Podcast appearances and mentions of hans tung

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Best podcasts about hans tung

Latest podcast episodes about hans tung

Equity
Notable Capital's Hans Tung on the state of VC and the upside to down rounds

Equity

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2024 25:30


This week, Mary Ann talked to Hans Tung, managing partner of Notable Capital (formerly GGV Capital), which is focused on investing in the US as well as in Europe and Latin America. Long-time listeners may recall that Hans, whose portfolio includes the likes of Airbnb, StockX and Slack, joined Equity last year to focus on down rounds, a term often treated like an evil phrase. Today, we're digging into why Hans still believes in down rounds, the importance of long-term thinking and the current state of startup investment.We'll also dive into:Why Hans is so bullish on fintech, and what sectors within fintech especially has him psyched.Recent changes at his own firm, and why there have been so many personnel changes at VC firms as of lateAnd more!All right, sit back, hit play and have some fun with us. Equity will be back on Monday. See you then!Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Equity
Tesla's busy week, and is fintech having a moment?

Equity

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2024 31:57


It's been more than a minute since Tesla went public, but the EV company was inescapable on TechCrunch this week. From layoffs to pricing changes and more, it was a week dyed deeply in Tesla colors so we had to chat through the latest.But that was just one element of what we got into on Equity this week. We also dug into Mary Ann's reporting about Ramp's latest round — and up valuation — that fit neatly next to Rippling's own impending fundraise. If you are handling money, it's a good time to be a startup.The team also dug into Cherub, which wants to connect investors and founders, Maven Ventures' consumer investing push, and touched on what Mercury is up to. All told, we were fortunate to have Kirsten Korosec along with us this week given the sheer volume, and diversity of transportation news to chew through, especially as it relates to Tesla.Equity is back tomorrow with a special interview between Mary Ann and Notable Capital's Hans Tung, so stay tuned! Until then, hit play and let's have some fun.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Wharton FinTech Podcast
Hans Tung - Mastering Global Venture Capital

Wharton FinTech Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2023 50:30


In a collaboration with GGV Capital's "Evolving for the Next Billion" podcast, Joshua Benadiva hosts a fascinating conversation with Hans Tung, widely recognized as one of the best venture investors in the world. Hans is the managing partner of GGV Capital, and has been named to the Forbes Midas List of the world's top venture capital investors for 11 consecutive years. Throughout our conversation, we explore the unique decision-making strategies that have fueled Hans' successful investments. We delve into his distinct perspective on human and technological transformation and discuss how he uses these as data points in his broader investment strategy. Hans Tung is a Managing Partner at GGV Capital, focusing on early-stage investments across the global digital economy ecosystem. He is consistently recognized among the top venture capital investors in the world, having been named to the Forbes Midas list 11 consecutive years from 2013-2023, and has been in the top 10 for the last 5 years. He has also been recognized among the Top 100 Asian Americans by Gold House in 2018-2020. In 2023, Hans and his team launched the Embedded Fintech 50, a list highlighting the rising stars in fintech innovation. Hans oversees the GGV's DE&I initiatives, and he is also the co-host of the popular podcast, “Evolving for the Next Billion” on entrepreneurship around the globe.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Hans Tung: Finding your T, Making better decisions, and FinTech's Next Frontier

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2023 50:49


Today's episode is a collaboration between Evolving for the Next Billion and The Wharton FinTech Podcast. Hosted by Josh Benadiva, Hans shares the turning points in his career, how he makes difficult decisions, and how GGV approaches FinTech.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Fireside with Tony Fadell: Follow Your Passion, not the Trends

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2023 35:52


Today's episode is a recording of a virtual fireside chat with Tony Fadell-iPod inventor, iPhone co-inventor, Nest founder, and now New York Times best-selling author of "Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making". It is hosted by GGV's managing partners Jeff Richards and Hans Tung.

passion new york times iphone nest fireside tony fadell jeff richards ggv making things worth making build an unorthodox guide hans tung
Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Fireside with Tony Fadell: Follow Your Passion, not the Trends

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2023 35:52


Today's episode is a recording of a virtual fireside chat with Tony Fadell-iPod inventor, iPhone co-inventor, Nest founder, and now New York Times best-selling author of "Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making". It is hosted by GGV's managing partners Jeff Richards and Hans Tung.

passion new york times iphone nest fireside tony fadell jeff richards ggv making things worth making build an unorthodox guide hans tung
Equity
Be relevant, or get downturned

Equity

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2023 29:27


Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Mary Ann interviewed Hans Tung, prolific investor and managing partner of GGV, a venture firm with more than $9 billion in assets under management.The pair had a great conversation on:How Hans is advising portfolio companies to weather this downturn What he's looking for in new investmentsHow startups can stay relevant no matter the economic environmentWhat he'd be if he weren't a VC (hint: Mark Cuban follows a similar playbook)His new initiative around embedded fintechWith two decades of experience in investing in companies such as Affirm and Airbnb, Hans has been through more than one cycle and his calm, steady approach to handling challenging macro environments comes through. We had lots of fun learning more about what Hans thinks about investing and what he views as the best advice he's ever received; I hope you will, too! As always, the full crew will be back on Friday, but keep up with Equity in the meantime @EquityPod on Twitter.Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and more!

Reset The Table
Reshaping the Food Supply Chain through Food Tech with Hans Tung and Fabián Gómez Gutiérrez

Reset The Table

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2022 30:42


Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital, and Fabián Gómez Gutiérrez, Founder and CEO of Frubana, sit down with GFSP director Caitlin Welsh to discuss the ways in which food tech can streamline the food supply chain to reduce food loss and waste while cutting costs for restaurants and consumers. Ms. Welsh and our guests examine how Frubana, a food tech company operating at 87,000 retailers across Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia, has cut waste along the food supply chain by developing software that enables direct communication and delivery between farmers and restaurants. Later, Mr. Tung and Mr. Gutiérrez reflect on the next decade of food tech innovations to help improve food supply and affordability for farmers, small business owners, and consumers.

