Nice move YC. I know Qi is highly regarded by Chinese students. He seems like a corporate vs startup guy though, so while I trust he has great access to talent and connections in industry and Govt, I'm not sure he's the best person to mentor a scrappy startup. Hope he has a good support cast.
YC China and Qi Lu
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Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#12Really excited to see how YC model would work out in China!
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#13Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#14Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#15YC's got a very, very fine line to tread if they're serious about China - with its limits on human rights and authoritarian tendencies, the Chinese government is absolutely not to be trusted. I worry about what sort of concessions tech companies have made and will make to gain access to the Chinese market.
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#16Ah, this is the same Qi Lu who was basically responsible for the creation of Bing, then got Office and AI in a reorg, and then somehow got pushed out by Satya and went on to be CTO of Baidu for awhile. The YCR connection makes sense, since he has a lot of experience in AI where much of YCR is now at, but it will be interesting to see how he will interact with Bret Victor's group. Are they going to start a YC-like inc…
Bing really is a pile of garbage though (perhaps a little better these days but no where near as good as Google). I'm surprised he wasn't fired sooner. Was he friends with Ballmer?
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#17Key question: will Chinese startups be required to register as US companies :)
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#18Ah, this is the same Qi Lu who was basically responsible for the creation of Bing, then got Office and AI in a reorg, and then somehow got pushed out by Satya and went on to be CTO of Baidu for awhile. The YCR connection makes sense, since he has a lot of experience in AI where much of YCR is now at, but it will be interesting to see how he will interact with Bret Victor's group. Are they going to start a YC-like inc…
Bing really is a pile of garbage though (perhaps a little better these days but no where near as good as Google). I'm surprised he wasn't fired sooner. Was he friends with Ballmer?
Qi was actually one of the better SVPs at Microsoft, I think he was even on the list for the CEO spot that Satya got.
He was given an almost impossible task in competing with Google basically from scratch. Ya, he didn't completely succeed, but that isn't very surprising.
What happened at the end, I'm not really sure. I was pretty surprised when I heard he was gone with Harry Shum taking over most of what he was in charge of.
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since when Code of Ethics equals to McCarthyism?
Doing business in China is unethical.
Doing business with the Chinese government is unethical. Doing business with Chinese entrepreneurs and providing services to the Chinese people is a humanitarian imperative.
Without going to far into the political weeds, the US has never delivered freedom effectively at the end of a gun, but rather through McDonalds and Coca Cola.
Re: YC China and Qi Lu
#20Key question: will Chinese startups be required to register as US companies :)
I'm betting that they will be using Chinese capital for Chinese start-ups, so there won't be any weird foreign registration requirement. It makes more sense because China still has a lot of money sloshing around looking for something to do, and YC China will look appealing in that regard, so no FDI will be needed.
But that is just a guess by an amateur, we have to wait to see how this turns out.