Head start for bright sparks
Alibaba executive Cindy Chow has a mission – to identify and help nurture entrepreneurs to succeed as part of giving back to the community
“Twenty years ago when I graduated, none of my friends talked about starting their own business.” This was how Cindy Chow Lok Mei-ki, a mother of two and native Hongkonger, reminisced about those good old days, and how her generation saw things then.
“I don’t mean we couldn’t have gone in that direction, but the landscape is totally different now,” Chow, the executive director of the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund in Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.
“There are more opportunities today. With the internet, mobile devices and other advances in technology, you have to be more open-minded now.”
Still, Chow smiled at the thought that there may be parents across this city of 7.3 million people with different ideas about their children becoming entrepreneurs someday.
“I was at this interesting group discussion, and heard a panellist say, ‘It can be very hard sometimes to convince the parents’,” she said.
For Chow, her responsibility is to identify new entrepreneurs in the city, help nurture their viable business ideas and put them in a position to succeed.
That may take some work, but Chow has plenty of funding from e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding to support her mission.