Collab Trends
Matheus Goyas, cofundador e CEO da Trybe | Educação para o sucesso das pessoas

Collab Trends

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 10, 2022 30:37


O entrevistado de hoje é Matheus Goyas, cofundador e CEO da Trybe, uma das mais bem-sucedidas startups brasileiras dedicadas à educação. Logo em 2012, foi um dos fundadores do AppProva, ferramenta de preparação para exames que ajudou milhões de estudantes pelo Brasil, adquirida pela Somos Educação em 2017. Foi eleito um dos 10 jovens mais inspiradores do Brasil por Veja e Fundação Estudar, Empreendedor do Ano da América Latina pela MIT Technology Review e entrou para a lista dos "30 Under 30" da Forbes. A Trybe recebeu US$ 50 milhões em três rodadas de captação que contaram com a participação de vários fundos e profissionais famosos como José Galló e Hans Tung.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series
Turning Data into Action [Entire Talk]

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2022 56:58


Sara Menker is the founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence, which uses data, analytics, and forecasting models to inform companies involved in the agricultural supply chain and organizations impacted by climate change. Hans Tung is a managing partner at GGV Capital, focusing on early-stage investments across the global digital economy. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Emily Ma, Menker and Tung discuss the skills, tactics and technologies needed to solve complex, systemic challenges.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Hans Tung of GGV: The Unbelievable 2020

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 30, 2020 13:48


For our last episode in this special year, we bring you Hans's perspective on 2020. To our listeners across the world, thank you for being with us. We look forward to bringing you more insights and inspirations next year! See you in 2021! For the full transcript of the show, go to nextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go to nextbn.ggvc.com/community

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Siddharth Shah of PharmEasy on Disrupting the Healthcare Business in India

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2020 50:54


Interviewed by Hans Tung and Madhu Yalamarthi. On today's episode, we have Siddharth Shah, co-founder and CEO of PharmEasy, India's largest digital health platform. Start with a vision to make health care accessible and affordable to all farmers who supplies medicines to more than 1000 cities and towns in India. The company recently proposed a merger deal with its rival MedLife, creating now India's newest unicorn. Siddharth is focused on bringing radical reforms in the healthcare industry with the help of digital technologies. A graduated from DJ Sanghavi College in Mumbai in computer engineering, and he is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. For the full transcript of the show, go to nextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go to nextbn.ggvc.com/engage

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Live in Jakarta: Founders Q&A with Hans Tung

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2020 20:02


Today's episode is a recording of a founders' dinner we hosted in Jakarta last year. In a short Q&A part of the night, Hans answered a wide range of questions, including absolutes, trade-offs, the power of the mass market, patterns recognition across markets, and more. The dinner was hosted by GGV colleague Dimitra Taslim. Enjoy! For the full transcript of the show, go tonextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go tonextbn.ggvc.com/community

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Bonus Episode: Hans Tung on Emerging Trends, FoodTech and Advice for his Younger Self

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2020 35:31


Today's episode originally aired on our previous guest Garry Tan's YouTube Channel. Garry turned the table and interviewed Hans on being a global investor in this day and age, what great founders have in common, and 1 thing he wants to tell his younger self. For the full transcript of the show, go to nextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go to nextbn.ggvc.com/community

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Renee Wang of CastBox: on Building America's Top-Rated Podcast Listening App

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2019 55:38


In this episode, GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Rita Yang interviewed Renee Wang (王小雨), the founder and CEO of CastBox, a global podcast platform often referred to as the "Netflix for podcasting". It uses natural language processing and machine learning to power unique features like personalized recommendations and in-audio search. According to a report from Sensor tower in April 2019, Castbox is now the biggest 3rd-party pure-play podcast app.   Before launching CastBox in 2016, Renee worked for Google in China, Japan, and Ireland. She holds a bachelor's degree in Peking University in psychology and mathematical statistics. While in college, she taught herself coding and became one of the earliest Android developers in China.    On the show, Renee discussed user acquisition in international markets with a cross-cultural team, integrating Chinese social app features into its global podcasting platform, the landscape of consumer-facing audio apps in China and her strategic decision for not entering the Chinese market. She also shared her journey of landing a job at Google without speaking a word of English, selling her apartment in Beijing to fund her startup and leading a diverse team spread across the US and China.   Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community.  The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
AMA: Hans Tung on Breaking into VC and Other Questions from Listeners

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2019 54:37


On a special "AMA" (Ask Me Anything) episode, GGV Managing Partner Hans Tung answers questions posed by our listeners on a wide range of topics. How did Hans break into the VC world? What made he move to China and then come back to Silicon Valley afterwards? How does he deal with failures as an investor? What does it take for non-Chinese entrepreneurs to succeed in China? What motivates him to wake up and work hard every day? Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or "GGVCapital" on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Tao Peng, President of Airbnb China, on Redefining Travel

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2019 42:21


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Tao Peng (彭韬), the president of Airbnb China. Prior to joining Airbnb in Sept 2018, Tao has founded a number of companies in the travel space including Breadtrip, a social app for recording and sharing trips, and more recently, CityHome, a management platform for short-terms rentals across China. Before founding Breadtrip, Tao has worked at the network security provider IntelliGuard and has also worked for McKinsey for two years as a management consultant. Tao graduated from the University of Melbourne with Ph.D degree in computer networks and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in communication engineering. He is also an avid traveler and has been to over 50 countries across seven continents. Earlier on the 996 Podcast, we have interviewed Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb's co-founder and chief strategy officer as well as the chairman of Airbnb China. If you haven't listened to that episode, we highly recommend checking it out; it was released around exactly a year ago on April 11th, 2018. Airbnb is a GGV portfolio company and our managing partners Hans Tung and Glenn Solomon actively works with the company especially with regards to its China strategy. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip, on Running Asia's Largest OTA

