What entrepreneurs can learn from App Annie’s Junde Yu

Building a multicultural team is key. Photo credit: Pixabay.

Junde Yu joined App Annie in 2011 as a consultant when the tracking company was about a year old. At the time, it operated from a small building in Beijing and was just eleven members strong.

Today, the company has about 400 employees, 15 offices across the world, and has shifted its headquarters to San Francisco. It is also arguably the most trusted source for app metrics in the world. In January, App Annie raised US$63 million in funding – the analytics startup’s biggest investment round to date.

Junde Yu, managing director, APAC, for App Annie. Photo Credit: App Annie.

“At App Annie the one thing that was done more than other companies was to establish a very global footprint very fast. Not many companies would do that,” Junde, who is now managing director for the startup’s APAC region, tells Tech in Asia.

Even when it was an eleven-member team, App Annie always focused on being a global company with multicultural roots, he says – something Junde believes helped hugely as the company grew bigger.

The company ranks 10th in Deloitte’s 2015 Fast 500 List, and counts Google, LinkedIn, Tencent, Microsoft, and Dow Jones among its customers.

A lover of mathematics, Junde started off his tech journey in Singapore, where he graduated with a degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore. But his life changed when he moved to China.

“Singapore was a very advanced [but] limited market. China was a huge market and I think getting that experience helped me understand bigger trends. These markets develop much faster than matured western countries today,” he says, speaking ahead of the Tech in Asia conference in Bangalore.

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Here’s some advice he had for startups on scaling and playing to their advantage, plus a special tip for Indian entrepreneurs.

1. Evaluate starting up

Walk the line. Photo credit: Jakub Michankow.

2. Set standards

3. Pick the right sector

4. Freemium helps

5. Think global