Anything. You need to know what you have. That is very important also.

So these three points. First, find opportunity, what the opportunity is, and what you want to do with it — this is of first importance. Second, look at what you have and if this opportunity matches your ability. The third is to continue to be insistent in this direction. If you have these three points you can achieve any kind of success.

Written by Yifei Gao | IQ Associate

Editor’s note: This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.