Feng Yanfei: Empowering Diabetics to Smile Through Life – Weitang Files IPO Prospectus
Feng Yanfei, Founder of WeitangWhenever Feng Yanfei travels to Beijing for business, she always prefers staying at a hotel near Jianguomen operated by a friend. In her view, the location offers a serene and secluded ambiance.
This former member of Peking University’s Mountain Eagle Society, who has trekked to the source of the Yangtze River at Geladandong and climbed Yuzhu Peak and Haba Snow Mountain, once served as a technician at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, a renowned overseas life sciences research institute, where she specialized in DNA microarray research. She is now the founder of an internet healthcare startup focused on diabetes management.
Start a Business Before Age 40—It’s Settled
At the time of this statement, Feng Yanfei had already served as Global Marketing Manager at Abbott Laboratories and Vice President at Yiteng Pharma, where she was responsible for introducing new technologies, requiring expertise spanning from technological origins to frontline market operations. She has delved deeply into numerous therapeutic areas, including immunology, urology, oncology, and respiratory diseases. Among these, an asthma-related product emerged as a blockbuster drug with annual sales reaching $1 billion.
In her view, pharmaceuticals and healthcare constitute a promising industry, and she remains passionately enthusiastic whenever discussing emerging technologies in biotechnology. However, she believes the greatest opportunity in the domestic market over the next few years lies in healthcare services. “Constrained by the existing system, the value of services has been suppressed. Drug manufacturing is highly profitable, yet many medications offer limited benefit to patients. Moreover, current drug promotion practices in the Chinese market are rife with unethical behavior, leaving one unfulfilled despite financial gains.” If you have always wanted to start a business, then go ahead and do it. It is truly rewarding to engage in work that aligns with your interests.
After leaving Eton in 2012, Feng Yanfei spent three months conducting market research in the United States. There, she observed Android tablets used by healthcare professionals and gained her first understanding of software architecture, including layered design, front-end, and back-end development. Her trip to Silicon Valley served as a revelatory introduction to the tech world. However, recognizing that her own capabilities were still insufficient, she reached out to Gu La, a senior member from Peking University’s Mountaineering Club. Gu had previously founded two startups—one in mobile payments and the other in e-commerce—both of which were considered successful. As he happened to be available at the time, Feng invited him to join her in pursuing a more exciting venture.
Their entrepreneurial venture began with tablets designed exclusively for healthcare professionals. Targeting the B2B market, they served as the domestic distributor for these devices. “For a startup, this was not a bad choice; annual sales revenue exceeding ten million yuan helped sustain the team,” Feng Yanfei told VCBeat. Entrepreneurs do not always determine their strategic direction from the outset; rather, they continuously explore and test various paths. After returning to China, she and Tang Yuanxin signed a market research contract with a digital health website. Posing as journalists, they visited six or seven cities, conducting observations at community health centers and hospitals. Initially, Yuanxin did not feel particularly drawn to the field. However, after his father and aunt were successively diagnosed with diabetes, he secluded himself in the Pudong Library for a week to study relevant journals on diabetes, which ultimately led him to focus on this therapeutic area.
Feng Yanfei and Tang Yuanxin had multiple discussions with Li Rui, a former member of the Peking University Mountaineering Association. Li Rui, who also served as the former president of Haodf.com, is highly optimistic about the internet healthcare sector. He has personally invested in numerous similar early-stage projects, strictly limiting his investments to acquaintances. When Feng Yanfei ultimately decided to launch Boyibang, a platform focused on diabetes management, Li Rui introduced his former colleague Wu Jiong, Executive Director of Guahao.com. Together with Amoeba Capital, they provided RMB 4.5 million in angel funding.
After angel investors such as Li Rui came on board, they urged the startup team to discontinue its B-side agency products—which, despite generating solid revenue, lacked significant growth potential—and to make a last-ditch stand in the consumer-facing diabetes sector.
Eliminate Pseudo-Demands from Products
During the development of their initial version, Boyi Bang prioritized investment in features for physicians, partnering with Zhongda Hospital in Nanjing and Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai. “Physicians in the field of diabetes have needs in their daily practice, but these needs are often vague. We aggregate and organize them, then translate them into tangible products.”
