The Harbinger - China Tech & VC Podcast

Today we have a special episode with Hong Lu, founder of UT Starcom, one of the pioneering telecom companies in China. Hong is widely respected not only as a tech entrepreneur, but also as founding chairman at SoftBank China Venture Capital (which wrote an initial $18m check for Alibaba), and for his close friendship and successful collaboration with Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group and the Vision Fund. The story goes, while working the night shift at an ice cream shop near UC Berkeley, Hong met Masa Son, who refused to pay for a milkshake unless it was made extra thick. The two Japanese speakers became fast friends and eventual business partners on Masa’s first start-up, an electronic translator that would sell to Sharp for $1.7m, and the rest is history. Hong shares with us his personal story, what it was like partnering with Masa on multiple ventures over the years, bringing wireless services to China, and key lessons learned along the way. Enjoy! Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/ice-cream-masa-son-and-bringing-wireless-to-china-with-ut-starcom-founder

Hi folks, welcome back to the Harbinger VC podcast. Today we have a conversation with my old friend from college, Jeff Zirlin, who is one of the founding members of Axie Infinity and runs their global growth efforts. In short, Axie Infinity created a Pokémon-inspired universe where players can earn tokens through gameplay, and in a just few years has become the #1 Ethereum game with over $1bn token market cap. Today’s interview is spontaneous, but I had to get Jeff on since NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the Metaverse are white hot conversation topics these days, especially after Beeple’s $69 million NFT sale and Roblox’s IPO. We cover Jeff’s initial foray into the world of crypto starting with Ethereum and CryptoKitties, which eventually led to Axie Infinity. We talk through NFT technology in practical terms… what ownership over digital assets enables, starting with collectibles and brand IP but moving into games and virtual worlds. In particular, Jeff highlights the strength of the Axie Infinity community. While Axie is a fun game, it has also created a social network (and jobs platform!) based on play to earn opportunities and community engagement across its players globally, from the US and Europe to Japan and Southeast Asia. Write up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/nfts-and-the-metaverse-with-axie-infinity-cofounder-jeff-zirlin

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Harbinger VC podcast. Today we have joining us Edmond Ng, who is a founding partner at Axiom Asia, one of the top performing private equity fund-of-funds (FoF) that invests across venture, growth equity, and buyouts in the greater Asia region. Axiom has had a stellar run since 2006, recently closing $1.8 bn for their Fund 6 (managing $7bn AUM overall), so they’re well capitalized to continue backing growth in the region. Edmond shares with us his formative experiences, including what it was like to join GIC at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and lessons learned. Edmond describes the founding of Axiom Asia, what it took to survive in the early days, and some of Axiom’s best investment decisions. At the same time, Edmond discusses challenges and tough decisions that FoFs must make with regards to their managers, as well as the differences in PE investing across stage and region. Finally, we cover some of the shifting market dynamics in China, from key technological and commercial trends to financial liberalization and the growing attractiveness of Chinese stock exchanges. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/edmond-axiom-asia-1

Today we’re recording at the KKBOX studio in Taiwan, big thanks to the Firstory team for setting this up. We have joining us Phil Chen, founding partner of Race Capital and product executive at HTC, whom I can only describe as a basketball loving, deep tech investing, future building nerd of a modern Renaissance man. While at HTC, Phil led product management for the first ever Android phone, founded Vive VR, and launched the world’s first blockchain phone (HTC Exodus). At the same time, Phil ran HTC’s corporate development efforts, where he invested in KKBOX and SoundHound, and also led HTC’s acquisition of Beats Electronics, which was eventually acquired by Apple. As a VC and advisor at Horizon Ventures (Li Ka-Shing’s venture fund), Phil managed their deep tech investments, where he served as a board director for over fifteen companies globally including Improbable, Soul Machines, Kneron, Scopely, Sentient, Fano Labs, Amper and 88Rising. On today’s podcast, Phil shares the insider scoop on HTC’s incredible rise and eventual decline that hasn’t been heard before, including an early opportunity to invest in Xiaomi when it was worth only $150m. Phil describes his investments in VR, especially as it pertains to health and how VR hacks the visual cortex to reduce pain, improve mental wellness, etc. Phil speaks to the potential of a blockchain powered future, as well the opportunity for Taiwanese start-ups to build world-class companies, especially as so many successful entrepreneurs return from Silicon Valley during the COVID era. Lots to cover on today’s podcast, enjoy! Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/phil-chen-htc-vr-blockchain-1

