What do you feel works in Asia, but isn't done or works elsewhere?
Also what doesn't work in Asia that YC and others do?
Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#12As a partner at YC, I can say that we are actively working on how YC can help founders in China. One difference I've noticed with Chinese startups is the relative speed at which they move. If you thought SV moved quick...it's nothing compared to Beijing! Re: what SV advice is transferable, we're still very much figuring this out. It's not 100% but I highly doubt it's as limited as I've heard some BJ investors and fou…
I'd be interested in reading a blog article that describes in what way Chinese startups move faster, I feel there is a lot to be learned here.
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#13Cutthroat competition of well-funded second-movers is a whole different ballgame. It's funny that you mention Peter Thiel. His "globalization" pretty much describes this.
I think you'll find relevant advice in more traditional managerial business literature. You want operational excellence above all.
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#14As a partner at YC, I can say that we are actively working on how YC can help founders in China. One difference I've noticed with Chinese startups is the relative speed at which they move. If you thought SV moved quick...it's nothing compared to Beijing! Re: what SV advice is transferable, we're still very much figuring this out. It's not 100% but I highly doubt it's as limited as I've heard some BJ investors and fou…
I'd be interested in reading a blog article that describes in what way Chinese startups move faster, I feel there is a lot to be learned here.
I think it is mostly that competition is insane. Not that competition is low in Silicon Valley, but you are still able to carve out some niche for yourself. In China not so much, or at least it is a lot harder. People will come in and do what you do, what your supplier does and get the same deals as you, on every level of your business.
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#15SE Asian here. Some things I've noticed:
* Talent is extremely rare. The ratio is about maybe a tenth as much in good areas vs somewhere like NYC. Put it this way - our interview process for senior engineers involves asking them to build a linked list, and it involves a lot of hints.
* The unicorns of the region are app+logistics, things like Grab, Lazada, ofo.
* Or things that cut through heavy bureaucracy - alipay, iMoney, iPay88, WeChat. Stripe and similar companies have tried but it's hard to pierce the bureaucratic layer.
* Scaling is a very different game. You simply can't hire a hundred of the best people. You can get maybe 2-3 excellent people, and the rest will have to be trained from scratch. This makes moving fast difficult.
* However, living costs are low... founders in SEA except Singapore can live off $10k/year.
So from all these points, it's extremely dangerous to move fast. A lot of local startups overextend into multiple countries then run out of money or can't manage.
The SE Asian game is similar to the Vietnam War. One has to move slowly and carefully. Higher tech may not defeat a well entrenched local, and companies like Uber have bled trying.
I think the startup game in SE Asia and China is moderate tech. You won't have Google or Apple, but you'll have Tencent, LTE, and Huawei. The biggest tech companies in SEA are things like telcos and job listing sites.
Asians are not sharks but bottom feeders - they can survive at lower depths, under more extreme conditions. Ideally startups in SEA would be more like MailChimp, Reddit, Postman, Runcloud. Where it's not a race, but the unit economics matter.
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#16I would rather China/SEAsia grow their own networks rather than YC come in and impose their way of thinking onto a different culture and market. I get a sense that this notion of American exceptionalism is waning an that people, especially in China, don't look to America for leadership the same way as in the past.
And I think there is a general sentiment that China is well on it's way. I suspect YC needs China more than China needs YC, or at least I think they're headed towards that future. I've noticed a lot of really talented Chinese immigrants and students who have worked in Silicon Valley for several years moving back to China to work for Tencent, Baidu, JD, Alibaba etc.
I'm sure "Trump's America" is also a factor in all this.
Re: Ask HN: YC out of touch in China/SE Asia?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
YC seems very oriented to Software and other businesses where iteration costs are low. In hardware you have to spend some money to test product market fit. The only way to not lose your shirt is to follow a waterfall approach with more traditional planning. From an external view it seems like the antithesis of the YC approach.
YC started with software companies, but a substantial fraction of current companies are building hardware. See https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-winter-2018-stats/ and the links to company descriptions. Waterfall means different things to different people. I think the key to success is getting several iterations in front of the customer, and being able to make major changes based on their feedback. That does usually me…
I think the issue for biotech isn't just you need more money -- you do to get initial POC (the most analogous concept to product / market fit), but can actually get to exit with less than tech co's nowadays -- but that you have to spend your initial money right. product / feedback cycles are orders of magnitude longer / more expensive, so you need to do more planning to make sure you do the right experiments. this is the hard lesson that the experienced biotech VCs have learned, that generalist VCs have struggled with and why you dont really see many generalist tech VC backed biotech co's succeed (except stemcentryx)
more money without better planning = more money wasted