Happiness in Pursuit

Making Powerful Connections at Shenzhen’s 5th Startup Weekend

Michael Michelini — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:48:44 +0000

Its really getting better and better. Connections, experience, teambuilding, and inspiring entrepreneurship. Its been a couple days past the weekend, and I am finally regaining the energy to write a blog post about it. I love startup weekend, truly to my heart, but man do they take a lot of energy!

This past weekend was the 5th official (6th if you count non-branded) startup weekend in Shenzhen, China. And it was a special one because one of our original team’s co-organizers, Kawai Or, was a participant this time instead of an organizer. This is awesome for a couple of reasons

1) He has never been able to be a participant, because he joined as an organizer for the first one in Shenzhen – and had to organize before participating

2) This shows how awesome the weekend is – as Kawai sees how powerful it is, he actually wanted to participate – what better way to show how amazing these Startup Weekends are than to see an organizer actually request to be a participant!

There were over 120 entrepreneurs who joined this time, and we held it in the 3W Coffee startup cafe for the 2nd time. They have gotten new management and have been a bit more strict this time (about closing time, food, and the rooms we use) but overall we made it work as best we could!

The majority of the startups were Chinese, but we had Paul Orlando come over from Hong Kong as a judge. We also had about 10 or 15 Hong Kong entrepreneurs come over, as well as about 10 western entrepreneurs in Shenzhen. Also a good support of Hong Kong mentors to spend their time helping out.

I’m always amazed at “execution” – we have prototypes and working demos happen in this 54 hour event – we had a good amount of business/marketing and programmers – but were short on UI/UX designers. Interesting to show the community balance.

The winners were:

1) Gogograd App to connect chinese students to overseas schools

2) Communication with emicotions – it’s a kind of voice and emotion message, we can send that kind of messages via wechat. Do you keep the ppts? They should have english name on the ppt.

3) (Kawai’s team won 3rd) – E-commerce website for app accessories. It’s the hardware store version of Fab called Aurora 南极光

———-
And our official Startup Digest writeup from Mike Gasiorek:

“Startup Weekend Shenzhen was this past weekend and we had 120 participants for the event. Our mentors came from Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and abroad – and so did some participants. The event was held in mixed English and Chinese, and 21 teams pitched some innovative ideas. Anyone that learned something during, made a new contact and friend, or just had a good time walked away richer. But we did have 3 top learners: Best UX award went to Aurora 南极光 for an online Internet-of-Things store. Best Mobile App award was received by Emoticon Connect for voice & animation messaging via WeChat. The night’s winner was GoGoGrad App, which empowers parents and students with the application information they need to pursue education abroad. Hope to see you at our next Startup Weekend!”

And my most fulfilling part is to see the response from the participants – tonight I received this amazing email from a participant:

Subject: Say hi
Inbox

From: Hang
To: me
Date: 11:30 PM (1 minute ago), Tuesday May 14, 2013

Hey Michael

Here is Hang writing, a member from team “Plug me in”, SZ Startup weekend…

Just wanna say Hi. Thanks for the name card.

I am a student studying in Hong Kong, really liked the event this time. Would love to attend another one in near future.

Love to keep in touch

Have a nice day

So cool, to see we are making a difference!

Featured on Chinese Entrepreneur News – Succeed or go Bankrupt!

Michael Michelini — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:11:22 +0000

Seems in Asia everyone picks my headshot with this suit! This Friday morning I was welcomed with notice that my interview had been published on a top Beijing tech news site – SooToo.com. Christina Lee was the interviewer, and I had the pleasure to get to know her while she was in Shenzhen a couple years ago, before moving to Beijing to be a tech writer. She is moved by my “pursuit of happiness”, and the development of my latest venture, Social Agent, and had been asking for an interview quite persistently.

So as I like to keep a record on my blog here, I have done my best to use a mix of Google translate and my own “human translation” and pasted below, those interested in seeing the original Chinese article can click
http://www.sootoo.com/content/415945.shtml

Blaze a New Trail in China’s Internet World

Author: Li Xiaomin (Christina Lee)
Date: May 3, 2013 at 10:20 am Beijing Standard Time

About the “Siu Sai interview room West” series: China’s Internet activity of foreigners, they are independent, have their own unique understanding of the market, and gradually they find their own piece of heaven and earth.

The Chinese market has great potential, although the competition is fierce, but there are still more and more turning back foreigners brave to the blaze a new trail in the land they coveted. The majority of foreigners come to China and that this was not their wish, they are expats paid by their international conglomerates to spend some of their time in China. And there are many passionate young people messing around, and ultimately chose to give up and return to their home country.

Language and culture are insurmountable gap

　　迈理倪 , Mai Li Ni (Michael Michelini) walking in the active start-ups in Asia gathering over the years, in his view, language and culture is always foreigners doing business in China biggest obstacle. Mai Li Ni said, the business environment in Asia is still relatively primary, many foreigners come to Asia business and base in Singapore or Hong Kong, where international atmosphere is established, without communication barriers, which is separated by a river in Hong Kong to differ materially from the situation in Shenzhen, China.

　　Mai Li Ni says most start-up companies abroad find it difficult to win customers in China, because they failed to do in-depth customer development in the Chinese market. They should first take some time to find suitable local partners, to test the market, not jump in to fast, and finally are too quick retreat. After the launch of an innovative idea, it attracts a swarm of copy-cats, but also greatly hurt the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs in China.

　　And foreigners in China are less willing to use local social media such as Sina Weibo, a micro-channel social tool. Even in English social media (as its blocked in China), foreigners will refuse to use, and most Westerners are only willing to connect in and foreigners circles, do not want to go into the Chinese people’s social circle. This very detrimental to their business in China. “Many foreigners are very stubborn, unwilling to change their ways, imagining that China will change, without having to adjust themselves to adapt to the vagaries of the market.” Said Mai Li Ni.

