In 2011, I took over a network management system. The old system used bio, and the number of threads was too large and uncontrollable. So the command received was to use nio to rewrite the system (rewrite, not refactor), and it was not allowed to use another network programming framework that was widely used at the time.

Looking back on this decision now, isn’t this just asking me to get a t-io out? (t-io was called talent-nio in the early years.) Every time I think of this, I inexplicably admire the faculty at that time. As early as 2011, I knew that I was going to get a t-io out and use the network management project to achieve me in advance.

Well, this is how t-io was when he was a little tadpole, like any other adult, thin, loose, flat, and regular.

Time came to 2017, t-io hid in Hezhou, Xiniu, and grew up lewdly for 6 years. Master felt that this hairy child should go down the mountain and roam around, so he issued a public announcement in Open Source China “talent-aio 1.0.0 official version, which is eagerly awaited. “Begin to Come Out”, although the writing is shy and tender and ugly, but driven by the torrent of open source China, this article miraculously stirred up thousands of waves, causing countless ape friends to bow down and leave messages.

So far, t-io has gradually become famous in the circle of open source China, from a user of traffic to a creator of traffic.

For over a year, t-io was undocumented. In those days, engineers who loved t-io could only master t-io through a few demos. Even under such difficult conditions, it did not stop the popularity of t-io. Therefore, a friend ridiculed t-io and said: “The documentation is not good, the demo is used to collect, one collects the city, the second collects the country, and the third collects all living beings in the world”, which indirectly shows that t-io is easy to use and robust.

However, open source products without documentation always feel the smell of shortcomings. After collecting the voices of users who desire documentation, they begin to write documentation.

Before writing the document, the author first inspected the document experience of major well-known open source products, and decided to independently design a document editing and document reading platform.

After the document writing platform was completed, the t-io document was officially written. After staying up late for more than a month, the t-io document was officially launched.

t-io documentation

It should have been a day of cheers, but a few happy and a few sad – because the documentation is paid. Everyone exclaimed: “The author of t-io doesn’t play cards according to common sense, how can there be an open source product that charges for documentation”. The online criticism of t-io has reached its peak, which is amazing. The author has yet to understand why this behavior of you wanting, not buying or selling by force, has attracted such a tsunami of complaints and abuse.

Half is ice and the other half is fire. Facts have proved that many excellent engineers are willing to pay for knowledge, many engineers are willing to donate to t-io for free, and many users are willing to stand up for t-io.

(For classic battles, see:https://www.oschina.net/question/2617937_2243270)

Right and wrong have their own public opinion, and later generations comment on merits and demerits. t-io may have created a precedent for paying for open source product documentation. When it is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, it can only be handed over to time.

t-io’s entrepreneurial journey started with a circle of friends at midnight. Maybe gods like to check the circle of friends in the world at midnight.3 minutes after posting this circle, I received a ringtone from the magic capital: “Remove all terms against t-io and invest in t-io now”. Because of insomnia, I posted a circle of friends, and God gave me a spell to start a business? Now that you are on the path of entrepreneurship, let’s be a happy grand monkey.

The creator has no intention, the viewer has the intention, a big business case triggered by a circle of friends

On December 20, 2019, Hangzhou Titan Cloud Technology Co., Ltd. was officially established with the help of many predecessors. Special thanks to Zhang Jing, the founder of Niuba Yunbo, for always cheering me on, providing free office space and other basic knowledge needed for starting a business.

Mao kid went down the mountain, but he never stopped missing his master for a moment. The only way to relieve his worries was to talk. The first commercial product after starting a business is Tan Chat. With this tool, no matter where you are, you can chat with the people you miss.

Although the product is good, the products with the same function have long been flooded (the same performance is different, but many customers cannot identify the quality), how to differentiate and exchange for food money is a waste of money, and our strategy for this. It is to destroy the world and provide all the source code, so that customers can have no worries. Many friends think that we are drinking poison to quench thirst and fish.

actually not. t-io’s open source experience tells me that the cake of network programming is big enough and there are enough customization requirements. It is almost impossible to use one product to adapt to all products. The jade, and then use t-io’s incomparably powerful dragon-slaying ability to take these jades one by one as their own, this is the highest realm in business: altruism and self-interest.

