Entrepreneurship” has been a buzzword for the past few years. A fast-changing environment and favorable government policies have drawn many people into the entrepreneur community, including overseas returnees, office staff, migrant workers and college graduates.

Three of Jiading District’s entrepreneurs were educated at top universities and held positions in prestigious IT companies and scientific research institutes abroad. They earned high salaries and lifestyles to match.

However, that didn’t stop them from returning to China to start their own business — Shanghai Hesai Photonics Technologies.

With an aspiration to build the world’s leading gas analyzers, they came to Jiading and started from scratch — from finding investment and founding a company to establishing a research and development team and pitching for clients.

Hangzhou native Xiang Shaoqing, one of the three, said: “I went to the US to learn high-end technologies and my dream was to build a company of my own and make products that truly represent my visions and hopefully help boost development of the industry.”

Attention to detail is one of his many attributes. When he was little, he would spend time observing ants going about their business. Sometimes he would throw some sugar on the ground and watch how they communicated with each other using their antennae when they found food.

After entering college, Xiang chose to study Precision Instruments and Mechanology. The complex codes he had to write and circuit designs he had to create seemed boring to other people, but he found the process fun and enjoyable. He was able to complete the design of an intelligent electromechanical system while still an undergraduate.

Xiang went to the best high school in Hangzhou, and studied at Tsinghua University, one of China’s top universities, where he graduated top among all students of the same major. He won a scholarship to study at Stanford and was there for two years, earning two master’s degrees in electronic and mechanical engineering.

Like many of his fellow Ivy League graduates, Xiang was offered multiple job opportunities in Silicon Valley, the base for many renowned Internet and technology enterprises. He joined Apple and seemed set for a green card and an enjoyable middle-class lifestyle.

But that wasn’t for him.

Last year, he quit Apple and came back to China along with long-time friends Sun Kai and Li Yifan.

They bought one-way tickets for the move, something they had been planning for two years.

In early 2013, Sun was also at Stanford, researching laser absorption spectroscopy. During his studies, he was able to raise the range of gas analysis from less than 10 meters to 100 meters and this breakthrough was what kindled the three friends’ desire to come back to China, where air pollution is becoming an increasingly serious problem, and where they could put this discovery to practical use.

The idea of starting a business was on Xiang’s mind when he was still an undergraduate student.

Back in 2007, Xiang was on a plane to the US to begin his days at Stanford, where he saw a TV interview with a biologist working at the university. After seeing that, he realized that he was going to be surrounded by people who were trying to change the world and that sparked his desire to do the same.

“I didn’t know which direction I was going, but I always pictured myself having founded my own company in China in 10 or 20 years,” Xiang said.

“We want to make a mark in China’s history with our expertise and skills, no matter how small it is,” he said.

As one of the youngest members in his department at Apple, Xiang became a core member of the research and development team for the iPhone 5c.

Xiang put his heart and soul into this project. However, just days before the product was released, there was a problem with the company’s hardware manufacturer in China. While most of his co-workers were on vacation, Xiang took on the task to solve the problem. He booked a plane ticket to China and dealt with this issue.

His experience at Apple prepared him for hard times when starting his own business.

Like many fellow coders in Silicon Valley, Xiang chose to work on his own project part-time, which he was able to do because of his flexible hours at Apple.

However, the most difficult problem for the three was not the research.

“We were unable to find investors for more than a year. Sometimes we came very close to closing a deal, but for some reason, it never really happened.”

But the three stuck together even when the going got tough.

“We were pretty dedicated to our goal,” says Xiang. “You have to believe in your vision like a religion. Most people don’t usually accept a revolutionary idea right away; it takes sometime to grow on them. And we as creators of the idea, have to believe in it first, and not give up on it easily.”

So far, their company Hesai Tech has refinanced twice and received millions of dollars in investment.

“I am very lucky that I’ve found the perfect partners,” says Xiang of Li and Sun, co-founders of the company.

Li was classmates with Xiang at Tsinghua and Sun was at Stanford with him. They’ve known each other for more than seven years.

Xiang sensed that they also didn’t want to stay in the US for ever.

In 2013, after Stanford and Apple, the time was right for Xiang. He shared his thoughts with Sun, who was looking for a way to make the advanced technology in his lab into an industrial product, and Li, whose wife was pregnant and looking to settle in China.

The three partners went on to develop their first product — a low-cost high-precision mobile gas analyzer.

That September, their product drew the attention of the nation’s biggest clean energy distributor, ENN Energy Holdings Ltd. Although they hadn’t finished testing the product completely, they were confident they could deliver on time and, after days of nothing but testing and making adjustments, were true to their word.

Xiang says the worst thing an entrepreneur can do is to make mediocre products.

“If you fail the first time, you can always start over. But if you put out products that are neither great nor terrible, you will be tormented for not trying your absolute best and you will definitely be abandoned by this highly competitive market.”

After a year, Hesai Tech now employs 18 people, many of whom are overseas returnees educated at top universities.

“I am very optimistic about our future,” says Xiang. “I believe in our core competency, and perhaps in the near future, we will become the iPhone in our line of business.”