
How Jack Ma Went from Being a Poor School Teacher to Founding Alibaba - sayemm
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-jack-ma-founder-of-alibaba-2014-9
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yellow_and_gray
_" I was scrawny when I was young, but I was a terrific fighter," Ma recalls.
"I was never afraid of opponents who were bigger than I."_

 _He used to go to a local hotel every day so that he could meet people and
learn English._

 _he never excelled at math_

 _a captivating speaker who could make his big dreams infectious._

 _With a love of performance (probably inherited from his parents), Ma also
helped create a quirky, fun atmosphere at the company._

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DanBC
13 minute audio profile of Jack Ma
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gnhnq](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gnhnq)

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adventured
I find it interesting that Ma and the other founders ended up selling so much
of Alibaba in the process of creating and building it up. Just Softbank and
Yahoo owned something like 80% to 85% of the company. I wonder if Ma regards
that as a big early mistake (convenient hindsight), as I'm skeptical whether
Softbank or Yahoo had fundamentally much to with Alibaba's success outside of
the capital (and specifically that it's a steep amount of equity to have given
up for that capital).

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crazytony
Due to Chinese law not allowing foreign investment in several sectors
(including online) Softbank and Yahoo do not own any of Alibaba. They own a
percentage of a Cayman Islands holding firm that have contract(s) with Alibaba
that stipulate voting and profit sharing. The Chinese Government could
invalidate these contracts at any time should they decide the contracts breach
the letter or spirit of their laws.

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rahimnathwani
That's an over-simplification. Less than 8% of the group's assets are held by
the Variable Interest Entity (VIE) which has the ICP licence:

[http://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/weblog/alibaba-sets-
the-v...](http://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/weblog/alibaba-sets-the-vie-
gold.html)

The remaining assets are presumably owned by companies whose beneficial owners
are the shareholders in the Cayman Islands company.

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stevengg
corporate pr never fails to make the front page on hn now days, 63 votes 7
hours 1 comment.

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saryant
A number of Jack Ma stories have reached the front page in the past week.
They're really kicking the PR into overdrive in advance of the IPO.

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eng_monkey
How does being a teacher make one poor?

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AVTizzle
Being a teacher in itself doesn't make one poor. Getting paid $14/mo for said
teaching makes one poor.