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2019 55:21


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jane Sun (孙洁), the CEO of Ctrip, the largest online travel platform in China which is listed on the NASDAQ. It's current market cap (at time of recording) is around $23 billion. Jane has been at Ctrip for 13 years. Prior to becoming CEO in Nov 2016, Jane served as COO of Ctrip for four years and CFO for seven years. Before joining Ctrip, Jane worked at Applied Materials in the US as the head of SEC and External Reporting Division. Prior to that, she worked with KPMG as an audit manager in Silicon Valley for five years. Jane received her bachelor's degree from the business school of the University of Florida, and LLM degree from the Peking University Law School. Jane discussed her journey from studying abroad in the US to one of the one of the top female leaders in Chinese tech, her daily routine as the CEO of a New York-listed Chinese tech company, and her advice for young people with cross-cultural backgrounds. This episode also features a bonus interview with GGV managing partner Jixun Foo, who led the firm's investment in the online travel search company Qunar, which merged with Ctrip in 2015. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview two “GGV Fellows,” David Sun (a data scientist on Apple's Siri team) and Bo Ning Han (a recent Harvard grad working on a startup in Beijing), on their life stories and their takeaways from the GGV Fellows program. What is the GGV Fellows program? Read this blog post to find out more: https://hans.vc/why-we-organized-ggv-fellows/ If you are interested in applying to future batches of GGV Fellows or our other events, please join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community, where all related announcements will be posted. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Chinese Overseas Returnees (Hai Guis): Opportunities and Challenges

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2019 38:17


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese overseas returnees (“sea turtles”, or 海归) who are interested in working in China's tech industry. These are people who were born and raised in China, completed their high education outside of China or have worked overseas, and then have returned to China for opportunities. There has been a growing number of sea turtles in recent year as China's tech economy boomed and the US immigration policies became less friendly to foreign talent. We addressed questions including: What are the common pitfalls that sea turtle entrepreneurs run into? In an age where the premium of an overseas education is arguably declining in China, how can sea turtles make the most of their global experience? For aspiring sea turtle entrepreneurs, which verticals should they spend time on? If you're an aspiring or current Chinese overseas returnee, we have a special resource for you: we recently compiled a list of 10 Chinese books on tech & entrepreneurship in China that we recommend all sea turtles read before going back to China. These include books on China's tech giants Tencent, Alibaba, JD, and Meituan, books on practical aspects of running a startup in China such as growth and marketing, as well as books on general Chinese business history. To read the book list, please follow GGV's WeChat official account by searching "GGVCapital" in WeChat, and then message the word "sea turtle" to that account. We also have a lucky draw for you: If you comment on that article with your story of coming back to China as a sea turtle before April 10th, you can enter a lottery to win a bundle of these 10 books, which will be mailed to you. We look forward to hearing your story. And, here's a list of news outlets and resources that can help you stay in touch with what's going on in tech in China: https://zarazhang.com/2018/03/25/how-to-keep-up-with-whats-happening-china/ Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Wang Yu of Tantan on Scaling China's Top Dating App

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2019 68:01


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Wang Yu (王宇), the co-founder and CEO of Tantan (探探), China's leading dating app. Tantan is social app that help young people in China connect with one another. It has a slide-left slide-right interface. Only when two users both slide right on each other can they start a conversation. The company was founded in 2014 and has helped users make over 10 billion matches to date. In 2018, Tantan was acquired by Momo (陌陌) for $735 million. Momo is a top location-based social networking platform in China that help people meet strangers around them. It is also one of the leading live streaming platforms in China. It is a public company on the NASDAQ and its current market cap is around $6.8 billion. Wang Yu was born in Beijing and grew up in Sweden. He holds two master's degrees, one on computer science and one in industrial economics. In 2007, he moved back to China and started his first business P1, a fashion community, before founding Tantan in 2014. During this episode, Yu discussed how the failure of his first startup P1 proved crucial to the success of Tantan, why flawless execution is more important than flawless product in China, whether any social apps in China will be able to challenge WeChat, and the advantages and disadvantages of being an overseas Chinese returnee entrepreneur. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Simon Zhang of GrowingIO: Learning to Grow, Chinese Style

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2019 62:02


Join GGV 996's anniversary party in San Francisco on Friday, March 8! The event will take the form of a Trivia Night on Chinese tech. Come test your knowledge of China's tech industry, compete to win prizes, and enjoy a great night with friends. RSVP at 996.ggvc.com/sf. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community.   GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Simon Zhang, (张溪梦), the founder and CEO of GrowingIO, a data analytics startup in China that helps product managers and marketers analyze mobile apps and websites without adding manual tracking codes. GrowingIO now counts over 6000 companies as its customers, including the likes of Didi, Momo, Tujia, and others. Previously, Simon was senior director of business analytics at LinkedIn in its Silicon Valley headquarters, and before that, worked as a senior manager of site analytics at eBay. In 2015, he left a decade-long career in Silicon Valley to return to China and started his current startup, GrowingIO. But prior to all of this, Simon worked as a brain surgeon in China, and attended medical school in Tianjin. He also obtained an MBA from Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. Simon is also the author of the Chinese book 《首席增长官》 (“Chief Growth Officer”) and is a thought leader in the field of data-driven growth in China. Simon discussed how Chinese engineers in Silicon Valley can crack the “bamboo ceiling”, how Chinese-style growth differs from Silicon Valley-style growth, and why “raising too much money” could create challenges for a startup. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV focuses on seed-to-growth stage investments across Consumer/New Retail, Social/Digital & Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech sectors. The firm was founded in 2000 and manages $6.2 billion in capital across 13 funds. Past and present portfolio companies include Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Bitsight, ByteDance, Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, Grab, Gladly, Hello Chuxing, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, LingoChamp, Namely, Niu, Nozomi Networks, Opendoor, Peloton, Poshmark, Slack, Square, Wish, Xauto, Xiaohongshu, Yellow, YY, Zhaoyou and more. The firm has offices in Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Learn more at ggvc.com, or “GGVCapital” on WeChat.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Doris Ke on Marketing Across the US and China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2019 53:21


