Startups Fish for Cash at Chinaccelerator Demo Day

Chinese tech startups got together at a beautiful old opera theater to pitch their products to a room full of investors on Monday in Beijing at the Chinaccelerator Demo Day. The Geeks on a Plane were on hand, as were a number of other Chinese investors, and a bunch of startups stepped up to the plate. Some sound issues prevented us from fully enjoying the videos some groups had prepared, but they powered through it. Here’s who we heard from (in the order they presented).

Note: I have included a few of my own thoughts after each start-up. These are just my opinions, and investing based on my opinion is probably not a good idea. Just so you know…

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eProf

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EProf aims to simplify and perfect online instruction by providing great teachers with a platform through which they can offer classes to students. Central to eProf’s presentation was the idea of the importance of true, real-time interaction, which is why the service has a live classroom feature that can support up to thirty students per class. At the time of their presentation, it had only been live for about twelve hours, but team leader Trevor said the early response had been very good and that the company expects teachers to be able to earn as much as $300 per class — that’s good news for teachers struggling to make money off their trade in the online sphere.

My take: Putting teachers first (and paying them a decent wage) is sure to make teachers happy. But how many students are looking to learn this way? That remains to be seen, but with education in many places still relatively untouched by the techological advances that have so revolutionized other fields, it’s no wonder people are taking a crack at changing that.

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LuRenJia

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The folks at LuRenJia look at Chinese colleges and see a problem: nearly everyone there wants to be in a relationship, yet despite the prevalence of social networking sites like Renren and Sina Weibo, nearly all Chinese college students are single. Did you know, for example, that there are more single Chinese college kids than there are people in Australia? It’s true, apparently, and it’s a goddamn tragedy, so the guys at LuRenJia have created a social network of sorts that emphasizes meeting new people and makes connections by interests and location rather than helping you hang out with people you already know. It also has LBS-like tag features that allow you to leave messages for people you saw in a specific place and want to get to know, sort of like “missed connections” on Craigslist only without all the sketchy murderers. To monetize it, they’re planning to run ads and implement a virtual currency system down the road.

My take: Virtual currency? Barf. But Chinese college students are definitely interested in dating but too afraid to ask anyone out in person, so this could take off. It actually has Weibo and Renren integration, so it’s not fighting the tide and may well fit into college students’ online habits. Color me cautiously optimistic about this one.

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KWESTR

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