GROWTH CASE 19 · THE PRODUCT HAD BEEN EXPLAINED. THEN ITS MAKER SAT DOWN
Four PhD Hosts Spent a Year Explaining the Product. Sui Meizhi Crossed 1,000 Followers in Her First 90-Minute Live
Zhihe Wuyou hired four young expert hosts and saw little progress for nearly a year. On December 3, 2022, camera-shy founder Sui Meizhi went live herself and spent 90 minutes explaining six years of roses and product work.
11 min read
1 public cases · 3 cited sources
Finfold Editorial
Updated ·
Named-founder interviews and brand-authorized imagery · follower, sales, and repeat-purchase figures come from Sui Meizhi and platform-related reporting and are not independently audited. The cover is a frame from a public Xiaohongshu video.
Zhihe Wuyou first hired four young, highly educated, camera-ready hosts. They explained essential oils, hydrosols, and formulations for nearly a year without the expected result. Sui Meizhi believed she was not photogenic and had no live-streaming experience. On December 3, 2022, she sat in front of the camera anyway.
The session lasted about 90 minutes. She described leaving an executive role at a listed company, skin allergies during pregnancy, and the team's six years of work growing Damascus roses. She cried more than once while discussing the startup. Reports say the account crossed 1,000 followers for the first time after that live. It is easy to misread the case as a technique for displaying emotion. Six years of product work gave her something worth saying that night.
She could speak for 90 minutes because the roses had been growing for six years
Sui first experimented with cultivation in Yantai, then brought Damascus roses to Zhoutang Village in Enshi in 2017. The first products appeared in 2020, Xiaohongshu content began in 2021, and she went live herself near the end of 2022. The reported timeline is slow.
That slowness supplied the live session. She could answer questions about the flowering window, origin, and hydrosol while explaining why the company existed. A host who had not made those choices could learn the facts but would struggle to show how the decisions happened.
The PhD hosts were not wrong. They lacked the marks left by decisions
The young hosts could teach ingredients accurately, but viewers still heard a lesson. Sui described spending savings, changing locations, revising products, and finally sitting before the camera. Both forms can be useful, but they do different jobs.
One explains what a product is. The other shows who will answer for it. Her tears are a reported detail, not a script to copy. The reusable preparation is to collect the founder's consequential choices, elapsed time, and failed approaches.
Sales grew from thousands to two million, and the timeline matters
36kr reported that session sales rose from several thousand yuan to RMB 50,000 and RMB 100,000 after the first live. The brand first crossed RMB 1 million in monthly sales at about 8,000 followers. A later Singles' Day session exceeded RMB 2 million at roughly 15,000 followers. Another 2024 report recorded more than RMB 2 million in one day.
These are brand- or platform-related interview figures without dashboard auditing. They do not prove that the first live directly produced later sales. Seasonal supply, product iteration, platform events, and operating support sit in between. Connecting 90 minutes straight to RMB 2 million erases almost two years of work.
Prepare five decisions for the next live, not fifty emotional lines
Put the product history on a timeline and choose five decisions that changed the outcome. For each, note the available options, the reason for the choice, and the later cost. Tell two of them in the live session and reserve ten minutes for product questions.
For a first session, watch retention, substantive questions, group joins, and initial orders. Do not annualize one follower increase. A returning question suggests a connection between story and product. An emotional peak without product questions calls for more evidence next time.
Open the 1 case records and their limits＋
隋美芝
u/种玫瑰的咪咪妈妈 · 知和无尤
Reported result · Followers first crossed 1,000 after the initial live; later RMB 2M session and daily figures are brand- or platform-reported
What remains uncertain · Expert hosts underperformed for nearly a year, and later sales cannot be attributed only to the first founder live
Open the public recordSOURCES
What each link actually supports
- Named firsthandAccessed 2026-08-2436kr report on Sui Meizhi's founder live
Supports the host experiment, first live, follower milestone, and later reported sales.
- Named firsthandAccessed 2026-08-24Interview on Sui Meizhi's first 2022 live
Supports December 3, 2022, the 90-minute session, 1,000-follower milestone, and six years of cultivation.
- Named firsthandAccessed 2026-08-24Nandu interview on rose cultivation and Xiaohongshu operations
Supports the 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022 product and content timeline.
SMALL BET, REAL SIGNAL
Turn one founder live into a public Q&A for the product record
01 / DRAW THE LINE
List five decisions that changed the product and the cost at the time.
02 / TELL TWO
Explain only two decisions and leave ten minutes for user questions.
03 / WATCH RETURNS
Track substantive questions, group joins, first orders, and repeat attendance.
CONTINUE THE WORKFLOW
BRING YOUR OWN SOURCE
Check whether your source can carry a 小红书 / Xiaohongshu post.
Look for a person, a moment, evidence, and a consequence before generating a sentence.
Check my source first