Remarkable Youth: Venture Capital Record | Pine Jie: Transforming Security from Defense to Early Warning, Becoming the "Bell Ringer" for User Safety

The 19th Hangzhou Asian Games is approaching, and the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, which hosts swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, and other water events, has entered a comprehensive consolidation phase for safety assurance work. As an important part of the venue's smart security, the "Preventive 'Super Brain' Behavior Detection Module" that detects scenes and human bodies is connected to thousands of devices working in the competition venues and training grounds. Once an abnormal image is detected, the digital supervision platform will activate the automatic alarm function, notifying relevant personnel to handle the situation immediately, ensuring the orderly operation of the venue during the Asian Games.

Compared to the maturity of smart venue solutions, the team responsible for completing the core software and hardware development and implementation services is a particularly young but exceptionally reassuring startup team. "I dare to venture, I can create" is the entrepreneurial slogan of contemporary young college students and also an honest evaluation from the outside world of the Pine Network Security team.

　Let passion and focus become the driving force for a career, becoming a goal-oriented entrepreneur.

Tao Xingyu, the founder of Jiangsu Pine Network Security Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pine Network"), has been a computer programming enthusiast since childhood. Through self-study and research during his spare time, he had already gained practical experience as a "little programmer" during his middle school years.

During a summer vacation, he had the opportunity to participate in a network security drill organized by the provincial rural commercial bank with friends, engaging in a weeks-long "offensive and defensive confrontation" exercise with cybersecurity talents from various fields through online team formation. This exercise had a profound impact on Tao Xingyu, making him realize that network security is of utmost importance. The strength of technical capabilities and the stability and robustness of security defenses are crucial to national development, corporate survival, and the well-being of the people. From then on, network security became his area of interest. While studying at Nanjing Vocational College of Science and Technology, he systematically learned about network security knowledge and systems. Outside of class, he formed the "Starry Sky Watch" team with like-minded friends, focusing on research in smart detection technology. In 2021, Tao Xingyu participated in a national-level network protection action again, where he and his team members provided many high-quality suggestions regarding corporate network security issues, attracting significant attention from corporate management. Invited by the company, they participated in the repair and testing of some vulnerabilities in corporate network security, while integrating the smart detection technology researched by the team, proposing suggestions to shift from control to prevention, which received high recognition from the company. This sparked his idea of starting a business in the field of network security: could he establish a company that provides network security services but focuses on intelligent and comprehensive prevention solutions? "Although the industry generally believes that the network security sector is in a golden development period, the overall market size is still not large enough, and competition is exceptionally fierce, making survival in the market not easy. Therefore, I set two prerequisites for entrepreneurship: first, to be rooted in the industry, as vertical industries are more conducive to customer and experience accumulation, which also solidifies the foundation for products, business, and talent; second, to have solutions that directly address pain points and advantageous technologies and products that can achieve cross-industry expansion, with accumulated data that can create value." Speaking of entrepreneurship, Tao Xingyu stated that it was not an impulsive idea but rather a thought formed through multiple participations in network protection actions, offensive and defensive exercises, vulnerability digging, and other practical experiences.

　　With high-quality service based on product resources, we received support from municipal venture capital and human resources.

"Because we are college students starting a business, we initially lacked accumulation in team, products, and even case studies, so I repeatedly asked myself, what can represent our team? What is our label? What are our advantages and how do we differ from our peers? These questions are also of concern to clients and are often asked. Ultimately, we decided to let our products speak for our goals," Tao Xingyu explained. Soon, the team's strong motivation helped him find the answers during the process.

With the support of top experts from academia and industry, the team developed the Starry Sky Watch system, composed of preventive algorithm software and "Super Brain" system hardware, as well as the 'Preventive' information comprehensive analysis service that achieves early warning and analysis. The applicability and competitiveness of the product in the old community renovation project have also been validated, which filled Tao Xingyu with confidence in entrepreneurship.