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Doris Ke, a marketer and writer who has had an interesting career across the US and China. Doris grew up in China and went to the US for college, where she attended Bard College in New York. She started her career at Unilever where she worked on brand development, and then joined Michael Kors in New York where she was the social communications manager for APAC. In 2015, she left Michael Kors to become the head of marketing operations at Alipay US, based in Silicon Valley. In 2017, she returned to China to become the CMO of the Chinese startup YCloset (衣二三), which is often referred to as “the Chinese version of Rent the Runway”. She recently left YCloset to start her own marketing startup. Throughout all of this, she has also been running a WeChat official account with around 100K followers called “doriskeke”, where she blogs about the cultural differences between US and China. During this lively episode, Doris discussed the cultural differences between working at Chinese vs. American companies, lessons from her viral yet controversial marketing campaign at YCloset, what it is like to live in Beijing as a Shanghainese, and how she used the “growth mindset” to find her boyfriend (now husband).

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Chuhai: Why Chinese Entrepreneurs are Targeting Emerging Markets Across the World

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2019 34:18


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang discuss the trend known as “Chuhai” (出海), or Chinese founders targeting emerging markets outside of China, such as Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and more. As the mobile Internet market in China reaches saturation, an increasing number of Chinese entrepreneurs are now eyeing other developing markets where mobile Internet is just starting to take off; in fact, many of these countries are seeing their Internet sector dominated by Chinese companies. Factor Daily recently reported that 44 out of the 100 top apps in India (Google Play) are made by Chinese companies. What are the reasons behind the “Chuhai” wave? How can they best recruit local talents and bridge the cultural gaps? How can they avoid the same mistakes that the US Internet companies made when then came to China?

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
George Yan: From Microsoft China to Clobotics

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2018 43:06


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview George Yan (严治庆), the founder and CEO of Clobotics, (扩博智能). Founded in 2016, Clobotics is a computer vision startup that seeks to make traditional industries more intelligent. It is headquartered in Shanghai and Seattle with offices in Beijing, Dalian, and Singapore. It currently serves two industries: traditional retail and wind energy. Clobotics owns over 40 patents and has raised $21 million in VC funding. GGV was an early investor in Clobotics in 2017, and our managing partner Jenny Lee is on the board. Prior to founding Clobotics, George spent 16 years at Microsoft in the US and in China. As the vice president and general manager of marketing and operations for Microsoft Greater China, he contributed to the double-digit growth for the region's $3 billion business. He was also responsible for the inception of Microsoft Cloud business in China, and led a massive team in landing Microsoft Azure and Office365 in China within less than 10 months, making Microsoft the first world-wide cloud service provider to land its service in mainland China. Before Microsoft, George worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey in the US. He holds a master's degree in financial engineering from Columbia. George discussed how to find the “right timing” to leave big tech companies to become entrepreneurs, the lessons he drew from helping Microsoft land in China, and what it's like to run a startup that is global from Day One.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Yan Li and Token Hu of NIU on the Journey to IPO

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2018 51:06


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Yan Li and Token Hu, the cofounders of NIU, or 牛电科技 (a.k.a 小牛电动车) in Chinese. NIU designs and manufactures smart and high-performance electric scooters. It is currently the largest lithium-ion battery-powered e-scooters company in China and a leader in Europe in terms of sales volume in 2017. As of June 30, 2018, NIU had sold more than 430,000 smart e-scooters in China, Europe and other countries.  NIU's vision is to become the number one brand for urban mobility, powered by design and technology. Before NIU, smart electric two-wheeled vehicles did not exist in China, and two-wheeled vehicles were perceived low-end. The company has changed that perception with their smart e-scooters and premium brand. NIU just went public on the NASDAQ in mid-October. GGV led NIU's series A back in 2015 and has backed the company in every round since then, all the way through its IPO. Our managing partner Jenny Lee is on the board. We are very excited to have Yan and Token with us on this episode, almost fresh off the plane from New York. Yan and Token discussed how NIU became a lifestyle brand in China, the ups and downs during their amazing startup journey, and what it was like to take a Chinese company public on the NASDAQ.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Tony Fadell on Finding the New New Thing

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2018 71:44


GGV Capital's Hans Tung, Jenny Lee, and Zara Zhang interview Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod, co-inventor of the iPhone, founder and former CEO of Nest, the company that pioneered the “Internet of Things,” and currently the Principal at Future Shape, an investment and advisory firm coaching deep tech startups. Tony was the SVP of Apple's iPod Division and led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone. Throughout his career Tony has authored more than 300 patents. In May 2016, TIME named the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPod and the iPhone as three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” Tony has been a long-time friend of GGV and of our managing partner Jenny Lee, who we have as a guest host on the show today. Tony discusses why China might have a “last-mover advantage”, the qualities he look for in entrepreneurs, and how to discover the next game-changing technology.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Ashley Peng of Xiaobu: When Chinese Millennials Become Parents

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2018 52:22


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Ashley Peng (彭琳琳), the founder and CEO of Xiaobu (小步), a mobile platform for young parents in China with kids aged 0-6 years old. By providing high-quality content and tools, Xiaobu helps their users navigate parenthood, which is a confusing period for many millennial parents. Xiaobu literally means "little steps" in Chinese. On Xiaobu, parents can take courses on parenting, enter a "parenting university", browse activities to do with their children, and post updates and photos to record their parenting journey. Xiaobu now has over 2 million users and growing fast. Before starting Xiaobu last year, Ashley worked as a consultant at BCG China for 8 years, and then spent 2 years at Miya (蜜芽宝贝), a leading e-commerce company for mom-and-baby goods in China, where she was the VP of strategy and business assistant to the CEO. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Tsinghua University in journalism and public policy and obtained her MBA from the Stanford GSB in 2011. Xiaobu is a GGV portfolio company. Ashley how she was inspired to start Xiaobu by her own journey as the mother of a young child, why millennial parents in China need a lot of help, and how she went about designing a product that's highly engaging to users.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
David Li of YY: Pioneering Live Streaming in China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2018 59:19


