I know most people outside of China aren’t aware of the Chinese holidays but the past couple weeks have been back-to-back holidays Mid autumn festival (mooncakes) was 2 weeks ago (went up to Beijing and then Shenyang) Workweek started again last Sunday for 3 days and then back to another holiday starting Wednesday Wangxia and I had a trip to …
More Startup Challenges For Foreigners in China – Passport Visa Enforcement
Passport visas!!!! I remember I didn’t even know what a passport visa was until I came to China – as a US passport holder I’m spoiled traveling to Europe, Mexico, Canada, and other countries without needing to file a passport visa. But in China, I learned to file a passport visa to enter the country. I have had this blog …
Getting Married! My Chinese Wedding in Jan 2014
Yes, I am getting married! Life has been moving at a hyper and exciting pace and I’m ready to go all in with the woman I love.
Building an International Business From Beijing, Notes from Lean Startup Meetup
I was lucky enough to have timed my Beijing trip to make this past Lean Startup Beijing Meetup group event this past Wednesday. The theme was around how startups with an international focus can build starting from Beijing. This is interesting for me, as Social Agent is a cross border startup based in China. Also, I assume everyone knows, but …
Bad Use of Viral Marketing: September 11th Anniversary Party in Shenzhen,China
I’ve been receiving messages from American friends in different parts of China asking me if I saw / heard about the party in Shenzhen (where I’m currently living) that was an anniversary party for the September 11th Attacks At the world Trade Center in NY. Horrible, I was just across the river in Hoboken, NJ during that nightmare of a …
Preparing for Beijing, China Trip, September 15 to 19
Pushing the envelope. I’ll be flying up to Beijing next Sunday September 15th and stay for a few days until the Mid Autumn Festival (Chinese holiday) starts. As always, jamming as much as I can in just a few days. Here’s the current agenda: Sunday, September 15th – fly in from Shenzhen, not making any plans as anticipating delayed flights …
Chinese Expanding Overseas! Hong Kong’s First “Emerging China” Networking
Last Friday I was able to attend a new kind of networking association called “Emerging China”, hosted by some great, experienced dot com era veterans who are back to make some new networking and connections happen! William invited me personally and I was extremely flattered, even able to travel from Shenzhen with the speakers and other organizers! There were 2 …
Excited for Shenzhen’s 1st Barcamp, Sat Sept 14
Really excited for Shenzhen’s first Barcamp, there have been many in Hong Kong, I’ve attended a couple, as well as some in Shanghai and Beijing and Guangzhou – now its Shenzhen’s time. I’m glad Zhiyuan and Carrie from SZstartups have stepped up and taken the responsibility to organize such an amazing event! I’ll be there as a speaker too – …
More Shanghai Hustle: Clients, BD, Training Seminars
Typing this blog up 11:15pm on a Monday night in Shenzhen – just landed about 30 minutes ago. I get wechat messages often from friends – envious of my travel schedule. I took think its pretty awesome – but it takes a lot of practice and patience! Wifi not working in airports, batteries constantly on empty, lost in new locations, …
Craziest Launch Party Ever, One for the Records
man, its been almost 24 hours now since the party ended and Im still wondering how that happened. A few weeks ago from the “peer pressure slide of Paul Orlando” where I set the launch date of August 10th with a beach party in Shenzhen til today, my team and I were worried we would even fill 1 bus of …
Leveraging Peer Pressure: Social Agent Launch August 10
Its been one heck of a year, and I’m gonna use Paul Orlando’s Farewell speech night public announcement of Social Agent’s 3rd pivoted product to formally launch on Saturday August 10th. It was at the end of his speech and Paul had people from around the room (of about 100 people) choose to stand up and give themselves some peer …
Last Minute Trip to Shanghai
One of the “love/hate things” about China that I am still adjusting to is the last minute planning. Just a few days ago I was planning to go to Hong Kong but a trip came up to Shanghai and its been long overdue. I’ve learned to adjust my “western” requirements to have a more concrete schedule and gotten even better …
Why USA Internet and China Internet will continue to Separate
Note: Amy / Melissa please do not translate this blog post to my Chinese blog as is may be too sensitive and might be blocked inside Chinese internet. Honestly I hope this English blog isn’t blocked due to this post (or hacked…). Honestly, I will try not to write anything offensive or against Chinese government here – I am just …
As An Entrepreneur, Going 80% is Easy, its that Last 20%
Sunday evening here in Shenzhen, China. The photo attached to today’s blog post is from the top of Nanshan Mountain. I hiked it this afternoon, a few friends may have gone, but they didn’t feel like going. I still went. I tried to go the whole way up without stopping, but had to take a break about 3/4 along the …
First Xiamen, China Startup Weekend a Homerun Hit!
Monday morning here in Xiamen, typing up this blog post still running on adrenaline! These Startupweekends are so exciting, and powerful, and man, do they push your limits in energy! I remember Asics Yao being introduced to me a few months back by Rui Ma from 500startups, as he was interested in doing an official Startup Weekend in his city …