After selling my startup, Shopkick, to SK Planet in 2014, and handing over my CEO role a year later, I packed up my 1- and 3-year-old sons and my wife Angel, and flew to Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong for three weeks, hoping to better understand the Chinese startup world and its entrepreneurs and VCs.
2014年我将自己的创业公司Shopkick卖给了SK Planet。一年之后,交出我的CEO职位,我带着我的1岁和3岁的儿子以及我的妻子Angel,飞往北京,深圳和香港3周,希望更好的了解中国的创业公司、企业家和VCs。
As my trip to China drew to a close, I started to reflect on what we in Silicon Valley can learn from China. Here is what I found.
在我的行程接近尾声的时候,我开始回想我们硅谷的人应该向中国学习什么,以下是我的发现。
1. Beijing will be the only true competitor to Silicon Valley in the next 10 years.
1、10年后,北京会成为硅谷真正唯一的竞争对手。
2. We pride ourselves on being fast in Silicon Valley. Chinese startups are faster.
2、我对我们硅谷速度感到自豪。中国创业者速度更快。
3. The argument that Chinese entrepreneurs are mainly cloning Western startups is outdated.
3、中国创业者主要山寨西方者的观点过时了。
4. A wave of innovation is coming from China.
4、创新浪潮正从中国席卷而来。
Deep technology is evolving — there is some interesting AI work underway in Beijing, for example — but Silicon Valley's edge is still hardcore tech and the fusion of consumer ideas, technology and product design.
深层次的技术正在发展。比如,北京进行的人工智能工作十分有趣——但是硅谷的优势仍然是硬件技术,以及消费者的想法、技术和产品设计的融合。
Another shortcoming of Chinese startups is expertise on how to enter markets outside China quickly and efficiently. Beyond cultural and language barriers, the fact that the Chinese market is so big means that Chinese startups can easily fall into the trap of never even getting to the international expansion, because others will have already quickly copied them. It's the exact problem that U.S. startups have long faced from Chinese startups.
中国创业的其他不足是缺乏快速有效进入中国以外的市场的专业知识。除了文化和语言隔阂,中国市场的庞大意味着中国创业公司会轻易的放弃进军国际市场,因为其他人将会快速复制他们。这正是长久以来美国创业公司在面对中国创业公司时所面临的问题。
I loved the lack of pretense of Chinese entrepreneurs, their authentic entrepreneurialism. Silicon Valley can sometimes be too well-fed — from startup offices to clubbiness. Strip all that away. Get to the core of it, the true entrepreneurial endeavor, the obsession with the product and the company, come hell or high water.
我喜欢中国企业家的谦虚和他们真实的企业文化。在硅谷,从创业公司的办公室到俱乐部,我们都具备了很好的条件。抛开这一切。无论如何,企业家真正努力的核心应该是产品和公司。
zzbbe ? 19 hours ago
The younger generations of US Citizens should start learning to speak Chinese Mandarin right now. You have to look no farther than your keyboard or cell phone to realize that the US is on its way out
美国的新一代年轻人现在应该开始学习中国普通话了。只需看看键盘和手机就知道美国已经过时了。
RayForPay ? 2 days ago
Yeah those startups who aren't "well fed" are called LOSERS. Costs a lot of money to buy respect in America.
是的哪些没有得到很多支持的创业公司被称为失败者。要花费大量金钱在美国赢得尊重。
Kevin Fine ? 2 days ago
China just copies... they will kick out all US companies, then wait a few years, and introduce Chinese fakes. STUPID US companies keep going to China. Timmy Cook bends over to them but will certainly be blocked in China... everyone knows it. That is why the hedge funds are dumping Apple.
中国就是依葫芦画瓢。。。。他们将把所有的美国企业踢出市场,然后过几年,再引进中国假冒伪劣产品。愚蠢的美国公司还在不断涌入中国。苹果公司CEO蒂姆库克现在向他们弯腰但是迟早会被中国封锁。。。这是众所周知的事情。不然为什么对冲基金正在抛弃苹果产品。
yanif ? 2 days ago
The lack of creativity will be the Achilles heel of Chinese. They are good at stealing and reverse engineering western technologies. When comes to innovation? not so much. After they have stolen and reverse engineering all they could, their economy is on the verge of collapsing now. Five years from now, people will forget about Beijing or Shanghai and talk about Mumbai and New Delhi all the time.
缺少创新将成为中国人的致命弱点(此处典故出自希腊罗马神话,阿基里斯的脚踵是他的致命弱点)。他们善于抄袭和改变西方工程技术。但是说到创新?就不是那么回事了。尽管进行了大量抄袭和逆向工程,现在他们的经济已经在走下坡路了。5年后,人们将不再记得北京上海,人们将一直谈论孟买和新德里。
Siloo Kapadia yanif ? a day ago
I agree. A lot of stuff is happening in India which does NOT get the USA press.
我同意。印度发生的很多事情都没有在美国媒体上报导。
Sam yanif ? 2 days ago
Counting on India for innovation and quality is quite laughable. At any rate, the same was said about Japan during the 60's; the new generation of China are very good at innovation and that should create a genuine concern. Never underestimate your opponent; remember the story of the hare and the turtle.
指望着印度的创新和质量是相当可笑的一件事。无论如何,60年代的日本也是这样被看低的;新一代的中国人非常善于创新,那应该引起重视。永远不要小瞧你的对手;记住龟兔赛跑的教训。
passingby yanif ? 2 days ago
Mumbai and New Delhi? If you called new types viruses and bacterias evolved and coming out from the slums of those cities as innovation than I guess Mumbai and New Delhi might take the crown. ; )
孟买和新德里?如果你觉得这些城市的贫民窟里衍生出的新型病菌叫做创新的话,那么孟买和新德里绝对能拿到创新的王冠。
Kevin Fine passingby ? 2 days ago
There is honestly in India, not China. China is a failure of the past 60 years.
印度确实有创新,但是中国没有。中国在过去的60里一直是个没有创新的国家。
DudesonMcDudeMan ? 2 days ago
Only true competitors in DELUSION. But it's a close race.
妄想中的真正唯一竞争对手。但是这是个秘密竞赛。