The startup ecosystem in Hong Kong
Startup guru Henry Oh with some advice for entrepreneurs in Hong Kong after he attended the event Startup Saturday
Douglas Young, founder of G.O.D. was one of the speakers at Startup Saturday.Can you engineer an ecosystem for startups? Judging by the first Startup Saturday held in Hong Kong on August 7 -- a conference for entrepreneurs that is compared to TechCrunch50 -- the answer may be a “yes”. Over 400 people attended the one-day event held at Cyberport. I was surprised at how many people came, especially considering the lack of shuttle service. Usually, people are reluctant to go to Cyberport because of the perceived distance. However, Startup Saturday showed that if given proper motivation, people will travel to Cyberport. And the motivations that drove people to attend Startup Saturday were ambition, curiosity, openness, and a variety of motivations often found in startup entrepreneurs.
When the MC asked the audience to raise a hand if they were in a startup or thinking about getting involved with one, at least a third of the audience raised their hand. The investors in the audience generally kept a low profile, wary perhaps of distortive experience this knowledge would have with fellow attendees since the investors were in a venue filled with people looking for investment money.
Attendees—entrepreneurs, investors and the curious—learned lessons and heard war stories from both early-stage startups and experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
As someone who organizes events through the Hong Kong Startup Association (HKSUA), I’m well aware of how difficult it is to plan and organize an event (and most importantly, to get people to come). Yet, the organizers of Startup Saturday, did a good job in engaging the community and attracting a large crowd of people to hear keynote speaker, Douglas Young, Founder of G.O.D., talk about the lessons he learned while building his company and brand (as well as share some humorous anecdotes and insights). There were three panels, one on startups in general, the other focused on funding and the final one on the future. I found the first two panels to be very interesting but the third one seemed to lack focus and the moderator, Paul Denlinger, a Forbes writer, did not seem to have a clear idea or theme to focus the panel on, which was unfortunate given the composition of the panel.
Startup Saturday also featured three sessions that allowed a representative from a startup company to demo or pitch their product to the audience. The presentations varied in quality. The presenters were overwhelmingly male, with only 2 female entrepreneurs participating in the showcase. Unlike what you might expect, the audience did not make a mass exodus for coffee during these three showcase sessions and seemed engaged and interested.
The full agenda and the people who participated in the startup schowcase can be found here.
I’ve been at a lot of these types of conferences recently: Echelon 2010 in Singapore, TEDxTokyo, NSC1 by Neoteny Labs in Singapore and the Creative Commons Asia event in Seoul. I’ve organized a few as well and have been trying to get Barcamp HK 2010 ready.
Not all of these conferences are about the same thing but they are all a part of the ecosystem being built for next generation of entrepreneurship.
Cities and countries across Asia and the world are racing to build or nurture ecosystems to encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. They know that the next iteration of the global economy will make these traits even more important and they know that their very economic sustainability is at stake in this global competition.
For Hong Kong, a city trying to adapt to changing market forces and the emergence of other Chinese cities as economic, financial, manufacturing and creative centers in their own right, a healthy startup ecosystem is crucial.
That is why I was encouraged to see so many people, both local and expat, get together on a Saturday at Cyberport to attend an event like Startup Saturday. The event was organized and driven at a grassroots level by local entrepreneurs and their companies, it was sponsored by Cyberport (which seems especially appropriate given its IncuTrain incubation program for startups) and other companies, and supported by a host of other supporting organizations. It seems that Hong Kong does indeed have an ecosystem for encouraging and supporting startup organizations and that it is one that is comprised of by for-profit, non-profit, government and non-government organizations.
On a day filled with buzzwords, two words in particular stood out for me: execution and luck. The popular wisdom is that a lot of people have great ideas; it is the ability to execute to realize the idea that is of key importance. As for luck, I was surprised by how many panelists on Saturday mentioned it as an important factor in success. I’ve written about luck before, both from a personal point of view and from a Chinese cultural perspective and so I found the talk about luck at Startup Saturday to be quite interesting. In other words, you can be insanely talented, disciplined and inspired but sometimes the most important thing that will happen to your business idea is a chance encounter or some unexpected event. Sometimes what makes or breaks a business is opportunity and many times the best opportunities appear from nowhere.
And this is what makes building a startup ecosystem so difficult and makes these ecosystems so fragile, especially at an early stage. Part of what drives a startup ecosystem is the power of myth and there is no greater myth than that of tremendous success. Yet, tremendous success often hinges on a factor that no government or institution can control: luck.
However, if there is one thing that the Chinese and especially people in Hong Kong, are fascinated about, it is how to create and manipulate luck.
Despite all the enthusiasm and support shown at Startup Saturday, it will take a great deal of proper execution and yes, some luck, if Hong Kong is to create a startup ecosystem that is vibrant, bursting with innovation and success and giving birth to entrepreneurs who form companies that change the world.
