Size matters for mainland start-ups - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

In China start-ups are successful and huge, or you fail, there is no way in between, says serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs in the Wall Street Journal. His success was video-sharing company Tudou, other ventures saw more trouble. 

The Wall Street Journal:

Since Tudou, he has helped establish two more companies in China, with varying success. The first was an online video games company called Spilgames Asia, and most recently UnitedStyles, a website which allows users to design their own fashion. However, securing venture capital in China for UnitedStyles was difficult, prompting him to exit China’s startup scene and move to Canada as an investment professional for CrossPacific Capital Partners. 

UnitedStyles “started up pretty good, but then hit a wall. It’s hard to get VC in China…because of the foreign team,” he said. “It’s tiring. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.”   

That said, van der Chijs hasn’t severed links with China’s startup scene altogether as he will oversee CrossPacific’s investments made in North America looking to expand into China. The firm is currently targeting a $100 million maiden fund to close this year, he said.

More in the Wall Street Journal. Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

The +China Weekly Hangout is Thursday April 4 going to focus on Xi Jinping's upcoming tenure. Which of the 14 subjects discussed during the recent NPC do you think at important. See here our survey and announcement. Here you can register for the event. Earlier we discussed already one of the issues: food security and dead pigs, in our session two weeks ago with +Richard Brubaker , +Andrew Hupert , +Chris Brown , moderated by +Fons Tuinstra  

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