The Second Act: Why He Xiaopeng Traded a Gilded Cage at Alibaba for the 'Dirty Work' of Building Cars
Key Takeaways
- Financial success without a driving purpose can be unfulfilling for a true entrepreneur.
- Sometimes the greatest opportunities require leaving a comfortable position to pursue a new, more challenging mission.
- Bringing a software-first mindset to a traditional hardware industry can be a powerful source of disruption.
Prologue: The View from the Top
From his executive office at the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, He Xiaopeng had a clear view of the top of the tech world. It was 2016. He was the President of Alibaba's Mobile Business Group, a position of immense influence and prestige. The company he had co-founded, UCWeb, was a core part of the e-commerce giant's strategy. He was financially secure beyond his wildest dreams. By any external measure, he was at the summit of his career.
But the view left him cold. He felt more like a professional manager than a builder. His days were filled with PowerPoint presentations, budget reviews, and corporate politics. The visceral thrill of creating a product, of solving a user's problem, felt distant.
"I felt like I was in a gilded cage," he would later recall. "Everything was comfortable, but I wasn't creating. I was managing."
Meanwhile, a small startup in Guangzhou that he had personally invested in was sending him weekly updates. They were trying to do something crazy: build a smart electric car from scratch. They were a small team of engineers and designers, wrestling with supply chains, manufacturing, and software. It was a messy, difficult, and capital-intensive business. It was everything his current life was not. And he found himself more and more drawn to their struggle, to their impossible ambition.
Act I: The Angel Investor
He Xiaopeng's involvement with XPeng Motors began in 2014, even before the ink was dry on the Alibaba deal. He, along with a few other internet moguls, provided the initial angel funding for the company, which was founded by a team with a background in automotive engineering. At first, it was just an intriguing side project, a way to invest in a promising new field.
But as he settled into his role at Alibaba, his interest in XPeng grew from passive to active. He would visit the team in Guangzhou, offering advice on software development and user experience. He brought his product-centric mindset from the internet world and pushed the team to think of the car not just as a piece of hardware, but as a continuously upgradeable smart device.
He saw a historic opportunity. The auto industry was on the cusp of a once-in-a-century transformation, shifting from mechanical engines to electric motors and from human drivers to autonomous software. He believed his background in software and user experience was not a disadvantage, but the perfect skill set to lead a car company in this new era.
Act II: The Leap of Faith
The decision to leave Alibaba was agonizing. He was walking away from a secure, powerful position. Many of his friends and colleagues thought he was crazy. The auto industry was a "heavy," asset-intensive business, a graveyard for countless failed startups. Why would he trade his comfortable life for that?
In August 2017, he made his choice. He announced his resignation from Alibaba and his official appointment as Chairman and CEO of XPeng Motors. He wasn't just joining the company; he was betting his reputation and a significant portion of his personal fortune on its success.
His arrival was a shot of adrenaline for the young company. He brought not only a fresh injection of capital but, more importantly, a clear vision. He immediately shifted the company's focus, declaring that XPeng would be a "technology" company that builds cars, not the other way around. He poured resources into in-house R&D for software, autonomous driving, and battery technology, believing these would be the ultimate differentiators.
Epilogue: From Software to Steel
He Xiaopeng's transition from the world of bits and bytes to the world of steel and batteries was a culture shock. He had to learn about supply chains, factory management, and the complex regulations of the auto industry. He would later joke that building a car was a hundred times harder than building an app.
But he brought a founder's mentality that the company desperately needed. He was not afraid to get his hands dirty. He was obsessed with the product, personally testing every new software update and scrutinizing every design detail.
His leap of faith injected the DNA of a fast-moving internet company into the slower, more traditional world of automotive manufacturing. He had escaped his gilded cage and found a new mission worthy of his ambition. He was no longer just managing a success; he was building a new one from the ground up, in one of the most challenging industries on the planet.