Baidu’s Robin Li: VCs are trying to coax employees of China’s top tech firms to do startups

China’s startup boom is in full swing. So much so, in fact, that according to Baidu CEO and founder Robin Li, China’s VCs are camped out in coffee shops looking to convince skilled employees at China’s top tech firms to quit and do startups instead. On Friday, Li spoke at China’s Securities Regulatory Commission, and had this to say on the subject of startups (our translation):

Everybody knows that right now the startup scene is very hot. All kinds of VCs are camped out in the coffee shops around Baidu HQ, talking with our employees and trying to get them to leave and do startups. What do they think a golden startup team is? It’s a Baidu tech guy, a Tencent product guy, and an Alibaba operations guy. For those kinds of people, getting startup funding is very easy.

Li’s comments on the startup scene were just a sidenote in his speech, serving the broader point that Baidu has a reputation for being China’s leading firm when it comes to pure tech development (a claim that would be hard to dispute given the company’s Institute of Deep Learning and its penchant for working on future tech like autonomous cars and artificial intelligence). But if what he says is true, it certainly speaks to just how crazy China’s startup scene is right now, and how easy it can be to get funding if you’ve got a team with a pedigree like the one Li laid out.

(Source: Sina Tech)