Who knows? One of those companies could have been present on Startup Saturday.
Henry Oh is the co-founder of the Hong Kong Startup Association and the co-founder of Socialutions. Socialutions is currently working on a variety of projects, including CreationMix (in collaboration with Neoteny Labs). He is also a guest writer for ValleyZen.
When the MC asked the audience to raise a hand if they were in a startup or thinking about getting involved with one, at least a third of the audience raised their hand. The investors in the audience generally kept a low profile, wary perhaps of distortive experience this knowledge would have with fellow attendees since the investors were in a venue filled with people looking for investment money.
Attendees—entrepreneurs, investors and the curious—learned lessons and heard war stories from both early-stage startups and experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
As someone who organizes events through the Hong Kong Startup Association (HKSUA), I’m well aware of how difficult it is to plan and organize an event (and most importantly, to get people to come). Yet, the organizers of Startup Saturday, did a good job in engaging the community and attracting a large crowd of people to hear keynote speaker, Douglas Young, Founder of G.O.D., talk about the lessons he learned while building his company and brand (as well as share some humorous anecdotes and insights). There were three panels, one on startups in general, the other focused on funding and the final one on the future. I found the first two panels to be very interesting but the third one seemed to lack focus and the moderator, Paul Denlinger, a Forbes writer, did not seem to have a clear idea or theme to focus the panel on, which was unfortunate given the composition of the panel.
Startup Saturday also featured three sessions that allowed a representative from a startup company to demo or pitch their product to the audience. The presentations varied in quality. The presenters were overwhelmingly male, with only 2 female entrepreneurs participating in the showcase. Unlike what you might expect, the audience did not make a mass exodus for coffee during these three showcase sessions and seemed engaged and interested.
The full agenda and the people who participated in the startup schowcase can be found here.
I’ve been at a lot of these types of conferences recently: Echelon 2010 in Singapore, TEDxTokyo, NSC1 by Neoteny Labs in Singapore and the Creative Commons Asia event in Seoul. I’ve organized a few as well and have been trying to get Barcamp HK 2010 ready.
Not all of these conferences are about the same thing but they are all a part of the ecosystem being built for next generation of entrepreneurship.
Cities and countries across Asia and the world are racing to build or nurture ecosystems to encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. They know that the next iteration of the global economy will make these traits even more important and they know that their very economic sustainability is at stake in this global competition.
For Hong Kong, a city trying to adapt to changing market forces and the emergence of other Chinese cities as economic, financial, manufacturing and creative centers in their own right, a healthy startup ecosystem is crucial.
That is why I was encouraged to see so many people, both local and expat, get together on a Saturday at Cyberport to attend an event like Startup Saturday. The event was organized and driven at a grassroots level by local entrepreneurs and their companies, it was sponsored by Cyberport (which seems especially appropriate given its IncuTrain incubation program for startups) and other companies, and supported by a host of other supporting organizations. It seems that Hong Kong does indeed have an ecosystem for encouraging and supporting startup organizations and that it is one that is comprised of by for-profit, non-profit, government and non-government organizations.
On a day filled with buzzwords, two words in particular stood out for me: execution and luck. The popular wisdom is that a lot of people have great ideas; it is the ability to execute to realize the idea that is of key importance. As for luck, I was surprised by how many panelists on Saturday mentioned it as an important factor in success. I’ve written about luck before, both from a personal point of view and from a Chinese cultural perspective and so I found the talk about luck at Startup Saturday to be quite interesting. In other words, you can be insanely talented, disciplined and inspired but sometimes the most important thing that will happen to your business idea is a chance encounter or some unexpected event. Sometimes what makes or breaks a business is opportunity and many times the best opportunities appear from nowhere.
And this is what makes building a startup ecosystem so difficult and makes these ecosystems so fragile, especially at an early stage. Part of what drives a startup ecosystem is the power of myth and there is no greater myth than that of tremendous success. Yet, tremendous success often hinges on a factor that no government or institution can control: luck.
However, if there is one thing that the Chinese and especially people in Hong Kong, are fascinated about, it is how to create and manipulate luck.
Despite all the enthusiasm and support shown at Startup Saturday, it will take a great deal of proper execution and yes, some luck, if Hong Kong is to create a startup ecosystem that is vibrant, bursting with innovation and success and giving birth to entrepreneurs who form companies that change the world.
Who knows? One of those companies could have been present on Startup Saturday.
Henry Oh is the co-founder of the Hong Kong Startup Association and the co-founder of Socialutions. Socialutions is currently working on a variety of projects, including CreationMix (in collaboration with Neoteny Labs). He is also a guest writer for ValleyZen.
