ONES：在企业服务赛道的破茧与成长

This case focuses on the startup journey of ONES, a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider offering a suite of project management tools tailored for software developers, or, more specifically, how it made strategic decisions regarding product development, pricing, and acquisitions to go from 0 to 1. The enterprise software industry can be divided into several different areas (e.g. salary management, customer management, and resource management), and project management, the area in which ONES competed, was considered a blue ocean market space. ONES’ founder Wang Yingqi is a serial entrepreneur who previously started an internet-based B2C company. The case begins by introducing the state of China’s enterprise software industry, and then elaborates on Wang’s personal growth and his first entrepreneurial venture, setting the stage for the introduction of his second startup. The narrative continues with the founding of ONES, with a focus on how Wang found direction, secured angel funding, developed product strategies, and established service and pricing models. This touches on the key aspects of starting a B2B business and therefore provides a basis for the case analysis. The case also presents ONES’ three M&A deals, stimulating discussions on whether startups should pursue acquisitions. At the end of the case, the following questions are raised: What should the next steps be for ONES now that it had gone from 0 to 1? What challenges would arise from its overseas expansion, and how could it respond to these challenges? These questions offer valuable insights for other SaaS startups, because unlike in the manufacturing industry or many other industries where companies expanding abroad need to build an overseas supply chain, in the enterprise software industry, companies expanding internationally need to consider the cultural and managerial aspects of their overseas clients. Moreover, venturing abroad as a startup is a departure from the traditional approach of expanding overseas only after reaching maturity. The case also includes Wang’s reflections on his two entrepreneurial ventures, and thus can be used to discuss the characteristics of serial entrepreneurs and the lessons learned from their experiences.