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview David Li (李学凌), the founder and CEO of YY, one of the first live streaming platforms in China. YY went public on the NASDAQ in 2012 and is now a multi-billion dollar company. YY also owns Huya, the leading game streaming platform in China which went public on the NYSE this May. David is also the co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based BIGO, which is the leading live streaming platform in Southeast Asia. Before founding YY in 2005, David served as the editor in chief at NetEase. David received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Renmin University of China in 1997. GGV is lucky to count YY as a portfolio company, and our managing partner Jenny Lee was on the board of YY for seven years. David discussed his evolution from a philosophy major to a journalist to an Internet entrepreneur, what it's like to take a Chinese company public in 2012, and how YY came to spearhead innovative features of modern live-streaming products such as in-app tipping and virtual gifts. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $6.2 billion in capital under management across 13 funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang discuss the firm's recent investment in Yellow, a leading micro-mobility startup based in Brazil, which recently raised $63 million in Series A led by GGV Capital. Yellow launched Brazil's first dockless bike-sharing service in Sao Paulo in August 2018. It has also begun piloting e-scooters and developing e-bikes to provide a comprehensive micro-mobility solution to users in Brazil and beyond. Additionally, Yellow offers digital payments through its Yellow Pay platform. We discuss how the investment thesis came together, and what it means for emerging market countries to have founders who aspire to play on a global scale. Hans discusses the characteristics in the team and the market for Yellow that made the investment so compelling. We also discuss the similarities between Latin America and Southeast Asia, and why startups across the world are starting to take inspiration not just from Silicon Valley, but also from China.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Toby Sun of Lime on Scooters and the Future of Transportation

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2018 53:16


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Toby Sun, the co-founder of Lime, a GGV portfolio company that's disrupting last-mile transportation in the US. A few months ago, we had Brad Bao, the other co-founder, on the show, back when the company was still called "LimeBike." At that time, Lime's operation was still pedal bikes only. A lot has changed since then. In a short span of a few months, LimeBike has expanded into 20 markets in four countries, changed its name to “Lime”, added other transportation modes including e-bikes and e-scooters to its services, and announced a $335 million funding round led by GV with participation from Uber, which will become Lime's strategic partner in the electric scooter space. Lime is currently working with Uber to co-brand its scooters and make them available in the Uber app. In the episode, we discussed why scooters have a future in the US, how Lime envisions its partnership with Uber, and whether Lime sees itself as a “super app” going forward. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. You can view the full transcript of this episode at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 290 companies, with 46 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com. We also recommend checking out our sister podcast, Founder Real Talk. It is a biweekly show that discusses challenges that founders and executives face and how they grow by dealing with them. The show is hosted by Glenn Solomon, managing partner at GGV Capital.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Jixun Foo of GGV Capital: Behind the Scenes of China's Venture Deals

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2018 64:21


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jixun Foo (符绩勋), who is a Managing Partner at GGV Capital based in China. Jixun joined GGV in 2006 and has more than 20 years of experience in venture capital investing. He focuses on travel and transportation, social media and commerce as well as enterprise services in China. Jixun has led GGV's investments in Qunar (去哪儿), Grab, Didi (滴滴出行), Youku-Tudou (优酷土豆), UCWeb, Mogujie-Meilishuo (美丽联合集团), MediaV, Full-Truck Alliance (formerly Yunmanman) (满帮集团), Meicai (美菜), and currently serves on the boards of XPeng (小鹏汽车), Hellobike (哈罗单车), Tujia (途家), Xiangwushuo (享物说), Zuiyou (最右) and Kujiale (酷家乐). Jixun played a critical role in many key strategic mergers and acquisitions, such as those of Youku-Tudou, Baidu/Qunar, Ctrip/Qunar, and Mogujie/Meilishuo. Jixun has been recognized by Forbes China as one of the “Best Venture Capitalists” every year since 2006, and frequently appears on the Forbes Midas list. Before GGV, Jixun was a Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures, where he led the firm's investment in Baidu. Prior to DFJ ePlanet, Jixun led the Investment Group under the Finance & Investment Division of the National Science & Technology Board of Singapore (NSTB) and has also worked in the R&D division of Hewlett Packard. Jixun is from Singapore and graduated from the National University of Singapore with a First-Class Honors degree in Engineering, as well as a Master's in Management of Technology from the university's Graduate School of Business. In this episode, Jixun discusses how he started his career in venture capital, the insider story behind the merger between Youku and Tudou (the largest merger in Chinese tech history at the time), why he invested in the bike-sharing company HelloBike (which overtook Mobike and Ofo to become the top player in the country), and what sectors excite him today. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. You can view the full transcript of this episode at 996.ggvc.com. We are excited to announce a new program, "GGV Fellows", designed to help "sea turtles" or (海归) and Chinese students studying overseas to get to know the Chinese entrepreneurial landscape better. If you're a Chinese student/professional who is studying/working overseas (or have done so in the past), this is a program designed for you! It's a weeklong program in Jan 2019 in Beijing (during most US college's winter break). You will be able to learn from executives at some of China's most valuable tech companies, and visit some of their offices. You will also participate in mixers with students at top Chinese universities like Tsinghua and Beida to build a local network. Please visit fellows.ggvc.com for the application link and for more information. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Grant Horsfield of naked Hub: Creating a Lifestyle Brand in China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2018 61:14


