Not long ago, budding entrepreneurs innovated software while major corporations created hardware with dedicated research and development budgets. Times have changed, and Shenzhen now stands at the forefront of China's tech revolution. Shenzhen's hot-housed hardware production platform companies, such as Ingdan and Seeed, show how anyone with a working design doodled on the back of an envelope can get their idea produced quickly, see if it works, and then take it to market. Open-source hardware, crowd-based funding and agile bespoke manufacturing, such as 3D printing, have democratised the production and creative processes. In mainland China's own burgeoning "Silicon Valley", startups and entrepreneurs are being enticed by Shenzhen's development capabilities and diversity. Ingdan, a hardware-innovation platform that connects international entrepreneurs specialising in electronic goods with the mainland China's supply chain, sees Shenzhen as the perfect place for fostering new ideas. "China's manufacturing heartland is in Shenzhen, and that - combined with government policies - means that it's naturally attractive to IT organisations. [The city also] has the production capabilities and low costs that easily give it an advantage that the nation's [competitors] still struggle to match," says Ingdan president and founder Jeffery Kang. These hardware-innovation businesses also believe that major corporations shouldn't be the only companies to bring new products to market. "We innovated a buy-to-order model that connects innovators with a vast array of supply chain manufacturers and vendors while keeping costs low, regardless of the size of the order," Kang adds. Launching or even making a product in China isn't without risks, however. The nation's manufacturing industry has historically been associated with brute production, pumping out cheap, imitated mass products, with a major dearth in the creative aspects of product innovation. In a country where the "art" of shanzai is practised with rigorous efficiency, China's reputation for intellectual property theft is notorious. Shanzai refers to the grey economy's capacity to imitate and reproduce counterfeit goods - largely with a flagrant disregard for copyright or safety laws. The sharp end of counterfeit production is the grey area of products that seem to be in the public domain by default. The fortuitous combination of astute government incentives and traditions of production and innovation means that the city is uniquely placed to service this new form of "homebrew" manufacturing. Shenzhen's history of reform also gives the city an advantage in China, Kang says. "Shenzhen has China's most developed market mechanism - which provides an environment that is ideal for innovation and entrepreneurship," he says.