China Is The Place To Be For Serious Entrepreneurs

Gorgeous Beijing (without smog)

I first visited China at age 10 and since then I have been visiting the country pretty frequently — Fuzhou (where my family comes from originally), Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Beijing.

I must admit, I never really liked the country. I always thought it was kinda dirty with lots of spit everywhere on the streets. My brother and I would find all sorts of excuses to avoid going to China when we were younger.

But times have changed and the country has improved drastically. From a Singaporean perspective there are still many reasons to dislike it, especially the pollution in Beijing.

To be fair, there are also many reasons to love China — specifically Beijing, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. The energy there is amazing.

For the most of this and last week, I have been hopping from café to café (usually with free Wi-Fi) for meetings. It is pretty common to see entrepreneurs pitching to investors or developers coding while drowning themselves in coffee at these cafés. Tech-related events, both in English or/and Chinese, are available to attend almost everyday. The atmosphere is awesome and for entrepreneurs in the tech space, it is easy to fall in love with Beijing.

The city is filled with foreigners too and it makes the capital a diverse place with different cultures. I have met countless Americans who have been in the city for several years. My question to them is always the same: “What brings you here in China?” While some might express concerns over their risky move into China, most of them agree that the country is exciting and bursting with opportunities.

Richard Robinson, an American entrepreneur and angel investor who have been living in China for more than 10 years echoed the same thoughts. Over a coffee session, he told me that in China, the first-generation entrepreneurs who made successful exits are helping the second and third generation entrepreneurs. There is a healthy amount of capital and mentorship flowing within this growing community. He also admitted that there is much to learn for a foreigner, especially folks who don’t look Chinese.

I also met up with James Tan, a fellow Singaporean who made a bold move to set up 55Tuan with friends he met during his time at university. He stumbled upon a MBA scholarship at Qinghua and quickly grabbed the chance, seeing it as a good way to learn more about China as a student. That is obviously one of the best decisions he has made in life so far. 55Tuan, the service he started with Qinghua classmates, is now one of the largest group-buy sites in China and is poised for an IPO by the end of this year.

He told me that if we can spend 24 hours focusing on a small market, then why not spend the same amount of time on a large market?

As a blogger, I have had opportunities to travel around Asia exploring the tech spaces in different countries. While India and Indonesia are exciting, none can match the energy in China.

China is a perfect place for serious entrepreneurs who are willing get out of their comfort zone and explore. There is so much more potential in China now and it will continue over the next decade. And that is especially true for Singaporean Chinese who are blessed with an education in English and Chinese.

The tech space in China is probably still in a semi-infant stage. There are still many gaps to fill up even though the major building blocks like search, e-commerce, and social are dominated by big companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. Nonetheless, there are opportunities for start-ups, especially in the mobile Internet space – as Lee Kai-Fu explained recently.

I’m excited to plunge myself into Beijing to learn and explore. I see myself possibly building my next start-up in China. But before anyone could do that, I understand patience is very much needed to learn and understand more about the Chinese culture and the way things work. The opportunities in China are way too addictive and for a mid-twenties punk like me, this will probably be the best learning experience I will have over the next couple of years while I’m there.