I’ve been recently working on writing a book that will enable me to share my knowledge and experience about raising funds in China from Chinese investors. It’s going to be called: “Raise Your Funds in China” (tentative title).
The book is still in the works, but I’m very excited to bring you the Preface of the book, along with a description of the content you’ll find there.
I have created a No Obligation pre-registration form, and I’ll announce updates about the book and, of course, the release date on this page.
As I’m still in the writing stage, I’m opening this up to crowd-sourcing. I’ll be happy to receive your input and to add specific topics that you are interested in knowing more about. Just leave your questions and remarks in the Comments section.
So …
Step #1: Register using the following form to be part of the book launch.
Step #2: Sit down, relax and enjoy the show!
Preface
…And then I fainted.
This is how a Chinese business meeting once ended up for me. I had my (then) boss taking a picture of me in a wheelchair, being taken to my hotel room. My wife says that when I called after a few hours, I sounded awful.
That was a learning experience for me — and I want you to learn from my experience.
Working with Chinese investors isn’t an easy task. It’s a process of learning to work with people from a culture and mindset so different from westerners. But, hopefully this book will provide some insights and shortcuts for you.
At the end of 2011, I moved to Beijing with my wife. I had the pleasure of helping to build one of the most thriving and exciting entrepreneurship ecosystems in the world. I organized (and still today) one of the largest meetups in Beijing, called the “Lean Startup Meetup”. I therefore became a ‘connector’ at some point, helping people to … well…connect. It’s kind of like matchmaking, though I was never asked to help anyone find his or her significant other.
As someone who was born and raised in Israel – AKA “The Startup Nation”, I saw a lot of potential in connecting the Israeli tech ecosystem with China. Israel develops cutting-edge advanced technologies but has no market – while China is looking for new technologies and has an endless market.
Being the organizer of the meetup helped me connect with investors, and when they heard that I was working with Israeli companies to bring Israeli technologies to China – they became interested. Back then, in 2012-2013, it was still fairly new. I, of course, wasn’t the only one doing this, but if you compare it to what’s happening now in 2016-2017, Israel and China’s business relations are flourishing.
In total, I worked with close to 100 investors in China. With some I had close relationships and with others, only email correspondence. With all of them, my value proposition was the Israeli technology which is widely known around the world and was a significant advantage.
I actually thought that just by doing the right things, closing deals would be easy. It was certainly not easy.
The chapters of this book can be read in order, or according to the content you find interesting and relevant..
Chapter #1 starts with the decision-making stage – whether or why you should look at China as a potential source of funding – and also covers the current status of innovation in China.
Once you’ve made your decision to really go through the process of raising funds in China, you can take a look at Chapter #2, which will tell you what Chinese investors are looking for in a company. Their approach is very different from investors in the West.
Chapter #3 and Chapter #4 discuss the differences in doing business in China. Chapter #3 focuses on cultural differences while Chapter #4 zeroes in on business aspects.
Chapters #5, #6 and #7 address the actual meetings with investors: how to prepare, what to do while in the meeting, and, of course, what you do after that critical meeting you’ve been waiting for – in order to bring your company to life or jump it to the next level.
Chapter #8 identifies various financial vehicles that can potentially invest in your company, and the differences between them.
Chapter #9 talks about the due diligence process you’d be going through, if your company is potentially going to get the investment.
One last remark. This book could have been generally about Business in China, but I’m going to focus more on the work I’ve done with investors. Still, you can learn a lot from it about the Chinese business environment in general.
Image credit by DaMongMan
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