Foreigners bring opportunities to the Chinese social networking – and still there are so many chances for Westerners to connect with Chinese – its still nowhere near being tapped out.

　　These foreigners are stubborn, yet Mai Li-Ni has brought new opportunities. Mai Li Ni with in the Internet market, the Sino social media and international business knowledge, as well as finance, technology, web design and international supply chains work experience, in 2012 set up a start-up company – social agents (SocialAgent.me). Mai Li Ni is full of social media (blog, weibo, weixin, twitter, Facebook, Linkedin…), this venture can be said is combined with the interest of Michael I + resolve commercial development the practical problems encountered.

　　Social agents is a SaaS platform, specifically for foreigners doing business in China to find a suitable partner. Social agent First of all, according to the keywords and foreign customer preferences on Sina Weibo for customers to find a suitable Chinese customers, and its customer list into the tracking system, and finally send someone to manage these customers. Online from the middle of this year after it has been 15 paid subscribers is still growing. Users from various countries, real estate, education, consulting, import and other fields.

How to manage Chinese employees?

　　Mai Li Ni, April 2, 1981 Born in Connecticut, USA, with a master’s degree in technology management from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. In 2004 he started on eBay do kitchen and bar supplies trading, then contacted with the factories in China.

　　2007 factory business trip to China, Mai Li Ni came to China, later relocating to Shenzhen in December 30, 2007. Began the road of entrepreneurship in the import, export and Internet and SEO. Mai Li Ni said: “I want to prove I can succeed in China”. Mai Li Ni admits, for a foreigner, it is very difficult to manage a Chinese team. “Chinese people love to learn, so I have been training my staff, I found that this is the best way to manage and attract Chinese employees, I always give them training search engine optimization, social media and e-commerce training.”

　　Mai Li Ni’s management of Chinese people is an intellectually big test, “A lot of Chinese people want to do their own business, so they learn from me, until the time is ripe to have left me, to set up his own company. While I am advocating Chinese to do entrepreneurship, it still makes it hard to manage a pool of Chinese talent not easy! ”

　　Mai Li Ni and other entrepreneurs also fail. 2010 was his most difficult year for China, he lost most of his money, the office has also been taken away, he will have devoting himself to help the staff to find new jobs.

　　Mai Li Ni convinced that SocialAgent.me will be a platform that can change the way foreigners do business in China in the past, this year he will try to make the operation and product more stable, break even cash flow, and help more foreigners doing business in China. In 2014, Mai Li-Ni intends to have SocialAgent.me enter the international market, conducting business on facebook and twitter. Mai Li Ni said: “We want to succeed, you must first taste the taste of defeat, I will go all out until it succeeds or fails completely bankrupt!”

Lol, awesome writing Christina! Now, enough blogging for me, time to get back to work!

Chinese SEO Conference, GOMX, May 29-30 in Wuxi City

Michael Michelini — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:57:44 +0000

Its that time of year again! Conferences in the spring pop up like crazy in China – and for the past 5 years I have been going to a Xiamen based event groups – TimeV – which has been the largest Chinese internet event each year. This year, they will move the location to Wuxi city, about 1 hour train ride from Shanghai, and it will be in the end of May. I always attend and support this group and below share the information. Hope that more western businesses can attend to learn how to do online business in China.

GOMX GLOBAL ONLINE MARKETING CONFERENCE & EXPO: May 29-30, 2013 Wuxi, China

2 day event: May 29th to 30th

May 29th , 8:30 am to 12pm , Opening ceremony

Overseas marketing forums’ time:

May 29th : 13:30 pm to 17:00pm (for foreign companies which want to enter the Chinese market)

May 30th: 8:30am to 12:00pm (for Chinese companies which want to enter the foreign market)

Location : from 2nd to 4th floors, Wuxi Jun Lai Intercontinental Hotel 无锡市永和路6号 Road. 6 Yonghe , Wuxi

Below is the full detailed plan:

Attracting nearly 3,000 attendees, over 150 online marketing experts, around 300 agencies. Global Online Marketing Conference & Expo (GOMX) is the largest professionals-only online
marketing industry event held annually in China.

There’re plenty of choices when it comes to online marketing conference, but GOMX is unique for it is the only place where you can meet up most of China’s primary online marketing service providers and agents, marketers and advertisers at one event. Besides, GOMX’s Overseas Session is specially tailored for those who plan to enter China’s market using innovative and localized online marketing strategies.

A collection of insights and best practices from over 150 corporate speakers, giving a step-by-step guide for how to start a business in China and to proceed online marketing strategy.

The best networking opportunity to fill your contact book and discuss practical e-marketing issues with large groups of your peers.

The most comprehensive, targeted and relevant agenda for you to learn useful strategies and best practice for the desired market.

Get your company’s questions answered by experienced experts – Robust debate and problem solving delivered in an engaging format with active sessions, practical case studies, keynotes, panel debates, Q&A, networking receptions and much more.

Over 150 leading experts will Share strategies on how to promote online marketing!

GOMX features over 80 hours of speeches, tutorial, case studies, marketing diagnosis and panels on a comprehensive selection of online marketing topics taught by leading industry experts.

Chinese Marketing Strategy for Western Businesses

　
This is my favorite one – its a full afternoon from industry experts about how Western businesses can leverage Chinese internet for their businesses. Topics include:

B2B digital marketing in the Chinese context

The difficulties and opportunities on the way into Chinese markets

Localization in a global world: developing a cross-border social media strategy

Optimizing humans: the art of data-driven social marketing

Choosing a brand in the China market – should you get the .cn of your USA company, or get a new .com brand?
Breaking down the borders: international & multilingual SEO

GOMX Overseas Session is the best chance to get your company’s questions answered by experienced experts at one time!

