Today I found an excellent presentation on SlideShare about China’s startup ecosystem, made by ZhenFund, one of China’s biggest angel funds. Not sure anymore where I found the link (probably in my Facebook timeline), so not sure who to credit for this.
Although for me most of the information is fairly standard, I think it’s a great introduction for people who want to understand how entrepreneurship and funding for Internet companies work in China. I recognize a lot of the things that I come across in daily life, especially when you compare them to the situation in the US, like this presentation does.
For example, most people don’t realize that M&A deals are very uncommon in China (most exits are actually still IPOs!), very different from the US. The presentation also talks about copycats, and why they are so common in China (partly due to VCs, partly to low hanging fruit). And the slides discuss some of the difficulties of starting your business in China, e.g. finding good C-level or enginereering people, the lack of trust and unwillingness to share, and the fact that there are not many serial entrepreneurs yet.
I embed he presentation below, if you can’t see it you can find the slides here as well.
China’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
View more PowerPoint from ZhenFund
If you’re interested in this topic also check out InnovationWorks’ Chris Evdemon’s presentation from April 2011 about Technopreneurship and the Early Stage Ecosystem in China on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/finnevdemon/technopreneurship-and-the-early-stage-ecosystem-in-china-2011-9725714
Thanks for the great presentation!
M&A deals are very uncommon in China —— I think one of the reasons the presentation didn’t mention is that most people didn’t think being acquired is a success. Therefore people are not so willing to talk about being acquired. I’ve been in such a situation recently: I’m writing a press release for an acquisition while both of them doesn’t want me to use the word “acquire （收购）”.