Days in Wenzhou

I have been in Wenzhou for the past one month, during which I spent 6 days back in Singapore to work on the startup!
Yes... we were seeking funding in Singapore.
I thought it might be easier to get some funding in Singapore, especially seed funding. However, we went to the wrong group of people. We thought that we should just talk to VCs directly and would see if we can get them excited and make an offer to us.

It's not that easy! we did not actually meet VCs in Singapore. We talked to our dear school. We talked to many people who are active in the entrepreneurs community and understand the funding scene. The lessons we learned is that it's easy to get micro-funding in Singapore to jump start the company and the development of prototypes.

I have not met any VC in Singapore yet. I don't want set my perception toward that industry yet. I know that Asian are generally more conservative. We are less risky than the Westerners. Perhaps, that's why the top VCs are from the US then followed by Europe. Anyway, that's a side note for the 6 days in Singapore.

On the other hand, things are different here in Wenzhou. I came back on July 14th to meet an investor introduced by our CEO's buddie. If you want to classify these group of investors we have met, they more belong to the angel investor group. They invest in people and followed by the project. The people have to be very trusted and capable. The project ought to be exciting and rewarding. Bai talked to the first investor I met, Li, the last three days of my stay in Singapore. We met him on July 14th evening. Frank flew in from Beijing. We signed the contract on July 15th. There came the seed fund investment in the game company. In the following days, we met two other individual investors as well. They were all new to the game industry but through connections. We've built the trusted relationship with them. Even though they don't really know much about the online game industry, they know from the KLSi experience that things will likely work out.

Wenzhou is a very wealthy place. There are lots of business people who have made there millions and billions and even trillions of money in the past years. They have been investing in the real estate market as a group. They made lots from there. IT industry is more marginal than real estate. More importantly, it's quick investment and quick return compared to real estate.

To be honest, there is really no technology company in Wenzhou. most companies are still in the manufacturing business. over 1000 small factories have closed down in 2007 because of the low currency exchange rate with US dolloars. Most contracts were signed before 2007 when the exchange rate was high. Due to the decreasing rate, factories are losing money very single day. The costs have gone up by a lot in the past years. The losses are in magnitude of a very 100k per day sometimes.

US economy is not doing well. It has directly affected the manufacturing business in China. hard-core manufacturers can no longer make much money nowadays. it's time to make a change, transition to a different model. The model should center around IP and technology. There is no technology park in wenzhou yet, which means the technology the manufacutures in touch with are not very localized and can no longer fit them. The world is driven by technology. How can such a wealthy place have no technology?

They might have the most advanced production line... they might have the most advanced technology to back-engineer a pair of shoes or a set of clothes. These are important. Nevertheless, technology do not just exist in the key manufacturing process but the entire value chain, including business process and the basic knowledge about technology. If you come to wenzhou and get a name card from someone. basically, they put phone number and QQ number on it. there is no email and no sign of "www". For the rare ones who do use email, it's either @qq.com or @163.com or @***.com/com.cn/cn. Here I am talking about business owners and top executives of local companies. They can be understood because lots of them had very little education when they were young.

How about the students in Wenzhou then? do they use email?
I've met quite a number of students. QQ is the key communication tool for them. i have to praise QQ for its success. QQ is part of the gen Y's life. Whenever they are online, QQ is always the first application to be launched, followed by a browser or a game client. The features of QQ are so powerful that it is just a one-stop center for all - IM, Files, space, albums, music, movies, games... whatever...
Thus many business are conducted via QQ, such as client services, customer servcies and online assistance. Oh... not to forget the mobile technology... every single student has a mobile phone.
QQ and mobile phone means all technolgoy to them? i don't know whether it's their view or not.
To me, these two are parts of my life with technology...

So there are lots of opportunities in Wenzhou, a place would definitley leapfrog to get ahead of other less wealthy cities in China. Our mission is to expose and offer them the access to understand about the IT industry!