
A CTO’s Startup Journey in Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park - obicho
https://medium.com/@chonantsai/a-cto-s-startup-journey-in-beijing-zhongguancun-science-park-59ff71f4417b
======
jzwinck
> the only downside of doing it in Beijing is that you’d have to tolerate the
> bad weather and air pollution

That is certainly a huge downside, but isn't another one the fact that you
seem to be stuck "fast following," building everything on top of services
which the author admits are "clones" of popular ones from outside China?

I suppose it depends what the author's business is. I didn't catch that from
the article.

~~~
gozo
I would say that "fast following" is a necessity for the Chinese market. Just
look at how poorly Europe is served by US startups and our cultures are quite
similar. Many western service are "clones" of other western services anyways.
I'm not entirely sure what the huge downside would be?

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duiker101
That was a very interesting read. Anyone has the same experience as a dev how
hard would it be to relocate there? Also, the article mentions that tech
talent is scarce, does this influences salaries in a good way?

~~~
contingencies
Another option if you are willing to strike out on your own or invest some
time up front is to go somewhere cheaper without the Beijing/other large city
problems of air pollution, climate, traffic and cost. This will allow you to
tackle language and culture challenges on your own terms and timeframe without
breaking the bank. Personally I love it here in Kunming! The weather is great,
air quality and traffic is still OK, nature is on your doorstep and you can
easily rent a reasonably sized place (eg. 3 bedrooms) for 2000元 per month (ie.
USD$75/week). Plus, great international community and direct flights to other
places (Thailand, India, Paris, etc.) are quick and cheap. We are starting a
maker space here right now:
[http://cave.pratyeka.org/](http://cave.pratyeka.org/)

~~~
duiker101
wow that sounds really nice! Is it very hard to integrate as a foreigner?
Maybe next year I will come for a visit! :)

~~~
contingencies
You are welcome to email... address in profile.

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dcsan
Great read! You mentioned various services that have equivalents in china.

Can you share a URL for tower? (trello clone).

Have you found a good replacement for google spreadsheets? I like Airtable,
but its worrying what might get blocked, when.

With the GFC in the middle often accessing those from _outside_ china is very
slow, so having a global team someone has a problem. I guess there also self-
hosted OSS options for services.

Good luck with KBStreet! Hopefully Tencent won't rewrite the rules on KOLs.

~~~
hunvreus
1\. I think he meant [https://tower.im](https://tower.im). There's also
[https://www.teambition.com/](https://www.teambition.com/) for project
management. They're respectively clones of Trello and Basecamp (haven't used
either of them).

2\. Honestly, rather than looking for alternatives, I'd invest in a good VPN.
We've tried a lot of different setups and services (individual VPN, smart
routing in and out of our office...), but Astrill
([https://www.astrill.com/](https://www.astrill.com/)) has been consistently
good (save for a couple times when the internet was simply slow in all of
China regardless). We pay for individual "VIP" accounts for our employees and
use everything we need (Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, ...).

3\. We are however considering running an npm proxy at the office to speed
things up a little.

~~~
obicho
You brought up a good point about VPN. We considered in the beginning but at
the end we decided not to. We feel since our market and our customers are
mainly in China, it will be best to use what's available within China. From a
technical infrastructure stand point, that'd be better also since we won't
have to deal with so many potential point-of-failures. We did sign up for a
few VPN accounts so we can reference things from time to time.

------
yitchelle
"I was greeted by my CEO who just dashed in from the hospital as someone in
his family had passed away a few hours earlier."

Whoa, is this how CEOs are in China? Priorities are misaligned here...I
skipping this article.

~~~
morgante
> Priorities are misaligned here...I skipping this article.

How so? It didn't necessarily mean that his immediately family had passed
away.

A member of my extended family might die and I would certainly go to the
hospital and attend the funeral, but I would still probably get back to work a
few hours later.

