The first generation of American and Chinese entrepreneurs: do not melt into the gap between survival

Silicon Valley is not only Google, Apple and other http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/9994.html "> Technology giants Deploy's main position, but also a number of start-up companies (start-up) the cradle of growth. Here, a start-up company can recruit not only the top engineers, but also the Silicon Valley from the community to the incubator, to training to investment and financing funds, and so on a series of entrepreneurial facilities and a complete ecological system. Among the many start-up entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, there has been no lack of Chinese figures, these Chinese entrepreneurs are mostly 70-80, from the degree to the qualifications are quite excellent, they struggle to middle-aged or actively or passively embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.

This seems like a natural advantage, and how are the Chinese entrepreneurs in the United States doing business in exotic places? What problems have they encountered and how to deal with them? To this end, the titanium media invited the Silicon Valley F50 venture and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Community founder David Cao, to talk about Silicon Valley investors in the eyes of Chinese entrepreneurs:

Starting point from "overseas Chinese" to "return to the United States"

"In recent years, I have seen an interesting phenomenon, about the first generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States, I will call them the" caught entrepreneurs, "that is, these startups often in the Chinese market can not beat the Chinese, and in the U.S. market can not beat Americans. "When David Cao first said this to me, I was quite surprised and asked more."

First of all, it is necessary to define the "Chinese entrepreneurs in the United States" this typical group. This refers specifically to the first generation of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs after 70-80, these people are often based on science and engineering major, after graduating from the United States, after obtaining a master's or Ph. D. In Silicon Valley's famous IT company, after solving the green card problem and accumulated enough professional and technical knowledge but encountered the workplace ceiling, At this time, some of the middle-aged people will choose to accept the status quo, enjoy life, while the other part of the people are unwilling to mediocrity, so have resigned to start a business.

Since entrepreneurship involves the choice of location. In fact, from 2008 to now, the Chinese people in the United States have experienced a series of changes from "returning to China" to "returning to America" in their choice of entrepreneurial sites.

"2008 to 2012, when the mention of entrepreneurship, almost all Chinese entrepreneurs in the United States without hesitation to choose to return to business, there are many reasons for this phenomenon, when many of China's second-tier cities have come to the United States for investment, such as Suzhou in the Silicon Valley held a pioneering competition, Awarded the award-winning project 502 million yuan of venture capital support and supporting policies; There are many large domestic companies also spared no effort to recruit talent in the United States, but also the domestic capital has extended an olive branch, this series of reasons, which led to entrepreneurs to return to the main business, "David Cao said," But the results show that, although each of the park has several representative enterprises, but overall it seems that the success rate is lower. ”

Since 2013, Chinese entrepreneurs in the United States have begun to "return to the U.S." gradually. "Four reasons have caused this result, first of all, the worsening living environment of the domestic smog and so on, the Chinese people want to return to the United States, and then, in the beginning of 2013, China's foreign exports of capital accelerated, IDG, Sequoia and many other Chinese domestic capital institutions have come directly to the United States for layout; The domestic entrepreneur market competition is becoming more and more intensified; four, in recent years, the market environment of Silicon Valley is relatively good, listed acquisitions and other myths continue to play, this many reasons for the current entrepreneurial thinking of the Chinese people choose to start a business in the United States. "said David Cao.

Silicon Valley investors look at Chinese entrepreneurship team: not the atmosphere, not into

It can be seen that the first generation of Chinese in the United States to start a business, entrepreneurial conditions are actually quite good. First of all, the entrepreneur's own conditions are better, as mentioned above, they graduated from prestigious schools, in the industry has been a certain technology and network accumulation, and without a green card and economic worries, can be at ease to start a business. Second, Chinese entrepreneurship can often be quickly supported by a variety of Chinese resources.

"Among the many foreign entrepreneurs, it can be said that the entrepreneurial environment of the Chinese people is relatively good, according to official and unofficial latest information, the proportion of Chinese population in the United States accounted for about 2.2%, and another estimate, in the High-tech industry, the proportion of the Chinese population of 10%, especially in Silicon Valley, the Chinese figure can be seen everywhere.

