Podcast appearances and mentions of william bao bean

The era of AI has begun. Asia-Pacific's spending on AI will reach around $50 billion in 2026. In the sixth episode of the series "Shelter from the storm: Investing in the era of uncertainty," sponsored by EquitiesFirst, we discuss the opportunities and risks around artificial intelligence investments in Asia-Pacific. Our guest speakers talk about the new business models emerging from the expanding industry applications of AI and how investors can leverage the associated investment opportunities. What AI can offer is almost limitless, but the opportunities don't come without risks.Our guests are: William Bao Bean, managing director at Orbit Startups and general partner at SOSV Arvind Sethumadhavan, founder at The AI Living Lab"Shelter from the storm: Investing in the era of uncertainty" is a ten-part podcast series, supported by EquitiesFirst.The episode is hosted by Bilge Arslan, analyst, Policy and Insights at Economist Impact. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Bao Bean is Managing Director of Orbit Startups the first and longest-running startup program in Asia and General Partner of SOSV the #2 most active venture capital investor in the world and #5 Asia/ROW with US$1.5bn in assets under management. William joined Orbit and SOSV from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was a founding Managing Director. Prior to that, William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, a VC backed by Softbank and Cisco, leading investments in China and South East Asia. William started his career in equity research most recently with Deutsche Bank where he was a top-ranked analyst for Asia Internet and China Tech.On this episode, we discuss Asia's continued growth, investing wide as a portfolio strategy and how SOSV's Orbit Startups program operates. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williambaobean/Twitter: https://twitter.com/williambaobean?s=20Orbit Startups: https://orbitstartups.com/Beemunity: https://www.beemmunity.co/Insuro: https://insurotechnologies.com/Hosted by Arshad Chowdhury, Managing Partner at Betatron: Betatron.coTwitter: @arshadgcLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arshadgc/

This episode is our Year In Review: 2022 Greatest Hits Part 1! We've put together some of our favourite clips and moments for you to enjoy over the holidays, and look forward to seeing you again in 2023 for some of our best guests to date! The 2022 guests featured in this episode are:#1 Patrick Deloy, E146 & E147, September 7th & 14th, 2022Our first feature comes from episodes 146 and 147 on September 7th and 14th with Patrick Deloy, Managing Director at Merkle, an award-winning e-commerce solutions provider which supports medium to large B2C and B2B companies with the planning, development, localization and long-term support of multi-country e-commerce website deployments in the APAC region. I had asked Patrick ‘what is the omni-channel retail ecosystem and environment today in the APAC region?#2Liam Mather, E134, March 15, 2022Our second clip features Liam Mather, Head of Public Affairs and Communications at WPIC Marketing + Technologies. Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, Liam helps guide WPIC's public and government affairs, strategic communications, media engagement, corporate branding, and sales enablement. Liam previously worked in BCW's Corporate and Public Affairs practice in Beijing, where he helped clients manage reputations, respond to crises, and navigate policy issues. This was from episode 134 released on March 15th, and for those who didn't get to hear the full episode, it's quite unique as we had the opportunity to talk to Liam about his time covering the Winter Olympics from within the Olympic bubble. Specifically, Liam was able to cover the hockey event, so we asked him about the state of hockey in China, specifically women's hockey, and here's what he had to say.#3William Bao Bean, E152 & E153, October 19th & 26th, 2022Up next is a clip from episode 152 on October 19th, the first of two episodes with an old friend of mine and an old friend of the podcast, William Bao Bean. William is a General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of Orbit Startups. Orbit Startups helps companies scale breakthrough technologies across emerging and frontier markets to the regions with the most aggressive growth. William is a senior advisor at SOSV who has been a pioneer in the tech and telecommunications space in Asia. During his time with SoftBank China & India Holdings, he led investments in companies such as Yodo1, DemystData, Lekan, and Massive Impact. He was also an equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank covering the Internet and Telecom Equipment sector in Asia for 11 years before joining Innov8 Ventures as Managing Director where he is focused on supporting China investments. He is definitely one of the foremost experts on early-stage startups and investing in Asia Pacific, and in this particular clip I asked him ‘what are the strengths and differences of the teams you invest in and work with within Asia versus outside Asia?'#4Zarina Kanji, E133, March 7th, 2022On March 7th we released episode 133 with Zarina Kanji. Based in London, Zarina is the Head of Business Development for Health & Wellness and Food & Beverage Brands at Alibaba. She previously served as VP of Global Fashion Brand Partnerships at Lazada in Singapore. Zarina spoke with us about Tmall's upcoming International Women's Day—a key event tied to the company's Super Brand Day—on March 8, 2022. It has proven in previous years to be the third-largest shopping festival in the nation, behind 11.11 and 6.18, and is a unique opportunity for brands to engage with women across China. So, for this clip, we chose her response to my question ‘Can you tell us a little bit about what the Gen Z female consumers really care about in China right now, and how does that differ from their elder counterparts?'#5Alvin Wang Graylin, E125, January 12th, 2022On January 12th we were blessed to be able to interview Alvin Wang Graylin, China President at HTC. For anyone unfamiliar, HTC is an award-winning developer of smart mobile, connected technology, and virtual reality products. Alvin is also the Vice President of the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance (IVRA) and the President of the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance. He has almost three decades of business management experience in the tech industry, including 20 years in Greater China beginning with a Senior Management position at Intel in 1993. Prior to HTC, Alvin was a serial entrepreneur, having founded four venture-backed startups in the mobile and internet spaces, covering mobile social, "ad tech", search, AI, big data and digital media. I asked Alvin to tell us about some of the coolest & most innovative examples of VR that are heading our way in 2022 and beyond.#6Charles Lavoie, E154 & E156, November 2nd & 16th, 2022Our last clip for Part 1 of our Year in Review is from our conversation with Charles Lavoie on November 16th, episode number 156. Charles is the VP of Creative & Head of Creative Labs at WPIC Marketing & Technologies. A creative strategy & data analytics leader, Charles has incredibly strong cross-cultural backgrounds in international growth, go-to-market strategy, growth marketing, data analytics, creative planning, storytelling, sales, e-commerce, design and retail in the APAC region with projects focused in China, Hong Kong, Japan & Singapore. I asked Charles a very nuanced question at one point, probably one of the most granular questions I've asked anyone about brand entry into the APAC region, specifically “if a brand wants to take a multi-market strategy, how do you advise them, especially if they are also trying to stay ahead of an aggressive market competitor who might be going after the same regions for expansion themselves and may not have time to take a step by step approach?'

