a superb initiative by Alibaba Group and United Nations (UNCTAD). Truly grateful to be part of eFounders Fellowship Asia family. I am very proud to see Asian founders genuinely happy supporting each other to succeed.

When I first arrived in Hangzhou, I arrived with an open mind and without much expectation. The city is beautiful especially the west lake… the most beautiful in China. I learned few vocabularies hopefully can be useful to survive a better way in China. Honestly, it’s not so easy as I thought. But at least I tried haha.. we were super lucky been surrounded by great Asian founders who are very willing to go extra mile to help others who can’t speak mandarin. From taking Didi taxi, register China Mobile number, Open Bank Account, ordering foods etc. I am so proud to see Asian founders who genuinely happy helping each other on daily basis. Also not to forget the superb organizing team… You guys rock!! just amazing!

eFounders is a joint-initiative between Alibaba and United Nations (UNCTAD) to promote youth and sustainable development which aim to inspire 1000 entrepreneurs from emerging countries within 5 years. It is a pretty intense crash course, combining 14 days module to 11 days.. some of us even fell asleep in the class (too tired) However, we survived!!

It was an eye-opener to see how e-ecommerce, payment, logistic and data analytics are making a huge impact in China. Alibaba Group is a strong advocator towards inclusive Globalization. Revolution has started in Europe, then America… and now the wave is in Asia.. the region which has a better chance to create a big revolution in the century.

Sharing with you a couple of key takeaways:

 

In the internet age, the gap between the rich and poor depends not only on how much assets you have, but also how much information you have. It takes time to build a great company, give yourself 10-years to hustle and build a high impact, meaningful and sustainable venture. Be patience, as so many things can go wrong.

You probably heard about Alibaba 11.11 shopping festival?

Brian Wong, VP of Global Initiative at Alibaba Group shared before the 11.11 event was so successful. The first 4 years they were facing a lot of challenges.

1st year – Cannot load landing page (traffic)
2nd year – Shopping cart crash
3rd year – payment crash

4th year – warehouse not enough

Data-driven decision is key to build a great company which would provide better customer experience (customization) eg; offer the right price product and the right time. Offer a platform which offers original, online and easy to deploy solution which empowers your “customers” and allow your customer to co-develop the platform together.

Lastly, whenever you want to make a decision in business, would be useful to ask yourself:
a. what do you have?
b. what do you want?
c. what are you willing to give up or trade off?