36Kr Offline Meetup #3: How Tech Founders Find New Directions Without Fast Follow

On June 27, 36Kr and NIO Capital held the third 'Offline Meetup: Firefly Hunt' salon in Shanghai, with over 70 founders and investors. XREAL founder Xu Chi, Hydrogen Energy founder Yao Changsheng, NIO's firefly brand lead Mai Kao Pu, and NIO Capital partner Guan Yufan discussed 'how to find direction without benchmarks.' Xu emphasized product intuition as trained muscle memory; Yao argued only ideas achievable within 5 years can build successful companies; Mai shared how firefly reversed negative reviews post-launch through AI-generated image co-creation, dominating the premium small car market. On AI applications, Mai revealed a NIO Life graphic designer used AI to complete a full product plan, visuals, and website in 5 days, merging product and brand design. Guan said he uses Claude to quickly replicate software projects to test moats, once replicating similar functionality in half a day, deeming such companies low-value. Five early-stage projects demoed, including Infini3D's physical 3D large model and Yunsheng's dexterous hand, achieving SOTA in verticals. For entrepreneurs and investors using AI, these cases show how AI accelerates end-to-end design-to-validation, while underscoring hardtech moats still lie in physical-world innovation.