Problems Starting Up in China

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on May 9, 2010

Venture Beat doesn't focus a great deal of its attention on China (in my opinion), but they had a great interview recently with Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China.

The article looks at problems in the tech startup and venture capital scene in China. One is the nature of education in the workforce. While it's easy to find people with advanced technical knowledge, they generally lack the more holistic skills needed in entrepreneurship.

Culture is a big problem for the startup scene. The older generation (the parents of potential tech workers) a skeptical of the startup lifestyle. They don't understand the idea of starting off at a lower paying job with the hopes of benefiting from the company's success. And college graduates in China pay more attention to their parents' opinions that in most Western countries.

The Venture Beat article looks at a couple of other problems faced by the startup scene. It's an eye opener.