She questioned her fitness as CEO, yet built a near-billion-yuan beverage brand
Her self-doubt came from seeing competitors grow faster, making her wonder if she was holding back her company. She overcame it not with confidence, but by accepting her flaws and pushing ahead with thicker skin.
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All enterprises are born toward death—this is her operating principle
This mindset comes from her time living in a Tibetan monastery. She believes all enterprises eventually die—some survive 200 years, others just three years—so entrepreneurship's first step is accepting that companies must die, then asking how to make things magnificent in the finite time alive. She returns to this baseline whenever facing operational pressure or funding volatility.
— Sun MenggeIn 2024, she doubted whether she belonged as CEO
That year was one of extreme self-doubt. Watching other beverage brands grow faster, she began questioning whether she was holding her company back from hitting growth targets. She didn't overcome this doubt by finding answers; instead, she accepted her flaws, thickened her skin, and pushed forward more aggressively on strategy.
— Sun MenggeWhat the market imagines as her billion-yuan brand hasn't actually hit that mark
Her actual revenue is under 10 billion yuan—the real goal is to cross 20 billion first. Her two core products, Wangshan Hawthorn (旺山楂) and Yimi Water (一米水), are each worth 3–5 billion yuan, roughly equal to each other, not yet at billion-yuan-product level. Crossing this gap requires continuously launching new products, not just scaling existing ones.
— Sun MenggeShe dared enter kombucha only once market conditions matured
She'd considered kombucha for years but didn't dare. The market had too much ferment flavor, her fermentation process wasn't stable enough, and consumers didn't understand the category. She entered recently because conditions shifted: Wangshan Hawthorn gave her fermentation expertise, top member stores were already educating customers about kombucha, and the first-place position looked unclaimed—so she decided to compete for it.
— Sun MenggeTwelve billion impressions on a three-million budget: creative content beats media spend
Her Douyin campaign ‘Eat spicy, drink Wangshan Hawthorn’generated roughly 12 billion impressions. Douyin told her that 12 billion topic-level impressions typically costs 10 million yuan or more on their platform. She spent under 3 million. Her strategy: invest the budget into content creativity itself—hire musicians to write and perform earworm remixes, then reuse that same song for secondary distribution—rather than buying media placement.
— Sun MenggeWhen her investor predicted she'd lose first place, she competed anyway
Before launching the product, she called her investor Lao Tang. He told her directly: you won't be able to take first place in this category; I absolutely will, and you'll get crushed by me. She said she wanted to try anyway. She later experienced firsthand how uncomfortable being number two is. This experience solidified her operating philosophy: whenever entering a category, she must compete for absolute first or not enter at all.
— Sun MenggeShe won't leverage capital because she hasn't truly mastered the industry
She has cash on hand but won't deploy it. Before 2025, she was still cautious about the industry—hadn't mapped out the battlefield yet, so lacked confidence. After 2025, the reason changed: she realized her existing two core products aren't the kind that scale through heavy spending. She points to Yuanqi Forest (元气森林) as the only company that reached nearly 100 billion in 10 years—and notes that such organizational strength is almost impossible to replicate industry-wide.
— Sun MenggeMale founders need crisis for awakening; female founders build it through slow accumulation
After interviewing many male founders, she noticed their breakthroughs often come from extreme low points or sudden events—like a loved one's death. They have event-triggered awakenings. Female founders, she's observed, tend to be different: gradual, with many small accumulations that suddenly cohere into confidence and clarity. Her own 2020–2025 was all exploration; only after 2025 did she have real decision-making power. Women's awakenings come through accumulation, not singular triggering events.
— Sun MenggeIn their own words · checked verbatim
I often say: all enterprises are born toward death, just like humans. Some might not die for 200 years, but they're still born toward death.
我自己会经常说一句话 我说所有的企业都是向死而生的人也是一样的 你说有些企业可能200年不死
Sun Mengge16:06
2024 was a year of tremendous self-doubt for me. I constantly felt I wasn't up to it—that my being CEO was holding back the company's development. And when I compared myself to other beverage brands, theirs were just flying, growing so much faster.