Raymond Yang is founding partner of WestSummit Capital, a leading technology growth equity fund that primarily invests in the US and China. Since 2010, the team has led investments into defining unicorns including Unity (~$41bn mobile game and real-time 3D development engine), Segway-Ninebot (~$8bn mobility + robotics platform), Twitch (gaming live video platform leader acquired by Amazon), GigaDevice (~$15bn NOR flash storage chip design), and more. Before his investment career, Raymond led the turnaround of Linktone and its successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2004. He also founded RivalWatch (retailer market intelligence) and Saratoga Technology (voice messaging services equipment). Today, Raymond shares with us his fascinating story, from growing up in Beijing and attending Tsinghua University to moving to Silicon Valley, launching his entrepreneurial career. Raymond then describes WestSummit Capital’s investment strategy in more detail, and shares more insights and lessons learned from key portfolio companies such as Unity. Raymond also shares key success factors for Segway-Ninebot and explains the significance of its IPO on the Shanghai STAR board (issued first CDRs in China). Hope you enjoy! Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/westsummit-capital-raymond-yang-snipers-approach-to-tech-growth-capital

Joseph (Jo) Phua is non-executive chairman of 17LIVE Inc, a company he cofounded and ran as CEO until June 2020. 17LIVE operates the largest live streaming platform in Asia (ex-China) with over 50m global users, led by its flagship app 17LIVE, as well as Meme Live and live stream eCommerce solutions HandsUP and FBBuy. Today, Jo shares with us his fascinating story, from selling watches in China to building Paktor (Tinder of Southeast Asia) and eventually merging it with 17 Media, resulting in one of the few and most notable internet unicorns that grew out of Taiwan + Japan. Jo discusses the operational challenges of running an online dating and live stream business, a fundraise strategy unique to Southeast Asia, and the importance of product-market fit and execution. He also shares his approach to growth, both in terms of M&A as well as market entry. Hope you enjoy! Link to write-up here: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/pioneering-live-stream-and-social-entertainment-in-asia-with-17live-founder?categoryId=23497

Today we have joining us Faisal Galaria, CEO of Blippar, a pioneer in augmented reality (AR). Now Blippar has a roller coaster of a story… the one-time unicorn raised $100m+ in venture funding but struggled to find a sustainable business model, burned through its cash and entered bankruptcy proceedings, before returning as a new business based on its drag-and-drop AR content creation tool (think WordPress for AR). Faisal joins to guide Blippar’s relaunch and set it on a sustainable growth track, leveraging experiences from his time scaling Skype as an early executive, and Spotify as SVP of International. Faisal shares with us what Blippar is working on these days, key drivers for AR adoption (from COVID-19 to 5G), what developments he sees in the AR/VR space, as well as examples of what Blippar is working on with clients, including with key clients in China and Asian markets. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/ar-s-comeback-kid-with-blippar-ceo-faisal-galaria?categoryId=23497

The Harbinger interviews Chee-We Ng, founding partner of Oak Seed Ventures. Chee-we invests solely in early-stage enterprise and core technology startups, and offers strategic advice and his network in order to help them succeed. Chee-We studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and has been programming in C and C++ since he was fourteen. Prior to founding Oak Seed, he was a managing partner at CRCM, a venture partner at Redpoint, led Cisco Investments in China and was a McKinsey consultant. He was the seed investor in many enterprise and core technology startups including Kyligence, Fastone, Oushu and Shangyong/Xinji. With Chee-we, we talk through several developments in China’s enterprise and cloud market, including trends across SaaS, data analytics and AI, data infrastructure and more. We also discuss the impact of geopolitics that has brought about an opportunity in “import substitution” away from global chipsets and core enterprise software. Finally, Chee-we shares his views on how to assess technical deals and founders, and offers advice to aspiring technical entrepreneurs. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/investing-in-chinese-enterprise-and-core-technology-with-oak-seed-vc?categoryId=23497

The Harbinger interviews Tiger Fang, cofounder and CEO at Kargo Technologies, a Jakarta-based startup that aims to digitize trucking and freight logistics in Indonesia before expanding to other markets in Southeast Asia. Kargo counts among its investors Sequoia Capital, ZhenFund, Intudo Ventures, ATM Capital, Coca-Cola, as well as Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick. Kargo recently raised $31m in its Series A led by Tenaya Capital. With Tiger, we cover his journey over the past decade, initially as Managing Director at Lazada Thailand before joining Uber to manage Western China and Indonesia as General Manager. We then examine Kargo’s solution, discuss how it incorporates into the logistics supply chain, how to develop route and pricing optimization, before shifting to competition and opportunity in the market, and the impact of China on Kargo and the broader SEA ecosystem. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/digitizing-logistics-infrastructure-with-kargo-founder-and-ceo-tiger-fang?categoryId=23497