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Grant Horsfield (高天成), a South African serial entrepreneur who came to China in 2005 and founded naked Group, which includes the coworking space naked Hub (裸心社) and the luxury resort brand naked Retreat (裸心谷). In 2007, Grant and his wife, Delphine Yip-Horsfield, opened the first naked resort – naked Home – in Moganshan (莫干山), a beautiful mountain 30-minute drive from Hangzhou. Following its success, Grant continued to expand the naked resort business into other high-end, eco-friendly resorts which prioritize sustainability development In 2016, Grant and Delphine launched the coworking space naked Hub, which seeks to combine hospitality, design, technology, and community. Naked Hub offers several services, include open office, private office, and hot desks. It now has 10,000 members across 24 office locations both in Shanghai and Beijing. It has expanded into Australia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. In April 2018, Naked Hub and WeWork announced that they would join forces to support business in China and throughout Asia. In this episode, Grant explained why he moved to China from rural South Africa, how he earned the trust of local Chinese farmers in Moganshan, and what differentiates naked Hub from other coworking spaces. The full transcript of this episode is available at 996.ggvc.com. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. We are excited to announce a new program, "GGV Fellows", designed to help "sea turtles" or (海归) and Chinese students studying overseas to get to know the Chinese entrepreneurial landscape better. If you're a Chinese student/professional who is studying/working overseas (or have done so in the past), this is a program designed for you! It's a weeklong program in Jan 2019 in Beijing (during most US college's winter break). You will be able to learn from executives at some of China's most valuable tech companies, and visit some of their offices. You will also participate in mixers with students at top Chinese universities like Tsinghua and Beida to build a local network. Please visit fellows.ggvc.com for the application link and for more information. GGV Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the last 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in Consumer/New Retail, Social/Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech. GGV has invested in over 290 companies with more than 45 companies valued at more than $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Ctrip, Didi, Grab, Hellobike, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, Opendoor, Peloton, Slack, Square, ByteDance (Toutiao), Wish, Xiaomi, Xiaohongshu, and YY. Find out more at ggvc.com. 

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Zilin Chen of BingoBox on the Future of New Retail in China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2018 65:47


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interviewed Zilin Chen, founder and CEO of BingoBox, China's first scalable 24-hour cashier-free convenience store and a GGV portfolio company. BingoBox features a smart counter for a staffless check-out experience, and uses RFID and computer vision to keep track of items. Users scan a QR code to enter the store, and pay via Alipay or WeChat Pay. BingoBox is a pioneer in a phenomenon known as "new retail" in China, commonly understood as using technology to transform offline retail. BingoBox was launched to public in August 2016 and now has over 300 boxes in almost 30 cities in China. GGV led BingoBox's series A investment in July 2017. The company raised another $80 million in series B this January, which GGV also participated in. Zilin discussed how the idea for BingoBox came about, how BingoBox differs from Amazon Go, and the technology and unit economics behind the stores. The episode also features a bonus interview with Eric Xu, GGV Capital's managing partner based in China, who led our investment in BingoBox. Eric discussed the meaning of "new retail" and what made him want to invest in BingoBox. The full transcript of this episode is available at 996.ggvc.com/2018/08/15/episode-18-zilin-chen-of-bingobox-on-the-future-of-new-retail-in-china/. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 290 companies, with more than 45 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com. Listen to past episodes of our sister podcast, Founder Real Talk. It is a biweekly show that discusses challenges that founders and executives face and how they grow by dealing with them. The show is hosted by Glenn Solomon, managing partner at GGV Capital.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang have a conversation about Xiaomi's IPO, which took place in Hong Kong on July 9. Hans is one of the early investors in Xiaomi and a former company board member of the company. Hans recounts the original pitch that Xiaomi's founder Lei Jun gave him back in 2010, and what made him want to invest in a seemingly “crazy” idea. We also touched on frequently-asked questions like: Why can Xiaomi be thought of as an “Internet company” instead of a hardware company? Why should people stop comparing Xiaomi to Apple? Was Xiaomi's IPO valuation justified? What does the “Xiaomi ecosystem” mean? Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. We also recommend checking out GGV Capital's sister podcast, Founder Real Talk. It is a biweekly show that discusses challenges that founders and executives face and how they grow by dealing with them. The show is hosted by Glenn Solomon, managing partner at GGV Capital. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.  

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Justin Kan of Twitch and Atrium: From Builder to Entrepreneur

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2018 52:57


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview serial entrepreneur Justin Kan. In 2007, he co-founded Justin.TV, a website that allowed anyone to broadcast video online. In 2011, Justin.tv spinned off its gaming division as Twitch, which went on to become the leading live streaming platform for video games in the US. Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for almost a billion dollars. More recently, Justin co-founded Atrium LTS—the “LTS” stands for “Legal Technology Services” - a startup that's building technology to revolutionize the legal industry. GGV is an investor in Atrium. Justin is a true startup veteran—in addition to starting multiple companies of his own, he has worked with hundreds of startups as a partner at Y Combinator, and has also personally angel invested in over 65 companies. Justin grew up in Seattle as a second-generation Chinese American, and graduated from Yale in 2005 with degrees in physics and philosophy. In this episode, Justin recounted the story of how he started to live streaming his life before streaming became cool, the pitfalls he has gone through during his startup journey, whether it was the right decision to sell Twitch to Amazon in 2014, and what gets him excited about his new venture Atrium. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com. Tweets: "I always thought that 'management' was a dirty word. But we could have been much more effective if we had implemented actual management in the early days." - @JustinKan of @Twitch on the 996 Podcast with @hanstung & @zarazhangrui https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/996-podcast-with-ggv-capital/id1336107529?mt=2 "I think we [the US] take immigration of skilled labor for granted. We should be trying to get every single engineer from around the world to live here, to stay here." - @JustinKan of @Twitch on the 996 Podcast with @hanstung & @zarazhangrui https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/996-podcast-with-ggv-capital/id1336107529?mt=2 @GGVCapital   "The most common mistake I see in founders is that they are not focused enough." - @JustinKan of @Twitch on the 996 Podcast with @hanstung & @zarazhangrui https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/996-podcast-with-ggv-capital/id1336107529?mt=2 @GGVCapital