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with countries such as China, India and Japan leading the way. They have been developing businesses quickly by deploying new technologies and building massive startup ecosystems. As a result, VCs in this region is witnessing huge opportunities for growing companies. The number of startups in APAC is increasing rapidly, presenting massive opportunities for consumers, businesses, and capital allocators. This episode of The Negotiation is part 2 of our conversation with William Bao Bean. William is a General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of Orbit Startups. Orbit Startups helps companies scale breakthrough technologies across emerging and frontier markets- the regions with the strongest growth potential. William is a senior advisor at SOSV and has been a pioneer in the tech and telecommunications space in Asia. During his time with SoftBank China & India Holdings, he led investments in companies such as Yodo1, DemystData, Lekan, and Massive Impact. In this insightful episode, William shares his insights on what is happening in the APAC region. He talks about the current, turbulent waters in the private, crypto and public markets, and discusses why it is essential to identify a startup's unfair advantage in today's landscape. He also discusses his view of M&A activity in Asia over the coming years and explains why there is a flood of capital coming to the region. Enjoy! Topics Discussed and Key Points: Turbulent waters in the APAC region for the private, crypto, and public markets as we head into 2022 Identifying a startup's unfair advantage and why it matters M&A activity in Asia over the next few years Why is there a flood of capital coming to Southeast Asia? Maintaining a "startup attitude" is important when entering new markets. How technology has been used in the USA, specifically artificial intelligence, to bring about major changes How there are fewer barriers to starting a business in China thanks to technology Demographic changes in China and Southeast Asia and the opportunity for start-ups in the region.

Over the past decade, businesses have witnessed an incredible evolution in how people communicate. Along with this shift came innovations and technologies that changed the way we interact with one another, not least in business. Where communication was once centered around traditional means such as face-to-face meetings or phone calls, it is now increasingly driven by technology such as email, text messages and video conferencing. This has given rise to new social practices, enabling us to carry out some tasks much quicker than before. In fact, many businesses would struggle without the use of modern technology for core functions such as recruiting new staff and managing customer enquiries.This episode of The Negotiation is a return to the show for William Bao. William is a General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of Orbit Startups. Orbit Startups helps companies scale breakthrough technologies across emerging and frontier markets to the regions with the most aggressive growth. William is a senior advisor at SOSV who has been a pioneer in the tech and telecommunications space in Asia. During his time with SoftBank China & India Holdings, he led investments in companies such as Yodo1, DemystData, Lekan, and Massive Impact. He was also an equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank covering the Internet and Telecom Equipment sector in Asia for 11 years before joining Innov8 Ventures as Managing Director this year where he is focused on supporting China investments.William discusses his work as a venture investor, what he did during the pandemic (and how COVID impacted his activities), and what defines successful startups in Asia. He also unravels some of the brilliance during accelerator programs, describes why founder characteristics may predict success, and what distinguishes teams he works with from those outside Asia in their approach to building a startup or portfolio company. Enjoy! Topics Discussed and Key Points: A brief description of Orbit startups' activities. Consumer internet became widely used during the COVID period. The discipline of designing and running experiments How to drive engagement and value over a screen or through the power of voice. William's startup activities and how COVID must have affected them. Some of the brilliance that happens during accelerator programs. What you need to do a startup revolution in the USA. Communication is important for international startups The culture of experimenting in Asia is pretty strong.  Japan as a market is generally focused on Japan.  Potentially predictive factors for startup success in Asia.

