There are worse things that can happen in life than failing at starting a new business. So says Jon Medved, an entrepreneur and investor from Israel and CEO of
OurCrowd, an equity-crowdfunding firm. Medved was a guest and featured panelist at the
StartmeupHK Venture Forum 2013, held Thursday December 5th, 2013 at the Central Government Offices in Tamar, and hosted by
InvestHK. “So you start a business and you fail. So what?” asks Medved, speaking to the audience of over 500 attendees. “What’s the worst that can happen? You move back in with your parents? Get over it!”
Medved knows what entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of startup activity around the world know--if you’re too afraid to fail, you might never start. Hong Kong was built on entrepreneurship in manufacturing, shipping, property development, and finance. But the Hong Kong of tomorrow might be high-tech. Two of the top three finalists in a competition held as part of the Venture Forum were technology companies. Finalist
Wifinity is a semiconductor company that will, amongst other things, deliver high-speed data through LED light bulbs. And winner Dr. David Hanson’s company,
Hanson Robotics, makes
the world’s most realistic and interactive robots. Neither company was started by Hong Kong locals, but both entrepreneurs have compelling reasons to have offices in Hong Kong due to its proximity to the largest regional market in the world, knowledgeable workforce, low taxes, and friendly regulatory environment. Hong Kong can not only maintain its status as a major world city but build upon that reputation by taking steps to attract more entrepreneurs, as well as grow them. Key to growing entrepreneurship locally is to overcome the stigma of failure in business.
In 1999 I had a job working for a dot-com startup named MyComputer.com. The company received funding and grew rapidly during 1999 and 2000, but when the dot-com crash came along, MyComputer.com was hit hard. The company almost got bought out for $40 million USD, but the deal fell through. On at least two occasions the company almost went out of business. The founders could have quit to get “real jobs” with stable paychecks and little risk. But they kept working on their business. 10 years later the company had been renamed Omniture and was bought out by Adobe Software for $1.8 billion. Unfortunately for me, I quit MyComputer.com after only working there for five months and never got to share in the profits when the company was acquired. But I quit because I was inspired to start my own business.
