So you have taken the leap of faith to come to China, good work! Many people come for different reasons, but the most common seems to be the grand market opportunity of an exciting economy. If you are still deciding whether to come, I can understand your dilemma as I was in that position before. Moving to a new country, nonetheless China can be a daunting move which requires boldness and a spirit of adventure. However, after being here for two and a half years, I’ve seen how vibrant and active the tech start-up community here is and now I feel quite at home. Many investors and entrepreneurs feel Beijing is the second largest tech start-up market in the world after Silicon Valley in terms of number of investments but Shanghai also has a tight community of entrepreneurs too. So you’ve made the right choice, just to be here. Get ready to learn and explore!
Survey the land
As a foreigner, if you are not too familiar with the start-up world in China and don’t know that much Chinese, don’t fear! There are a number of English resources to find out a lot of information very quickly. Of course I have to first plug TechNode, because it’s a blog I helped start back in early 2011 and it’s a well known for covering original content about mobile and internet start-ups and tech news in Asia. Our rival blog but also a great source for news is TechinAsia. Both blogs talk about tech news, events, entrepreneur interviews, new start-ups, latest investment news etc. You should be reading and consuming these news sources daily to get a good feel for what is happening in the start-up environment.
Network and get involved!
If you are really eager to get involved in a start-up, there is no better way than to meet people, find relevant connections and try different options. I first came to Beijing to study Chinese, but I also spent a lot of time trying to meet as many people as I could because I knew one day I would come back (it only took 7 months!). It was only before I left that I met David Liu, the founder of Jiepang. We kept in touch when I was back in Australia and eventually he gave me an opportunity to come back to Beijing and get involved in AppStoreConnect, a sister-start-up to Jiepang.
Likewise, I strongly recommend you get out of the building and start meeting people at as many events as possible. One thing for sure, is that Beijing has no shortage of events. These events really prove how powerful the start-up movement is in China and provide a great way to get plugged in. There is Start-up Weekend which has no rebranded to Beijing Tech Hive, a weekend hack and pitch program, iWeekend also runs a similar program but are now adding in more speaking events and forums, Lean Startup Machine runs a course on how to use Steve Blank’s customer development methodology to prove a business idea, Start-up Leadership Program (which I help manage) runs 6 month mini-MBA for entrepreneurs to learn everything about building an idea, product, team and raise money; Barcamp is an open platform for people to share ideas with anyone (I spoke at the last one in September) and Sandbox is a network for young leaders and entrepreneurs around with world (I am a member in the Beijing Hub). With such a frequency and range of events to choose from, there is no excuse not to get involved. There is a very high chance you will meet someone you can help you or at least introduce you to a tech start-up to join.
Do it Yourself!
The most obvious way to get involved in a start-up is to do your own. If you are targeting the domestic market whether it is the local Chinese or foreigner market, it would be wise to really understand the market dynamics before you do anything. Being an entrepreneur does take guts but it also takes an ability to be humble and not think you know everything. Especially in China where customs and culture is so different and in many cases opposite to other countries, I suggest really learning about your potential customers and competitors first. By just living here you will identify many gaps and opportunities in the market that needs to be filled.
Once you think you have a solid foundation to go ahead and do it, it is worth performing in-field market research using the lean start-up methodologies to test if your hypothesis is correct or not. Jump ahead to your conclusions, you need to start building your team and your product. If you are a foreigner without any recognized history of success, it is unlikely you will get funded based on just an idea. Get a Minimum Viable Product or MVP done and ship it to the market for testing, feedback, iteration and get traction. Then go out to raise money.
Content originally posted on Startup Noodle
Koombah 