Expo of Chinese E-commerce Service Providers

　　In recent years, services tailored for e-commerce companies have become more detailed and dedicated. Emerging professional providers offer services include SEO, web designing, photography. GOMX 2013 will exhibit over 100 e-commerce service providers, giving you a complete sketch of the e-commerce service chain in China. logistics model

Expo of New-generation Chinese Online Marketing Products

Online Marketing is one of the industries that develop most rapidly. New and outstanding products aim to assistant and intelligentize our work, including client software for EDM, SEO and

PPC management, SNS marketing, or video and mobile marketing. The ‘Expo of New-generation Online Marketing Products’ at GOMX 2013 will make it possible for you to review most of the market product at one time! GOMX 2013 features a series of social activities, including reception dinner, welcome banquet, and the “V5” VIP party, etc.

Chinese Business Tour & Sightseeing

After the conference agenda, the organizer arranges 1-day sight-seeing trip in Wuxi and 2-day business tour Shanghai. This tour is designed for those who wish to know more about China’s internet and e-commerce world. Companies listed in the tour include:

Dianping.com is one of the most popular online urban city guides in China. It provides targeted online marketing solutions including e-coupons, sponsored listing, group buying, membership card service, and LBS such as check-in services. In short, Dianping.com is the Yelp + Groupon + Foursquare of China.

AdSame Networks Technology is a pioneer of china’s intelligent digital marketing. AdSame owns a database of 600 million cookies which covers 95% Chinese internet users. Its clients include Samsung, Dior, Nokia, Pepsi, HP, IBM, and Colgate, etc.

Ctrip.com is a leading travel service provider that offers hotel reservations, airline tickets and packaged tours to business and leisure travelers in China. With its 16 branch offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other major cities throughout China, the company currently employs more than 12,000 people. Ctrip was listed on NASDAQ on December 9, 2003.

Frequently Asked Questions

1) In the past it was SMX brand, why no longer?

The organizer of GOMX, TimeV.com introduced SMX into China and co-hosted the event in

2006 and 2007, including agenda design and guest invitation, etc. Now TimeV is using its own

brand and the new event is focused on not only SEO and SEM, but the whole online marketing

chain, as well as E-business. And of course, the event is more focused on Chinese marketing.

2) Will the Chinese events have live translation?

Yes! SI (simultaneous interpretation) is provided for the Opening, the Overseas Session on 29th,

and one of the sessions on 30th. For the rest sessions, since there will be 6 sub-venues opening at

the same time, accompany interpretation will be arranged for foreigners. That means the

attendees can choose the sessions they are most interested in.

3) Where and what kind of companies are arranged for the after-event business tour?

Normal “Trip Package” include one-day trip in Wuxi, a beautiful city for sight-seeing. At the

same time, Wuxi is one of the cities where most Chinese SEM companies are located.

The “Advanced Trip Package” includes another two-day business tour in Shanghai. Companies

to be visited would be pioneer E-commerce or internet companies in China. Percipients are

welcome to make requests.

4) How do I register and deal the payment?

Please download and fill up your information form here: GOMX 2013 Registration Form.

Let me know if you’d like to go – contact me and I’ll do my best to connect you in the Chinese internet – still such a long way to go!

Still Digesting a Hyper Shanghai Trip!

Michael Michelini — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:27:54 +0000

Back in Shenzhen now for about a day – resting up for one of the most hyper-active Shanghai business trips I’ve been on! And digesting (as mentioned in this blog title) means I did eat chicken and am still in good health (for those who aren’t aware, there is a H7N9 scare in Shanghai now). But I did have some great BBQ times and bonding with good friends in Shanghai.

I stuck mostly to this Shanghai travel itinerary starting off with another amazing Startup Weekend. Sticking on a boot strapped entrepreneur’s budget, have been leveraging every friend and connection I have to last the 10 days in Shanghai without a hotel! That alone is exhausting!

Shanghai is where Foreigner Selling in China are!

But Shanghai definitely is where Social Agent’s customers are. Every day I am talking to more and more clients there – to help them find customers in the Chinese market. It is true, Shanghai city is a cosmopolitan city of westerners coming to do marketing and sales in China.

Of course, any business would say, go where your clients are. I’ve been down in South China for so many years, many forces have been pulling me up to Shanghai and Beijing. But now that Social Agent is finally built up and live, and our team is getting better at talking to each other remotely. Not making any decisions just yet – will probably be traveling on the road like I have been for so many years – but definitely need to spend more time in Shanghai and Beijing.

Hong Kong Training About Selling in China

I am hosting a General assembly course in Hong Kong about selling in Mainland china, curious to see how many signup. I am more and more under the impression that the South of China is still for export from China business than domestic china business.

Lets see how many companies in Hong Kong care about selling in the China market. More and more, after my travels to Singapore and Hong Kong, I learn these regions are not focused on selling to the Mainland China market. Really strange to fathom that -but really is “just data” from my experience talking to businesses.

Complexities of Doing Business in Asia

I just also realize, having everything spread out all over Asia makes doing business that much more complex. Again an advantage of a startup community is keeping everyone in a close proximity. But having so many different cities focused on different focuses – basically its a few things

Hong Kong – where my tech co-founder, Chris Li is, as well as a few other part time tech and marketing members of the Social Agent team are based. But seems not many people doing China business are based.
Shenzhen – where I’ve been so many years, across from Hong Kong, much cheaper, mainland China, but mostly export e-commerce companies.
Shanghai – marketing / financial center of China. Also tons of westerners there to sell in Mainland China.
Beijing – IT and government capital of China. Its the IT center, because the government is there – as the internet is so closely regulated.

So thats basically how China is laid out. I’m still digesting

Shanghai Travel Plans – April 17 to 29th

Michael Michelini — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:05:24 +0000

“on the road again”, then again, was I never “not on the road”? This is why I don’t see myself ever renting a really nice apartment….seriously, I am always on the move! But I love it – love the hustle – no matter how exhausting it may be – sincerely enjoy meeting people

Wednesday April 17 – Next Step Shanghai – 7:30pm to 9pm, Location: Glo London (1 Wulumuqi Lu, 3rd floor) NextStep is helping launch a Shanghai-based Kickstarter project produced by Unbelievable Testing Laboratory. UT.LAB founders, Token Hu and Maggie Ma, and partners, Shaun Nath and Joe Constanty will be joining us to discuss their project launch for their limited edition LIGHT WING Pencil shoes.

Thursday April 18 – Entrepreneur’s Luncheon http://www.meetup.com/Entrepnr/events/113069642/ At each meetup, we invite one/two entrepreneurs to open the luncheon by sharingtheir experiences in order to spark some interesting discussions. The group will also help/discuss particular challenges which the entrepreneur(s) and his company is currently facing.

I’ll speak about my 8 month progress in Social Agent Limited startup. I love sharing stories

cost is 150rmb lunch – and no, I don’t make any profit from it!

Azul Restaurant, Ferguson Lane, 8/F, 378 Wukang Lu (near Hunan Lu), Shanghai

Friday April 19 – 21 – Facilitating Startup Weekend Shanghai, China! shanghai.startupweekend.org, as I blogged earlier, I’m so excited to see Startup Weekend explode all across Hong Kong and south / mid China, there will be a potential organizer from Xiamen also visiting to witness how a Startup Weekend happens. Truly amazing to be part of this phenomena – and can’t wait to work with startups in Shanghai.

Week of 22nd to 26 – Social Agent business meetings! Been jamming my “open office hours” now via Kevin Dewalt’s startup solution – sohelpful.me/michelini to maximize my limited time in Shanghai. Seriously have to consider coming to Shanghai more – so many foreign enterprises here selling into the Chinese market its ridiculous not to be here!

Tuesday April 23 – Dan “the man” arrives from Shenzhen – his second city in China he’ll be visiting besides his Shenzhen homebase! I’m excited to expose him to some awesome mentors and customers in our Social Agent startup. He’ll be visiting Shanghai with me until Sunday. Hope he can still get coding done on the project, but feel its worthwhile to expose him to the business expansion side as well.

Saturday April 27th – Focus Group and/or training seminar. I really gotta hammer out the details, but will be working on a 8 – 10 person focus group like we did in Hong Kong last month – share some insights on getting results from Chinese social media, and then more on the interact using Social Agent system and gathering feedback and reactions.

Sunday April 28th – Hiking and team building. Irving Steel, an advisor with Social Agent, will be hiking – and I hope to take along a bit and get some much needed exercise!

Steve Jobs Talks on the Meaning of Life. Poke Life!

Michael Michelini — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 05:08:40 +0000

I love Sundays, its when I motivate myself for the week ahead. Think about what happened last week, and make an outline of the days ahead and the goals to accomplish.

Steve Jobs, every entrepreneur admires the legacy he left behind. I recently found a video (youtube link and Chinese youku video here that truly inspired me. I know a ton of people won’t click the link to watch the video, so I wrote out the words Steve Jobs said below:

Steve Jobs: Secrets of Life

Steve Jobs on Life:
Next Comptuer center
1995

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is, and your life is to live inside this life and not bash into the walls too much, have a family life, save some money

that is a very limited life

life can be much broader
once you discover one simple fact
everything around you that is called life is made up by people that were no smarter than you

you can change it
you can build things

the minute you understand that you can poke life
push things, and things will pop out the other side, mould it.
that is the most important thing

you can shake off this irroneous thing
learn that you can embrace it, improve it, make your mark on it

that is very important

once you learn it, you’ll want to change it, and make it better
because its messed up in a lot of ways.

and once you learn that, you will never be the same again

I got distracted writing this blog, as I kept watching more and more videos of Steve Jobs. Man, the vision he had.

I think we all listen to a speaker, or read a book, and apply it to our own lives. For me, personally, I feel a bit behind in my entrepreneurial progress.

I need to be:

bolder, man – I think maybe its because I’m in China, I’m “on the away team’s field”, not on my home turf, but I have to be more cautious about doing aggressive business. But I am getting bolder. And I have learned to focus better, and not fear being judged for failing.

I need to think bigger – Back when I first started my first ecommerce business in 2004, I didn’t really think how big the market was, I just wanted to start my own business. And I made tons of mistakes with team building, and other decisions. But now its almost 10 years since starting my first business – I have learned so much – and I need to apply that for my benefit.

I need to let more people help me grow faster. I think more of Richard Branson (a href=”http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/5-entrepreneurial-lessons-i-learned-from-richard-branson/#yX0gZdZXDk5KdhBZ.99″>amazing Branson interview here when I think about empowering others. I need to leverage this more. Delegate, trust. Find the right people. I am improving here

But man, Steve Jobs lives in, in our daily lives, and inspiring entrepreneurs like me. And man, that is amazing.

We cannot live life the way others want us to. We have to have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, and believe that we can change life and how people live.

Shenzhen Startup Demo + Team Building Insanity!

Michael Michelini — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 03:44:36 +0000

More intense startup life here – after returning to Shenzhen from Echelon Hong Kong with Dan (which, was a VERY late night missing the Shenzhen Bay border crossing, taking Huanggong border and arriving back about 1:30am) – the rest of the week catching up in Shenzhen after travels in Singapore and Hong Kong!

Also prepared for our 3rd public pitch in a week, this time at the Shenzhen, China’s Innovalley Open day in the Futian expo center. Our startup, Social Agent, has been able to work at this new Shenzhen incubator for the past couple months and they welcomed us to be one of the 5 startups to debute in the open event. Thousands of people attended this event, it was massive!

The slides were in Chinese, but I pitched mostly in English (threw in some fun Chinese words I know), Amy was there translating, and the pitch deck was in Chinese and English (pretty crammed slides actually). The room gave me pretty good attention – being that I was the only westerner to speak at this full day event. Its amazing how just across the border in Hong Kong everything is in English and international, yet just in Shenzhen you won’t see any common attendees. The judges were pretty awesome, and I was approached by a couple who specialize in cross-border investing and are excited to talk to Social Agent more.

It really is an amazing feeling, and almost confuses me to see that no one else is doing it (western tech startups in China) – or at least networking with the Chinese startup community. Guess it gives me more chances.

After the awesome Friday Innovalley event, talking to investors and media – relaxed a bit and prepared for Saturday. Saturday morning rushed to a client meeting to sign a contract, and then to the sales training seminar.

Social Agent is now adding a new feature of online sales assistants to help companies follow up the sales leads in Social media – as language, experience in Social media, and overall lack of time are issues they are facing to leverage our tool.

Over 30 people submitted resumes to be a part time sales assistant for our clients, and 13 of them came to spend the afternoon learning about our new Social Agent system, and how they can get some part time jobs finding and following up Chinese customers in Sina weio and other social media.

I tried my best to talk to each applicant after the 1 hour training seminar I hosted (and Amy was an amazing teacher to support me too!). I love to give opportunities to those who want to get a chance at doing something awesome. I’m happier then ever with how our startup is becoming an amazing platform to enable this type of part time sales for businesses.

To make the day more fun, we hiked Nanshan mountain afterwards (optional of course) and got to know the applicants more personally. Let me think this Sunday afternoon how to move forward, a couple should get immediate placement with a few clients we have, others maybe will wait for more businesses to signup.

Life is moving so fast! But doing what a startup needs to do, PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE!, sure maybe its tempting to hide your idea, keep programming it more, making it more and more perfect before showing the world. But I wouldn’t do it any other way than the way we’re doing it now. Building, publishing, getting feedback, iterating.

I’m going to Shanghai this Wednesday as well! Keep up the hustle!

Startup Weekend Mania! Hong Kong Apr 12, Shanghai Apr 19, Shenzhen May 10

Michael Michelini — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:54:56 +0000

The startup weekend phenomena has come in strong in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen really strong! Just had a nice call w/ Sheikh from USA headquarters yesterday, and there are now great teams in place in all of these cities. I’m so proud of the progress that the Startup Weekend team has made!

Hong Kong Startup Weekend

April 12 – 14, 2013
Location: M21 Hong Kong Youth Federation
hongkong.startupweekend.org

This coming weekend is from Friday night April 12 to Sunday Night April 14th, I’ll try to stop by on Saturday!

Shanghai Startup Weekend

April 19 – 21, 2013
Location: 淞沪路234号‎ 上海市杨浦区五角场邮政编码: 200438
shanghai.startupweekend.org

I’ll be heading up to facilitate this Shanghai weekend, going to Shanghai a couple days early, next Wednesday April 17. Liu Yan and David Li are amazing people assisting in bringing the Startup Weekend to Shanghai, and have done a great job last November.

Shenzhen Startup Weekend

May 10 -12, 2013
Location: 3W coffee Shenzhen location, 1st floor , East block, Yuanxing technology building , No.1 Songping Rd. North district , High tech park Nanshan, Shenzhen.
南山区高新园北区松坪山路1号源兴科技大厦东座1楼
shenzhen.startupweekend.org

Shenzhen has an amazing volunteer team, Kawai, our co-organizer will take a break this time and finally get a chance to be a participant, Nik and I will help co-organize and also promote other dedicated volunteers to be more responsible.

What’s Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Whether entrepreneurs found companies, find a cofounder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

So excited to be part of this!

Its really an amazing thing to witness, and I am glad to be part of this startup revolution in China and Asia. I’m introducing other Chinese cities to Startup Weekend USA and hope to continue to grow this amazing NGO.

Sparking entrepreneurship and creativity.

More Startup Pitching! Echelon Satellite Hong Kong

Michael Michelini — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:24:54 +0000

3 pitches in 1 week, talk about intense, last week we went to Singapore to pitch at Startup Asia, today in Hong Kong for this Echelon, and then this Friday for a Shenzhen Innovalley pitch to hundreds of Chinese investors and entrepreneurs! After these 3 pitches, our startup will definitely be on the map!

The full details of the Hong Kong satellite event can be found on http://echelon.e27.co/sg2013/echelon_satellite/hk-satellite/ but I always like to snip a bit of it on the blog here for those who want the highlights:

What is Echelon 2013?

Echelon 2013 is into its fourth year and will take place on 4 – 5 June 2013 at MAX Atria@Singapore EXPO. The conference will feature engaging keynote speakers from the technology and startup industries, a Startup Marketplace bigger than ever before featuring emerging technologies and businesses from Asia, and the ever present Startup Pitches that will see a new tech startup become champion for its business and product innovation.

Echelon is e27‘s flagship conference. Since 2010, Echelon been attended by entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, government organizations and tech companies alike and has attracted high caliber keynote speakers, often with successful businesses of their own from around the world to impart their knowledge and passion to delegates.

Echelon is typically held in two phases, the first phase being the Satellites. Satellites were first held in 2011 and usually organized in partnership with local communities. The preliminary pitches take place during these Satellite events and selected startups will be invited to exhibit at the main Echelon conference’s Startup Marketplace or pitch on the main stage during Startup Pitches.

Startup Pitches

10 startups pitched
7.10pm – 9.00pm

~~CoachBase~~

Decision Fuel

English Adventureland

GoIDD

Hotel Quickly

~~iDentalSystem~~

Perpetu

~~Playroll~~

Social Agent

StampUp Retail CRM

Verbase

VIMANTRA

PhatRice

Judges

Mohan Belani, Co-founder and CEO – e27

Felix Lam, Managing Director – Red Chapel Advisors

Simon Squibb, CEO and Co-founder – NEST

Jia Woei Ling, Head of Technical Sales APAC – Amazon Web Services

Tytus Michalski, Managing Director – Fresco Capital Advisors

Paul Orlando, Co-Founder – AcceleratorHK

About 200 people came, standing room only at the Good Lab coworking space in Kowloon. Great to see such support from the Hong Kong community – I guess it is pretty cool to witness such passion from hustling entrepreneurs.

The winner was (drumroll)

Perpetu – a service that allows people to subscribe to a plan that once you die, your social media accounts and emails are handled the way you want them to be (email autoresponder, port photos to a certain friend, etc)

Congratulations to all the startups, I can only imagine how hard it is for the judges to just pick one out of all the amazing teams.

Social Agent had a great experience, our new team member, Dan, was able to attend his first startup pitch, and Chris and I were practicing our pitch and bonding even more.

We got a few new clients as well, and new investor leads.

Getting Social Agent engrained in the minds of the startup community! Hitting the pavement, and pushing hard!

Hosting a Seminar at General Assembly on Selling in China via Social Media

Michael Michelini — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:09:29 +0000

Continuing to educate and add value to the community of Western businesses to do business in China, I will be hosting a seminar with General Assembly in Hong Kong to help businesses learn how to more effectively enter the Chinese market and sell in China via social media. Also realize that is it possible to do so without a local Chinese company!

Interested to come, I’d be so honored! Its a 250hkd fee to attend, which I hope you think is fair.
You can book from the GA website – https://generalassemb.ly/education/using-social-media-to-sell-into-mainland-china/hong-kong/1523

I’m going to cover how to sell in China without a Chinese bank account, How to open a Sina Weibo account and get it verified, How to create a viral social media campaign on Chinese social media, and of course throw in a bunch of other awesome tidbits and the newest tips on Tencent Wechat (weixin) and other marketing and sales strategies in China. I’ll probably invite my assistant, Amy Gu, to come along and assist me in the classroom.

Here is the full information Allison posted about the event:

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SELL INTO MAINLAND CHINA
THURSDAY, 2 MAY, 7 – 8:30 PM

Where
GA Hong Kong
The Hive, 21/F, The Phoenix, Luard Road No. 23
Wan Chai

By Who
Michael Michelini
Co-Founder, CEO, Social Agent Limited

ABOUT THIS CLASS

Everyone talks about the huge numbers in Chinese social media, but not many understand how to take advantage of them. One billion potential customers aren’t worth much if you don’t know how to build a strong, multi-platform social campaign that can take followers and convert them into paying customers. In this class, we will discuss the unique structure of China’s social media. You’ll learn how to utilize various platforms to create a viral that will help you grow your mainland China customer base, as well as create buzz around your product, and ultimately increase your sales.

TAKEAWAYS

• How to sell in China without a Chinese bank account
• How to open a Sina Weibo account and get it verified
• How to create a viral social media campaign on Chinese social media

PREPARATION

Please bring a laptop if you plan on opening a Sina Weibo account in the workshop.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Michael Michelini
Co-Founder, CEO,
Social Agent Limited

Michael Michelini is an American internet entrepreneur living in China since 2007. He spends most of his itme helping western companies leverage Chinese social media for business. He is a facilitator of Startup Weekend China, as well as the co-founder/CEO of Social Agent Limited, a new startup helping businesses find and manage China sales.

REFUND POLICY

Plans change. We get it. But if you can’t make it to a class/workshop, please email us at least 7 days before the scheduled event date. No refunds will be given after this timeframe.

Please support General Assembly in Hong Kong, as well as my speaking seminar by booking a slot

Any feedback on my course or topic, please let me know! Trying to find the right seminar and topic to most effectively help businesses effectively sell in the Chinese market and not “writing it off”.

Amazing Experience At Startup Asia in Singapore!

Michael Michelini — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 09:01:15 +0000

Saturday afternoon typing this from a casino lobby in the Resort world, Singapore. So much moneyflow in this city! My first time to Singapore, and man was it an amazing, fast-paced 3 day excursion.

I wanted to announce earlier that I was attending / pitching, but the startups selected to pitch at Startup Arena (Tech In Asia’s pitch competition) had to keep it hush-hush until the actual event, so hard for me to do as a social media addict!

The 3 co-founders of our startup, Social Agent, came out to represent – Chris Li, Doug Pierce, and myself. We also invested in a startup booth – which seemed to be the best investment ever! We were swarmed with investors and early adopters and supporters of startup businesses signing up for our service.

We will be adding a few new clients from the show on-boarding them to Social Agent next week, and I have been following up with a few investors this afternoon. Really exciting, highly recommend that trade booth for future events at Startup Asia!

We pitched on the 2nd day (yesterday), the 2nd team of the day two batch of 10 startups. We were proud to show off the product and customer development of our business, and Tech in asia immediately covered each team on their blog – http://www.techinasia.com/socialagentme-helps-sense-business-chinese-social-media/ which is pretty awesome and helpful.

We got the same questions as usual – how can you get the Sina weibo data, and how secure is your relationship with them, will Chinese tech companies copy you, how do you get your clients, and how do you get clients for your users. All of these questions we had solid answers for, and it boosted our confidence in our startup business.

The winner came out to be “Lots of Buttons” – another Hong Kong based e-commerce website selling wholesale buttons. 2nd place was a chinese gay dating website Xunta, and 3rd place was Puddding – women’s crowdsourced fitting fashion website.

I’m really happy for the winners, cool it was a Hong Kong based startup that won. There were so many amazing startups who poured their hearts and souls into their businesses building some really beautiful and amazing technology products – I can’t imagine how hard it was for judges to pick only 1 winner!

Tonight is my last night in Singapore, 7am departure flight tomorrow back to Shenzhen! Will be a fun-filled week of action and followups from this amazing Singapore startup trip! Jiayou!

About Startup Asia Event

You can read the full details via – http://startupasia.techinasia.com/sg2013/ but here is a quick excerpt:

Organized by TechinAsia.com, Startup Asia is a 2-day conference organized for entrepreneurs, investors, media, and people across the Asian tech community.

- Insightful speakers
- Quality startups and investors across Asia
- Honest content about the industry

Audience breakdown in 2012: Founders/Developers: 512, Investors: 158, MNC Rep: 148, Students: 49, Media: 32

Turning 32 – Another year in China

Michael Michelini — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:12:03 +0000

Birthdays are kinda like New Years Day – reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next. My focus has gotten much sharper – and I am excited for my 32nd year on this earth.

My birthday last year I was going to a ton of events, e-commerce and startups, and doing a bunch of full service consulting projects for ecommerce and chinese social media. I remember having a birthday dinner in Coastal City with the co-organizers of Startup Weekend Shenzhen (Kawai and Nik) as well as a handful of other friends – thai food. It would be a few days later that we had one of the most awesome startup weekends ever with over 100 awesome entrepreneurs inside Tencent’s Shenzhen headquarters.

I got more focused, hit some breaking points with various projects and almost became an NGO. Instead it turned into Weibo Agent startup in about May.

This birthday, I’m typing it up on a laptop in a subway on Shenzhen – heading to Guangzhou. As much as I want to announce what this trip is about, I have to wait until about Thursday to post online.

But its all about business.

Had a great call w/ Kevin Dewalt yesterday morning and asked about separating my personal life from my business life- and he frankly said its just not possible for people like us – startup entrepreneurs need to breathe life into our “babies” our ventures and help is grow up until it doesnt need our close attention.

Had a nice dinner last night with Chris Gormley and quick drinks with Marshall, down in Shekou. I was tempted to plan a party, but just doesn’t make sense now.

I’m so focused, and I’m so excited – and that makes this an amazing birthday for me.

4 Tips From my Experience Team Building for Startups

Michael Michelini — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:59:40 +0000

Those following my startup Social Agent’s blog – I’m so excited to have confirmed a new member to our technical team – Dan from Canada will be a PHP developer with us and has alreadyjumped in head first in the code this week. Its exhilarating. Its about showing your passion, and selling

It’s About a Vision, a Mission, and THEN a product!

Its a pyramid, with the foundation being the vision of the business. For Social Agent, its about helping Western businesses do business in China via social media (and then SMEs to do international business online everywhere).

The mission is a short term goal. For Social Agent now, its about getting 100 foreign businesses on the system and successfully getting business leads and interacting with Chinese consumers.

AND THEN its the product. Which is the solution to helping the business achieve its mission and vision.

I know, I used to think Mission and Vision was kinda just marketing buzzwords, but it seriously helps to make a company that is bigger than you.

Validate Your Business Before You Build It

So many people wait for a technical co-founder to come and build it. And they use that as an excuse to starting their startup and executing. You can get a MVP (minimum viable product) mostly with a front end that takes much less technical expertise than one thinks. And the sooner you show your customers, the better you will learn and adapt. Lean is what its called.

But this also helps you find technical team members. They are tired of seeing a lazy business guy waiting around to find a technical dude to do their work and then go to market. By trying your best to execute, and having market feedback and showing the technical team that this is a viable business – then you will give them a much more informed decision.

Selling to Your Team, Your Investor, Your Customers

My friend Leo Liu reminds me that the CEO has to be the top salesperson for the company. And its not just about getting customers, its about getting people to buy into the idea. And delegating.

And this isn’t just getting customers. Its getting a community. And man, do you work for everyone else – not the other way around.

You have to prove to everyone that this business is viable. And make them proud to be part of it.

Don’t Give Up

This is critical. The longer you keep at it, the more you’ll learn, and the more you’ll prove to the public that you are committed to this. Technical people especially, but also the general public, is tired of seeing some entrepreneur shoot out a cool idea, work on it for a while, hit a speedbump and give up.

The longer you keep at it, the lower the risk is for new team members to feel that you’re going to throw in the towel and give up.

Hope these points help out. But the last one is the main point – Do not give up, at least not if you are passionate about your vision and the problem you are solving.

If you’re passionate, others will see that and get excited to be part.

Staying Lean! Focus Group in Hong Kong to listen to Social Agent users!

Michael Michelini — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:04:40 +0000

Many people think “lean startup” they think cheap, bootstrapping “ramen noodle startup” – well, that may be true too – but actually, lean is all about listening to your users, and building a product that they want! To validate your business model as soon as possible to reduce the time and resources wasted programming (building) a product that people don’t want to use. Again and again and again Social Agent has been tweaking its model, listening to users. Today (well technically yesterday as its almost 2am China time now) I talked to over 10 customers – ON THE PHONE! Some of my team members think I’m crazy and insane (well, ….) but this is what it takes. your customer / user is the person who will ultimately decide if you succeed or fail.

So again, trying to practice what I preach, Social Agent is gonna “throw together” a focus group in Hong Kong in about 1 week. Yes, people say that I need more time, or this or that. But if you don’t just do it, then it will never happen.

Some have asked me, why do a focus group? That sounds like such a silly question, but let me list a few key reasons:

Watch your user use your product! This is key. Talking to them on the phone, emailing questions, chatting on skype, sharing screens – nothing still beats sitting next to your user and watching them click the buttons and ask questions.

Allow your whole team to see users using it – Again, I’m the customer facing guy. I talk to users every day. But the rest of the startup team depends on what I relay to them. Having the technical team, and the operations team seeing users use it… priceless

The focus group users share ideas between themselves – Having 1 on 1 sessions with users is good, but when its in a focus group setting, brainstorming happens, ideas flow, and one idea piled ontop of another idea is an amazing thing to witness.

Educate your user – “an educated customer is your best customer” – enough said. Build value in your community.

Build buzz and awareness around your startup / product – This blog post, social media, word of mouth. And after the focus group, people share experiences. This how its done.

These focus group attendees are potential paying customers – duh! No pressure to sign up, but hey, maybe they’ll actually like the product enough and pay you!

Practicing lean startup methodologies is hard….it takes discipline. Today I read Kevin Dewalt’s blog post: Don’t Let the Lean Startup Process Ruin the Fun of Entrepreneurship, and sometimes you get so tired talking to customers and users…getting slammed with various feedback and feature requests that you just want to go hide out and build a product that you think is cool. NO. Force yourself to keep getting out there and talking to users! Reduce the risk of building something that no one wants to use.!

Interested to go? We only allow 8 – 10 people to come (that’s what the “focus group” booklets say) as more than that and its hard to manage. We already have 3 seats reserved… here is the details (originally I wrote this on the Social Agent blog:

We’re ready to listen, Hong Kong! The Social Agent startup has been working extremely hard the past 8 months building what we think you’ll love. Now is the time for you to prove it!. We have a conference room to fit 8 – 10 qualified business owners who are currently selling or trying to sell to the Chinese market. We invite you to this focus group to learn how to better target and sell in China!

RSVP, Register via EventBrite Here!

Does the below sound about right?

Chinese consumers want your product!

But, how can you find and reach them?

Especially when they want to buy?!

Social Agent will go through some strategies on selling in China, and Chinese social media – and then we will have each attendee try out the Social Agent online software.

We’re a Hong Kong startup, and we believe this is a great opportunity for us to meet you face to face, and help you, while you help us understand what you’re looking for?

Sound like a deal? Here’s the information below:

FOCUS GROUP LOCATION & DETAILS

Hosted By: Social Agent Startup Team
For Who: Businesses selling or trying to sell to the China market.
When: Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
Time: 7pm to 9pm
Where: The Hive coworking, 19th floor, 23 luard road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong +852 3568 6343
Cost: FREE, but please RSVP, Register via EventBrite Here!
Contact: The Social Agent Team
or call Mike Michelini at +852 95135335
or email info@socialagent.me

Venue provided by SoftLayer Catalyst: http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst

RSVP, Register via EventBrite Here!

Social Agent Startup Go-Live! Most Exhausting Couple Weeks

Michael Michelini — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:19:50 +0000

Seriously, I may be turning 32 years old in a couple weeks, and out of those 32 years, this has been definitely one of the most exhausting times of my life! But I don’t regret it one bit, I love creating a business. And especially one that clients need and benefit from!

SocialAgent.me (previously known as Weibo Agent), a concept that started about 1 year ago (helping foreigners do business in China via social media), that was taken “full time” in June 2012 up in Lean Startup Machine weekend in Shanghai, China….

Practicing Lean Startup Methodology

and I do credit lean startup methods to the progress of Social Agent. CUSTOMER FOCUS! Lean do NOT mean cheap! lean means saving time and money PROGRAMMING or BUILDING something that customers do not want. “Fake it, test it, adapt”.

Basically its these 3 things:

Customer – Who are you selling to (aka helping)

Problem – What is the problem (pick 1 problem!) that this customer is having.

Solution – How are you going to solve this problem, for this specific customer.

As much as I do like to be open, I am not going to fully reveal my own internal company development in this process (At least not until its much more developed), but the basic idea is I had it WRONG so many times, and we kept on tweaking, and thinking about these 3 parts over and over – AND STILL ARE.

I think the biggest issue I had was I had the problem and the solution mixed up. I thought foreign businesses wanted to do social media business in China – but really, they DON’T – that is the SOLUTION! They want to do business in China! Period, they want results.

And its becoming something much bigger very soon.

Bouncing Between Hong Kong + Shenzhen

Anyone who keeps up with me and my blog has probably caught me tweeting, or checking into foursquare on borders, on the road. I am constantly on the road. Now more then ever.

Social Agent’s tech team (well, mostly my tech co-founder, Chris Li – but also Doug and Wouter and Xing and Steve) are in Hong Kong. As well as a ton of awesome Startup events (thanks Casey Lau + Elle from StartupsHK!!) – so I’m constantly bouncing over to Hong Kong.

In Shenzhen, I have opportunities in the investor and startup community – and trying to stay a “China startup” though it seems more and more Hong Kong is winning over this startup….both in team and in investment prospects.

Focus – Product and Customers, Team.

I miss blogging here….but really I have my head down and I’m listening to our core group of first users, not going too crazy getting big PR and working closely with my small startup team on building a good product and team.

As tempted as I am to get more buzz and more recognition, I’m focusing where I believe it counts. The rest will come later.

Honestly, I feel I have changed a lot. I’m trying my best to say no to a lot of things, projects, trips, distractions. It took a lot for me to get this far, and I feel amazing.

It really is all about focus.

Whats Next?

Now that the insanity of the go-live is over – there is still endless amounts of work to be done, but I need to get back on marketing and networking. Hoping to blog here more, but also a bit on SocialAgent.me/blog corporate blog.

The most important thing is prioritizing during various stages of your “startup” and life in general.

The biggest investment is time. And I am proud of the Social Agent team, and myself, to have held on this long.

Now its time to shine – the “base” is established, its time to put some “meat on the bones”.