Zac (Xiang) Pan is Associate Partner at Lightspeed China Partners (LCP), one of China’s top early stage VCs managing $2 billion USD. Zac joined LCP in January 2013, after having worked at Steamboat Ventures (Disney corporate VC) and China Renaissance. Since then, Zac has invested in some of Lightspeed’s top deals, including QingCloud, Spark Education, Full Truck Alliance (Manbang), IfChange, PeerSafe and more. With Zac, we hop on a Zoom call (while the coronavirus epidemic rages on), to explore LCP’s investment strategy, team structure, and how it collaborates with its sister funds around the world. We also touch on consumer, enterprise, deep tech, and macro trends as Zac shares what he’s looking at and what he finds interesting in the China market. The zoom call quality came out ok, apologies for some any disclarity in the audio! Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/a-lightspeed-review-of-enterprise-tech-and-the-chinese-consumer-with?categoryId=23497

Jacky Wang is COO of SHAREit, a platform that provides global users with high-quality digital content simply and quickly. Its basic file transferring function is over 200x faster than Bluetooth and enables sharing of files, photos, videos and music of any format. SHAREit has served emerging markets since 2015 and now has 1.8 billion installs and 600 million MAUs. Jacky previously worked at Google, Zynga, and Pinterest, before moving back to China to lead SHAREit. Jacky shares how SHAREit stumbled into the emerging market opportunity, deeply understanding and then serving core user needs, riding viral growth to capture a huge user base, and future monetization methods. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/enabling-content-discovery-and-sharing-for-the-next-billion-users-with?categoryId=23497

Zou Jia is CTO of OYO JiuDian (OYO China), a Chinese hotel chain operator that since November 2017 has scaled to over 500,000 rooms on its platform by February 2019 and raised over $800 million from Softbank’s Vision Fund. OYO JiuDian partners with fragmented hotel owners in China by aggregating them onto its platform through leases or franchises and through renovations, standardizes the user experience. Jia shares insights on why he moved back to China from SF, OYO JiuDian’s consumer product philosophy, how they manage supply, the fragmented Chinese hotel marketplace, and how he’s applied blitzscaling learnings from Uber China and Mobike to OYO JiuDian and more. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/blitzscaling-hotels-in-china-with-oyo-jiudian-cto-zou-jia?categoryId=23497

Yuan Liu is a managing director at ZhenFund, one of China’s top seed funds founded by Xu Xiaoping (Bob Xu) and Wang Qiang (Victor Wang), cofounders at NYSE listed New Oriental Education, along with Sequoia Capital China. While at ZhenFund, Yuan has invested in some of their top deals, including autonomous driving unicorn Momenta, Yi23, Castbox, 12 Sigma, and more. With Yuan, we’ll learn more about ZhenFund’s investment focus, fund strategy, and how it differentiates against other funds. We’ll explore best practices when it comes to deal sourcing and portfolio management. Yuan also shares with us what trends he’s looking at in China, and some of the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese teams building start-ups tackling global markets. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/pioneering-china-seed-investing-with-zhenfund-managing-director-yuan-liu?categoryId=23497

The Harbinger interviews Dr. Fan Ling, founder and CEO of Tezign. We had our initial conversation with Dr. Fan back in fall 2017, and his company has since grown from 30 to nearly 200 people, so we’re quite excited to dig in and understand what’s changed at Tezign and in the broader China market since that time. As a refresher – Tezign is a digital platform for creative talent and content resources based in Shanghai. It provides two primary solutions for large global brands: a creative supplier platform (match projects and companies with the right designers and creatives) as well as a digital asset management, data intelligence solution. With Dr. Fan, we discuss Tezign’s growth, evolution in its business model, key client pain points, a competitive landscape ranging from freelance platforms and SaaS solutions to agency models, the importance of culture and talent development, and more. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/digital-asset-management-with-chinese-characteristics-with-tezign-founder

We interview Ben Hu, Cofounder and CTO at Liulishuo, an AI-powered English learning solution with nearly 100 million registered users that IPOed in September 2018 (as LAIX). On Liulishuo’s platform, AI technologies are integrated with learning content, well-established language learning pedagogies, gamified features and social elements to deliver an interactive and adaptive learning experience. Ben shares his perspective on a number of topics, including: his journey from China to NYC/SF and back, what is Liulishuo and how does its AI work, the importance of integrating cutting-edge tech with a keen understanding of consumers and quality education content, how Liulishuo compares to other edtech giants in China, Liulishuo’s growth strategy, and more. Link to write-up: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/who-needs-an-ai-teacher-with-liulishuo-founder-cto-ben-hu