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Eric Yuan of Zoom: From Immigrant to Top CEO

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2018 42:07


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, the leading video conferencing solution for enterprise. Zoom is used by a third of Fortune 500 companies and 90% of the top 200 universities in the US. Eric was recently named the Top CEO on Glassdoor, with an approval rating of 99%, and was the first person of color to win the award. Eric grew up and went to college in China, arrived in Silicon Valley in 1997 and joined WebEx when it was still a small company. In 2007 WebEx was acquired by Cisco and Eric became Cisco's Corporate VP of engineering in charge of collaboration software. Eric spent 14 years in total at WebEx and grew its engineering team from 10 to 800, and increased its revenue from zero to over $800 million. Eric holds 11 patents, plus 20 pending patents in the pipeline. In this episode, Eric shared his story of being rejected a US visa for 8 times while in China, how to overcome the “bamboo ceiling” as a Chinese engineer in Silicon Valley, and what makes Zoom different from its competitors. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Jenny Lee of GGV Capital on Being a VC in China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2018 65:09


Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jenny Lee, a managing partner at GGV Capital based in Shanghai. Jenny joined GGV in 2005 and was instrumental in setting up GGV's presence in China. Forbes recently ranked Jenny as the world's 16th most powerful woman in tech. A self-professed geek who loves new technologies and products, Jenny has been involved with consumer internet, SaaS, and frontier technology companies at GGV, and has helped many go public. Since 2011, Jenny has been recognized by the Forbes Global 100 VC Midas List of top venture capitalists, ranking as the #1 woman and #10 overall in 2015. Jenny grew up in Singapore and was educated in the U.S., where she attended Cornell and Northwestern University. In this episode, we discussed how Jenny rose from a newcomer to one of the most respected VCs in China, how she set up the China presence of a U.S. venture capital firm, how venture deals are done in China, and how U.S. companies can better align themselves with Chinese government's interests. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Yasheng Huang of MIT on the Future of U.S.-China Trade Relations

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2018 69:03


In the first joint live session of GGV Capital's 996 Podcast and the Sinica Podcast, we interviewed Yasheng Huang, a renowned economist and professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang were joined by Kaiser Kuo, host of the Sinica Podcast and producer of the 996 Podcast. Huang founded and runs the China Lab and the India Lab, which aim to help entrepreneurs in those countries improve their management skills. He is an expert source on international business, political economy, and international management. In collaboration with other scholars, Huang conducts research on human capital formation in China and India, entrepreneurship, and ethnic and labor-intensive foreign direct investment. In this episode, we discussed the recent trade tensions between the U.S. and China, how geopolitical factors are affecting the global tech industry, and how China's growth story compares with that of India and other developing countries. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Yinglian Xie and Fang Yu of DataVisor on Fighting Frauds with Machine Learning

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2018 62:31


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Yinglian Xie and Fang Yu, the co-founders of DataVisor, a fast-growing startup in Silicon Valley that provides big data security analytics for consumer-facing websites and apps. Its customers include some of the largest companies in the world, such as Alibaba, Dianping, Pinterest, Yelp, and Bytedance (a.k.a. Toutiao), among others. Both Yinglian and Fang have decades of experience in internet security, specifically on fighting large-scale attacks to online services, such as fraudulent online payments, spamming, user hijacking, search-result poisoning, etc. They were both senior researchers at Microsoft for many years before starting DataVisor in 2013, and have filed over 20 patents. Yinglian received her Ph.D. in computer science from CMU and a Bachelor's degree from Peking University. Fang holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Berkeley and a Bachelor's degree from Fudan University. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Bertrand Schmitt on Starting App Annie in China

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2018 60:02


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Bertrand Schmitt, the CEO and co-founder of App Annie, the leading global provider of app market data. Bertrand started App Annie in Beijing in 2011 and has since then grown it into a truly global company, with 450 employees across 13 countries today. App Annie is now used by industry leaders all over the world. Customers include Google, Snapchat, and the New York Times as well as Chinese companies like Tencent, Bytedance, and Xiaomi. In this episode, we discuss why Bertrand, a native of France, chose to move to China despite the language and cultural barriers, how a non-Chinese entrepreneur can become successful in China, and why having a multicultural DNA can be the best asset for startup teams today. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Nathan Blecharczyk on Lessons From Airbnb's China Expansion

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2018 56:30


On the first live show of the 996 Podcast, GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interviewed Nathan Blecharczyk, the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb, and the chairman of Airbnb China. In front of 150 audience members gathered at Airbnb's San Francisco headquarters, Nathan discussed Airbnb's China strategy, how it has evolved over the years, and what lessons he has learned through working with China. He also explained how to build relationships in China, how the company thinks about local competitors, and why Chinese authorities might actually be more open-minded than those elsewhere. GGV Capital is an investor in Airbnb, and managing partner Hans Tung and Glenn Solomon have been advising the company's China strategy. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Brad Bao of LimeBike on Tackling America's Last-Mile Problem

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2018 69:27


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Brad Bao, the co-founder and chairman of LimeBike, a fast-growing dockless bike-sharing company in the U.S. based in San Mateo, California. Founded in January 2017, LimeBike is currently in more than 50 different markets in the U.S., and has helped users with more than 2 million trips since it launched. Before founding LimeBike, Brad was an investor at Fosun Kinzon Capital, and previously helped launch and build up Tencent's U.S. operations as Tencent's first employee outside of China. LimeBike is an example of a phenomenon known as “copy from China” — importing innovative business models from China into the U.S. In this episode, we discuss Brad's “pivot” from an investor searching for a bike-sharing deal to the founder of a bike-sharing company, why bike sharing can work in the U.S., and why being cross-border is a crucial advantage in this space. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Miranda Qu of Xiaohongshu on Powering Ecommerce With Community

