Jan. 26 (NBD) -- Chinese entrepreneurial idol Mao Kankan passed away amid tremendous pressure yesterday.

"I love you without regret, and I respect the end of the story," Mao said in his last WeChat Moments post Tuesday.

It was unbelievable, and Mao was a optimistic, tough, and responsible person in the eyes of family members, friends and employees, an industry insider close to Mao told NBD. Nobody knew this heartbroken decision, and he just left the world in such a quiet way, he sighed and said. 

An investigation is currently underway to see whether he committed suicide, he revealed. 

Born in Beijing in 1983, Mao dropped out of high school in 2000 and started his own businesses in 2004. 

In just two years, he made a name for being an entrepreneur, and then appeared on Dialogue, a program on the Economic Channel of China Central Television (CCTV-2), as a representative of post-80s entrepreneurs along with two other IT stars - digital and consumer electronics portal PCPOP's CEO Li Xiang and P2P video streaming site Mysee's co-founder Gao Ran, rising to fame in the venture capital circle.  

But starting a business is a game for loners, and is also a marathon and a process of falling down, standing up and running again, and Mao didn't make it this time, Niu Wenwen, chairman of Dark Horse Venture Beijing Technology Co., Ltd., said in a WeChat Moments post yesterday. 

Mao had been serving as CEO of an e-sports joint venture he formed with Zhejiang Wanjia Co (now known as Zhejiang Sunrise Culture Co) in September 2015. He held a 34 percent stake of the company

The joint venture suffered heavy losses, which eventually pressured him to end his own life. 

According to Zhejiang Sunrise's annual report for 2016, the e-sports joint venture didn't do well financially. In November 2016, the firm attempted to raise 30-50 million yuan (4.7-7.9 million U.S. dollars), but with famous movie star Zhao Wei and her husband Huang Youlong's failure to buy a 29.1 percent stake of Zhejiang Wanjia Co in late 2016 through Tibet Longwei Culture Media Co, Mao's financing plan ended up with nothing. 

One employee surnamed Yang said to NBD that the e-sports company is great and Mao was nice to employees. When the company ran into troubles, Mao mortgaged his car and house, and gave his personal laptop to employees when he couldn't pay wages. 

To save the company, Mao even borrowed 1 million yuan (157,639 U.S. dollars) in September 2017 at an interest rate much higher than the normal level, and then he has repaid the debt, according to Zhejiang Sunrise. 

An announcement made by Zhejiang Sunrise in November 2017 further demonstrated the joint venture's financial distress, saying that the entity was in deep trouble because of the sustained losses as well as the management team's failed attempt to secure new investments. 

In the same month, the firm was on the verge of bankruptcy liquidation, and its Wangjing office in Beijing had already shut down. 

In an interview at that time, Mao told NBD that he did his best to address the financial issues. The reported deal between Zhejiang Wanjia and Tibet Longwei brought his e-sports company a lot of strategic investors, but with the abortion of the plan, investors were all gone, he lamented. 

Just like Niu Wenwen commented, starting a business means numerous difficulties and heavy pressure, and it is quite a pity that Mao had gone, an entrepreneur sighed and said.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn