Since I still get so many emails, tweets, and startups from all over the globe visiting Shenzhen interested to meet the Startup community, I cannot let the conflicts of physical office stop me from continuing to build up the community! Jon Buford reminded me, its not the space that matters, its the people in the community….and I have to get off my arse and push these meetings again. I enjoy it.

So this Saturday afternoon, I gathered up all the information about a visiting Silicon valley startup guy, Haegwan, from Lifecraft who is coming to meet up Tuesday evening and wants to see the startup community to post on the SZteam site as well as this here blog!

Hope everyone had a good Chinese New Year, and is excited for the “Year of the Dragon”

SZteam is cooperating with Chai Huo hackerspace, and the next Startup Tuesday will be at the Chai Huo hackerspace

THIS TUESDAY, Feb 7, we will start having Startup Tuesdays in Chai Huo!

Date: Tuesday Feb 7th, 2012
Time: 7pm – about 9pm
Topic: We have a visitor from Silicon Valley, USA speaking, in english, about his startup platform, www.lifecraft.com his name is Haegwan Kim
Location: At ChaiHuo.org hackerspace (its behind the holiday inn in nanshan district)

Chai Huo hackerspace
#0728, Bld #5, Dong Hua Yuan (Next to Holiday Inn)
Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China

MTR – Luobao Line (line 1) to the Tao Yuan stop (just past Shenzhen University) and about a 10 minute walk

Thanks guys, I have a feeling a lot of people will get lost, but you can call Mike Michelini’s china mobile at +86 15816859376 , I also have whatsapp,

View Larger Map

The location of Chai Huo is not the most convenient, its about 10 minutes walk from the Tao Yuan metro station, but it has an awesome vibe, and after thinking about it, its best to cooperate with Chai Huo as I have been looking at spaces – its the most popular vote from my friends and those I am asking….there is a Chinese hacker community, and with the more English / foreign / web marketing heavy community I am working with, it seems to be a great synergy to make things happen.

But I NEED HELP!…. this is a part time thing I am doing now, I got in trouble last year by focusing on it too much and not enough on money-making business! This is a non-profit community type effort. The networking is great though.

So jumping back and forth between Shenzhen and Hong Kong so often, I have been saving time switching wallets and mobile phones by carrying a HK wallet and HK SIM card phone, as well as a Shenzhen wallet and a HK wallet, as well as a travel book for my passport, Chinese work permit….makes things much faster just switch phones and wallets when I cross the border.

But somehow when I was in transit, I misplaced my smaller HTC mobile phone that I use for my HK SIM card…jeez, just when I arrived in HK I lost it. I checked all over my seat on the ferry, couldn’t find it. I texted my buddy dave ho to check my room in Shenzhen…maybe somehow I left it when I was rushing in the morning to catch the 10:15am departing ferry. Dave texted back that he could drop by in the early afternoon to look…..

So I called my phone a couple times, no answer….but then again, the phone wasn’t off! When I had my mobile phone stolen in a Shenzhen nightclub, it was turned off immediately! So if it was still on, by mid-day then it was either lost somewhere and no one had found it, it was left in my apartment, or someone had it and didn’t know they need to turn it off in order to reset it? I just couldn’t imagine someone to have found it and try to return to me.

I was getting calls on this HK phone all day, as I was telling my Hong Kong meetings to call my HK sim #….and then they kept asking why I wasn’t picking up my phone….and I had to explain I misplaced my HK phone, and was only using my big China 3G Huawei tablet (thats always a great conversation starter!)

Then during a meeting, my China phone starts to ring, saying “My Hong Kong phone…. incoming call”….huh?!?! So I picked up, on speaker phone in the Hong Kong cafe, and the woman spoke great english! She said that the ferry company had found this mobile phone and asked if it was my phone!!! In my contact list, I had created a contact “My China phone“, never thinking that it would be used to call me back! And I didn’t lock my phone, else she wouldn’t have been able to call me back!

I was in shock….an unlocked mobile phone misplaced in China. She could have easily just kept quiet, and had it reformatted to use it or sell it. some have said well its not a new phone it is a small HTC firefly that is over a year old….

She was in the Shenzhen ferry office, and said they are opened 9 to 5pm each day….and that it would be closed by the time I returned to Shenzhen Thursday.

Friday morning, I went directly to the ferry terminal at 9am, was helped pretty easily, and located my phone in the marketing department office.

I tried to get a photo with the nice woman who got my phone, but she wouldn’t allow it! I tried to explain I’d blog about it.

Bike stolen before, laptop stolen in a Chinese restaurant, and earlier in this blog I mentioned my Galaxy S mobile being pickpocketed in a nightclub….

I have just budgeted these things to happen to me as an international businessman, traveling like a madman….I do try my best to take care of my things

But I’m getting a better feeling being in China lately. Maybe its also being positive, thinking positive creates others to be positive around you.

Or just luck.

And finally this past Monday businesses started opening again (some working on Sunday)…and of course it takes a day or two for people to really get into the work mode.

The photo I choose for today’s blog post was this past Friday, meeting a top friend in China, Xing Gao, he and I went to university together in USA (Stevens Tech) and have always checked in with each other. He is finally agreeing all my hustling and work is paying off, he and I outlined a strategy for my business (Shadstone). He has tons of experience in business strategy, he transferred from Stevens Tech to UPENN (I was almost going to transfer with him….but held back) and then he worked at Accenture in Texas, USA to then get a 1 year MBA from Oxford in London, UK! He also saw the China opportunity and returned to China to do strategic consulting in 2007. He gave me my Chinese name, when I arrived to Shenzhen he met me.

Xing is truly an amazing guy, hardest working person I know, works until his head falls down on the notebook, wakes up and works more….and said he can backstop me if I ever need it, just give him a call. Too bad he is now stationed up in Beijing….though he and many others say Beijing is a place I should be. But Shenzhen is where the action is for export ecommerce. And I feel “safer” down in south China.

Basically, there are 3 main businesses I’m involved with, all around China, e-commerce, social media industry, and the 3 categories are (1) full-service consulting (training, strategy), (2) internal ecommerce, and (3) event networking for ecommerce executives. They all seem to feed into each other, but it has been helping me clarify – blogging and listening to what people want.

Just going to outline some of the madness….its like insane busy since Monday!

strategic consulting, ecommerce / SEO between USA and China – I will be meeting more and more Americans wanting to come to China. Leveraging my knowledge and network here, as well as the training seminars I have been involved with….this blog has been a great way too. I love social media!

Hero Meets Hero e-commerce event networking – as I have said, I am extremely excited to market a Chinese ecommerce association to the west making the english name “Hero Meets Hero”, I will be blogging and being a gateway window for Americans and other Westerners to see what these Chinese ecommerce executives talk about.

And there is a backlog of followups of americans coming to China …..I’ll outline just a few below:

Helping Americans open Baidu accounts, and Chinese SEO / websites – What is most interesting, is my English blog gets Americans who want to come to China, while my Chinese blog is more for the Chinese who want to learn more about going to USA and doing business in America. While I do focus on export B2C (english) being in China in ecommerce and web marketing, I have made contacts in Baidu and other Chinese web companies. And still, as Baidu is so massive, they still seem to have trouble doing business with Westerners. So I will be making more introductions to the biggest search engine in China, Baidu.

SKUtouch is an american returns processing warehouse that wants more Chinese clients to utilize their American warehouse, address, and IT solutions to provide better return processing for their B2C websites. Doug will be coming in the next month or 2 to meet Hero Meets Hero members and hopefully find some clients and reseller agents for his RMA services.

international ecommerce consultant alliances - tons of westerns are trying to do business in China, and I am working on strategic alliances where I am the Chinese side connector, not focusing on the American client side, but instead on the business development in China.

connecting Chinese factories to American reseller agents. As I have been explaining on this blog with Geekcook entering the USA market, Jimi in NJ is awesome! But a lot of unknowns to clarify, such as who makes investments in inventory, marketing, localization. How to deal with all these variables. And is it scalable?

LA warehouse owned by Chinese, looking for overseas sellers – in addition to just finding manufacturers USA sales agents, a whole warehouse platform needs and wants marketing for the American market! I have been working with them for almost a year now, English language system is moving along nicely.

training to Chinese via webinars – from my social media and blogging, we have been contacted about having some American Social Media consultants to have their seminars broadcasted online in China, at the Hero Meets Hero events. Still a bit early stage, but had phone calls and back and forth so its moving along nicely. Again, the Chinese New years set progress back a bit and hoping to get it moving forward.

Internal B2C Yes, many ask what the status is with my own niche bar products ecommerce site. Well, those following the blog know I left Philippines end of 2010, came to China to do ecommerce consulting. And that kinda let things “go” in Philippines, as when I left and Marie also left, we didn’t have a central person to keep things in check. Recently, Leon an IT expert and operations management guru hopefully will reorganize Philippines. He also has similar visions of helping Filipinos reach their dreams through learning how to fish, rather than waiting for a fish to be given to them. A proper blog post is due…but still developing our plan.

So thats the “short list”

Meeting with Xing in Guangzhou last week helped me clarify the differences of an events and networking company from an ecommerce consulting company. He made me more confident, and said that this is all relevant, positive businesses that help feed each other…not distracting from one aother.

And he also asked why I am hesitating from hiring, and that I should go back full force into re-building my China office, hiring more workers to support me instead of staying small. Not just put all this pressure on myself. I am still a bit….scared…..to be honest…..I got really rocked – training new workers, managing workers, while still focusing on sales and marketing. And I am testing out the re-organization in the Philippines with Leon, see if that can get some traction, and simplifying my businesses so that I can scale better.

Also, do I really want to build up a full-service ecommerce agency company in China? I need to be sure that is my dream.

Stay tuned, overall really positive.

I really miss my family back home, its been the hardest part of relocating to China / Asia. Friends and family…..that is it. If I could just teleport back and forth, then life would be ideal. But onwards I must go, and I’m in the middle of this bridging USA and China ecommerce / global ecommerce. Plus with technology mixed with my dad getting good at checking emails and reading my blog here to stay in touch. My mom, a different story, not into technology and only can get through to her by phone. I do make the occasional phone call back home but sadly, I am calling back to USA less and less these days….as I’m getting deeper and deeper into a pure China business world.

So one day on twitter…again, the power of social media! I am still amazed:

NotesToFriends Notes To Friends
@michelini great blog about an expat helping to connect the USA and China. interesting blogs. Go Michael! blog.michaelmichelini.com
27 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Which started a conversation, (hey, of course flattery of another is the best way to get attention) and I checked out their service….hey, for only a couple bucks, why not get off my behind and write a real-life letter back home to mom + dad. My mom has actually given up writing me letter to China, as I got about 75% of them (she is old school, and I did keep all those handwritten letters). I quickly went along to type it up on their interface (no, I am not paid to write/link this! I think they are a small company that needs a shoutout.).

Hey mom and dad,

Miss being home with you guys and friends….but am really doing a lot of cool things in China. I am trying to do things that seem to have never been done before. I am teaching Chinese about internet marketing….going to different cities in China every month next year.

I know it was probably hard to see me quit wall street back in 2007…I remember taking the trip down to florida for Christmas and having it on my list to talk to you guys about my wanting to leave. I just wasn’t challenged, and wasn’t happy. I wanted to travel more, do real things….not just work on spreadsheets inside of a machine.

Its been a wild ride since then, so many challenges. While I do get stressed out about it, I am much happier then I was….its something that I can never predict each day and always need to think creatively while under pressure.

Thought it would be cool to send this letter, I hope to meet again in 2012.
Mike

And within just a few days my dad emailed me he got it. For fun, I asked him to go out of his way a bit and scan it for this blog post….but I am thinking to use this more and more….the biggest question I have is, what return address should I put? A USA address?

NotesFromFriends.com seems like a small, friendly startup, and I am happy with their service and hope maybe this post can help them out a bit as well. It must be cool for them to also deliver these nice letters to friends and family around the world. It made my day, and my parents too I imagine. rock on!

Incoming search terms:

• about me my personal blog international business - org - edu - info - gov - ca -news -magazine

I guess it forces us to think more and more reflectively, making our plan for the next year, again, and again, and again! Reflect, plan, evaluate. Seems everyone around me is thinking about where they currently are in life, what their goals are, where they want to go, and so excited for the year ahead. I think its awesome to reflect, and this blog has been a great sounding board for me over the years.

I haven’t always blogged during Chinese New Years, but this is my 5th Chinese New Years here:

• 2008 was the year of the Rat (Mouse)
• 2009 was the year of the Bull
• 2010 was the year of the Tiger
• 2011 was the year of the Rabbit
• 2012 will be the year of the dragon

Or, for the full calendar, I google’d it and got Apples for teachers official calendar:

Year	Chinese New Year Begins	Animal Sign
2008	February 7	Rat
2009	January 26	Ox
2010	February 14	Tiger
2011	February 3	Rabbit
2012	January 23	Dragon
2013	February 10	Snake
2014	January 31	Horse
2015	February 19	Sheep
2016	February 8	Monkey
2017	January 28	Rooster
2018	February 16	Dog
2019	February 5	Pig

  

hot pot, with foreign friends

The “eve” before Chinese new years was this past Sunday night, Jan 22nd, and I headed over to my foreign friend Andy Blahnik’s house, with his wife Rica (so technically its not foreign friends, she is Chinese!), and they hosted me and a few of our friends to hot pot at their home in Coastal City, Shenzhen. Photo is here in the gallery, we watched CCTV (Chinese TV) and similar to a countdown for Western New Years, they had TV hosts (the guy was wearing awesome sparkly suit jacket), dancers, singers, and interviews.

And for anyone who has been in China on or around Chinese new years, they have tons of fireworks. Its a bit of a quick amateur video I made, but this is an example of just how crazy it gets here. This is right outside the balcony. These are not professional fireworks that are regulated in America…they sell firecrackers right on the street and they are decent size, as you can see in the video.

Pretty cool video, but probably not the safest position I have been in:

A few of my friends have taken trips today, Chinese new years day (today, Monday Jan 23, 2012), as the costs are the lowest anytime of the year. As many Chinese wouldn’t travel on New Years Day, or Christmas Day, just like Americans wouldn’t, demand is lowest on this travel day…allowing my expat friends to benefit.

But on top of that….Shenzhen is an empty city….as its a young city, and most Chinese don’t have family roots (culture) here, and during holidays they go to their hometown.

Today I was lucky enough to find a friend, Danny Liu, CEO of the LA warehouse I am using for ecommerce fulfillment, invited me to his home for lunch today. I was making dumplings, a northern chinese dish and tradition on New Years Day with him and his wife today.

A nice thing he said is that neighbors can count as family, when family is far away from home during the holidays. He has many nearby neighbors and other foreign colleagues who didn’t have friends or family to spend it with.

Rest of the Week China is still closed

Even though Chinese New Years Day has passed, rest of the week inside China is basically closed down. Next door in Hong Kong, the holiday is much shorter, from Sunday, the 22nd until Wednesday the 25th, but inside mainland China, people were leaving basically the beginning of last week (16th) and will be coming back in the beginning of next week (Jan 30th). This is in regards to “white collar” office jobs, factories close even earlier and open even later, giving factory workers time to take budget means to their hometown (sleeper buses up to 40 hours long, or more!)

So I’m excited to catch up with emails and work (tons of reading and writing and project plans) during this quiet week. We call it “caving” in the expat community.

QUESTION!!!! We are still working out the details on how to best connect Chinese and English languages in these events. Currently the events are completely in Chinese, and I have been the only foreigner in the whole event (yes, I cannot understand much, but the networking is amazing!) We are thinking about simultaneous translation (headsets), or a live translator. Or having the powerpoint presentations translated to both English and Chinese…. This will continue to be a question that needs to be addressed, and I am open to suggestions.

I am really excited to INTERVIEW these Chinese ecommerce businessmen….I was able to a top eBay China seller in the end of November… but I think this is even better if video taped, and it on my much delayed podcast that I have had people asking me for again and again…

Below is the agenda, maybe some of you guys can catch up with me in any of these below cities: Nanjing, Tianjin, Yiwu, Beijing, Chongqing, Fuzhou:

Hero Meets Hero Meeting plans for 2012

• 1.Roundtable meeting (medium sized meetings)
Attendance is by invitation only and will be limited to 100 ~ 200 individuals

There are 6 Hero Meets Hero Roundtable meetings in 2012 and will hold one every 2 months in one of below 8 places:

• Nanjing Jiangsu Province: Feb 11th to Feb 12, 2012

Topic: Supply Chain training and communication of international retailers in e-commerce

• Tianjin: March 10 – 11, 2012
Topic : Talents and training of foreign trade e-commerce and foreign trade e-commerce entrepreneurs development of Tianjin

• Yiwu, Zhejiang Province: May 12 – 13, 2012
The e-commerce development of Zhejiang Yiwu Small Commodities and a tour of the markets

• Beijing: July 14 – July 15, 2012
Topic: How to cooperate with foreign trade platforms companies to make a win-win business?

• Chongqing : Sept 15 – 16, 2012
Topic: See a gallery of DinoDirect’s hits and misses.

• Fuzhou Fujian Province, Nov 10-11, 2012
Topic: How to build a Website brand?

• 2. Annual Meeting
One annual meeting one year, 2012 FTF annual meeting will be held from Oct. 20th to Oct. 21st
Shenzhen: 2012-10-20 to 2012-10-21
Topic:FTF 2nd Annual Meeting
Membership is by invitation only and will be limited to about 1000 individuals

• 3 “Business Life” (small salon seminars)
“Business Life” will be held in every two weeks and there 25 such meetings in 2012.
Topics and places are different.
Membership is by invitation only and will be limited to about 10 to 50 individuals.

So I gotta get past my shyness for the camera and my voiceovers, and represent this group to the English speaking world! Its amazing to see how large these events are, and not a single foreigner knows they even exist!

My buddies in Hong Kong, Felix Lam and Jon Buford, introduced me to a company in Futian district of Shenzhen who is interested in converting their office into a coworking / incubator office, as they will be growing out of it moving into a bigger office about 5 minute walk down the road.

Honestly, I was a bit hesitant to go there, as (selfishly) it is about 1 hour (sometimes more) away from where I’m currently living and working in Nanshan district. This is the major problem with Shenzhen, ITS SO WIDE!….and not only is it wide, the populations are also so spread out….. whereas in the majority of cities I know of, they have downtown and the residential areas, and clear spots in one’s mind where the majority of people would want to rent. We have Shekou, where we looked at a 2nd floor of a cafe, and I am still really liking the idea of leveraging the hackerspace network at Chaihuo.

But, I did take the time to come over, and honestly I am glad I did!

Carman the owner of the space, is a great HK businesswoman, and has been in contact with the Hong Kong startup community about this space for almost a year from what I gather. It is 3 rooms (if needed, but the video and photos are for 1 space), in a Free Trade Zone of Futian district. RIGHT ON THE HONG KONG BORDER, in my video below, you can see exactly what I’m talking about. The current workers here can even catch Hong Kong mobile signal. And a lot of them live in Hong Kong, and commute to this Shenzhen office.

Carman’s idea is to be a mix of incubator and coworking. The place is well decorated and finished, and we can connect angels with startups, and have separate glassed in rooms for those invested startups.

Its also a great gateway office for Hong Kong companies that want to enter the Shenzhen / Mainland China market.

Which is exactly what Carman did 6 years ago, she came to China to hire R&D talent, her company, 7kiwi.com is a Chinese mobile app company for the educational industry, for parents and their children to accelerator the learning process. She has built up quite a nice company, and wants to offer this Shenzhen “gateway” office to other companies starting out.

I’m talking to a lot of my friends in Southeast Asia, as well as in USA about coming to work and visit Shenzhen, and I think this office is a great window for that chance.

Hoping to get some comments / ideas over this Chinese New Years.

She is currently using the space, but plans to move out end of Feb, probably launch this space in early March 2012.

Secretarial services:
Send and receive fax to/from HK (Free)
Copy, scan, print (Free for < 10 pages a day)
Arrange courier
Arrange private car
HR service: Monthly access report for staff

Registration address:
Unique address and rental contract for registering company in SZ.
*In China, each unique address can only register one company.
Security: 24-hrs access card system

Each room:
Renovated office
Air conditioning
Manager and staff furniture
Wireless broadband
Phone and fax lines
Telephone
Broadband network per seat
Document cabinet

Sharing (no extra charge):
Reception
Toilet and lounge bar
Balcony (outdoor smoking area)
Meeting room
Printer / Scanner / Copy
Paper/CD/card cutting machine

Special:
-Can receive HK mobile signal within office
-Each room has two VPN account that can allow browsing any websites in the world inside China.

Incubator Team Offices

Room A
133sq.ft.
Two managers

Room B
275 sq.ft.
One manager + two staff

Room C
321 sq.ft.
One manager + 4 staff

Room D
287 sq.ft.
One manager
Room (2 mgrs)
+ three staff

Room E
170 sq.ft.
Four staff /
Two managers

Room F
258 sq.ft.
One manager + 4 staff

Shared area 460 sq. ft.

China and Asia: Global Business Partnership

5F-G (Room A), Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wanchai, Hong Kong
2.30pm – 4.00pm, Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Dear Michael,

Happy New Year!

On behalf of China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable, we would like to invite you to be a delegate to the China Daily Workshop during the Asian Financial Forum (www.asianfinancialforum.com) on “China and Asia: Global Business Partnership”.

On the 2011 Fortune global 500 list, only 30 percent companies are from Asia. But with a growing number of companies from China and other Asian countries globalizing their investments and operations, the order is bound to change. As Asia is emerging as the epicenter of big-ticket business, enormous opportunities for such strategic partnerships are up for grabs in almost every sector such as financial, investment, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, high technology, tourism, health care, education, environment, energy, natural resources, etc. However, there are challenges, too, that come in the forms of trade barriers and currency issues.

At this CEO panel, we will reflect on the challenges and opportunities and discuss how Chinese and other large Asian companies can work together as strategic partners to strengthen their market positions not only in Asia, but also in major markets such as the US Europe, Africa and Latin America. This workshop will be covered by major Hong Kong, Chinese and international media including CCTV, Xinhua News, CNBC, Bloomberg, etc.

Below please find our tentative agenda:

Agenda:

2.00 pm Registration
2.30 pm Mr. Alexander Wan, Senior Advisor, China Daily Asia Pacific (Moderator) to introduce the workshop
2.35 pm Welcome speech by Mr. Zhou Li, Publisher and Editor-in-chief, China Daily Asia Pacific
2.40 pm Panel Discussion

Dr. Suthad Setboonsarng Former Thailand Trade Representative, The Office of Thailand Trade Representative, Thailand

Mr. Sujit Chatterjee Country Manager and Head, Hong Kong & Taiwan Tata Consultancy Services Limited, India

Prof. Edward K Y Chen Distinguished Fellow, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Mr. Sompan Charumilinda Executive Vice Chairman, True Visions PCL, CP Group, Thailand

Mr. Yushu Feng Senior Economist (Regional Cooperation), Asian Development Bank, Thailand

Mr. John Pang CEO, CIMB ASEAN Research Institute, Malaysia

Mr. David Wong Deputy Chief Executive, Bank of China HK, Hong Kong

Mr. Xiao Geng Senior Fellow and Director of Research, Fung Global Institute, Hong Kong

3.15 pm Open Q & A

4.00 pm End of Workshop

We look forward to welcoming you on January 17, 2012.

Typing this blog while in the forum, the main discussions and key points I have gotten are (again, this is not my opinion, this is my typing as I hear them speak as I don’t agree fully with all of it….):

• As Western hemisphere (USA, EU) continues its decline, Asian countries must unify and help each other to stabilize and
• More + More Asian country HQ companies on Fortune 500 list – Currently 61 Chinese companies (if you include Taiwan, then 69) – which is just 1 over Japan which has 68. All Asian countries together, representing 168 companies, which is exactly 1 third of the Fortune 500 list. Going forward we predict this listing will change more and more for Asian countries. This is because only Asian countries work hand-in-hand with Chinese companies.
• Asian cooperations are good, but going international / global is going to require significant investments in logistics and infrastructure.
• Asian countries should band together and buy CHEAP Western assets! – US dollar is low, American companies are currently weak. Asian countries should band together and invest in these cheap assets.
• How did first generation Chinese companies go abroad (TNC), i.e. Huawei, TCL, Haier – R&D is cheap currently, they baed in Shenzhen and other cities with low labor costs, good educational backgrounds, talent pools, and they can sell for a fraction of the price of Western brands. Take advantage of their current strengths in capital, and currency position.
• Need a non-government sponsored Think Tank – to drive innovation, not just for export based business, but domestic Asian business.
• Japan and USA businesses have benefited from a low interest rates, and Asian countries must find ways to offer this.
• There may be more and more trade barriers in Western countries, where currently within Asian countries there is more free trade agreements, due to effective logistics.

I just wonder why there weren’t any mainland based companies represented here? I came from Shenzhen today, without too much trouble. I would think that if they want to have a panel about how to partner Chinese companies with other Asian countries, shouldn’t they have representation from Mainland China?

I also got a free book by China Daily Asia Pacific called “Reflections” which is profiling different Asian business leaders, their stories. I am looking forward to reading this.

Considering some new options, talking to the startup / web community in Shenzhen and Hong Kong….

Combining the Web/Business Community with a Hackerspace

I have kept in contact with Chai Huo hackerspace, dropping by meetings and staying in touch.

Eric Pan, the founder of SeeedStudio and ChaiHuo, has always been accommodating to me to host meetings there anytime, and the Startup Weekend committee group has been using the space for some nightly meetings. Cyril from China Accelerator will be down in Shenzhen after Chinese New Years as well, so this is a good group to cooperate with….

Eric would gladly let us get the Startup Tuesday meetups going in the Chai Huo space.

And they have already been hosting a bunch of meetings, such as:

• Wednesday night iOS (apple) programmers meetups – where apple iphone/ ipad developers in Shenzhen congregate and share ideas / tactics.
• Thursday night szDIY (shenzhen Do It Yourself) meetups – where product “hackers” show off their latest inventions
• Friday night (yes, I know… FRIDAY NIGHT) Google Android developer meetups, where the Shenzhen droid programmers gather and discuss ideas.

Here is a video I recorded:

Futian Border Location

Felix Lam, partner in Makible startup with Jon Buford, has been in touch with a woman, Carman who has an office near the Futian border. I am going to check that out mid-next week as well, as she is looking to rent it out to entrepreneurs and SOHOs in the area. Its a bit far from me personally about 30 minutes by public transportation), but may be a nice option for those coming from Hong Kong, as well as in Futian district.

Thinking if the Shenzhen city could have a few locations, and have a loose fragmented network of locations for entrepreneurs and startups to choose from…all branded SZteam?

I’ll make a blog post next week about the Futian office space, stay tuned.

Whats the Status with the Shekou Cafe?

The owner of the cafe, where I videotaped and blogged a possible 2nd floor space last week called me to checkup….but from my reactions from the community was really not happy with it not being open 24 hours, and over and over people said why would I pay to have access to a public coffee shop?

The owner did offer a month or two at a deeper discount to get us started, but still overall I did not get the critical mass and too much resistance from people I feel would be good candidates. So for now, I’ll put that Shekou location on hold. Hoping the cafe owner can do a per-person fee instead of a flat monthly rent.

Welcome comments – so far comments and feedback has helped tremendously.

Chinese Currently People Respect Google

it took a strong stand with the Chinese internet filtering at the beginning of 2010, ending up exiting the Chinese market. They didn’t have the government relationships and no longer agreed with the government to filter like Chinese Baidu search engine does.

But recent developments in the Google search engine remind me more and more of Baidu and Chinese internet….

And this is also after earlier this year’s Google update called Panda (which, ironically is China’s icon animal) that filtered out a lot of spam and high volume links, but a lot of websites that were affected were English language Chinese export driven sites….that did actually slam a lot of Chinese businesses bottom line.

But still, my overall evaluation of the Google brand in China is a positive one, the people respect it.

I enjoy discussing similarities + differences I notice between Chinese and American (western) internet.

So What Is Changing in Google?

For those who aren’t watching current changes in Google’s search formula, today they announced Google gets more personal with Search plus your world that basically means people will now see results from their own social media accounts and their friends accounts….

Which is FINE, except…

These social media accounts currently are Google owned properties – Google+ and Youtube.

But Google says twitter and other social media platforms can feed to google….but ….we know that Google + Twitter discontinued their deal earlier this year….over terms that are not publicly available.

One can only assume Google used to pay Twitter for access to this data, but decided no longer to pay, or pay as much, and invest in its own social media property, Google+.

Using its strength to overturn the little guys.

So How Is Google Becoming More like Baidu?

ParisLemon calls the currennt google update “AntiPlus” which is a spin on Anti-Trust and “Plus” for Google+ …. Chinese search engine marketers know that the most effective way to do “Baidu SEO” is to sign up for all the Baidu platforms and put your business information / content / news on these Baidu owned properties.

In the attached screenshot, you can see a search for “vitamins” in Chinese on Baidu search engine, and the top ranking page is a Baidu owned property website, Bai Ke, where most likely a majority of the click traffic is directed. Therefore, if you are a search marketer in China, you want to have your content / advertisement / brand on this page.

In order to get internet exposure in China, you most likely need to pay Baidu for advertising, and place your content on Baidu owned web properties as well.

I see this trend happening in USA with Google’s recent moves.

But In Google’s Defense…

The internet is changing….and tons of people are studying to “game Google”, buying links, link sculpting, spinning, automating. Social (human) filtering / crowdsourcing search is the best way. It is in Google’s best interest to keep quality of its search results. We don’t know what exactly happened with the Twitter firehose being discontinued with Google realtime search ….and Google had to make a business decision.

Isn’t It Just Business? Conclusion

Earlier last year (Feb 2011) I felt big changes for SEO / Internet marketing which did happen (Google formally includes social media in Search but in July 2011, as stated earlier in this article ends its relatonship with Twitter and then later launched its own social media platform Google Plus in the end of June 2011.

Overall, I am really say, as Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land said 2011 is the year search engines took away from SEOs and publishers …. and now I see 2012 going further down this road.

I LOVE USING TWITTER, but as a SEO and search marketer, this news about Google+ being in the top of search results, forces my mind to switch gears and allocate time towards this Google owned social network.

That is not fair. Search is search, social networks are social networks. In my opinion. And google has failed at google buzz, google wave…..and knows google+ is its last chance to capture social media….and is pulling out all the strings.

Is it anti-trust or not, that time will tell.

Incoming search terms:

• google china 2012
• baidu and google and 2012

We had 10 people come to the training seminar. To understand who came, there was LureNight.com (ecommerce site for lingerie, @lurenight) that had 3 representatives, and DinoDirect had 2 people, the others were representing their companies. Kevin, a friend of mine selling hair extensions online (hairextensionsbiz.com @hairexte) came and brought his translator as his english skills may not have been able to catch everying. Another old friend of mine Ronald who worked in a B2C company tradeMIC came, now on his own B2C ecommerce site everbuying.com @everbuying – as he wanted to catch up with me after such a long time (I’ll do a consulting visit to his company later this week).

Some of the others didn’t yet have twitter, were in e-commerce, trading company, or factory. One nice woman, Evelyn, didn’t know how to access facebook in China. That is such a shame, people in China aren’t even aware of what YouTube is!!!

I was fortunate enough to get 2 projectors setup, one for the powerpoint presentation, and the 2nd for a share of my screen to actually SHOW how I do it…not just talk and powerpoint discussions. I think showing how its done is much more effective than just arbitrary talking and reading bullet points off a slide!

I wore my suit!…I was considering being a bit more casual, but in China I think its more respectful to those paying to come see me that I should be at my best.

Here is a quick video I recorded on the spot to open up the seminar:

We then went through how to measure social media success, that its not all about numbers, then tools I use, processes, case study, and studying a case of a member who came – Lure Night.

We also gave certificates to attendees, I took a photo with each person, and I have been following up with those on twitter to see if they are implementing the new tactics we discussed.

Questions that we are getting answered:

How much to charge per course? Or per class?

For now, we will stick with the per course 800rmb price for a 3 – 4 hour session. Possible as this develops we will offer it in packages for a discount.

When to have the event – weekday, weekday evening, weekend?

Seems Saturday or Sunday afternoon from 1pm to 6pm range is the best

How many people should be in each course?

It really seemed nice and cozy for 10 – 15 people in a class…able to get to know all the businesses, look at different social media accounts around the room, give feedback.

How often will there be training?

Seems people want it every other weekend, we will start again after Chinese New Year (feb). So twice a month starting in Feb.

Is it OK if its all in English?

Of course this will be limiting the amount of Chinese businesses who will be able to benefit from the seminar. But unfortunately, I don’t think how much I study Chinese I could ever teach web marketing in Chinese. That will be an amazing day for sure. So for now, I have to limit it to English language presentations, we can

Web Marketing Training Outline

There are about 14 topics outlined above. It is best to test out different times, price, and locations.

This is a rough outline of the courses that can be used

• Each course can have multiple levels
o beginner
o average
o advanced / expert

• Time of each course can be
o 3-5 hours
o full day, 8 hours
• Courses can be interactive or PPT only

Introduction to SEO and Online Marketing

Getting site found in google, understanding what is a search engine + the world wide web (WWW), Customer + Market Research, Competitor Analysis, Trends, Customer Surveys, intro Analytics, intro Keyword research

On Site Analysis

Header, Meta, Site construction, multiple language optimization, Cache analysis, working with database driven websites

Keyword Research

wireframe structure, writing content that readers will like, keyword placement on website

B2B Internet marketing

calculate ROI, calculating lead cost (formula), Clear message, call to action, PPC marketing, improving CTR (click through rate), Landing Page Optimization

Ecommerce B2C SEO
multi channel marketing

how to monitor your progress

Tool – wordtracker SEO blogger
Tool – Google Adwords
Tool – Analytics
Tool – webmaster tools – site map submit

Personalization of search

universal search, Video SEO, merging of social SNS and SEO

Analytics

Tools, Measuring, Comments, E-commerce measuring, conversions.

PPC campaigns

+ keyword research, Excel experience, Tool – Google Adwords Editor, Understanding the metrics, What those 3 lines mean, URL landing page text, Conversion Optimization

Landing Page Optimization (LPO)

improving CTR (click through rate), A/B testing, Multi-variate testing

Link Marketing

internal linking, Forum Marketing, PR release, Link Bait, link buildng by corporate departments, Guides, Customer / Supplier mentioning

SNS Social Media

General, Blog Strategies, Content creation, listening to customers, Article Syndication

Twitter
TOOL – tweetdeck, socialoomph, followerhub,

Facebook marketing

LBS – foursquare

Google Plus

Understanding Black Hat
Grey Hat + Blue Hat SEO tactics
Link pyramids
Link wheels
Article Spinning
automated Link generating tools
icon link building

Local Marketing

Google maps, Foursquare, LBS, Yelp

Putting It all Together
Getting whole company involved

Case study – analyze websites, construction
Case study – analytics
Case study – social media
Case Study – website reviews

Incoming search terms:

• analization of customer feedback seminar in philippines 2012

Their website, http://www.haxlr8r.com/ (which is hard for me to remember to be honest) stands for Hack – Celerator is a cooperation between Cyril’s China Accelerator and Seeed Studio is already getting lots of press, featured on tech cocktail and others.

I’ve been spreading the word locally around Shenzhen, and here is some more details from websites and pitches:

Product Developments Service (in-house) include:

“HAXLR8R is a 111 days startup accelerator program which is focused on providing hardware-based startups from ALL OVER THE WORLD with the appropriate support to deliver their concept into a competitive reality!”

What Happens in the Product Accelerator

‣ 8-10 startups get together in Shenzhen, China

‣ 111 days to build MVP, product/market fit

‣ Phase 1: Mentor immersion

‣ Phase 2: Product acceleration

‣ Phase 3: Business acceleration

‣ Phase 4: Fundraising

What The Program Provides

‣ Seed funding: 6,000 USD per founder (up to 3) + 5,000 optional

‣ Office Space in Shenzhen

‣ Mentorship in China / USA

‣ Networking and life long relationships

‣ Equipment / tooling / Services

‣ Freebies!

‣ Haxlr8r Day in Silicon Valley

What They are Looking for

‣ Founders with a working prototype or an idea

‣ consumer hardware

‣ Innovative concepts

More information:

How does HAXLR8R work?

HAXLR8R takes teams with hardware prototypes and turns them into functional, fundable companies. We recruit 8-10 teams of 2-3 entrepreneurs who have a concept or an early prototype for a high-growth startup. The teams go through a competitive application process and agree to locate themselves in Shenzhen for the duration of the program.
 Over fifteen weeks, the startup teams will build and refine their prototype product, launch it to an initial group of customers for feedback, and test their delivery and/or business models. During the last two weeks, each startup creates a polished company pitch and demo to present to seed investors and potential partners at HAXLR8R Day which will be in the Bay Area.


What can HAXLR8R offer me?

We’ll help you launch your company and increase its chances of success. Specifically:
*By providing initial funding for you to develop your business plan and build enough of a demo, prototype or beta product, in order to demonstrate to investors at the end of our program. That’s $6,000 per founder (max 3 founders) + optional $5,000 for extra hardware development.

*By lending you a hand on the hardware side with tooling and services (see Program).
*By helping you construct your company.
*By connecting you with potential investors and strategic partners, as well as bloggers and other press.
*By introducing you to world-class mentors who have expertise in starting companies, developing innovative consumer products, and creatively marketing those products to millions of consumers. These will be some of the most valuable connections you’ll make as an entrepreneur.

We expect HAXLR8R companies to seek some additional funding at the close of the initial program. We’ll organize that process and guide you through it. Some companies may seek substantial funding while others may require a smaller amount to be successful. It’s also possible for a company to self-fund. We’ll help you identify your problems, understand your options, and think through any difficult decisions you may face.

What does HALXR8R receive in exchange for program participation?

Teams that accept an invitation to participate in HAXLR8R give up 6%-10% of common stock in exchange for participating.

How do I apply for HAXLR8R?
The application for HAXLR8R is available on this website. Completing our online application will sign your company up to be considered for the program, but does not guarantee acceptance.

Layout
Sourcing
Prototyping modules (Arduino, Groves and many etc)
PCB prototyping
Small Batch assembly and testing

While I’m not a product development guy, I’m really excited to see more and more entrepreneurs, investors, and businessmen coming and paying closer attention to Shenzhen! stay tuned I’ll try to video, blog, and podcast more as this develops!

This time, I am doing it differently. Last week at Christmas Eve dinner my friends Marshall, James, Chris, Tully, Erik and others were talking about coworking space, shared office. People really do need this service. Many are tired of working in coffee shops, bars, home offices.

I remembered many times I had talked to Mark Wong, owner from Sidewalk Cafe (now called Sorrelle Cafe) in Rose Garden 2 commercial district about a coworking space. He has a nice open 2nd floor of the coffee shop which he has utilized for a few other things. He rented it out to a company before, and he also used it for some sort of Chinese daycare / training center.

I also didn’t push too hard in the past conversations with him as the past couple years I have been traveling so much between Philippines, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong how could I have committed to this local business venture.

But now the stars seem to have aligned

Mark and the other owners of Sorrelle cafe currently have the 2nd floor vacant, the daycare center they say was too loud. Also, the zoning on the 2nd floor didn’t have proper fire escape. Currently they are looking for a new tenant.

I am so lucky that on Christmas eve after talking with Marshall and others, James and I walked down the street to see what the deal was.

Below is what we are currently negotiating with them:

2nd floor
Shop #30 Rose Garden 2

Cafe hours from 7am to close at about 1am
Monthly cost for 2nd floor, 5,000rmb / month
VIP card for cafe food, drinks
Need air conditioner in conference room
Coffee shop lease is for 2 more years
Sign one year contract , maybe can do 6 mo
If 24 hour access, maybe need cafe staff working onsite….have to know who is who.
Second floor office size *************

Pro for this Shekou Coworking

• Basically its ready to go
• Will meet many more people in the area
• Flexible in terms, know the owner / management for years
• Seems like a reasonable price
• Already have enough members that pretty much cover costs

Con For this Shekou Coworking

• Seems a bit small
• Mostly in foreigner area – mostly will be foreigners there – I want to deal more with Chinese since I’m in China!
• Shekou is pretty far from Futian and Luo Ho, will this alienate those people?
• Being inside a cafe, will we be able to make / bring our own coffee / food?

But all in all, I think I am ready to take this jump….I’ve been working inside Chinese Foreign Trade office lately, but miss the openness, friendliness of an open office…

I think this is destiny, and will confirm more this week.

Comments / feedback please!

Here is a video I recorded:

Many of my friends, staff, and business associates ask me what’s my plan for 2012. This is what I have outlined.

• Continue to focus on bridging China to USA.
• Training seminars in Shenzhen and hopefully throughout China.
• Consulting for Chinese companies going to USA
• Trying to get more Americans to China
• Market foreign trade ecommerce association “Hero Meets Hero” to USA, getting members + sponsors
• Finally get loadpipe off the ground, and connect USA agents to Chinese manufacturers.
• Accept the fact that I am not a manager, and have good people to manage certain projects and teams. Build better teams!

As for a basic outline / calendar of 2012:

• Jan 2012 – outline SEO/SNS training program in China. Testing it out this coming Saturday Jan 7, 2012.

  Firm up some ecommerce consulting projects, interviews – VIDEO / podcast is way past due!

  Develop HeroMeetsHero.com (the English version of hiwto.com, Chinese foreign trade federation)

  Go to Guangzhou for Chinese New Years, meet my good friend Gao Xing who is currently based in Beijing but his hometown is Guangzhou. He is the one who gave me my chinese name 迈理倪 (Mai Li Ni) and I have known since 1999 where we met in Stevens Tech.

• Feb 2012 – Chinese New Year ends

  Social Media week in Hong Kong

  Hopefully more developed plan for marketing HeroMeetsHero Chinese Foreign Trade Federation, as well as SEO / SNS training.

• Mar 2012 – Xiamen SEO conference – hope to bring 20 – 30 Americans/ Europeans to China to go to the event (will use domain HowToInvestInChina.com – coming soon)

  Launch beta of Load Pipe platform for connecting USA sales agents to Chinese manufacturers.

  Have at least a couple more Americans here working in China on projects with me.

• Apr 2012 – Shenzhen startup weekend (possibly a mega event)

  Hoping to take a trip to Shanghai as well, visit XinDanWei coworking, as well as meet Caidy and the others from Shanghai startup weekend.

• May 2012 – Guangzhou startup weekend, the city has been really pushing for it.
• June 2012 – Hopefully take a trip to Bali, Indonesia and check out what my buddies at tropicalmba.com are doing with Marshall, Chris, James, and more of the Shenzhen crew.
• July 2012 – leaving this open to suggestions. Maybe Beijing, it will be warm there in the summertime, and want to meet the startup and ecommerce connections I have.
• Aug 2012 – possibly go to Las Vegas, USA “Made in China” expo
• Sept 2012 – Shenzhen startup weekend
• Oct 2012 – Guangzhou startup weekend
• Nov 2012 – more ecommerce meetings, hope to have Loadpipe in full swing
• Dec 2012 – Hero Meets Hero major annual meeting.

  I hope to spend Christmas in Philippines, see my godaughter Charlotte and her parents Tess + Bas

Feels good to be open about my plans, seems when I post my schedule – others can align with me and make even bigger things happen.

Think bigger, don’t let others say its not possible!

Incoming search terms:

• personal calender 2012 outlook
• whats my outlook for 2012
• whats the outlook for 2012

But as I have said before, one of my good friends David Zhang wants to expand his Geekcook brand to USA and we have been discussing this since maybe August actively. He has decent sales in China, B2B and B2C, you can find his products in store shelves even.

During my latest USA trip I met a ton of awesome entrepreneurs and people that want to try something different in their daily lives.

One of those guys, Jimi Olaghere that I met at a Hoboken, NJ coworking space really loved the Geekcook product line since the minute he saw it. He has taken the initiative to do what it takes.

We have samples in the USA fulfillment center and Jimi has been pushing them out to distributors and online platforms, such as etsy.

Being a web designer by trade, Jimi made the English website and put out a PR release announcing Geekcook in USA as below:

We are pleased to announce the long awaited arrival of GeekCook on U.S soil! After
several years of diligently gratifying nerds and geeks across Asia & Oceania with our
meticulously crafted products, we have finally succumbed to the many requests to set
up shop in America. Products like our best selling DIY AT-AT cable organizer which
was featured on Gizmodo will now be available for purchase on our online US store
(www.en.geekcook.net).

David Zhang is master nerd behind GeekCook, his lab is conveniently tucked away
in the industrial region of Shenzhen, China. Here he sources the finest materials to
fabricate aesthetically pleasing concoctions that radiates “geekry” in it’s most refine
form. GeekCook is now available at our new online store (www.en.geekcook.net), as
well as other retailers, which will be announced in the near future.

Its been quite an experience connecting Jimi and David. Both having never been to the other’s homeland, having completely different backgrounds and experiences. There have been some URGENT, HELP emails from each side where I’ve had to smooth it over, and I enjoy this process.

The biggest question is inventory, who buys the inventory, where is it warehoused. Who owns what, who pays for what part of the USA market expansion.

David asked me to outline the steps necessary, and I am publicizing them below…..each point could be a book in its own right, but to understand the main idea this can be helpful:

International market expansion steps

• 1) send samples to USA
• 2) make english website
• 3) make sales calls, send samples to USA buyers, commission to sales agents, maybe 5-8%
• 3a) optional steps – get USA number, have USA time zone people for phone calls
• 3b) have more stock in USA – need to have enough stock so that if customer buy 1,000 pcs, can ship right away…can try from China to avoid sending many to USA
• 4) PR news release – announce your new product to everyone,
• 5) register trademark – maybe need to do this first to protect brand
• 6) USA trade shows – like alibaba and globalsources fairs in HK / Canton, in USA many provinces have these for gifts and premium products.
• 7) find sales agents, a lot of sales agents in different USA provinces to sell to chain and gift stores
• register USA company
• 9) usa bank account – nice online banking
• 10) SELL to big department stores in USA? These stores do not want to buy cash upfront. they want to pay in 30 days after receiving the product, or even 60 days.

But this is what I am working on….connecting sales agents to brands. And I believe the better position for me is as China manufacturers need to develop their own brand, they need sales agents and distribution.

Bridging the divide. Step by step.

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