Web Wednesday
Valor @Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong
“Are there innovative people in Hong Kong?”
Coming from innovative ally in Silicon Valley, I began to doubt. Just when doubt appeared to solidify, I took a stab at Web Wednesday which ended up on par.
I met the founder Napolean Biggs via Joey Lo (Twiitter) + Vinko (Facebook). Arriving in the underground Valor tavern of trendy Lan Kwai Fong, a few hundred tech savvy innovators arrived.
{Venture capitalist} + {entrepreneurs} + {tech lovers}
Napolean himself is a successful/smart/innovative serial entrepreneur with subpurb people skills. His company, Palava Digital helps people understand the internet. During this exploration trip to Hong Kong, my goal is to dig and learn from these entrepreneurs, so I can’t wait.
For around $15 USD, the entrance was well worth it. After two light hearted drinks, Napolean gathered the troops. As a class act, Napolean introduced me “and we have a foodporn addict all the way from San Francisco…” but playing center stage was Rex Ng.
Rex Ng, a former Yahoo employee, started 6Waves.com, a company that successfully developed Facebook applications. One application that features mafia games is rumored to generate around $60,000 USD monthly. More importantly, the audience got the inside story regarding how a bootstrap entrepreneur was able to be successful.
Just like masterful moderator like Charlie Rose, Napolean challenged Rex with countless questions from revenue streams and competition. All this energy heightened my senses.
Later that night, I met Jeff Lyndon.
He is young and smart. Currently, he is working on deploying video games. More stunningly, he started his entrepreneurial career creating War of War Craft characters by hiring farmers in China. I was impressed.
3 things I have learned
1} Although small, the tech savvy community is well knit
2} Web development may be low cost in China, but make sure you source the proper talent and have a good manager
3} It is hard to reach critical mass and few web resources reach this point. Openrice, a food website resource is just one that has reached critical mass. In Hong Kong, there is only a 7 million population and most do not spend much time on the internet. In terms of behavior, few buy clothes online, unlike Americans.
I will end with a few notes.
1} Keeping my eyes open + ears wide, I am observing trends and behaviors
2} Hong Kong is a city focused mainly on finance, real estate, and manufacturing
3} It may be hard for your product (restaurant), service (insurance), or self brand (Jackie Chan) to hit mainstream or critical mass, but if you do be prepared to have great fruits in neighboring places such as Singapore, China, and South Korea
P.S.:Thanks to Betty Lam for a warm Hong Kong Welcom
