Consider the concept of one individual operating an entire company. Five years ago, this idea was almost not worth discussing. The standard operation of a business traditionally required a team, with every function—from product development and technology to marketing, finance, legal, and administration—demanding at least one dedicated role. The notion of a single person managing all these responsibilities was nearly an impossible challenge.

The shift has occurred over the last two years. Artificial intelligence has expanded the boundaries of individual productivity, enabling one person to handle coding, design, video editing, and copywriting, effectively completing the workload of an entire team. Consequently, starting a business solo has transformed from a last resort into a proactive choice. As more individuals embrace this path, a fresh question emerges: what exactly does a solo entrepreneur need to succeed?

In the Lingang Special Area of Shanghai's Pudong New District, there is a building constructed specifically to address this query. It is called Zero Bound Magic Cube. A year ago, Lingang Group launched the "Super Individual 288 Action," an initiative allowing individuals to register a company with full supporting infrastructure. When the policy was announced, few could clarify whether it was merely a slogan or a concrete solution.

Wang Yangyang was the first to provide an answer. Previously, she had spent five to six years working in a bank within Lingang, participating in policy discussions and offering suggestions to the management committee, giving her a comprehensive view of the area's institutional development from the government side. She was arguably the person most aware of what was about to happen in Lingang, so when Zero Bound Magic Cube was still just a blueprint, she signed up and became one of its first tenants. A year later, the site hosts over 330 teams and nearly a thousand entrepreneurs, accounting for close to one-third of Shanghai's total One-Person Company (OPC) registrations. The projects are concentrated in three main sectors: hardcore technology, digital exports, and cultural creativity, with hardcore technology representing 52% of the ventures.

Recently, we spoke with seven entrepreneurs at Zero Bound Magic Cube to learn why they came and what they have gained here. What they wanted was more than just a workspace. At 29, Lu Fengzhao decided he no longer wanted a stable job as a programmer. He aspired to establish his own game studio. In a very programmer-like move, he used AI to crawl information on all OPC industrial parks nationwide, comparing them one by one. "You find that Zero Bound Magic Cube is the most detailed, with a complete set of services including official accounts, mini-programs, and manuals, while some other parks remain at the level of government documents," he noted, having thoroughly researched the place remotely. At the end of June, he came to Lingang for a competition and decided to stay at Zero Bound Magic Cube afterward. "The staff were very enthusiastic, showed me around, and I moved in the same day. The entire process was smooth," he said. The park's policies, such as "3 years rent-free, 2 years half-price" for offices and "first year rent-free with renewal discounts" for talent apartments, along with free shuttle buses and other "move-in-ready" services, have made it a top choice for OPC founders. This low-cost environment relieves financial pressure, allowing entrepreneurs to channel limited funds into core R&D and market development.

Yan Jincheng took a different route. Having worked on autonomous driving at NIO, he was involved in presenting the first ADAS POC to William Li, the first NIO Day launch, and securing the first autonomous driving license. He later followed a mentor to start a hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicle company, and eventually founded Fu Rui Zhi Bo on his own. The company's first product is an AI-following robot. "Since I started working, I've been leaving early and returning late. I promised my family weekend camping trips and vacations, but they were always interrupted by business trips and overtime. So, I created this product hoping it can help more people free up their hands and spend precious time with family, enjoying life. The current product can assist during camping and shopping, so you don't have to drag heavy items. It also helps with taking photos, has voice interaction, remote control, and agent functions, and can serve as a child's toy," Yan explained. He previously visited various parks to learn about policies until, during a roadshow, the Zero Bound Magic Cube operations team asked him not "What can your project bring?" but "What do you need? Who can we connect you with?" "That feeling is like having a partner. The onboarding process wasn't just handing over a key; they helped with talent apartments, export tax rebate procedures, and connecting with funds. Also, since our product targets the global market, Lingang's cross-border e-commerce ecosystem, overseas warehouse resources, and international exhibition channels are a huge advantage for us," Yan recalled. Before arriving, they thought they were just changing offices, but they discovered the operations team proactively asks about their needs, helps them navigate processes, connects them with resources, and keeps their concerns top of mind. Zero Bound Magic Cube is known for its butler-style companionship, adhering to a "no disturbance unless asked, respond to every request" philosophy. Life butlers handle property, dining, community, and recreational services, while business butlers assign a dedicated liaison to each team, providing end-to-end support from registration to policy implementation. Entrepreneurs face a hundred problems daily, and ninety-nine they must solve themselves; having a place to help with just two or three is a lifeline.

"One person" is the starting point, not the finish line. Lu Guozong spent nearly a decade in traditional film and television producing promotional videos. When AI arrived, he didn't wait; he did what many wanted to do but hesitated to attempt. He turned his decade-plus of experience in making corporate videos into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), fed it entirely to a large language model, and spent two months building a fully automated AI promotional video production platform. The platform handles everything from selecting industry templates and uploading company materials to generating scripts and storyboards, choosing music, and outputting editing project files. What once took a team of dozens a month can now be done by one person with an AI system. Lu noted, "The technical support team is also at Zero Bound Magic Cube. Being close makes communication and revisions easier and more efficient. That's the 'technical convenience' you can only get here." Meanwhile, his short film "Spring in a Bottle" swept through international film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Venice, and Busan. "Domestic large model platforms got to know us through this short film and reached cooperation agreements," he added. His decade of experience hasn't been wasted; in the AI era, it has simply transformed into a product.