Recommended by the school, Tao Xingyu's project participated in the 10th "Win in Nanjing" Youth College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, achieving a top 30 national ranking, which led to Pine Network receiving a 300,000 investment grant from the Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and the municipal human resources bureau. "The venture capital group provided us with professional assistance in funding, corporate management, and legal affairs, allowing Pine Network to quickly enter a period of rapid development. In addition, the venture capital group also provided significant support in the integration of innovation and entrepreneurship with universities, and their professional guidance gave us confidence to achieve good results in more national-level innovation and entrepreneurship competitions," said Tao Xingyu.

　　Using hardcore products and technology to safeguard security, becoming the bellwether of network security.

"From the analysis of industry clients, communities, universities, and parks currently have a high demand for smart security, but to truly achieve comprehensive 'intelligence' empowerment, we must solve issues such as data silos, the integration of scene applications with actual conditions, and the smoothness of early warning, judgment, and processing." After long-term visits to school communities, researching user needs, and analyzing service cases, Tao Xingyu became clearer about the direction of business scenarios and technology development.

Thus, Pine Network directly faced the market, actively seeking cooperation with industry authority companies like Hikvision, humbly consulting experts from industry associations and professional colleges, innovating and upgrading products, and refining core technologies and capabilities.

Focusing on the positioning of being a user safety "bellwether" and the vision of "transforming security from passive defense to proactive warning," Pine Network developed solutions targeting current market issues such as insufficient user privacy protection in abnormal behavior monitoring, untimely warning mechanisms, inability to analyze three-dimensional images, and high hardware dependency, creating competitive technologies such as "smart detection," "scene information integration," "laser point cloud data fusion images," and "general image algorithms," and built a platform integrating thirteen major systems including video, face, human body, trajectory, information release, fire protection, alarm, and early warning. "The process of research and development is also the process of Pine Network combining the market to find the most universally applicable and best three-dimensional prevention solutions, after all, security is no small matter," Tao Xingyu explained.

"High product intelligence," "strong compatibility," "parameters exceeding expectations," and "reliable behavior analysis and dynamic prediction" are the recognitions from clients towards Pine Network, which also motivates them to move closer to the goal of becoming a "high-speed heterogeneous behavior detection system service provider."

　　Deeply exploring the industry in pursuit of innovative breakthroughs, becoming a dark horse in smart security.

The rapid and high-quality development of China's security industry provides an excellent external environment for the continuous innovation of detection technology. PineTech is seizing the opportunity to extend smart security services to various industries, providing customized solutions for sectors such as electricity, water conservancy, and landscaping. "Currently, we are fortunate to be involved in projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project of the State Grid, security for the Qinghai power grid, and water quality monitoring in Taihu. Our 'Super Brain' product and 'Preventive' comprehensive information analysis service have accumulated more scenario data while providing industry solutions, achieving innovative technological breakthroughs in intelligent detection under extreme scenarios and strong environmental interference, as well as high-definition image transmission in challenging external data exchange situations. Customer recognition and our own breakthroughs are the greatest motivation in entrepreneurship!" said Tao Xingyu. In the two years since its establishment, PineTech has achieved tens of millions in business revenue, obtained 6 utility model patents, 2 invention patents, and dozens of software copyrights. Tao Xingyu has also represented the company in reports by authoritative media such as People's Daily and Nanjing Daily multiple times. In 2023, Tao Xingyu will graduate from Nanjing Vocational College of Science and Technology. Regarding future development, Tao Xingyu expressed the intention to continue studying and improving oneself, as "only through academic research can there be a future," and aims to find a balance between learning and entrepreneurship. Today, PineTech has already achieved rapid progress, and with the favorable entrepreneurial environment in Nanjing and the post-investment incubation from innovative investment groups, perhaps in the near future, a young dark horse will emerge in the field of smart security.

Source: Venture Capital Group

Reviewed by: Xue Yao

Published by: You Yi