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Kapil Kane, Director of Innovation at Intel China, and Co-founder of the corporate accelerator GrowthX. Kapil and I talk about his journey from his early product development days at Apple working on the first touchscreen, to today where he runs Intel's award-winning accelerator. Let's get started.Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help the new innovators navigate what's next. Each week, we'll give you a front row seat to what it takes to learn, grow, and thrive in today's world of accelerating change and uncertainty. Join us as we explore, engage, and experiment with the best and the brightest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses. It's time to get started.Interview Transcript with Kapil Kane, Director of Innovation at Intel ChinaBrian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger. And as always, we have another amazing guest. Today, we have Kapil Kane. He is the Director of Innovation at Intel China, and co-founder of the GrowthX Corporate Innovation Accelerator. Welcome to the show. Kapil Kane: Thanks Brian. Glad to be here. Brian Ardinger: You are calling in from Shanghai right now in the midst of a pandemic lockdown. Let's talk a little bit about your journey into the world of innovation. Kapil Kane: I was doing my PhD at Stanford when I dropped out of the program to join Apple, to build the touchscreen. The very first task, I remember I was an intern at the time. And I was the very first engineer to actually make a drawing of the touch screen. Like a revision 0 0 1.And my journey started from there. Although the touchscreen project failed. We had to hand it over to this other team, that was working on a secret project, which turned out to be the iPhone. But my last project at Apple was iPad. So, I came around full circle. And then I left Apple and joined Intel to actually create a tablet version of Classmate PC, which was inspired by one laptop per child from MIT Media Lab, which is to create an affordable education computing device for the emerging market or for the less fortunate as it was envisioned. And then on, you know, I got into this role of Innovation Director at Intel China. And so that's my journey. Brian Ardinger: Excellent. Tell us a little bit about how you got to China. And how you got to cofound this corporate innovation accelerator called GrowthX. Kapil Kane: Coming to China was with Apple. This is when we were developing the very first Mac Book Air. And at the time, if some of you guys remember, it was called a Unibody. That means it was carved out of a solid block of metal. Whereas everything before that was sheet metal, and hundreds of parts joined together.So, it was a completely new way of manufacturing a product. And so, we were designing the product as well as designing the manufacturing process at the same time. So, we thought it would be better to have some of the designers move to China so that we can do both designing product and process at the same time. And so, I volunteered. As a, so I was one of the first three product designers to move from Cupertino to China. And I've been here ever since. Brian Ardinger: Let's fast forward to today, you're running this thing called GrowthX. How did the idea of a corporate innovation accelerator start and then give us some insight into what's going on with GrowthX?Kapil Kane: Intel has this amazing culture of innovation. And it's something that I can think of it like the Google's 15% thing. Where we encourage our employees to spend a percentage of their time on things they believe is important for our future. And so, we have lots of this cool innovation that has been created in the labs.And around 2005, that's when I took over the innovation at Intel China. We saw that there's lots of cool things happening in the labs, but we couldn't find those things being commercialized. Not lending into the market. When I took over this role, this role was created because until that point, there was lots of different efforts of innovation, like very vibrant culture. Even to the date, there's a very vibrant culture of innovation. And we thought we needed some streamlining.And so that's when they created this position to streamline all the different innovation activities at Intel China. And we have around 10,000 people here in China. So, it's by no means small offsite operation. It's a pretty huge operation. Brian Ardinger: Kind of a little bit different than a lot of companies. A lot of companies we hear about the fact that most of the core is not that innovative. And so, they created an accelerator kind of program. Or a lab to kickstart that. But where at Intel, it seems like the reverse it's like you had to kind of harness or extra harness some of the activity. Kapil Kane: Exactly. And also, the concept of accelerator is, is quite different. Like if you look at the other corporates who are building accelerators, they are accelerating outside startups with the hope that they will get to know what they're doing. They may be able to acquire them or partner with them. But for me, I didn't even know what an accelerator was when I took over this role. And in my very first week, I happened to be in a round table conference at American Chamber of Commerce. And the guy sitting next to me happened to be running China's very first startup accelerator, Chinaaccelerator. The guy, William Bao Bean. He's a legend in China.And I just happened to ask him what he does. And he explained to me the concept of accelerator. And I thought, you know, maybe I can replicate this right inside of Intel because we are so much creativity. We just need to give them the tools to turn those cool innovations into viable businesses. And that's where the idea for accelerator came along.And that was the, the birth of GrowthX, where we started up as accelerators. We pick the teams. We make them believe they are actual startups. We have the CEO, CTO, CMO, and we bring them in a batch of cohort. And we have business sprints. We have around eight sprints focusing on different aspects of business. We have mentors.We have entrepreneurs in residence. And we run this outside of Intel from a coworking space. So, it's just like any startup accelerator. Just the thing is that all the startups are internal projects. And we've been running this for six years now. Brian Ardinger: Let's talk a little bit about some of the differences or similarities that you've seen between entrepreneurs in the outside versus intrepreneurship. And are there key skillsets, mindsets, tool sets that are similar or different.Kapil Kane: I think what we are seeing, and it may be different for different companies. For us, most of those innovators will come to our accelerator. They are techies. You know, they get very excited about the technology. And they have no real background in business. So, we spend a lot of time and effort to make them understand that it's not about, can you build it, but should you build it? That's where we focused on changing their mindset. If we change their mindset, like, you know, typically they're of this mindset that I will build something, then I will show it to the customers. Or they think that customers won't even look at us. If I don't have some finished product to show to them. And this is where we turn it on its head and tell them that you don't need anything. You just need a sketch. You need a questionnaire. And you're not trying to sell something. You're trying to understand the challenges. So, think of it that way as you engage with your potential customers is don't be ashamed or embarrassed, that you're not in the show. You are simply, think of it as if you're co-designing with them. Or trying to collectively solve the challenges.So that's the biggest challenge we have. I think technically they're amazing, is this business mindset that we're trying to cultivate. Not just business mindset. The, the lean startup kind of a methodology, you know, is like build, measure, learn, do an MVP. Test it. Learn, iterate. So that's one big change. I say, because like outside entrepreneurs, founders, I see they're more, I mean, again, you know, there's all flavors of entrepreneurs. But our guys are always very tech focused, and they don't understand about the fundraising and stuff. Although I have seen they're very, very good at tapping into the resources to move their ideas forward.And even to the point that they sometimes feel like getting into our accelerator, and doing all the sprints is like homework, just to get to the seed money, seed funding, to build something. But in their head, they are still, you know, that's what they want. But they have to go through all the motions of the accelerator as something like, you know, they had to do in order to move their idea forward.So, I still believe that's entrepreneurship, but it's in a different way. Because they still want to move their ideas forward. Right. So, I used to really get frustrated in the beginning. But now I think, you know, in the end, their goal is the same. It's just, they have a different idea of how to get to the goal.Brian Ardinger: Can you talk a little bit about how you go about identifying which people or companies, so to speak, to get into the accelerator? What's your evaluation process to identify who might be successful at this? Kapil Kane: So, I think that's a very good question. And it took us some time to figure it out. There are a few things. The ideas, they aligned strategically to where Intel wants to go. That's one thing. Second thing we also realized is we are