Q&A: Andreessen Horowitz’s Connie Chan on what startups can learn from China

Photo credit: Antonio Tajuelo.

China’s tech industry moves at breakneck speed. In the span of one year, it’s possible for a startup to go from zero to unicorn, and to see new tech trends – such as bike-sharing – take over a city. It’s hard to keep track even if you’re based in China. Connie Chan, partner and China-watcher at Andreessen Horowitz, manages to do so all the way from Silicon Valley.

“There are two different types of people who go to China,” Chan tells Tech in Asia. “One goes to China and can’t get enough of it. They want to explore, they want to understand all the social dynamics. […] And then there’s the other kind that’s like, what is this, and then they want to go back home.”

“I definitely fall in the first category,” she says.

Understanding China, a more mobile-first society than the US, can help or inspire portfolio companies.

Chan didn’t start visiting China until after she graduated from Stanford University, but her connections run deep and wide. She knows investors from top firms in the country, such as GGV Capital and Matrix Partners. She also has friends inside major Chinese tech companies like Tencent.

Now, she’s the resident China expert at Andreessen Horowitz, often writing and speaking about the latest developments in China’s tech industry, especially mobile trends.

“I worked in Beijing before I came to Andreessen Horowitz and that was when I realized, wow, Weibo is in many ways more advanced than Twitter – and there are many more examples like that,” she explains.

“When I came back to the States, WeChat was one of the products […] that really got me feeling that I needed to educate startups in Silicon Valley and other companies about what’s happening in China,” she says. “Every time I tried explaining WeChat, it was falling on deaf ears.”

Andreessen Horowitz hasn’t invested in any Chinese companies, but Chan often uses her expertise to help portfolio companies, such as Airbnb, that have business interests in China. More recently, the Silicon Valley-based VC firm led a US$12 million series A round in LimeBike, a bike-sharing startup in the US. Understanding China, a more mobile-first society than the US, can help or inspire portfolio companies when it comes to product development as well, says Chan.

Last week at the Wall Street Journal’s D.Live conference in Hong Kong, we had the chance to meet up with Chan and pick her brain about how she’s become a China expert, what trends she’s keeping an eye on, and bike-sharing. Below are edited excerpts of our conversation.

Connie Chan, partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Photo credit: Andreessen Horowitz.

You’ve developed a reputation as a broker for cross-border collaboration between Western and Chinese firms and investors, like Lyft and Didi Chuxing. How else do you help Western companies enter or understand China?