How this guy scaled a startup community from 6 to 12 cities in a year

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Jan Smejkal is in charge of the entire Asia Pacific region for a well-known startup community called Startup Grind. He scaled the community from six to 12 cities in less than a year.

Smejkal is originally from the Czech Republic but moved to China for his first business. In this interview, he shares what he saw in China the first time he moved in, his scaling process, and how having the right skills in networking helped him overcome the challenges he faced in China.

How did you come to China?

I’ve been in China for three years now. When I came to China for the first time, I had a business.

I started my first business, which was an ecommerce company, and we were dealing with Chinese products, brands, and accessories while I was still in university. I was finishing my bachelor’s degree in Prague and I knew I wanted to do more. I wanted to become an entrepreneur.

So, I partnered with my classmate and we started the first business. We bootstrapped everything and it was doing quite well. We didn’t become millionaires or billionaires but we could pay some bills. And then, because the business was related to China, I decided then was the time to go for an exchange program in a different country, and China is a smart and practical choice. That’s how I ended up in China.

I was blown away by what was going on in the country—how everything was growing. Everybody was so excited. Everything was so fast. Everybody was talking about entrepreneurship, the next big ideas, businesses, and making billions. I thought I needed to stay so I could learn more and faster. I could meet very interesting people.

I’m now in Prague and the energy here is different. I love Prague, actually, but the scale of what’s going on in China is different, and that’s why I ended up staying there.

What I do for a living right now is running Startup Grind, the largest entrepreneurial community in the world. What it means is that we have people in 300 cities around the world. We host a load of events and conferences, and we just basically connect founders, investors, and mentors.

In Asia, the region I’m handling, we currently have around 50 cities and 50 different communities.

How do you feel about the ecosystem in China?

The ecosystem is just getting started. Hong Kong is slightly different because there are a lot of things going on. There are a lot of expats and businesses that are successful, maybe not in terms of startups because it’s still a pretty small ecosystem when you look at it from that perspective. But when you look at it from the ecosystem perspective—people, communities, events, and stuff like that—it’s there.

But in China and other places, it’s still just getting started, especially when you look at it from the international perspective. There is, of course, a lot of things going on in China when you look at it from the Chinese or local perspective, like conferences in Chinese and Tencent doing universities for startups. Everything is in Chinese.

But when you look at it from the international perspective, we are probably the people who are building it up because there isn’t a history yet in terms of international stuff. And not many people actually want to put in the work and build something for other people because it’s hard. It takes a lot of time before you can actually reap all the benefits from that.

How did you scale Startup Grind?

What did you learn about scaling?

What is your process for starting a new city chapter?

What are your next plans?

What is one piece of advice you could give?