good at accelerating adjacent innovations. That means building something on top of something that exists, rather than this breakthrough moonshots. There are two reasons. Just because we are in China and our employees, they interact a lot with our customers who are based in China, right? Like all the electronics are made in China. So typically, they come up, their innovation ideas are about how can we empower our customers. They're more customer centric. They're more something that, you know, hey, we have this product. If we tweak it this way, I can open up a completely new market segment, which can bring us millions of dollars. Rather than saying, hey, let's invent a new chip. Or let's invent a completely new manufacturing process. So that's the second thing. The third thing we look at is like a founder accelerator fit is, are these guys coachable? And can we really help them in the short period of time of like four months. And the way we do that is before we do the intake, into the accelerator, we have only five slots per batch. And we do two batches a year. And we get anywhere from 30 to 60 applications. And we'll shortlist of about 15 to 20 and bring those teams into the bootcamp.And during the bootcamp, we help them build their business case. And help pitch their business case in a very short time. And during this bootcamp, we also challenge our founders to go, and actually talk to the customers. Make cold calls. Or do a survey, right. And that tells us if these guys are really willing to get out of the building or not.And we also see if they've incorporated the advice from the coaches into their final pitch or not. So, we also make our evaluation based on that. So, it's like, you know, the kind of innovation. The strategic fit to Intel and the founder accelerator fit as well. Brian Ardinger: Are only teams coming into the accelerator or do they have to have a team, or can an individual founder apply? Kapil Kane: Individuals can come in, but once they get into the accelerator on the very first sprint, their assignment is to resource their team with, you know, CEO, CTO, and CMO at the minimum. Brian Ardinger: And that allows them to have enough people to actually run experiments and create something to move it forward. Kapil Kane: Yeah. And also, the skill, you know, because typically like I said, if a founder is a very bright technologists, he may not really understand everything on the business side. So, we encourage them to get people from the sales and marketing groups to join in.And we also give them enough budget to hire interns and MBA intern for example, to act as a CMO. And also, you know to hire tech talents as well for that short period of time to work on their ideas, so that they can focus on the business side of the things. Brian Ardinger: So, I'd like to talk a little bit about the balance between this inside innovation versus outside innovation. So, companies that come through GrowthX are they expected potentially to spin out into a startup outside of the company? Are they been brought back in these technologies? Talk a little bit about this inside outside balance. Kapil Kane: So, 90% of the companies are inside. We have only been able to spin out one company so far. After activating around 60. Okay. So very, very small ratio. So mostly you can think of them as internal teams coming to the accelerator to de-risk their business plans, to bring back to the business units. Having said that we have accelerated external startups as well. And by that it's not to invest and take an equity in them. But to work with them on identifying a business opportunity for Intel and going to market together.So basically, startups who are building on top of our core technologists, who are working in a field that we are never been to. So, this is a way we could test the market at the same time. We can help the startups as well by providing them with the technology, all our resources and jointly see if we can and like, you know, break new grounds together. So, we have done that, and we had some successes there. But our main focus is accelerating internal innovations and trying to line them into the market. Brian Ardinger: That brings up a great question that is always asked, especially in the corporate environment, is like, how do you measure success? Because a lot of times corporates have a different way to measure outcomes because they're working with existing business models, existing optimization. Versus in a startup environment where a lot of it is unknown. So how do you go about measuring success? Kapil Kane: The two ways we measure success. One is the business impact. That means what's the real revenue created from the projects that we accelerated. So, these are direct like revenue numbers. This is X million dollars created from this project. Second is the revenue potential that those projects create. So that's on the business side of things. The second way we measure it is people impact. Impact on people. How we are helping people grow. And we actually ran a study where we tracked the people who went to our accelerators for two years. And we saw that on an average, we have anywhere from 1.5 to 6 times accelerated career growth for the people who have gone through the accelerator. So, it could mean two things. There is no causation, right? There's a correlation. It could be one thing that are we are attracting good people. Our second could be that we are upscaling people. Which is both good because we know like if we had to do something really cool and innovative, we know who these people to count on. Right. And the second thing is it's good to upskill people. So those are the two ways we measure our success. Brian Ardinger: And I think a lot of corporates have a tough time finding those curious restless entrepreneurs within their own companies. And this might be a great way to help figure that out. Obviously, a lot of startups don't make it. You know, the number of ideas that you think are going to make it, there's a large portion that fall by the wayside. How do you deal with failure? Or what happens to the teams and that, that don't get to where they were hoping to get at the very beginning? Kapil Kane: That's the win-win part of intrepreneurship versus entrepreneurship. When you are an entrepreneur, you have your day job. Your paycheck. No matter what you do, but the payoff is also limited. Right? I think one of the great things about intrepreneurship and especially, let's say for the GrowthX are those who are not successful, they simply go back to what they were doing before. But if they are successful also, they typically go back to a day job. They will hand it over to the business units to take it forward.So, for them, their goal is to come up with new ideas and bring those new ideas to the market. So that's the kind of people we have. We have people who have been through our accelerator three times, four times. And try to bring lots of ideas to the market. Some people have maybe succeeded once in three times. Some people have multiple projects that have been successful. But the trend we have seen is people coming in. Getting their idea to the next level. Going back, coming up with more ideas.Brian Ardinger: Awesome. So, you've been in the trenches in Asia, looking at kind of what's hot. What's next? What are some of the trends that you're seeing that you're excited about? Kapil Kane: Oh, man. I'm not really like a trend kind of a guy. But I see a lot of noise in metaverse. I see, you know, like this digital transformation is also pretty big here because there are lots of SOEs here who are trying to digitalize. Retail, new retail is a huge buzz in China. So, those are kind of the buzz things. There's also like a lot of deep technology initiatives in China, especially zero carbon. Space tech is also picking up. Yeah. So, I'm excited more about like a long-term sustainable things. Rather than the short term, shiny things. The bigger problems.They are the bigger problems. You know, but I think the China is definitely taking the long-term approach, right. With their five-year plans. With the policies, aligning the whole industry in that direction. Some of them may fail. Some of them will succeed. But at least we see like a huge effort going in those directions.Like for example, in the past five-year plan, it was AI, Smart Manufacturing. Right. Also, there's this thing about the Smart Cities was also part of the last five-year plan. There was something called Common Prosperity. So, they want to make the second tier, third tier cities also prosperous. But I think the biggest thing, if you want to just think about China for the long run is the Sustainability, Carbon Zero and Space. Maybe even Quantum Computing. They are really going into this steep tech, rather than cute tech. Brian Ardinger: The great way to explain it. Cute tech. Well, Kapil I want to thank you for coming on Inside Outside Innovation and sharing your insights and your expertise. Really do appreciate your time. If people want to find out more about yourself or about GrowthX, what's the best way to do that?Kapil Kane: I think the best way to reach me is on LinkedIn. I mean, LinkedIn used to be open in China until it was blocked a few months ago. So, if you guys want to reach out, best place is LinkedIn. Brian Ardinger: Excellent. Well, thanks again for coming on the show. Really appreciate the time and looking forward to staying connected and stay safe out there.Kapil Kane: Thanks. And thanks for having me on the show, Brian.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

