A man with light in his eyes
What kind of person should he be?
The K-MAN brand is well known in off-road circles. The price of the product is not low, the sales volume is not small, the boss should be a rich man.
But is it possible that there is really a kind of person who does things and does business purely out of research and love, rather than putting money first?
I don't know if it's possible, but people who know him well say he is.
His name is Jiang Taiyun, and he founded the K-MAN brand.
What kind of story should he have?
1
The career path of the polytechnic man
The beginning of the story is the same.
An engineering man majoring in machinery, after graduation, naturally entered an international top manufacturing brand and rose all the way. This brand is a shock absorber.
Out of interest and love for machinery, in the era of "part-time work", he understood the technology of shock absorbers and the upstream and downstream industrial chains.
"Feel it" is not for anything, but simply to figure out this product, just like doing projects and experiments in college.
After touching the doorway, he felt that he was "OK" and wanted to do more.
It seems that every entrepreneur can tell such a story - when he feels that he has "done", he is poured a basin of cold water. And like every entrepreneur who can tell such a story, the person who spilled this basin of water was Jiang Taiyun's boss at that time.
Jiang Taiyun proposed to the boss several times that he hoped to do some innovative products developed independently, and the boss just felt that this young man was a bit "not doing business".
Young people need to prove themselves. Opportunities are not uncommon for those who are ready.
A well-known off-road racer complained to Jiang Taiyun, who was still a "working boy" at the time, that he could not find a suitable racing shock absorber: "One is more than ten thousand, and one car needs eight, but the performance is not the best at spending so much money." The racer's next sentence is: "Aren't you just a shock absorber, can you make us a set of racing shock absorbers?" ”
This dialogue took place in 2009.
2
The young man decided to go to sea
In 2010, Jiang Taiyun officially left his post.
There is no background or funds, and what to do is still a technical gap in the Chinese market, and even parts suppliers cannot find it. And that's how he started.
"I was young at that time, and I didn't think about what the future would be like. Just wanting to do technology, is a state of love and a little idealism, a little fearless. ”
The young man who resigned and went to the sea moved to Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province— a friend who had a yard in the countryside where he could develop shock absorbers at the lowest cost of living.
Here, he experienced countless times of pushing and turning over, countless times of being stretched.
In November 2011, he successfully developed the first generation of K-MAN event shock absorbers.
The original products were naturally a little immature, but when it came to that time, Jiang Taiyun was still very proud: "At that time, other shock absorbers were only unregulatable, or there was only one compression adjustment, but we made products that support compression adjustment and rebound adjustment." ”
After making the first set of products, Jiang Taiyun nervously carried 8 shock absorbers from Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, and took a night bus to Linyi, Shandong Province, and gave it to the racers to test drive.
The story that follows is that the racer drove a car with eight K-MAN shock absorbers and got a good result in the race. For the desperate Jiang Taiyun and the newborn calf K-MAN brand, this "good result" is too important, it determines whether he can go down, and in what direction.
Today, it seems that this brand has of course gone down, and the direction is also very clear - Jiang Taiyun and K-MAN officially filled the technical gap of off-road racing shock absorbers in the Chinese market and embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.
3
"The bet was won"
The road to entrepreneurship is not easy to go.
But Jiang Taiyun recalled the state of work in those years, and he is still excited to miss: "At that time, it was not engaged in research and development, or it was collecting data for test drives and races. All year round all over the country running around the field, very tanned, always gray-headed, it is indeed hard, but really do not feel tired, just think about how to make a good product, full of energy. Moreover, in those years, I also took the opportunity to see the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, and I also went to many countries..."
In 2012, K-MAN participated in China's most brutal cross-country rally for the first time, the Ring Tower.
Since then, he and they have often appeared at top domestic and international competitions, up to Dakar. He and the occasions they often appeared, more and more cars used K-MAN shock absorbers.
In 2020, Han Wei drove the "Hornet" equipped with k-MAN shock absorbers into Dakar, breaking through the best ever chinese drivers in the Dakar arena – and an unprecedented Chinese brand in the Dakar arena.
Hanwei racing cars with K-MAN shock absorbers | Hanwei racing cars in Dakar
The "exodus" of that year was somewhat gambling. But Jiang Taiyun has realized his long-cherished wish to represent China's scientific and technological manufacturing and stand on the global technology stage.
He "bet" to win.
4
"Fame"
Chance once again pampered the prepared one.