Looking back, the strategy of “fishing while exhausting the water” allowed us to win cash flow. The company survived hard, and there is hope for survival!

In fact, on November 6, 2020, the company held an internal meeting and decided to dissolve within the next 15 days. Who would have thought that I posted a Moments about Tan Liao that night, and then a customer left a message in the Moments to inquire about Tan Liao, and the company got a crucial order by magic, so that the company did not prematurely die prematurely. When you want to do something, even the circle of friends will help you.

Tan chat interface, the left is the Web version interface, the right is the App interface

The reality that the company almost died gave the helms a serious sense of crisis, and it was put on the agenda to enter the broader IOT field, and it is estimated that it will take 3 years to make a profit in the IOT field. The difficult process is already doomed, so first build up the necessary cluster capabilities in the IOT field, so that even if the company has not survived for three years, at least it has accumulated enviable cluster products.

One thought of the devil and one thought of the angel, the company developed tio-cluster (t-io cluster) under such “desperate” circumstances.

When I was developing the cluster, I never thought of making a profit through the cluster, because it was just a necessary cornerstone of IOT at the beginning of the project. If IOT did not come out, it would be impossible to make a profit.

Surprisingly and fortunately, the company used the cluster for Tan Chat in order to try out the knife. This genius idea of ​​pure technical thinking was originally just to demonstrate the powerful capabilities of t-io and Tan Chat, but later the market told everyone that the IM cluster is still a rarity, and a cluster order thrown by a telecom company made the The company has earned enough cash flow to support it for 3 years.

It is really intentional to plant flowers and tender feelings, and to plant willows and willows unintentionally.

Message routing of t-io cluster

Benefiting from the good reputation and traffic of t-io, Tan Liaohe and the cluster have obtained an unexpected number of orders and generated sales that are the envy of 97% of startup technology companies.

A friend in Shenzhen was keenly aware of something, and introduced the company to one of the original members of ZOOM. The two parties recalled in a small box.The history of ZOOM, the vision of the future of t-io, and the unconditional investment in t-io.

During the trip to Suzhou, the angel investment was finalized during the chat

With the addition of the sentimental angel, the company is more determined to take the route of “products that are difficult to do but meaningful and have technology”.

There are two flowers, one on each side. Interspersed with the story of the sentimental angel, we will go back to the IOT field. After all, the angel invests in the future, and our future is the IOT.

If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools. To play a role in the IOT field, easy-to-use and easy-to-use testing tools are indispensable, and TiOMQ Client came into being. Interested friends can try it out:

http://122.112.214.244:8088/tiomq/#/mqtt

TiOMQ Client interface

Careful friends may have noticed that the connected server of this Client tool points to www.tiocloud.com. That’s right, we use our own Mqtt Client to connect our own Mqtt Broker, and it is an Mqtt Broker with powerful clustering capabilities.

Mqtt, the cornerstone of IOT, we have completed the research and development of the core part, and then we will participate in a certain vertical field for further cultivation. People have no foresight, and there must be near-term worries. At this time, we have already set our sights on a new goal, which is quic. We will wait and see.

Entrepreneurship is a road without a road. At every crossroads, there will always be some coincidental people and things to guide you to move forward, and all you have to do is to insist on doing meaningful things that can make the company continue to survive.

About the Author:

Tan Yaowu, the founder of Hangzhou Tite Cloud Technology Co., Ltd., the author of the network programming framework t-io, and the former CTO of Niuba Cloud Broadcasting. Fourth-rate programmers, third-rate entrepreneurs, second-rate salesmen, and first-rate pretenders. The previous dream kept the company alive, and the current dream is to fulfill the investor’s dream.

This article comes from the fourth issue of the open source collection “Open Source Viewing”. For more exciting content, please click to download:

https://oscimg.oschina.net/public_shard/opensource-guanzhi-20220915.pdf