Background Check

I stepped foot outside of the Pudong airport and was immediately enveloped by a suffocating wave of heat and humidity.

"What did I get myself into?!" I asked as I threw my bags into a decrepit van and took off towards central Shanghai. The original 8-track player wobbled in sync to the bumps which the aged shocks failed to absorb. The miniature music speakers blasted out a tinny melody from a Chinese crooner who was undoubtedly in his golden years by now.

I traveled halfway across the world to take part in helping a small business grow. My previous job at a Japanese bank in London was hectic and rewarding, but at many points I felt like a cog in a well-oiled machine.

In order to fully explain my actions in moving out to China. It makes sense to shed some light on personal history:

When I was 9, my father started up a company called New Wave Enviro . The main office was in our family basement. He had purchased a company 4 years previously in LA but it had dissolved after the business declared Chapter 7 liquidation. My dad took this hit on the chin, learned from his mistakes, and started anew. When I hit middle school, I started doing basic work for New Wave, i.e. filing invoices, entering warranty cards, etc. Although it was rote work, I had officially landed my first business internship at age 12. For the next 10 years I worked alongside New Wave Enviro as it reached positive cash-flow, expanded out to a full-time office and gained market share in its focused industry.

This experience got me hooked on business development, venture capital financing, and business expansion. In college, I was lucky enough to experience TechStars, a Boulder-based incubator providing seed capital for tech-based startups, and its InvestorDay presentation. I ended up investing in my first business, Search-to-Phone, alongside investors such as Brad Feld, co-founder of the Mobius and Foundry VC funds, and Jared Polis, who sold two of his businesses for $780 million and $470 million respectively.

Now I am in Shanghai, angling towards securing a second round of venture capital investment for the company I work for. In the coming months, I hope to shed some light on the experience of raising venture capital in China. So stay tuned...