The 10% ratio creates a Chinese entrepreneur who can easily find all kinds of Chinese resources in Silicon Valley, from Chinese partners, to Chinese communities, to Chinese incubators, to Chinese training institutions, to Chinese investment and financing institutions, it is certainly a good thing to have the support of the most fluent Chinese groups in the early stages of entrepreneurship.

But it is also the biggest advantage and the biggest disadvantage, which means that the Chinese entrepreneurs ' social circle will be further closed in the Chinese circle, and thus farther away from the U.S. domestic market. David Cao said to the titanium media.

In fact, just a little contrast, you can find the problem. In Silicon Valley, for example, a European or Japanese, Korean farmers if they want to start a business, because people around the same nationality is too little to form a small ecological circle, so they can only be forced into the American social circle, the same situation in Taiwan, in Silicon Valley, the Taiwanese are relatively small, So the typical Taiwanese entrepreneur will be forced into the mainstream American social circle.

"Integration into the mainstream of American society is essential for entrepreneurs in the U.S. market, the Chinese entrepreneur Chengye Xiao, because 10% of the population is enough to form the Chinese entrepreneurial ecosystem, but it is not strong enough to influence the mainstream consumer values in the United States, then the Chinese entrepreneurial in the United States if not out of the social comfort zone , it is impossible to truly understand the needs of American consumers by incorporating American genes, and the products and services they offer cannot be successful in the US market. "said David Cao.

"At present, I see a lot of Chinese entrepreneurial teams in the U.S., the core members are Chinese, the investors and partners are also Chinese, so it can be imagined that this too-Chinese team is hard to really understand the needs of the local market, which is common in Silicon Valley, but from an investor's perspective, I'm not going to consider a team that has a very low success rate. David Cao confessed to the titanium media.

As mentioned earlier, in the United States, entrepreneurs in the "next to the U.S." performance is not satisfactory. Not only that, it has also underperformed the two business models of "connecting China to the atmosphere" and "Bridging the resources of both China and the United States".

Entering the Chinese market cannot beat the Chinese, but the American market cannot beat the Americans--many of the first generation of Chinese entrepreneurs in the United States have been caught in a dilemma.

David Cao summed up the three directions and limitations of Chinese entrepreneurship in the United States to titanium media. He said that from the company's market to divide, in the United States Chinese start-up companies have three main directions:

The first is doing business in the US market. As previously said, these people are often Chinese-led thinking, in the United States can not beat American entrepreneurs;

The second is to do business in the Chinese market. As the main entrepreneurial team in the United States, days high emperor far, unless the company is technically the leader, if it involves the formation of sales in China and BD team, because the core management team away from China, it is difficult to successfully landed in China, I know that there is a founder of the Stanford graduate start-up Enterprise is to do environmental monitoring, Although its technology is very advanced, but also finally moved the company to China to finally successfully open the market;

The third is to do business between China and the United States, this business model at first sounds very novel, but since there is no existing data that can be enlarged and capital institutions will not invest, in fact, years of industry experience has shown that this bridging business between China and the United States is only suitable for large companies as an extension of business, and not suitable for start-up companies, Because it is hard to make the volume bigger by relying only on investors ' investment and financing. ”

The future can only be clearly targeted market, and then "integration into the integration of"

As for the problems faced by Chinese entrepreneurs in the US, David Cao says the fundamental solution is to step out of the comfort zone and stick to localization.

"For startups that do business in the Chinese market, my advice is that some, if not all, of the core management team will go back to China to really pick up the Earth's atmosphere, and for the entrepreneurial team in the U.S. market, I suggest that the founders integrate the team into the American genome and choose an American partner. And if conditions are available, investors and partners should also choose Americans. "said David Cao.

David Cao further explained that the choice of the United States as a partner and as an employee is a great difference, "employees have no decision-making power, and partners have, so the Chinese entrepreneurial team in the U.S. is a key to the use of an American as a partner, To maximize the integration of the U.S. gene to ensure that the entire team and subsequent products and services can truly meet the mainstream U.S. market.

"Of course, I know it's not easy to convince an American to join a Chinese company, but it's as hard as it is to find a target, but it's a problem that needs to be solved." "said David Cao.