Startup Advice from UCWeb, Evernote, and Vodafone

Last week at GMIC in Beijing, I sat down with UCWeb’s Yu Yongfu to learn more about UCWeb, but in addition to Mr. Yu, I also got a chance to talk with Evernote’s Ken Gullicksen (VP of corporate development) and Vodafone’s Jonathan Bill (Senior VP of innovation and business development). Yu, Guliksen, and Bill have plenty of Asia experience between them, so I thought while I had them all in one place, why not ask them each to share one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Asia? Here’s what they told me:

Ken Gullicksen (Evernote):

“Don’t focus on anything other than making the world’s best product.” That was Ken’s advice for young startups in Asia. He stressed that it doesn’t matter what local standards are; app stores are global and your app needs to live up to the world standard, period. That might be intimidating for some Asian startups, but it also means that anyone has a chance at success. “App stores are global and there’s relatively frictionless entry now, so if you can be the best at providing your service, you can succeed,” Gulicksen told me.

Yu Yongfu (UCWeb):

“Spend all your money on your product and your team.” Mr. Yu told me that back in the early days of UC Web, there were only two people on staff who weren’t developers: himself and the receptionist. “Spend all your money on R&D,” he told me. “You don’t need marketing, and you don’t need sales.”

Jonathan Bill (Vodafone):

“Anyone that is not developing for the feature phone base today is missing an enormous opportunity.” As a resident of India, Bill has has ample opportunity to see this first hand. And as he pointed out, the rewards can be tremendous in the long run. Feature phone apps may not help you hit the big time financially, but introducing those users to your app means you get to them early, and when they upgrade to a smartphone, they’re going to seek out your app because they know it and understand it. That means you don’t have to compete with the millions of other smartphone apps out there for attention; your customers will already know and love you. “Unfortunately, the fascination with smartphone development masks that massive opportunity,” Bill said.