Young tech entrepreneurs from the West head to China
Western hopefuls find competition stiff in mainland
Benjamin Black had another 18 months to go before completing his computer science degree at the University of Southern California, but he just couldn't wait. Last October, the 23-year-old from Boulder, Colorado dropped out to join a start-up in Guiyang city, Guizhou, called Flexbot.
He got to know the team while studying Putonghua in Guiyang, and they offered him a chance he couldn't pass up. "You can get valuable work experience from a start-up and learn about all aspects of running a company," Black says.
"As a manufacturer with 3D-printing technology, we have a promising business model that allows us to shift from traditional manufacturing to customisable open-source smart gadgets."
He believes such technologies will eventually revolutionise manufacturing around the world, and China is just the place to test his theories.
Black's Western sensibilities have already proved to be an asset at Flexbot - he lent his voice to a droll little video that helped them to raise more than US$560,000 from nearly 4,700 pre-orders on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.
With Silicon Valley accelerators eyeing the potential in China, more young technology entrepreneurs are heading east.
Premium incubators such as 500 Startups and InnoSpring and networking community Startup Grind have set up bases in Beijing; Chinaccelerator, a member of the Techstars network, has an outpost in Shanghai, while hardware-focused HAXLR8R (pronounced Hack-celerator) is in Shenzhen.