Song Xiaojun, a teacher at Shanghai University of Electric Power, has been working with graduate students on robotics in Lingang for some time. In September 2025, she decided to start a company focused on AI education, and Zero Bound Magic Cube was a natural first choice. "Lingang is quiet, suitable for projects that require patience. For entrepreneurship, the policies of 3 years rent-free and 2 years half-price, along with the first-year rent-free talent apartments and renewal discounts, significantly reduce costs," she said. A teacher with eight students, she used 3D printers to create shells and trained models themselves, refining their work over four years. Between March and June 2026, their products will be launched in quick succession, including teen companion robots, robotics training courses, and full-size autonomous navigation robots. "We aim to create emotional interaction products, not toys," Song emphasized. Her differentiator comes from years on the podium, deeply understanding the emotional and psychological needs of young people. For OPC entrepreneurs in the digital economy, Zero Bound Magic Cube aims to help with computing costs and data supply. For instance, it partnered with Shanghai Telecom to launch AI Store, reducing production factor costs by over 40%, and collaborated with Kupasi to open professional corpora with free guidance, adding AI subscription and API call fee subsidies of 10%, capped at 500,000 yuan per company.

Wang Yangyang, one of the first tenants, is working on trusted data spaces, aiming to make data—a new production factor—circulate safely and controllably in the AI era. This industry is heavily regulated, and lawyers who understand data are mostly concentrated in top-tier law firms, making their services prohibitively expensive. She received a legal compliance voucher here. "We signed with a leading law firm for a one-year contract," she said. For a data company, this is like buying compliance insurance. Her first major case is already implemented at the Wenzhou Health Commission, integrating a city's medical and health public data down to the community level, allowing community doctors to fully understand residents' health profiles and manage health records on an individual basis. "Previously, medical reports were scattered across different hospitals, and you didn't even know your own health history. Now, data is truly starting to serve people," Wang explained, reflecting her original entrepreneurial intent. They arrived, most of them, as individuals or very small teams. A year later, Lu Guozong manages a product line with just two people, Song Xiaojun's students have built robots that can move and talk, and Wang Yangyang has connected a city's health data into a network. Here, "one person" is the beginning, not the end.

From here, they take their businesses global. Li Yiran worked as a university teacher in Lingang for six years and has been a fashion show director and producer for a decade. In July, she registered a company with seven partners from fashion, TVC, film, and digital fields, naming it Linju. "Ju means Cube; our team is like modules that can be flexibly assembled based on project needs," Li said. Her work on intangible cultural heritage and fashion is heading to Paris Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival. She highlighted a key service: Lingang is the first region in the country to provide physical, comprehensive overseas expansion services. "They have a dedicated team to help you research overseas policies, so you don't have to do it yourself. For a company doing export business, this is the most practical backend support." Zero Bound Magic Cube has integrated innovation policies from the city and the new area, offering eight supporting measures including business development funding, financing guarantees, settlement pathways, traffic boosts, network guarantees, logistics discounts, overseas channels, and promotional platforms, which have already benefited over 100 teams.

Dubraika and her husband, one from Italy and one from Zambia, have lived in China for nearly a decade. They registered their company in April and moved into Zero Bound Magic Cube in June. By then, the site had been operational for ten months and was no longer just a building offering workspaces. The 30,000-square-meter second phase was fully open, with teams in digital economy, cross-border finance, and university student incubation housed in different sections. Two hundred talent apartments were also opened to ensure talent could not only come but also stay. In a year, Zero Bound Magic Cube evolved from a space provider into an ecosystem platform that activates OPC value. They developed an AI Social-Commerce Agent called Vela for African small businesses. Dubraika explained, "There are 44 million small merchants in Africa doing business on WhatsApp. When merchants sleep, Vela takes orders for them. It's their night-shift AI assistant, and it can also select products from Taobao, quote China-Africa logistics prices, and process payments." For Dubraika, Lingang's fast registration, free office space, and quiet streets make starting a business easy. Her company of just two people achieved breakeven in its first year, proving you can build bridges without burning cash. Li Yiran takes intangible cultural heritage to Paris, while Dubraika uses AI to build a bridge for China-Africa trade. Zero Bound Magic Cube is not their destination; it's a port. From here, an individual can take their business to the world.

In summary, a year has passed, and over 330 teams and nearly a thousand entrepreneurs have settled here. More than 90% are young people without Shanghai hukou, nearly 80% are under 40, and 70% are serial entrepreneurs, including international talent, truly achieving the goal of attracting talent from across the country and the world. They weren't summoned by external forces but drawn by the unique quality of this place that feels like "somewhere connected to oneself." This development was featured on the front page of a major local newspaper, and the city's "15th Five-Year Plan" explicitly supports Lingang in "building a vibrant city for young entrepreneurs from home and abroad," aiming to turn the "birthplace of super individuals" into the "first choice destination" for global youth to start businesses in Shanghai. This year, "super individual" has evolved from a term into a visible way of life. The next step for Zero Bound Magic Cube isn't to offer more discounts but to provide tools, credit, and an ecosystem, making every super individual a partner and manager here. A year ago, one-person entrepreneurship was a question. Now, it has over three hundred answers. Standing by Dishui Lake, you can see the sea. An individual may be small, but when backed by an ecosystem, one person can be a force of their own.