Product iteration in the internet industry moves at a rapid pace. Feng Yanfei told VCBeat that Weitang generally maintains a rhythm of releasing one major version per month. Each iteration is driven by existing user data, with certain features being de-emphasized while others are strengthened. Initially, Weitang placed all diabetic patients’ case records under “My Profile,” but users were unclear about how to access them, prompting the team to restructure the navigation pathways. In the latest version of the app, Feng Yanfei and his team removed the reminder function. “The value of many product features must be validated by data,” he noted, as their user usage data indicated that reminders constituted a very weak demand.
Regarding blood glucose data acquisition and output, Feng Yanfei believes that there are no particularly mature hardware solutions on the market yet, whether via Bluetooth or audio transmission. “Anyone who has measured their blood glucose just once understands how cumbersome the user experience of existing hardware data output is; the entire process involves at least 15 steps. Audio transmission is merely a stopgap solution with an unfriendly user experience, even more troublesome in some cases. Especially given the lingering stigma surrounding diabetes, manual entry has been made extremely simple by WeTang. Future hardware experiences must be significantly more convenient than current workflows to gain widespread adoption.”
Their product’s operational model has also undergone significant changes through iterations, gradually shifting from a doctor-centric approach to one centered on individuals with diabetes.
Feng Yanfei and her team initially drew inspiration from Welldoc’s business model. Welldoc, a highly successful U.S.-based startup specializing in diabetes management, received FDA approval for its software in 2012, requiring patients to obtain a physician’s prescription before use. For Feng, who possessed an in-depth understanding of pharmaceutical market dynamics, the medical value of such a product was self-evident. The prototype of Boyibang’s product was developed in June 2013 and launched on the App Store in November of that year, initially adopting a model whereby users could download and use the app only upon recommendation by physicians.
In practice, they found that the vast structural differences between the Chinese and U.S. healthcare markets dictate distinct forms of software products and company operations. While the medical logic embedded in diabetes apps offers valuable insights, there is little to be learned from their software operational strategies. In early 2014, WeiTang changed its model from requiring physician referrals to allowing users to freely download, register, activate, and use the app.
Rebranded as WeiTang: Smiling Through It All with Our Users
Prior to November 2014, the company was known as “Boyi Bang,” a rather rigid name. It was later renamed “Weitang” (Micro Sugar), adopting a more internet-savvy and approachable identity. Feng Yanfei told VCBeat that the name “Boyi Bang” had little association with diabetes and focused more on the physician side. The rebranding to “Weitang” reflected a strategic shift, placing increasing emphasis on making patients with diabetes the core of their operations and standing together with them.
People still harbor a vague sense of fear and alienation toward diabetes, akin to the discrimination once directed at autism and homosexuality. “Can you imagine young people hiding in restrooms to inject insulin?” asked Feng Yanfei.
Feng Yanfei believes that in the field of diabetes management, healthcare professionals play a supportive role; the key lies in patients’ own efforts to rebuild healthy lifestyles through learning. To this end, WeTang has devoted substantial effort to identifying processes that can be standardized, such as setting blood glucose monitoring targets, analyzing blood glucose data, and providing dietary recommendations. “Through our efforts, we aim to alleviate people’s fears and help them master diabetes management skills and methods using more accessible and straightforward approaches.”
Feng Yanfei does not consider herself a professional mountaineer. In her view, mountaineering requires no specialized skills, but rather endurance and perseverance. She believes that learning to walk quietly in the mountains prevents one from getting lost in the city. Entrepreneurship is similar: amidst the tumultuous tide of startups, it is essential to stay true to one’s original intention and move forward with determination.
Further ReadingDetailed Analysis of Internet Medical Diabetes Apps
[Overseas Internet Healthcare Startup Case] WellDoc, the Pioneer of Mobile Health
[Overseas Internet Healthcare Case] Pharmaceutical Giant Sanofi and Diabetes App iBGStar
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