Our guest for this episode is William Bao Bean, a general partner at SOSV, one of the most active seed investors in the world. He manages Chinaccelerator, a global Internet accelerator focused on helping B2B start-ups enter China and Chinese start-ups expand overseas, and MOX, a mobile online accelerator. We discuss why William decided to ditch equity research for venture capital, mistakes B2B start-ups make when entering China, and Chinaccelerator and MOX's unique approach to helping start-ups find customers quick and cheap.

This is a special episode which we recorded live on Clubhouse with our guest Aaron Tan, Founder of Carro, one of the biggest used-car marketplaces in Southeast Asia. A programmer by training and a Venture Capitalist by profession, Aaron founded his first startup at 13 and had already sold two companies before turning 21. Carro, one of the companies he founded, is an automotive marketplace that offers a full-stack service for all aspects of car ownership and is currently present in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. In this episode, we will mainly discuss about how to build and scale a two-side marketplace in Southeast Asia and Carro's playbook of expansion across the region. Moreover, we will put the spotlight on how Aaron's previous experience in venture capital industry has impacted his decisions, and also how he takes inspiration from Chinese business models and applies the insights in an SEA context. *Side note: Aaron and Oscar frequently mention “William” in the conversation. The William they are referring to is William Bao Bean, GP at SOSV and MD at Chinaccelerator & MOX.Show Notes:0:00 - Introduction to Aaron Tan1:32 - Aaron's motivation to founding a startup6:01 - The supportive ecosystem around Carro8:19 - The importance of “Trust” in a business8:50 - The reasons behind starting an automotive marketplace in SEA13:35 - Inspiration from Chinese business models19:21 - Understanding the heterogeneity in the markets21:15 - Aaron's experience on how copying the same model across SEA doesn't work25:39 - How to build and scale a two-side marketplace30:37 - The role of Carro in the marketplace35:17 - Carro's expansion playbook across SEA44:20 - What the future holds for Carro and Southeast AsiaMany thanks to our guests Aaron Tan; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.comShare, subscribe, review, enjoy!To join our listener group on WeChat, please add SOSV Helper (WeChat ID: sosvhero) and ask for the group invitation.Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asia-startup-pulseEmail us: team@chinastartuppulse.com

This episode is a look back at all of our podcast guests and the topics we covered in 2020, putting together some of our favorite moments for you into one single episode of goodness. The guests featured in this special episode are William Bao Bean, episode 22 released on January 7th; Scott Silverman, episode 28 released on January 31st; Scott Laprise, episode 34 released on March 6th; Dr. Julie Klinger, episode 42 released on April 13th; Gen Kanai, episode 54 released on July 17th; Wei Liang, episode 55 released on July 28th; James McGregor, episode 57 released on August 17th; Anne Stephenson Yang, episodes 58 & 59 released on August 25th and September 1st; Aynne Kokas, episode 61 released on September 16th; Kevin Xu, episodes 66 & 67 released October 27th and November 3rd; and Matthew Brennan, episodes 72 & 73 released December 8th and 15th.

William Bao Bean is a General Partner at SOSV - The Accelerator VC - the #2 most active angel and seed stage investors in the world 2019 with US$700m under management. At SOSV he is the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator the first accelerator to launch in Asia and the only accelerator in Asia to have a unicorn come through its program – Bitmex the #1 crypto exchange in the world by trading volume enabling anyone with a smartphone to access financial products and opening up investment to the unbanked. William Bao Bean Interview Focus1. An introduction from you - background, overview, education... Career highlights - equity analyst and technology, IPOs, investors accelerators2. Bringing alibaba public - ant financial3. Your company SOSV - Chinaaccelerator, MOX companies, organisations and focus?4. As someone that comes from history and investment How do you see all areas of digital transformation and your views on our society, technology and digital transformations?William Bao Bean BiographyWilliam Bao Bean is also Founder and Managing Director of MOX - the Mobile Only Accelerator - providing startups with free user acquisition to the 70m smartphone users on the platform. William joined SOSV from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was a founding Managing Director supporting China investments. Prior to that William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, a venture capital firm backed by Softbank and Cisco, leading investments in China and South East Asia. Previously, William spent 11 years as an equity research analyst most recently with Deutsche Bank where he was a top ranked analyst for Asia Internet and China Tech, Media and Telecom and worked on IPOs for Alibaba, Kingsoft and eLong (Expedia China).He holds a BA from Bowdoin College.About citiesabc.comhttps://www.citiesabc.com/https://twitter.com/citiesabc__Dinis Guarda's 4IR: AI, Blockchain, Fintech, IoT - Reinventing a Nation https://www.4irbook.com/Intelligenthq Academy for blockchain, AI courses on https://academy.intelligenthq.com/

Welcome to the second episode of our new series “Inside the VC Mind” where we bring you the professionals from the venture capital world, who will deliver their observations, thoughts, and opinions.Today we are going to talk about those startups that investors missed but would have loved to invest in, with Remington Ong, Partner at Fenbushi Capital, Ray Yang, Partner at Marathon Venture Partners, and William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director at Chinaccelerator and MOX.Our guests:Remington OngRemington is Partner at Fenbushi Capital, one of the earliest and most active blockchain-focused venture capital firms, where he has managed investments into over 40 leading startups around the world leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt a wide range of industries, such as finance, healthcare, supply chain, and consumer goods.Ray YangRay is Partner at Marathon Venture Partners, a China-based early to growth stage fund focusing on digital healthcare transformation. Prior to Marathon Venture Partners, Ray was MD at Northern Light Venture Capital and Investment Director at Orchid Asia Group Management. Many of his investments have achieved listings on major stock exchanges or achieved exit via M&A, such as Burning Rock Riotech, a Chinese biotech company went public on NASDAQ.William Bao BeanWilliam is General Partner at SOSV. a US$740m+ venture capital fund known as “the accelerator VC”. He is also the MD at Chinaccelerator, SOSV's global Internet accelerator and the first accelerator to launch in China in 2010 and MOX, the mobile-only accelerator platform with 130m smartphone users in SE Asia. Before SOSV, William was one of the founding MDs at SingTel Innov8 Ventures and Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings. Show Notes:01:00 Talk with Remington Ong06:41 Talk with Ray Yang14:00 Talk with William Bao Bean Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.comShare, subscribe, review, enjoy!Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/Email us: team@chinastartuppulse.com

Our guests:Remington OngRemington is Partner at Fenbushi Capital, one of the earliest and most active blockchain-focused venture capital firms, where he has managed investments into over 40 leading startups around the world leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt a wide range of industries, such as finance, healthcare, supply chain, and consumer goods.Ray YangRay is Partner at Marathon Venture Partners, a China-based early to growth stage fund focusing on digital healthcare transformation. Prior to Marathon Venture Partners, Ray was MD at Northern Light Venture Capital and Investment Director at Orchid Asia Group Management. Many of his investments have achieved listings on major stock exchanges or achieved exit via M&A, such as Burning Rock Riotech, a Chinese biotech company  went public on NASDAQ.William Bao BeanWilliam is General Partner at SOSV. a US$740m+ venture capital fund known as “the accelerator VC”. He is also the MD at Chinaccelerator, SOSV's global Internet accelerator and the first accelerator to launch in China in 2010 and MOX, the mobile-only accelerator platform with 130m smartphone users in SE Asia. Before SOSV, William was one of the founding MDs at SingTel Innov8 Ventures and Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings.Show Notes:01:00 Talk with Remington Ong06:41 Talk with Ray Yang14:00 Talk with William Bao Bean Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers  Eva Shi and  Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.comShare, subscribe, review, enjoy!Follow us on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/Email us: team@chinastartuppulse.com

