I’m Porter Erisman, a former Alibaba Vice-President & author of ‘Alibaba’s World’. AMA!

Hi everyone!

I’m a former Alibaba Vice-President (from 2000-2008) who saw Alibaba grow from Jack Ma’s apartment into what it is today. I had a front-row seat to China’s e-commerce revolution and watched as Alibaba bumped heads with eBay, Yahoo!, Google and many other Internet titans. Just last month I released my book, Alibaba’s World, which tells the inside story of Alibaba’s rise, from my own personal perspective.

You may be wondering the following:

1. How did Alibaba grow into China’s first global Internet company?
2. What mistakes did it make along the way?
3. What was it like as a foreigner working in a Chinese Internet start-up?

Well, I’m here to tell all. My goal is to help entrepreneurs and others learn from Alibaba’s experiences – the good and the bad. Keep in mind that I haven’t worked for the company since 2008, so while I’m independent from the company and can say whatever I want, I can only give my insights as an outsider about more recent developments. But I’m happy to answer your questions and share with you how past events may be shaping current developments.

Disclosure: I do own a very small amount of Alibaba’s shares along with some shares in other companies operating in the ecommerce sector. But I won’t let that get in the way of giving you the straight dope about my past experience at Alibaba and insights on where things may be headed for ecommerce in China.