Xiao Hong: The Founder of Manus and His Entrepreneurial Story 206

Xiao Hong, nicknamed 小红 (Xiaohong), English name Red, born in 1992, graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a major in Software Engineering. He is a young serial entrepreneur who has been consistently focused on AI technology and product development.

Xiao Hong, Founder & CEO of Monica/Manus, serial entrepreneur

Entrepreneurial Journey

Nightingale Technology (founded in 2015)

In 2015, Xiao Hong founded Nightingale Technology and launched two products: YiBan Assistant and WeiBan Assistant. These primarily target WeChat Official Account operators, providing editing and data analysis tools, cumulatively serving over 2 million B-end users. Nightingale Technology received hundreds of millions of yuan in investment from well-known institutions including Tencent and ZhenFund.

Monica (founded in 2022)

In 2022, Xiao Hong founded the "Butterfly Effect" company and launched the AI browser plugin Monica. This is an all-in-one AI assistant, initially launched as a browser plugin, integrating mainstream large models such as Claude 3.5 and DeepSeek, capable of performing chat, translation, and copywriting processing functions. Monica focused on overseas markets in its early stage, with user numbers breaking the million mark, becoming a leading product in the AI plugin space. In 2023, Monica acquired the ChatGPT for Google browser plugin tool and operated it together with Monica as part of its product matrix.

Manus (released in 2025)

In March 2025, Xiao Hong released Manus, the world's first true general-purpose AI Agent. It can independently think, plan, and execute complex tasks, delivering complete results directly. In the authoritative GAIA benchmark test, Manus achieved SOTA (State-of-the-Art) results, with performance far surpassing comparable products from OpenAI.

Technical Philosophy

Manus adheres to the technical philosophy of "less structure more intelligence," believing that when data is high-quality, models are powerful, and architecture is flexible, AI capabilities will naturally emerge.

Company and Team

Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology Co., Ltd.

It is the operating entity for Monica, established in April 2022. In 2023, Xiao Hong transferred the company's equity to Feng Qionghua and Xue Fengying.

Beijing Red Butterfly Technology Co., Ltd.

Established in July 2023, wholly owned by Butterfly Effect (Hong Kong) Limited.

Xiao Hong's entrepreneurial journey in the AI field demonstrates his keen insight and strong执行力 (execution capability) in this domain. The release of Manus represents his new breakthrough in the field of AI autonomous intelligence.