Funny, I gave a tech talk at the Chekku (Garage) cafe a few years ago, and even then it had a pretty impressive energy in the place. The host that set it up expected maybe 15 people to show up, over 150 did.
China was and still is lacking some very important infrastructure for successful business development: a stable legal and contracts system, strongly enforced property rights, institutional access to capital, investment focused on demand rather than supply (see also ghost cities), and a well regulated stock market more based on revenue than pure speculation (not that the events of the last 10 years in the US stock markets haven't shaken my opinion on their strength).
Chinese entrepreneurs make up for these business problems the same way people that lack resources do in the states: through hard work and sheer tenacity. They're hungry for progress, and at the end of the day, that's what builds an economy.
I met some great people at Garage cafe that night, and they left a strong impression on me that Chinese entrepreneurs are going to do some really impressive stuff over the next ten years.
If you're ever in Beijing, I highly recommend spending an evening there. It was the highlight of my trip.
It's cool to see Cheku mentioned on here, they just celebrated their 5 year anniversary a month or so ago. Does seem like a lot of the cooler projects have left for greener pastures though, and the people that are left, ah well.
There's an endless supply of people to fill in those that leave.
Mind you, the greener pasture might just be Shanghai. Shanghai looked a lot more developed than Beijing, but I was only there for the day, so I didn't have time to really explore the city. It reminded me a lot of Hong Kong in many respects. I'd love to spend a month deep diving into the tech scene there.
From what I've heard the more mature startups with interesting end up moving to Shangdi for cheaper office space. That kinda leaves the has-beens and never-will-be's behind, but I guess that's to be expected. Even the founder of the place has started another venture a bit down the street.
We met some interesting people during their anniversary party, but then we met an equal share of idiots, so my guess it's 50/50 right now. The was this one guy drilling us on the market for phone cases in the US/Europe (f..k if we know, you're trying to compete with local retailers or something?), who didn't understand the concept of stealth mode, for example.
Not to say that there aren't promising founders out there, they just don't go to the events. Probably better that way, since the C2C attitude isn't just restricted to copying from abroad.
> We met some interesting people during their anniversary party, but then we met an equal share of idiots, so my guess it's 50/50 right now.
Oh there was plenty of that when I was there, but that was part of the fun for me. Easy to write off the dude I spent half an hour talking about Chinese punk rock bands with as a goober, but maybe he's the one that kicks off the Chinese version of Sub Pop records.
I gave up a long time ago on the idea of ever knowing who's going to do the awesome stuff. Almost more often than not it's the people I thought were the idiots and the lunatics.
Actually what I really liked about the people I met was that they were real characters with a lot of personality. I expected a lot of blank faced marketing pitch lameness but didn't get much of that (I'm sure it's there though).
China was and still is lacking some very important infrastructure for successful business development: a stable legal and contracts system, strongly enforced property rights, institutional access to capital, investment focused on demand rather than supply (see also ghost cities), and a well regulated stock market more based on revenue than pure speculation (not that the events of the last 10 years in the US stock markets haven't shaken my opinion on their strength).
Chinese entrepreneurs make up for these business problems the same way people that lack resources do in the states: through hard work and sheer tenacity. They're hungry for progress, and at the end of the day, that's what builds an economy.
I met some great people at Garage cafe that night, and they left a strong impression on me that Chinese entrepreneurs are going to do some really impressive stuff over the next ten years.
If you're ever in Beijing, I highly recommend spending an evening there. It was the highlight of my trip.