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2018 50:50


Miranda Qu is the co-founder of Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book” in Chinese), the world's largest lifestyle platform that integrates community and content with ecommerce. Over 75 million users spend a total of over 100 million yuan per month on the app to buy fashion, cosmetics, and lifestyle products from both overseas and domestic brands. Xiaohongshu is a pioneer in integrating content, commerce, and community — the “3 Cs” that GGV managing partner Hans Tung thinks today's ecommerce platforms must possess in order to stand out in “the age of Alibaba and Amazon.” Miranda graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a degree in journalism, and left her job in 2013 to start Xiaohongshu. In this episode, Miranda discusses how she met her cofounder, Charlwin Mao, in a shopping mall in Boston; Xiaohongshu's journey from a “Lonely Planet for overseas shopping” to one of China's most popular ecommerce platforms; and why young Chinese consumers increasingly prefer domestic brands over foreign ones. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Lin Bin on How Xiaomi Engineered Its “Surprise Comeback”

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2018 61:14


Lin Bin, the co-founder, president, and head of mobile for Xiaomi, reveals the secret sauce of one of the most valuable private companies in the world, which is reportedly going public later this year. Xiaomi had an unprecedented “comeback year” in 2017. In January 2018, Xiaomi was the third-largest smartphone seller in the world by shipment, the No. 1 smartphone seller in India, and one of the top five sellers in 12 other countries. Lin Bin, an engineer by training, recounts the founding story of Xiaomi, the uniqueness of the “Xiaomi ecosystem,” the phenomenon called “Mi Fans,” how he learned to fall in love with offline retail, and his takeaways from Xiaomi's meteoric rise in 2017 following a sluggish 2016. Prior to Xiaomi, Bin worked at Microsoft for 11 years and Google for 4 years. He served as the engineering director of Microsoft Research Asia, the vice president of the Google China Institute of Engineering, and the engineering director of Google Global. Hans Tung, one of the earliest investors and a former board member of Xiaomi, discusses how he first met the team and why he believed in a company whose success was considered “almost impossible.” Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Tao Zhang of Dianping on Merging with Meituan and the ‘Groupon War'

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2018 69:29


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Tao Zhang, the founder of Dianping, a lifestyle services company that is often known as “the Yelp of China” but is much more than that. In 2015, Dianping merged with the group buying giant Meituan. The new company, Meituan-Dianping, is now worth $30 billion and is the fourth most valuable startup in the world. Why did Tao want to put restaurant reviews online, before Yelp was even started? How did Tao survive the “thousand-Groupon war” that seized China's internet scene in the early 2010s? How do you approach a merger between two multi-billion dollar companies? How should startups in China think about strategic investments from giants like Tencent and Alibaba? Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Liu Zhen on Bytedance's Global Vision and Why Toutiao Is Unique

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2018 59:28


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Liu Zhen, the senior vice president of Bytedance (Toutiao), one of the fastest-growing Chinese tech startups that has made a lot of headlines. You may know Bytedance through its flagship product, Jinri Toutiao (今日头条), a content discovery and recommendation mobile app platform that uses artificial intelligence to recommend content to its users. What you may be less familiar with is that Bytedance also owns some of the most popular short video apps in China, and has demonstrated its global vision with its recent merger with Musical.ly, a top-ranking short video app in many countries with hundreds of millions of users, and a GGV portfolio company. Prior to Bytedance, Liu Zhen led Uber's China team before it was acquired by Didi Chuxing (a GGV portfolio company) in 2016.   With a background that includes being a lawyer in Silicon Valley, helping Uber scale in China, and spearheading Bytedance's global expansion, Zhen has had unique experiences that inform her views on the tech ecosystem in China and the U.S. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Kai-Fu Lee's Journey From Google China to Sinovation Ventures

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2018 43:53


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Kai-Fu Lee, the founder and CEO of Sinovation Ventures (an early-stage VC fund in China) and a renowned computer scientist known for his work in artificial intelligence. He was the founding president of Google China and played a key role in establishing Microsoft Research Asia as well. In this episode, Kai-Fu recounts the journey that took him from Taiwan to Tennessee and then to prominence in the tech sector. At first a computer science student working on speech recognition, he became one of the world's experts on artificial intelligence. He has helped U.S. giants like Google and Microsoft expand into China and assisted Chinese entrepreneurs as an investor, mentor, and thought leader. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Andrew Ng on China's Ambitions in Artificial Intelligence

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2018 54:13


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Andrew Ng, one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence and deep learning, who was the chief scientist at Baidu from 2014 to 2017. Andrew is also the co-founder of Coursera and the Google Brain deep learning project. In this episode, Andrew discusses how the startup ecosystem in China compares with that of the U.S., his work at Baidu, and what he is most excited about in the field of artificial intelligence. Update: We recorded this episode in late 2017. As of January 2018, Andrew has announced his new project, Landing.ai, which will help bring AI to the manufacturing industry. Landing.ai's first strategic partner is Foxconn, a Chinese manufacturing giant that builds iPhones, among many other products. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital
Jerry Yang of Yahoo: Why I Believed in Alibaba

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2018 82:54


GGV Capital's Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jerry Yang, the founder and former CEO of Yahoo, who orchestrated arguably the best deal in tech history: In 2005, he arranged for Yahoo to invest $1 billion for a 40 percent stake in fledgling Chinese ecommerce site Alibaba at a post-money valuation of $5 billion. Today, Alibaba is worth almost half a trillion dollars. During the interview, Jerry conducts a postmortem for Yahoo's China strategy, and offers advice for U.S. tech companies looking to expand into China. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called "996," which has a roundup of the week's most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 30 companies valued at over $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Musical.ly, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.