We were lucky enough this morning to sit down with Kai-Fu Lee, one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet universe. Known best and most recently for serving as the founding president of Google China, he also led R&D at Apple and founded the Microsoft Research division in China — the full trifecta of computing kingpins.
After departing Google last September (an event he remained understandably mum about during this meeting), he spied several gaps in China’s tech startup and venture capital culture. First and foremost, there were hardly any funds providing seed and early-stage financing to young entrepreneurs. The country lacked its own Ron Conway.
To remedy the problem, he founded Innovation Works, a startup incubator with a twist. Instead of just doling out a million dollars here and there to promising projects, the company recruits top engineering graduates throughout the country and enlists them to help its portfolio companies get off the ground, while simultaneously grooming them to found startups of their own in 12 to 18 months.
To read the full, original article click on this link: 5 things to know about Chinese startups — from former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee (video) | VentureBeat
Author: Camille Ricketts
