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In an office at Yinkun Yunfanhu Science City in Jiangbei New District of Nanjing, Sun Hao, the head of Nanjing Xiaozhuling Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., was staring at the financial report on the computer screen, expressing his deep thoughts.
In 2024, when he started his business in another place, he was once severely discouraged. This AI veteran who had worked hard in big companies like Huawei and Chengmai Technology, in his first independent venture, fell flat on his face – the product couldn’t be sold and the company suffered a loss of nearly 2 million yuan on the books.
“Don’t be afraid of falling. Just get up again,” since 2025 when the company was established in Dingshan Sub-district of the new district, Sun Hao led his team to study the market and re-establish their positioning, and finally, a turning point was achieved.
Now the company has turned from loss to profit. In 2026, it is expected to achieve a revenue of 12 million yuan. Not long ago, they also received 3 million yuan in seed round investment.
The ideal is beautiful and charming, but the reality is harsh and unromantic.
“Back then, we thought that with our accumulated technical knowledge, building a universal AI automation platform would be a piece of cake?” Sun Hao recalled.
At the beginning of the startup, the team hoped to create an automation process tool that could be applied to various office scenarios, attempting to quickly enter the market with the “downgrading attack” mindset of a big company.
However, the market gave this self-assured team a resounding slap in the face. The product was developed, and the technology was indeed impressive, but the customers found it difficult to use and few people were willing to spend their hard-earned money on it.
“Big companies’ logic is to create a platform and let everyone adapt to it, but the logic of a startup must be to delve into the customer’s scenario and solve the specific pain point for them.” Sun Hao discovered that the “big company experience” he was proud of was overly idealistic.
The channel partner system he tried to establish also failed to be implemented in time due to unclear product positioning. Customers always felt: “This thing is good, but it doesn’t seem to be what I urgently need.”
In one year, with a loss of 2 million yuan, it was like a bucket of icy water that quickly cooled down the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of all team members.
A reflective and empathetic rethinking after experiencing pain
○ “Those 2 million yuan was our tuition fee. The lesson we learned was that instead of always focusing on making customers learn how to use our products, we should think about how the products can help them from the customers’ perspective.”
○ After reflecting on the pain, Sun Hao decided to lead his team to undertake a thorough “subtraction”. They no longer attempted to build a complex technical platform, but instead turned their attention to the areas they were most familiar with and that were overlooked by major companies – the laboratory needs of universities and hospitals.
“Many members of our team have technical backgrounds in AI products in the fields of education and healthcare. We are better equipped to understand the difficulties and pain points that professionals encounter in their work.” Sun Hao gave an example. For instance, a professor at a university not only has to conduct research but also needs to write project proposals, guide students, and even repair the experimental equipment in the laboratory that often “breaks down”. These tasks are tedious, time-consuming, and seriously disrupt their core research thinking.
This is where Xiaozhuling Intelligent came into play: using AI automation to help professionals handle the “boring tasks” that require a lot of time and effort in research and teaching.
In a traditional Chinese medicine detection laboratory at a university in Jiangbei New District, teachers and students once spent a lot of time standing in front of microscopes, manually identifying the subtle characteristics of Chinese medicine components. Not only was this time-consuming, but also because of eye fatigue, it was prone to errors. Xiaozhuling’s team went in and used computer vision and deep learning to develop an AI-assisted identification system. This system can not only “watch” continuously without getting tired but also accumulate data, becoming more accurate with each “view”.
“This is what we are doing,” Sun Hao said. “We free professionals from repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing them to return to the core of their research. When our tools truly save them several months, their work efficiency increases, and their willingness to collaborate naturally arises.”
Ran two months faster than the big companies
At present, Sun Hao has assembled a 10-person start-up team. Over 80% of the team members hold postgraduate degrees. The core members come from Huawei, Xiaomi, Hisense, Alibaba, and Baidu. Each of them is a technical expert who can handle their own field independently.
For instance, in the extremely specialized field of traditional Chinese medicine testing, there is no ready-made data set on the market. The team members, relying on their profound professional background, plunged into the laboratory and painstakingly accumulated exclusive, high-granularity industry data and processing experience. This experience has become a barrier that even large companies find difficult to replicate in a short period of time if they want to enter the market.
“Even in big companies, making decisions requires holding many meetings and going through layers of approval. But we don’t have to do that,” Sun Hao pointed out, gesturing towards the window. “We are right beside the customers. The requirements we raise today can be iterated into the product tomorrow.”
This product iteration speed that leads the market by 1-2 months has become the most sharp weapon of Xiaozhuling Intelligent. When big companies are still conducting market research, their products may have already been updated.
Grows upwards on the north shore
○ “Starting a business in Jiangbei New District has its advantages. You can find your partners in the adjacent office. The park here will connect and introduce resources to help you make the best decision,” said Sun Hao.
○ Nowadays, this “small but excellent” enterprise rooted in Dingshan Street of Jiangbei New District has found its own rhythm. In the process of a certain university’s AI intelligent laboratory’s discipline construction bidding, they defeated two listed companies with their product and service advantages and won the contract. The AI automated process platform they built is also gradually penetrating into more domestic market application scenarios.
○ In this innovative forest of Jiangbei New District, Sun Hao and his “Little Pear” team have seized their position in the market competition with a lighter form and more agile tactics. Just like countless “massive” small and micro enterprises we have seen, they may not be large in scale, but they have unique skills. In their own way, they have left vivid footprints on the map of the industrial powerhouse area.