SOSV with $700m under management and its affiliates Chinaccelerator and MOX are amongst the most active early-stage venture investors in the world.Join us for a lively discussion on how SOSV sees the pandemic playing out, how their portfolio companies are adjusting and where they see the most promising investment opportunities in the post-corona world.Reference information on William and SOSV:1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdfcCuu-qtQWilliam Bao Bean: MORE THAN WECHAT – PLATFORM TRENDS IN ASIA2. https://medium.com/sosv-accelerator-vc/sosv-raises-277-million-in-oversubscribed-fourth-fund-to-invest-in-early-stage-deep-tech-startups-264bfffa7dc3SOSV Raises $277 Million In Oversubscribed Fourth Fund To Invest In Early-Stage Deep Tech Startups3. https://international.thenewslens.com/article/124012 Taipei-Based Mobile Only Accelerator Graduates Its 7th Cohort of Asia-Pacific Startups

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the Asia-Pacific startup ecosystems. Featured guests include William Bao Bean, Sajith Pai, Justin Hall, Rivers Corbett, Alicia Garabedian and Simon Cant.  

The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 has shocked markets worldwide as it disrupted the biggest market in the world, China.  What does this mean for startups in 2020? Techsauce Media Global Content Editor Chaowarat Yongjiranon talks to William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director at MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator) and Chinaccelerator about the situation.  He says despite the negative news, this is a great time for startups. Find out why. 

Today on The Negotiation, William Bao Bean discusses what makes China one of the most competitive markets in the world. He points to the quick adoption of new technologies—particularly artificial intelligence—as one of the main drivers of the country's economic growth. William says that machine learning allows for personalization of consumer experience on a virtually infinite scale, and many Chinese companies are using these resources relentlessly to their advantage.            William observed that internet entrepreneurs in China operate with the mindset of, “Let's see what worked somewhere else and make it better.” He refers to it as “Lean Startup with Chinese characteristics”. That is, assumptions are made and tested in the market repeatedly, with each iteration more refined than the last. Chinese entrepreneurs are unique in that the speed at which they test and refine assumptions (typically in two to three-month cycles) is second to none. Also, unlike the American application of Lean Startup where non-existent products may be brought to market for purposes of observation, the Chinese actually make their assumptions purely through real products that are ready to be sold.            The world of angel investing in China can be best understood by actually having experience in starting up and managing a company. In addition, it helps greatly to be surrounded by a community of fellow VCs to ensure that you are constantly supported and on the cutting edge.            William is a big believer in “Mobile-first; mobile-only.” William refers to a relatively recent phenomenon called “leapfrog effect” which occurred in a large number of non-Western markets. These countries never had a huge, fixed economy-driving infrastructure that was forced to evolve with the times. This turned out to be a key factor in their quicker adoption of eCommerce technologies on a countrywide scale compared to the West. These countries—with China leading the charge—have no problem with disruption from the outside, because they are already used to disrupting themselves.

Chinese tech giants are gaining further ground in innovation, with development in e-commerce, social media and more, even outstripping the west. Rebecca Fannin, author of Tech Titans of China, explains the rapid growth and how it’s changing domestic consumption. But amid concerns of Chinese state intervention and difficulties in translating domestic apps for a global market, can Chinese tech companies truly enter the world stage? William Bao Bean of Chinaccelerator explains how AI can help tech firms adapt to foreign markets. (Picture: A customer making a payment on a self-service cashier at a supermarket in Jiangsu province, China. Picture credit: Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The Global Startup Summit 2019 (globalstartup.tv) is a free to attend 7 day Virtual Conference from February 18-24th, 2019, featuring 35 global leaders in tech providing insight into early stage investment opportunities and technology adoption trends around the world. Each day of the event will feature expert talks on a different region of the world. Today's session is a clip from our Asia Pacific day keynote featuring William Bao Bean the General Partner of SOSV & Managing Director of Chinaccelerator.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia. Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency. [02:40] Let's put this very interesting podcast conversation in the context: William runs an accelerator. Sebastien runs a startup which was part of the accelerator program and now in scale up phase, and me as the podcast host, as well as, accelerator mentor.... [10:07] What's the difference between being a founder and entrepreneur? William Bao Bean , General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director at Chinaccelerator and MOX explains why founders have to be entrepreneurs. There can't be one without the other. Most normal people don't put all their eggs in one basket. They don't quit their jobs, use up all their savings to try and do something that has not been done before. Entrepreneurs take risks to try change the world and make a significant difference. They are trying to change the way things are being done. [23:05] What are the factors that contribute to a successful acceleration of a start up or acceleration of a new service/product? 1. EXPERIMENTATION. The first factor is being open to coaching and experimentation. Other factors include persistence. There might be a lot of failures but still you have to keep smashing your head against the wall over and over again. We try very hard to not tell our companies what to do. But we make a lot of suggestions on what to try. And people who are willing to jump off the cliff and try a bunch of new things, even if in the heart of their hearts they think it might not work, nonetheless they try are often the ones who succeed. 2. NOT GIVING UP. So it takes a certain type of personality to try lots and lots of different things over and over again that don't work, becuase in the end you are trying to solve a problem that hasn't been solved before or isnt being solved properly so you are trying to come up with a better solution. 3. THE RIGHT TEAM. Team is what we look at. It's not always about the product. The founder has to be passionate enough to make these first two factors work [27:09] In the making of any new innovation- product or service is about failures too. Any examples? Sebastien: The fact that i picked up the set of team that i did at start, was a failure. It didn't let us go through this iterations, adaptations and learn and develop fast enough. It took us 2 years to come to the DNA of where we are now. Ofcourse we learnt a lot in this period. But we lost time. Team was too young and not complimentary enough. William: My first startup was a pretty low point. I took my own money and couple of friends while i was still at Soft Bank. First mistake - doing a startup without being 100% focussed. Second mistake - the team combo. Third mistake - I was a bad CEO. [34:48] - Show finale. Rapid fire round between the host and the guests. What other professional other than your current would you like to attempt? What are you not good at? How do you manage anger? How do you manage stress? What's coming up next - In the Making for The Care Voice and Chinaccelerator What would you like to ask to the network of listeners and Asia Tech Podcast. Make the ask Working in a different country. Why should you consider working in a different country other than your home country? "Commit to the uncomfortable" - #NishHosts Show - IN THE MAKING

