The man who is regarded as a guru to many young mainland wizards in the information technology industry has left Google and is ready to hire people for his own venture. Lee Kai-fu has worked at top levels in Apple, Microsoft Corp and Google and published three best-selling books about how to achieve success. He has even been a guest on Day-Day-Up, a popular television show among young people, on which he explained why it is important for a chef from a five-star hotel to cook lobster for his employees every day. It has to do with team morale. But he resigned from Google suddenly on Sunday to start a company called Innovation Works. For the first time in his career, Lee has become his own boss. That means a lot, not only to him but possibly to many a young, talented man or woman who has had five to 10 years of work experience and developed brilliant hi-tech ideas but never became an entrepreneur. 'The Chinese entrepreneurial environment is still in its formative stage, with significant barriers for the early-stage entrepreneur: the lack of management experience and coaching, the reluctance of venture capitalists to invest in companies in the formation stage, and the lack of networking and experience to pull a company together,' Lee said. 'These barriers all contribute to a dearth of hi-tech start-ups in China. Innovation Works will provide capital, manpower, legal, financial and IT support ... to mentoring and supporting the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs so that they can focus on building great products without any distractions.' In short, he is scouting young talent off the street, planning to package them into entrepreneurs, find them venture capital and spin them off into an independent company. He aims to create five such companies per year. He is not saying he wants to play God, but he did admit he had positioned the platform 'above the angels' (early private investors in start-ups). Some of these companies might become the next Google, Microsoft, Alibaba or Baidu, he said. And investors believed him. They have invested US$115 million to get Innovation Works rolling, and they expect high returns. With Peter Liu of WI Harper Group as the lead investor, other key shareholders of the company include YouTube co-founder Steven Chen, Foxconn International Holdings chairman Terry Guo, Legend Group chairman Liu Chuanzhi and New Oriental Education and Technology Group president Yu Minhong. 'I am convinced,' said Chen. Lee said he got the idea when he went to hospital after the mainland government's ban on Google China in June, as he put it, made him sick. 'If you have a great idea that will change the way Chinese people live fundamentally, it might be good for the Nobel Prize but not for our company,' said Lee. His platform will host only ideas that improve the existing models rather than start a revolution. In that respect, Chinese entrepreneurs have an amazingly good track record, in his view.
