In my latest blogpost I wrote about my quest to find a Tech Co-Founder for the Startup I’m working on.
[Think of a Drum roll sound]: I found one and she’s Chinese!
Why is that so strange?
Normally finding a good person for a job is hard but doable but sometimes you find that person from a very unexpected “source”.
Chinese tend to be very traditional, also risk avoiding and status aware. I’ve been in and out of China the last 9 years and living full time in HK now for over 1,5 years. That doesn’t make me an expert but I’ve seen and heard a lot in that time. Doing a startup is usually not one of the things Chinese get around on doing. Their family wants them to go and work for a respectable international company, because that gives the parents something to brag about during dinner and it gives “stability”. Who is that “start-up” or 2-3 persons company you want to go work for? A lot of Chinese WANT to go and work for a small company or start up, but due to pressure from relatives are “forced” to find a job at HSBC, BOC, HWL, PWC, etc….
Why? Because that allows them to save up, for marriage, buying a house, taking care of the parents. The healthcare in China is primitive compared to some other countries and forces parents to make sure their spouses gets married, save up, buy a house so they can take care of them when the parents retier.
In this “environment” it’s hard for young Chinese to (if they have them) follow their entrepreneurial or startup dream.
If they are given the option to start at a small company or startup with the same start salary but with the change that it turns out to be a failure or a huge success or a job at a big one, they “have” to take the big company so they don’t disappoint the parents.
Thats why, if you find a young Chinese start up or entrepreneur, they usually don’t have the pressure from home. And they have the vision and boldness to do so. And that’s rare.
Last Saturday I had an interview with Angelina, a PHD graduate, who was interested in the start up. She’s originally from Mainland China and is studying in HK. Almost finished with her thesis, she was looking for a challenge to put her gained knowledge to the test and was very interested in doing a startup. How very un-Chinese, but how lucky for me!
On Angelina, the start up, and a great 3 months as a start of this cooperation. More will follow!