[02:40] Let's put this very interesting podcast conversation in the context: William runs an accelerator. Sebastien runs a startup which was part of the accelerator program and now in scale up phase, and me as the podcast host, as well as, accelerator mentor.... [10:07] What's the difference between being a founder and entrepreneur? William Bao Bean , General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director at Chinaccelerator and MOX explains why founders have to be entrepreneurs. There can't be one without the other. Most normal people don't put all their eggs in one basket. They don't quit their jobs, use up all their savings to try and do something that has not been done before. Entrepreneurs take risks to try change the world and make a significant difference. They are trying to change the way things are being done. [11:33] Nishtha - "People often ask me if being an entrepreneur is in the DNA or can be learnt". William: "We are part of a long term study. HPDI. Shows how you make decisions. How you make trade offs. People are pre disposed to being risk takers. Opposite of that is like a CTO. We don't take too many risk mitigators in our start ups because working for a start up drives you nuts. We invest in people who are kind of crazy and we use the accelerator program to filter out the insane ones" [13:53] In the Making podcast is a great opportunity to say thank you to many who contributed to your journey and success and how they shaped you. We don't say enough thank you's. This is a great moment to share with the listeners... [23:05] What are the factors that contribute to a successful acceleration of a start up or acceleration of a new service/product? 1. EXPERIMENTATION. The first factor is being open to coaching and experimentation. Other factors include persistence. There might be a lot of failures but still you have to keep smashing your head against the wall over and over again. We try very hard to not tell our companies what to do. But we make a lot of suggestions on what to try. And people who are willing to jump off the cliff and try a bunch of new things, even if in the heart of their hearts they think it might not work, nonetheless they try are often the ones who succeed. 2. NOT GIVING UP. So it takes a certain type of personality to try lots and lots of different things over and over again that don't work, becuase in the end you are trying to solve a problem that hasn't been solved before or isnt being solved properly so you are trying to come up with a better solution. 3. THE RIGHT TEAM. Team is what we look at. It's not always about the product. The founder has to be passionate enough to make these first two factors work [27:09] In the making of any new innovation- product or service is about failures too. Any examples? Sebastien: The fact that i picked up the set of team that i did at start, was a failure. It didn't let us go through this iterations, adaptations and learn and develop fast enough. It took us 2 years to come to the DNA of where we are now. Ofcourse we learnt a lot in this period. But we lost time. Team was too young and not complimentary enough. William: My first startup was a pretty low point. I took my own money and couple of friends while i was still at Soft Bank. First mistake - doing a startup without being 100% focussed. Second mistake - the team combo. Third mistake - I was a bad CEO. [34:48] - Show finale. Rapid fire round between the host and the guests. What other professional other than your current would you like to attempt? What are you not good at? How do you manage anger? How do you manage stress? What's coming up next - In the Making for The Care Voice and Chinaccelerator What would you like to ask to the network of listeners and Asia Tech Podcast. Make the ask Working in a different country. Why should you consider working in a different country other than your home country? "Commit to the uncomfortable" - #NishHosts Show - IN THE MAKING

[02:40] Let's put this very interesting podcast conversation in the context: William runs an accelerator. Sebastien runs a startup which was part of the accelerator program and now in scale up phase, and me as the podcast host, as well as, accelerator mentor.... [10:07] What's the difference between being a founder and entrepreneur? William Bao Bean , General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director at Chinaccelerator and MOX explains why founders have to be entrepreneurs. There can't be one without the other. Most normal people don't put all their eggs in one basket. They don't quit their jobs, use up all their savings to try and do something that has not been done before. Entrepreneurs take risks to try change the world and make a significant difference. They are trying to change the way things are being done. [11:33] Nishtha - "People often ask me if being an entrepreneur is in the DNA or can be learnt". William: "We are part of a long term study. HPDI. Shows how you make decisions. How you make trade offs. People are pre disposed to being risk takers. Opposite of that is like a CTO. We don't take too many risk mitigators in our start ups because working for a start up drives you nuts. We invest in people who are kind of crazy and we use the accelerator program to filter out the insane ones" [13:53] In the Making podcast is a great opportunity to say thank you to many who contributed to your journey and success and how they shaped you. We don't say enough thank you's. This is a great moment to share with the listeners... [23:05] What are the factors that contribute to a successful acceleration of a start up or acceleration of a new service/product? 1. EXPERIMENTATION. The first factor is being open to coaching and experimentation. Other factors include persistence. There might be a lot of failures but still you have to keep smashing your head against the wall over and over again. We try very hard to not tell our companies what to do. But we make a lot of suggestions on what to try. And people who are willing to jump off the cliff and try a bunch of new things, even if in the heart of their hearts they think it might not work, nonetheless they try are often the ones who succeed. 2. NOT GIVING UP. So it takes a certain type of personality to try lots and lots of different things over and over again that don't work, becuase in the end you are trying to solve a problem that hasn't been solved before or isnt being solved properly so you are trying to come up with a better solution. 3. THE RIGHT TEAM. Team is what we look at. It's not always about the product. The founder has to be passionate enough to make these first two factors work [27:09] In the making of any new innovation- product or service is about failures too. Any examples? Sebastien: The fact that i picked up the set of team that i did at start, was a failure. It didn't let us go through this iterations, adaptations and learn and develop fast enough. It took us 2 years to come to the DNA of where we are now. Ofcourse we learnt a lot in this period. But we lost time. Team was too young and not complimentary enough. William: My first startup was a pretty low point. I took my own money and couple of friends while i was still at Soft Bank. First mistake - doing a startup without being 100% focussed. Second mistake - the team combo. Third mistake - I was a bad CEO. [34:48] - Show finale. Rapid fire round between the host and the guests. What other professional other than your current would you like to attempt? What are you not good at? How do you manage anger? How do you manage stress? What's coming up next - In the Making for The Care Voice and Chinaccelerator What would you like to ask to the network of listeners and Asia Tech Podcast. Make the ask Working in a different country. Why should you consider working in a different country other than your home country? "Commit to the uncomfortable" - #NishHosts Show - IN THE MAKING

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia. Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency. There are only 10 weeks left in the year, so let's take a quick look at where we are with our Asia Tech Podcast project. We've recorded 167 podcast episodes, of which we've produced 113. While we averaged 4 episodes a week, the bulk of the content came in the last 3 months when we started ATP Stories and announced the Tour. This week we're looking at the latest data from our 2017 ATP Power Rankings 2017 - your votes on who and what has contributed most to the Asian Startup Ecosystem this year. On the individual front an early shout out to Bay McLaughlin, Casey Lau, Kyle Ellicott, William Bao Bean and Gregory Prudhommeaux who are leading the individual Award for contribution at this early stage. We also discussed the remaining Award categories including Best City which is a straight shoot between Singapore and Hong Kong so far. This week we also launch our new vertical podcast - ATP Angels Angels is a weekly show where Michael interviews Angel Investors in Asia, kicking off with our friend Ned Phillips, CEO of Bambu. In today's episode, Michael shares some insights into the first batch of investors interviewed, as well as what he hopes to learn from this podcast series moving forward. We also touched on an upcoming vertical - ATP Cryto. Crypto aims to cover all things Blockchain, Ethereum and Cryptocurrency. Warning: this podcast may get a little technical so don't expect a 101. Crypto will be a podcast for crypto entrepreneurs about crypto entrepreneurs.