二十四年的时候 那年是我 非常非常内耗的一年 我总觉得自己不行 自己做CEO 阻碍了公司发展 然后横向对比 其他某公司的饮料品牌 人家就飞出去了 就增长很快
Sun Mengge22:10
First, we still need to keep launching new products. We don't have enough right now. Like our current state—we have individual products worth 3–5 billion each. That's not a single 10-billion-yuan-level product. Our two core products, Wangshan Hawthorn and Yimi Water, are currently about 1:1 with each other, both around 3–5 billion.
第一步还是要报品 我们现在品不够报 就比如说这个状态 就是一个 三五亿的单品 它不是一个 就是一个十亿的单品的状态 就是我们现在 两个最核心的 万山渣和一米水 是 是大概什么 现在有点像一比一 然后都是三五亿的单品
Sun Mengge29:12
We had this Douyin data point called ‘Eat spicy, drink Wangshan Hawthorn’—roughly 12 billion impressions. Douyin themselves told us that 12 billion topic impressions would cost 10 million yuan or more on their platform. We spent less than 3 million.
我们有一个抖音的 一个数据 叫吃辣去喝旺山楂 大概12亿曝光 那抖音自己告诉我们 像12亿的话题曝光 大概在他们那儿 要花千万起 我们大概花了不到300万
Sun Mengge38:14
When I was making this product, I called Lao Tang. He said to me: ‘You won't be able to take first place in this category. I absolutely will. You'll eventually get crushed by me.’ I said I still wanted to try. He said... well anyway, I really did experience how uncomfortable being number two is.
当时其实我在做这款产品的时候 给老唐打了个电话 老唐当时就说我了 他说你这个品类拿不到第一名的 我绝对是第一名 你到后面就会被我按着打 我说我还想试试 他说那你是 然后呢 然后我确实感受到做第二名挺难受的
Sun Mengge47:18
First, I'd feel bad about wasting the investor's money. My first reaction is to feel bad about it. My second reaction is: if I don't do well, I'm just wasting more societal resources.
首先我会心疼投资人的钱吧 第一反应是心疼 第二反应就是如果我干不好 我就再浪费社会资源
Sun Mengge53:20
Female founders' awakenings tend to be gradual. I often accumulate many small things until suddenly it all clicks and feels coherent. But many male founders' awakenings are usually triggered by one thing. I've interviewed many male founders—it's like they emerge from an extreme low or some sudden event occurs, like a loved one dying. It feels like they have trigger-based awakenings, while females have accumulation-based ones.
女性的顿悟可能是渐进式的 我也是经常会有很多小的积累到一点 突然你就自洽了 但是很多男性他们的顿悟 往往是因为一件事 因为我之前访谈很多男性创始 就是一个极致的低谷走出来了 或者是一个突然的一个事件 比如说亲人离世啊或者什么 感觉他们很多是触发式的 女性是见悟式的
Sun Mengge1:02:22
Figures
| Goodwish overall scale | under 10 billion yuan; target: over 20 billion | 29:12 |
| Chinese wellness water market size and YoY growth | approximately 28 billion yuan; 88% annual growth | 34:14 |
| ‘Eat spicy, drink Wangshan Hawthorn’Douyin topic impressions | approximately 12 billion; market rate 10+ million yuan; actual spend under 3 million | 38:14 |
| Douyin livestream ROI (2023) | 7 to 8 | 38:14 |
| Xiaohongshu organic traffic sales | approximately 60,000–70,000 units | 38:14 |
| Yuanqi Forest's timeline to reach scale | 10 years to reach approximately 100 billion yuan | 52:20 |
How to listen
Consumer goods entrepreneurs, people focused on content marketing ROI, and audiences interested in how female founders handle self-doubt.
24:00–28:00 covers her extreme travel experiences—personal narratives, not business strategy; skip if you only want business methodology.