In less than 4 years, this entrepreneur built a $23 billion company and became one of the richest people in China. Here's what he knew that most entrepreneurs don't

Colin Huang is the founder and CEO of a shopping app called Pinduoduo, which is used by as many as five million people in China every day. When Huang's company went public in late July at $24 a share, it was valued at just under $24 billion, making Huang the 12th richest person in all of China.

All of this took him less than three and half years.

While it may seem as though Huang's success occurred overnight, one early investor in Huang's company, Ron Cao of Shanghai-based venture firm Sky9 Capital, says that Huang's foundation as an entrepreneur was decades in the making. Cao says that his firm was extremely impressed with Huang's entrepreneurial qualities, leading them to invest in Pinduoduo's Series B round along with Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Tencent.

Here's what Huang knows that most entrepreneurs might not, according to Cao: