In the Thick of it

Traveling from Hong Kong International is considerably more frustrating after midnight. I'll just leave it at that and let this post suffice as news of my safe return to China.

Our team was fortunate enough to be granted free passage to the 13th annual China Venture Capital and Private Equity Forum being held in SZ this year. It was packed with eager small businesses and budding financiers jockeying for limelight and space at the talks and events. It seemed to have all the makings of a proper forum, with great sponsors, lots of high end wine tasting, and some genuinely thoughtful sounding discussions.

It seemed to fall short of this, and nestled itself into a phrase that I've grown quite fond of out here: Not as advertised.

Our team split up and hit three discussions simultaneously, OPJ listening in on green-tech in China (of interest to us and one our largest client), his fiancee to a forum on the SZ Stock Exchange listings and legal matters (her cup of tea), and me to biomedical and biotech in China (relevant to one of our lazier quasi-clients). It was an exercise in patriotism for China, with prominent businessmen rallying the audience behind building domestic institutions to compete both at home and abroad. Not a soul mentioned anything about foreign and Chinese companies working together, which was oddly enough the title of the discussion. The highlight of the discussion involved one CFO of a major Chinese Biomedical discussing venture capital for Chinese Medical device makers and pharma.
He stated that because of the high risk involved with the industry, businesses would need to focus on "commercializing" the technology of foreign companies, and even joint venture partners in order to reduce the normal risks associated with investing in drugs and devices. Now, this has been mentioned many times by the foreign press, so I'm not making any huge breakthroughs here, but I was taken by how nonchalant they were about what amounts to outright theft of foreign intellectual property and patents.

This may be a dangerous thing to call out, but it seems to be a common and accepted notion here and one we will work to understand better for our clients.

Up in the Air

People have been telling me to check that movie out, and I'll probably do so this week. While I've never been a fan of George Clooney the person, I'm a fan of some of the stuff he's been in, and this movie looks kind of cool.

Anyway, I've been putting off a post for a while, and continued efforts to sound smart, have a well thought out post, and generally avoid all my usual syntactical pitfalls have fallen short. I will thus rage blindly forward, write as I go, and post without any regard for life, rules, or proofreading.

I am by no means a well traveled person compared to the friends I have back in the states, and the unbelievable characters I have met out here. Many have lived out in Asia since I was watching Animaniacs after school with a fervor that bordered on the religious. And while that may have only been a couple years ago, they permanently set up shop over here. Olivier and I do not consider ourselves to be of that variety of expat, we both have lives firmly rooted in the States, and plan on a swift return at some point in the foreseeable future.

While the foreigners living out here are content with staying out here, we are not. They do not regard trips home the way I do. I will leave OPJ out of this since I am not keen on his take about this, and will not put words into his mouth. It has come to be that I have two lives, separated completely with the exception of two friends and a plane ticket. If I was lucky enough to have lucid dreams I would imagine it to be something like being awake, and then being lucid. Two things that help these two worlds remain separate: The flight, and separate cultures/languages.

The Flight
It is not the longest flight anyone has taken, and it is not the most harrowing/dangerous, or even very interesting, but done enough times it transforms into something else. I am not fortunate enough to have a body/mind that sleeps well on planes, and as a result, I spend 14 out of the 15+ hours awake. I laud Continental for their phenomenal movie collection, and the occasional cartoon or 30 Rock episode doesn't hurt either. But watching these 4 times a year for that many hours, I've seen several movies on more than one occasion. I'm rambling. The flight takes a ton out of you, and the travel time door to door measures somewhere between 22-28 hours depending on how other legs of the journey play out. You exist in a fog for much of it, albeit a pleasant, un-obstructive, "good passenger" fog. You do not make yourself a point of contention because you'll either be stuck with them for 15 hours in a small space, or pulled aside for "special screening".

This fog I speak of makes the whole journey seem like a bit of a dream, enhanced by a full 12-13 hour time difference, and exacerbated by the 4 days it takes to fully adjust to your new location.

The Culture
I'll be frank [thank God right?] China and the US are very different. The language, the climate, the smells, the sights, everything really. Yes yes, I've gone on about similarities, but outside of the apartment, you know you're in China.

Other elements that add to the double life are the separate groups of friends, watering holes, and daily routines. I am without family in China, but there is a familial network here of close friends fills the gap to a degree.

Anyway, it was something that I had mentioned to a few close friends, and I have never heard anyone else mention it. While I am far from unique in my experiences, I thought it was odd to have never heard it from someone else. It's an odd world where one lives out two lives, separated by a dream. I will ultimately have to decide which life to chose, and am confident that I will return stateside, but I was always awful at Chose Your Own Adventure books.

Nod to the Warriors

New camera takes some snazzy photos eh?

The extended trip is over, and this weary traveler is back in China.

Nothing exciting to report about the flight other than a busted GPS system that pushed our takeoff back an extra two hours. The plate over here is full, and the afternoon found me sitting at my macbook (PC was hijacked by Windows Defender if anyone has any advice, I could really use it), fixing and updating our SCLI website, and gearing up for new work.


I would like to thank everyone who was nice enough to host me, put up with me, hang out conmigo during my extended trip home, it was an interesting break from China to say the least, and the longer I am home, the more difficult it is to come back here. The 7th Annual Warrior Weekend was hosted again at the Vermont domicile of a good friend, and it was a welcome sight to see the group again, sans a few key players who are laid up in various corners of the world. Hey, had I not come down with my cocktail of illnesses and conditions, I would not have been able to partake either, and I guess these things happen (no I will not say for a reason, as I am not a fan of that cliche). Pictures of the weekend will not be posted here, but can be found on the usual social media sites once I get access to the Facebook again.

Look for a return the States sometime around the Memorial Day holiday.

Business updates and news:
- SCLI is looking into a Shanghai expansion office as one of our partners, the ever venerable TPBJR moves up and onto bigger things while still remaining an ever present Anemoi partner.
- TWC lost two potential clients over the break, but is actively working two new clients, as well as potential add-on work supplied to us by our partner firm SGC.
- My time seems to be promised to others without my knowing, and I'll now be consulting on/designing two websites over the next few weeks for friends of friends and a colleague out here. I must now put my limited use of code and the interwebs to good use apparently.

That is all for today, I will be updating again on a consistent basis now that I am back here and will have news that is hopefully more interesting than my body temperature and various ailments

Chill Factor

In a surprise twist of events, the South of China has finally cooled off!
Evening jacket weather is upon us, and the foreigners are all reveling as the locals bundle up in their winter's warmest.
Glad times are here again.

Though I have to admit that my body became quite accustomed to the warm weather and when I returned to the states, was really uncomfortable in what is usually cool, normal, fall weather.

I've realized that my body got very used to two things out here so far: the heat, and spicy food. Personally, the heat thing kind of sucks a bit, but I'm really down with my new tolerance for spicy food. I've always enjoyed a good kick in food, but was never one of those twisted spice-thrill seekers who lived for the tears that followed a particularly spicy pepper or curry. I am far from those nutjobs, but feel as if I'm slowly beginning to lean on their side. I don't necessarily do it for the thrill, and a few expats speak of their time with spicy food as a way to sweat out the 'night before', but it's become commonplace to expect a good bit of heat with any meal.

Business Updates: We're looking to expand our client base and are in negotiations for an assessment with a Spanish-run company operating out here. Pretty neat.
We also have a new office, though it's not a permanent one, it's nice that we finally have conference space, a phonebank, and a person that answers calls by saying our company name.

Off to the Games

I'm out folks.
Heading off to Thailand for my first Asian trip outside of China. I'm excited, a bit nervous, and not looking forward to the alleged 4 day downpour that's been going on in Bangkok.
I thought I'd mix in some very poorly capture iPhone photos of the Shenzhen stadium where we train. I'll be sure to snap some pics this weekend for everybody here playing our home game.

OK, so I've been trying for 2 days trying unsuccessfully to upload these pics. I give up for the time being and will try again on Tuesday when I get back.

A Little Introduction, if you will

The morning smog has not burnt off yet, and as a result the city is cast in a rather grey color similar to a fall fog-laden morning on New England.  As I sit in our apartment 26 stories up, I feel it is necessary to give a bit of a back story to the trip that has brought me to China.  I have admittedly been a less-than-considerate friend in the last 6 months and owe it to the people I've been out of touch with to do a little fill-in session.

My post-collegiate life has been less than glorious thus far, and as a result I began looking for something to do that would get me settled up for a couple years.  Working for the family business (while convenient) is not why I studied what I did in college.  Then again, many will argue what I did study could not really take me anywhere but to a random office going over spreadsheets and research reports.  Unfortunately, I am allergic to Excel and coffee mugs with witty sayings that adorn office cubicles.

Now with all this post collegiate doom and gloom two things happened that perked things up a bit: My father invested in a design suite that would allow him to create and manufacture custom jewelry in-house, and I am blessed with friends who have similarly restless souls.  The jewelry design set me free to travel out to Illinois for training and provided me with a creative outlet to get back into art that I hadn't realized I missed quite so much.  The other nice thing about working with jewelry is that it is shiny, and it holds my attention, because it is shiny, and sparkly.  This world could be all fine and good but would leave me (again) short of my education or perhaps potential.

This is where China begins to become relevant.

Two friends from high school, Olivier and Alex, were similarly restless and getting tired of their fast-paced New York City jobs.  China quite literally called them (in the form of a college-friend of Olivier's) and prodded them to see how receptive they might be to an adventure out there.  This friend (Tom) has lived out there for three years and was looking into starting a business up after spending time working for the big corporate world of Sourcing.  I was approached along with other members of our group and expressed interest.  The original business iteration would have us trying our hand at a Car Wash, which is not quite the institution that it is in the US.  I was approached because of my extensive experience in the automotive care industry, having spent two arduous summers washing and detailing only the finest autos that Lexus had to offer.  Our interest carried us into the world of due diligence, a term I had never come across in my days. Our process kept on hitting walls in logistics, price, and ease of transition.  The conclusion was then drawn that the only way to make any real steps forward was to get on the ground in China and see what there was to offer.  This was in May/June of 2008.

Fast forward to August.

*Lengthy entry I know*

Shenzhen is a city located about 40 minutes outside of Hong Kong in the mainland of China.  I could tell you more, but I'm sure the Wikipedia has something to offer. It is worth noting, however; that Shenzhen is a major manufacturing hub complete with special economic zone status and a rather large central business district. That basically translates into lots of people (roughly 15 million), with a large middle class who save some 20% of their annual earnings.  Now, I make no mystery that I am in no way well-versed with anything regarding finance/accounting/money/business, but I do know that there is a lot of money being spent in this area.  Our real goal was to try our hand at starting a business and maybe take home some of that 20%.  

The trip reflected our desire to get into business, being less about leisure and packed with business meetings with various expatriates. Each of these individuals had moved out to China and were involved in nearly every facet of business, from wine bar start ups to factory owners.  The time spent out there was exploratory and gave us a relatively clear picture of the opportunity to try our hand at business in what has been dubbed "The New Wild West".

After a busy week in Shenzhen and Hong Kong our minds were racing and our livers were not fond of us.  The idea that stuck involved taking our educations, and in fact our alma maters, and using them to give Chinese high school students the advantages offered to us during the college application process.  It would be impossible to copy-cat our pedigree, and would be something hard to replicate given then level of English we were capable of composing and teaching.  While this may not sound humble, I must emphasize that Alex and Olivier mastered writing skills taught to us in high school and honed this skill in their respective colleges (Georgetown and UPenn).  We saw first-hand how students in the US hand-fed application essays and walked through standardized tests by hired tutors.  Why not offer this service to students in China?  

The market seemed ripe for this sort of endeavor, and while thousands of US students travel abroad to "teach English and get away for a year or two", it was our goal to turn this into a viable, growable business model. I could go into more detail, but this entry is far too long and boring already, so I will simply say, 8 months later we arrived in Shenzhen, incorporated and ready to go.

Whether or not this endeavor is successful, it is sure to take us through a veritable roller-coaster of victories and defeats that will shape how we emerge from this unbelievable country.

Landed

Greetings from Shenzhen

Olivier and I landed successfully in Hong Kong after a scant 16 hour voyage over the North Pole and half-way across the globe.  The weather here is 75 and humid, though once the morning smog burns off the views are impressive.

We were lucky enough to get temporary digs in the Four Points Hotel apartments until we find more permanent housing (apartment hunting in China is going to be interesting).

There will be a more detailed post with pictures coming once I catch up on some sleep and get my brain functioning again.  Get excited.