William Bao Bean is General Partner at SOSV, a $300m venture capital fund known as “the Accelerator VC” with a >30% net realized IRR. He is also the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, SOSV's global Internet accelerator and the first accelerator in China, as well as MOX, the mobile only accelerator platform with 130m smartphone users in SE Asia. William has spent the past two decades in Asia and has a breadth of experience that covers not only the rise of China's original tech giants (BAT), but also core movements including: O2O, entertainment, sharing economy, social commerce and more. We'll cover all of these major trends, William's Chinaccelerator investment experience, and his views on cross-border developments in the future. Link to write-up here: https://www.theharbingerchina.com/blog/how-china-s-internet-economy-evolved-with-chinaccelerator-md-william-bao-bean

William Bao Bean knows more than almost anyone about the Chinese internet. Currently the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, a start-up accelerator based in Shanghai, William has been helping Chinese tech companies get started for nearly 15 years. He was one of the earliest and most plugged-in industry analysts, working at Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Bear Stearns, and he did private investing with Softbank China & India Holdings and SingTel Innov8. In this discussion, William talks about online travel, search, gaming, payments, advertising, and what it takes to compete on the Chinese Internet.

William Bao Bean is a General Partner at SOSV, a US$300m venture capital fund that invests in startups in its accelerators across the world. William is also the Managing Director of SOSV’s Chinaccelerator, China first startup accelerator based in Shanghai and MOX, SOSV’s mobile only accelerator platform SE Asia. Prior to joining SOSV, William was the Managing Director at SingTel Innov8, where he led investments in Yodo1 and Gmobi, among many others. Previously, William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings. William began his career as an equity research analyst, most recently with Deutsche Bank, where he was responsible for Internet and Telecom Equipment across Asia and China technology, media and telecom. In 2005,he was ranked No.1 stock picker in Technology, Media and Telecom, and No.3 overall for Hong Kong/China. Key points covered: 0:00 William’s background and introduction to Chinaccelerator. 4:52: How has the investment thesis differed amongst Softbank China, Singtel and SOSV? 11:00 What are the differences between Chinese consumers and SE Asia consumers? 14:10 How to do social commerce in China? 16:50 Why does SOSV only invest in startups going through its accelerators? 17:40 Chinaccelerator invests in convertible notes. What are differences in convertible note terms between China and the West? 20:10 Have there been any issues working with local Chinese investors and how to resolve them? 25:40 What is a portfolio company that has succeeded and why? 30:24 What are examples of companies or sectors where things did not go well? 32:23 Chinese B2C startups prioritise market share. Is burning cash for market share a necessary first step? How has that changed recently? 36:46: As China market matures, how has SOSV’s investment thesis changed? 45:05: What is the one most absurd investment term William has come across? Items mentioned: SOSV’s China focussed China Accelerator SOSV’s South East Asia’s focussed MOX Accelerator Singtel Innov8 investment: GMobi China Accelerator portfolio company: OCheng China Accelerator portfolio company: The Fashory Favourite book: Lean Startup Favourite Chinese company: Tencent Other books recommended: Only The Paranoid Survive, Innovator’s Dilemma Favourite Chinese investor: Lei Jun (Entrepreneur and Investor), Founder of Xiaomi and Founding Partner Shunwei Capital Chinese phrases mentioned: Shanzhai 山寨: copycats / lookalikes Twitter: (at)hutongv, (at)haymarkethq Hutong (Ad)Ventures is a podcast on how to succeed in China featuring top venture capital investors, founders and operators with real China experiences. Hutong (Ad)Ventures is part of Haymarket HQ. Hosted by Jemma Xu.

I met William almost ten years ago when he was a technology analyst in Hong Kong, and I was consulting for Star TV. The Chinese Internet was already rapidly evolving then, and now, a decade later, the combination of a sophisticated technology, a mobile-first culture and relative isolation behind a national firewall, has led to a vastly different digital ecosystem. Based in Shanghai, William is now an Investment Partner at SOSV and the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator. William joined SOSV from SingTel Innov8 where he was the Managing Director supporting China investment activities. Previously William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm backed by Softbank of Japan and Cisco.

I met William almost ten years ago when he was a technology analyst in Hong Kong, and I was consulting for Star TV. The Chinese Internet was already rapidly evolving then, and now, a decade later, the combination of a sophisticated technology, a mobile-first culture and relative isolation behind a national firewall, has led to a vastly different digital ecosystem. Based in Shanghai, William is now an Investment Partner at SOSV and the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator. William joined SOSV from SingTel Innov8 where he was the Managing Director supporting China investment activities. Previously William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm backed by Softbank of Japan and Cisco.

Talk by William Bao Bean, SOSV & China AcceleratorChina accelerator William Bao Bean says that we're underestimating the huge business opportunity in Asia - but it's a different ecosystem, and you need to behave differently. Learn more.

Check out our latest episode with William Bao Bean, a Partner at SOSV and the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, the first startup accelerator in the East and sponsor of China Startup Pulse. William shared his insights on the startup and investment scene in China and what it takes for foreign or global startups to succeed in China. We also discussed WeChat being a useful tool to engage customers or users with very low acquisition cost. This is a must-listen episode for those of you who are trying to understand what's really going on here and how it is different from the West.

William Bao Bean, partner of SOS Ventures and Chinaccelerator, joined us on Analyse Asia to discuss how their accelerator and venture fund spurred the entrepreneurial ecosystem in China. We discussed the interesting companies under his portfolio, how they are working on growth hacks in Wechat and also why media is an exciting category in China. The post Episode 44: The China Ecosystem with William Bao Bean of SOS Ventures appeared first on Analyse Asia.