IN a cluttered single room in a building in Songjiang’s University Town, exciting things are going on.

“It’s a little messy here and everyone is working around the clock now,” Yi Jie said with a shy smile as he cleared a small table for an interview.

Yi Jie and his partner Yao Junxian are poised to launch their Hello Ring product, a ring-shaped digital device that can function as a smart card to pay fares on Shanghai buses, Metro, taxis and ferries.

Their project is funded under the Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates, which helps young entrepreneurs bring their bright ideas into practical application.

It’s a constant theme of the government and a bit of a craze among young people: innovate, innovate, innovate!

Yi and Yao were bitten by the bug. Like many young entrepreneurs, they are full of passion and fresh ideas.

Yi, 23, who graduated last year from the Shanghai University of Engineering Science, quit his job as a programmer in a technology company and started his own business with Yao, 28, who also runs a small financial services firm.

Yi said he got inspiration for Hello Ring from his daily commute to work. He said he sometimes forgot to carry his transport card, and even when he had it, topping it up could involve standing in long queues.

“It’s not convenient actually, and I’ve lost many transport cards,” Yi said. “Then I considered the fact that many of my friends had the same problem. So what could be done about it?”

Yi shared his proposed solution with friends and was surprised by their enthusiasm. Yao, one of his most ardent supporters, became his business partner.

“I think it is a great idea whose time has come,” Yao said. “Most tech products today are smartphone-oriented, and we’re breaking off from mobile phones and making something more people-oriented.”

He added, “It’s like this summer’s blockbuster movies, where the big hero can summon a car simply by pressing a tiny button on his leather belt or turning his ring. This era is about to blossom with advancements in the development of ‘location-based service’ (LBS) and ‘near field communication’ technologies (NFC).”

People wearing the NFC-supported Hello Ring with a mobile payment function can pass the ticket barriers simply by waving their hands. When connected with a computer, a user can top up the card at home, saving time and effort.

In future, the ring will be able to function as a mobile wallet that works at point-of-sale machines in convenience stores and restaurants.

“Payment is only one function of this magic ring,” Yi said.

Carve out the Hello realms

The ring in subsequent generations will be upgraded to a social networker. People wearing the rings will be able to detect friends nearby and send greetings, and they will be able to exchange business card information with one another.

“The ring will flash if it senses one of your peers in the vicinity,” Yi said. “It is going to be more tied with our daily lives in the future, including linkages to household electrical appliances and a home’s access control system.”

This month, the ring is coming to the market thanks to financial support from online crowd-funding. At the same time, some venture capitalists have shown interest in the product.

Yao is quite optimistic about business prospects.

“Hello Ring is our first product,” he said. “In future, we’ll expand into other fields, such as mobile medical services, with new products.”

The pair founded their startup company last December. Their success to date in technology development, production, marketing and business negotiations with the city’s transport department has been quite astounding in such a short time for a new venture. Although their product will initially be available only in Shanghai, the duo has plans for expansion to other cities.

“The first thing we have to do is to test the waters and let people get to know our brand,” Yao said. “Then, step by step, we will launch more products, not only rings but also many more human-intelligent accessories. We want to set up a series of Hello realms.”

Start-up companies have a poor success rate, in general, because many aspiring entrepreneurs have great ideas but no experience in the management side of a business. That’s not true of Yi. He has been dabbling in startups since he was a university freshman. In his initial forays, he started a student gift shop, offered a breakfast delivery service, ran an online shop on Taobao.com and sold summer holiday training courses.

Yao, too, brings strong credentials to the new company. After graduation from Shanghai Jiaotong University, he got job offers with generous salaries from major companies.

Just when his parents thought their son would be sailing along a smooth, assured career path, he broke free in 2014, quitting a high-paying job to start his own financial business operating funds and trusts.

“They didn’t understand why I quit,” Yao said of his parents. “Even today, they remain skeptical about what I am doing.”

Yao’s entrepreneurial instincts were honed while he was still in university. He travelled to Yiwu, a major wholesaling city in Zhejiang Province, to look for business opportunities. With only 10 yuan (US$1.58) in the pocket, he began working for meager wages there, helping managing a store.

Carry on the entrepreneurial spirit

“I just wanted to learn how to run a business at that time,” he recalled.

After his financial services company was set up and doing well, Yao met Yi. The pair quickly saw synergies in their business instincts.

“Yi told me he wanted to build a company that ‘could control the future,’” Yao said. “Who could resist that!”

Like most young companies starting up, money and staff were the immediate hurdles for Yi and Yao.

“We invited people with new ideas to join us,” Yao said. “We looked for people who were willing to work hard and create mutual success.”

The road to success is inevitably full of twists and turns. The young team often worked around the clock. New ideas kept popping out.

“Many young students think it’s cool to be the boss of their own company, but some of them don’t realize that you have to work from 6am to 9pm, not 9am to 6pm,” Yao said.

Yi said he often didn’t leave the company office at the incubation center until after midnight.

“Even then, I could still see lights blazing in other offices,” he said. “In a company like this, I am a boss, the receptionist, the salesman and the customer-services worker.”

Yi and Yao are exactly the sort of spirited youth that the government wants in its innovation drive. The State Council, China’s cabinet, has initiated a three-year (2014-17) program aimed at helping companies like theirs get off the ground. The program offers preferential policies for students, including training, registration green channels, fundraising services, tax breaks and cheap office rentals.

Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates was established in 2006 as the country’s first nonprofit public entity created to motivate college students in technology entrepreneurship.

So far it has set up 20 sub-units, working with the city’s colleges and universities and with local governments.

As of the end of February, the foundation had received more than 4,100 project applications and funded 1,080 projects with over 200 million yuan.

As a result, nearly 10,000 jobs were created.

By contrast, the foundation received 896 applications last year, funding 239 of them with 51 million yuan.

“At our Songjiang University Town unit, we’ve seen a huge increase in application,” said Lin Yang, one of the directors of the umbrella foundation. “With support from the central government, the trend has been firmly established and the entrepreneurial spirit is running high among students,”

Currently, the Songjiang University Town “incubator” unit is assisting about 40 young companies in the technology, services and design industries. It awarded Yi and Yao’s company a start-up loan of 100,000 yuan, with no interest for the first three years, and gave it free office space.

“Yi’s ambition is to leave his footprint in the new era, while my dream is to give young people more opportunities,” Yao said. “But my advice to other budding entrepreneurs is to think twice before deciding to start up a business because it is a bumpy road with a small probability of success.”