In 2012, there were off-road enthusiasts who saw K-MAN shock absorbers on the field and felt very good, so they found Jiang Taiyun and asked if they could make some nitrogen shock absorbers for civilian off-road vehicles.
At that time, many off-road players really understood off-road technology, and communicated with them Jiang Taiyun had the feeling of encountering Zhiyin. The modification market was also in full swing at the time, and he decided to bring the shock absorber technology of racing cars to the civilian off-road market.
In February 2013, K-MAN completed the development of the Jeep Wrangler shock absorber. The trial was a heavy player who liked intense driving and didn't care too much about comfort, so the feedback at the time was "OK, good".
As a result, the first generation of products began to be invested in the civilian car market.
Jiang Taiyun clearly remembers that the first set of products sold for 15,300 yuan: "At that time, I was particularly happy to get money, because there was no money at that time, and the payment for parts was in arrears. ”
This 15,300 yuan is quite expensive, but it is not easy to earn. Because the product is derived from the event damper, the installation and commissioning are very demanding for technicians. Jiang Taiyun has to do his own research and development, testing, and often works as a technician to do assembly, which is very hard to listen to.
Jiang Taiyun, who understands technology and is not afraid of hard work, stumbled and stumbled, and with K-MAN in the civilian off-road market, it is also considered to be "famous".
5
Passing the "big hurdle"
Those well-known "entrepreneurs" can tell a few thrilling ups and downs, and Jiang Taiyun is the same.
Shortly after "fame and fame", Jiang Taiyun "overturned". This "rollover" has written off the enterprise and pride that he has built up so hard.
To this day, people still bring up that story.
The key word is "oil spill".
The ins and outs of the oil spill have long been determined. What everyone can't see is that Jiang Taiyun gritted his teeth, laughed, refunded users and dealers, and recovered a large number of waste products that had no use value - exhausting all the funds and losing all the word of mouth.
Jiang Taiyun, who has been in business for 6 years, has returned to the starting point - carrying the reputation of "oil leakage", and K-MAN's brand power seems to be lower than the point.
Therefore, someone advised Jiang Taiyun to "not give up K-MAN to set up a new signboard, so that the loss will be smaller."
But he was reluctant and even more reluctant: "In the field of shock absorbers, China needs a brand that represents China's level of scientific and technological manufacturing to stand on the world stage." Koeman wants to become this brand and become the pride of "Made in China" to the world. I love the industry, it's something I'm going to do for the rest of my life, and I want to be open and authentic. Then I should get up from where I fall. ”
Later in the story we all know, he got up.
6
The ingenuity is as good as ever
Jiang Taiyun has maintained a high-frequency and enthusiastic working state so far, stationed in the factory, and basically works more than 16 hours a day.
He prefers to be an "engineer" rather than a "boss", preferring to go to production floors and laboratories to improve performance at every nuance rather than deal with management and finance.
The interview was conducted in the spacious office of chairman K-MAN. "Wide" is not entirely because of his status as chairman, but he needs more than a wide desk to place the parts and drawings of the shock absorber, and there are all kinds of "iron lumps" in all corners of the ground.
He gushed to each visitor, and introduced these parts that the laymen could not understand, from what country they imported, what advantages the parameters were, why our country could not create such a thing, how "we" had made progress in performance indicators...
Jiang Zong must be a rich man. His products don't sell cheaply, his products don't sell low, his factory footprint is comparable to FOX, and the number of workers in his factory is also comparable to FOX.
But everything he talked about, everything he was passionate about, everything he pursued, didn't touch on the word "money," not even as an entrepreneur, he didn't even say the word "profit." But I would never believe he didn't care about profits.
Perhaps, this is another subject he studied in the dead of night.
Interview Notes
When he inadvertently mentioned what his biggest hobby was after work, Jiang Taiyun was stunned.
Because we obviously want to ask about the leisure and entertainment projects we like, but he can only think of "engaging in scientific research, technology research and development is my greatest pleasure."
Even playing off-road, he said he liked it, but under questioning, he understood that what he said he liked was actually to feel the shock absorber through the off-road vehicle, rather than wanting the off-road itself.
"If I don't have to deal with company affairs and just let me do research and development, then I will always be energetic and I will not feel tired at all, and it is a lot of fun to soak in the laboratory to study technology." Jiang Taiyun's eyes shone when he said these words, and people had to be touched by his love of technology.
Remember the "idea" at the beginning of the article: "Is it possible that there is really a kind of person who does things and does business purely out of research and love, rather than putting money first?" ”
He probably is.