The China Startup Pulse

As an early pioneer in cross-border commerce, Lu Guo chose to leave a multinational company and jump into the jungles of entrepreneurship. She shared her belief behind building her startup Shopal which aims to help global brands to build a strong presence in China through a data-driven process. She also shared her early stage business life in an accelerator - Chinaccelerator. Here is a quote from her: “The scary piece is that you only believe in system”.

Shopal is a solution provider for online and offline retailers in China which has secured RMB200 million (US$29.17 million) in a series B+ round in September 2018. Chinaccelerator SOSV invested in Shopal as one of Batch 7 companies.

Many opportunities and challenges are found in the startup world under the impact of globalization. Today, we have invited Omid Scheybani, former Global Head of Partnerships and Business Development at ofo to share the challenges of Chinese business going international from the perspective of management, product and brand, and also opportunities for overseas talents working in China.

Ofo is a leading bike sharing company in China, which was valued at up to $2 billion and had over 62.7 million MAU (monthly active users) in 2017.

Mindfulness as a tool for businesses has been growing in the West and is now starting to come to China. Brandon Mehrgut, of Shanghai Mindfulness, explains what mindfulness meditation is and how beneficial it is to the Chinese start-up culture and community. Practicing mindfulness can help improve attention, focus, and stress. It has also been practiced by important people and businesses, such as Steve Jobs and DiDi. Join us, and listen to how mindfulness can improve your business. Shanghai Mindfulness is an English-speaking mindfulness organization. It was founded by Brandon Mehrgut and has become China’s largest mindfulness community. Shanghai Mindfulness helps overworked, stressed out people find peace and balance.

Chinese companies are exploring many initiatives to achieve business sustainability, including Ele.me's RELAB and Meituan's emphasis on environment protection. Ofo, Mobike and many Chinese bike sharing companies ever generated a large amount of attention and discussion on whether they are leading a sustainable lifestyle or just creating e-waste mountains. You can see many opportunities in different industries in China to experiment and implement your idea of sustainability. Today, we have Richard Brubaker, expert in business sustainability, to share his perspectives.

Collective Responsibility is a Shanghai-based firm to design and develop corporate responsibility, sustainability, and leadership strategy for corporates, nonprofit and academic institutions.

The buzzword “New Retail” has swept through China for over one year. What challenges does it bring to the traditional retail industry and how can international brands cope with the new retail concept? Today, we have invited Stephane Monsallier, founder of shops for the future. He shared with us his views on the very exciting concept that was born in China and is now rapidly spreading to the rest of the world.

Shops of the Future helps international brands navigate the new innovation in the retail space in china.

Many founders believe an IPO is the only option for an exit. Today, we sit down with Bruno Bensaid, co-founder of Shanghaivest, mentor at Chinaccelerator, and long-term player in China’s startup ecosystem to share his insights on early exits and acquisitions by corporate bodies. Here’s a short quote: “All options should be on the table from very early on”.

Slush is one of the fastest growing events and communities for startups globally, bringing together both local and international companies to help inspire and support youth to pursue their dreams of entrepreneurship.

Today, we welcome Chen Wang, the person who helped the event break into the Chinese market, starting with Beijing in 2015. With Slush Shanghai coming up next month (September 7 to 8), Chen talks to us about the challenges of entrepreneurship, including maintaining good relationships with the government, protecting intellectual property and other essential tips to prospering in China.

Listen to the end for a special surprise for our dedicated listeners, on behalf of Slush China!

Fintech has come a long way in China, from barely being recognized to one of the fastest growing markets in the region. As the world’s leader in Fintech technology, China is a breeding ground for Internet finance companies, and accordingly, investment in the industry. With millions of users and an ever-growing number of fintech unicorns, the future of Internet finance looks exceedingly bright in China.

Today, we present another special episode recorded live at RISE Conference 2018, where Oscar Ramos sat down with venture capitalist and fintech investor Wei Hopeman. After beginning her career in financial services and investment banking, Wei co-founded Arbor Ventures in 2013, the first VC fund specialized in fintech in the Asian ecosystem. She talks to us about the growth of fintech, the benefits of corporate VCs, and how founders and corporate VCs can improve their interactions with each other, as well as many other topics.

Many thanks to RISE Conference 2018 for gathering global elites in Hong Kong and supporting China Startup Pulse to present good quality content for our listeners.

On this day 2 years ago, China’s ride-hailing industry experienced a major turning point - Didi purchased Uber’s China operations and Uber took a 20% stake in Didi. So far Uber has expanded in more than 449 cities and 66 countries. Today, many companies are still trying to elbow into this crowded industry.

In this episode, we are lucky to have Sam Gellman as our guest, the first international Uber employee that took care of the company’s expansion in Asia and China. Sam shared his past experience in redesigning Uber’s playbook to adjust to China’s unique ecosystem, channels for communication and user acquisition. Despite knowing only a bit of Chinese, Sam was assigned to create a Chinese name for Uber. Fortunately, the Chinese name 优步 turned out to be one of the most well-received foreign company names. As the person who worked on market localization for Uber, Sam also shared how they took the company from nothing to a massive exit within 3 years.

China is obsessed with data. But how can you access it, and leverage it to your benefit? Kenneth Cheung shines a light on how you should be using data to market yourself or your company, and shares with us the “golden rule of WeChat marketing”. From initially acquiring data to actually learning how to use it properly, Kenneth walks this integral process while talking about his work in consulting on brand management and KOL influencer marketing in China. He also talks about the power of mini-apps, the first principals of market, and much, much more! If you want to market your brand on WeChat to its maximum potential, this is a can’t-miss episode.