China Herald: startups

Friday, August 28, 2015

Crisis has little effect on startups - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

The recent downturn in the financial markets is not going to have too much impact on the booming scene of startups in China, says ChinaAccelerator managing director William Bao Bean in Tech in Asia. Although the second half of 2015 would have been anyway tougher.

Tech in Asia:

“Fundamentally, I don’t think there’s a huge change that happened,” said SOSV partner and Chinaccelerator managing director William Bao Bean. “The market was overbought and now it’s selling off; it’s a natural correction.”

William says that he doesn’t see the market crash as directly affecting startups – he sees no connection between the punters who lost their shirts betting on an overly-inflated market and the early-stage venture capitalists fueling China’s startup boom. But he does think things are going to change. “I’ve been telling our companies since the beginning of the year that in the second half it’s probably going to be a bit tougher to raise [funds],” he told Tech in Asia. “In the last year and a half we’ve seen valuations on the angel side quadruple […] so you’ll probably see things slow down a little bit.”

More in Tech in Asia.

William Bao Bean 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.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Need mobile-first startups? Go to China - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

With 700 million mobile internet users China is a fertile ground for mobile-first startups, says William Bao Bean, managing director of the ChinaAccelerator in the Korean Herald. And “In China, there is always a way,” Bean said.

The Korean Herald:

China is the second-biggest start-up market and the leading “mobile-first” (first encounter with Internet via mobile) market in the world, said William Bao Bean, partner at global accelerator program SOS Ventures in Beijing.

“There’s a lot of innovation coming up in China, which is particularly useful in (introducing products to) other emerging mobile-first markets,” he added.

There are foreign start-ups across many different industries, such as games, education, business-to-business and hardware.

Bean said foreign start-ups in China are mostly concentrated in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, although there is a small number of start-ups for gaming in Chengdu and for hardware in Shenzhen.

Foreigners do not need a visa to set up and can later obtain work visas through their own company.

However, setting up in China is heavily dependent on hiring agents, which is not legally required but “you’d be an idiot not to use one,” due to their ability to circumvent many start-up restrictions.

“In China, there is always a way,” Bean said.

More in the Korean Herald.

William Bao Bean 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.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out this list.