Cohort Eight Travels to China: Part 2
The rest of the week flies by.
Tuesday — The Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round and ‘Round
On Tuesday, we loaded the startups into three vans and headed off to see PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) and plastics facilities in Dongguan. The startups saw electronics manufacturing, mold-making, plastic injection molding, R&D facilities, test and QA equipment, and more.
Wednesday — Mentor Lecture and Packaging Factory
Wednesday began with a lecture on How to Say What You Want to Say When Marketing Your Product” by mentor Ken Wu. This topic covered the dos and don’ts when it comes to communicating about your products, understanding local laws, and knowing where you can find more information.
In the afternoon, we headed to a packaging facility to see different processes including screen printing, die-cutting, offset printing, carton-box printing, folding, and more.
Thursday — Startups Explore Their Own Factories
Thursday is typically a “free day”, but we highly encourage the startups to book their own factory tours. Every startup on the trip had arranged to see factories of their choice.
Osmo Systems was invited by the largest shrimp hatchery in Vietnam (and likely the world) to fly from Shenzhen to Ho Chi Minh City and tour the site. James and Zach (two of the cofounders) flew in, drove six hours to the farm, ate great Vietnamese food along the way, and woke up early the next morning for a day of tours. One of the R&D managers grew up in the US and spoke English, so he showed Osmo around their massive facilities. They took pages of notes and snapped as many pictures as possible — from the guy who takes water quality readings by hand, to the kind of power sources, to the lab where the farm analyzes water quality today. Zach and James returned to Ho Chi Minh City that day (another 6 hour drive) and flew back to Hong Kong to meet back up with the rest of the Highway1 group. Upon returning to the States, Osmo Systems signed an LOI and testing agreement with the hatchery/farm, to begin this summer.
Prior to arriving in Shenzhen, Telegnos had arranged a visit to the IDT facility where products for Oregon Scientific (among many, many others) are manufactured. IDT arranged travel to and from the facility, including lunch in their VIP cantina, and meetings with various representatives of their technical staff to discuss their capabilities and plans. The visit included a tour of IDT’s manufacturing areas for a first-person look at how they run their facilities. All in all, a great experience and the Telegnos crew looks forward to their next visit.
Back in Shenzhen on Thursday evening, the Highway1 startups reconvened at The Brew, where our hosts at PCH bid us farewell with drinks, dinner, and live music.
Highway1 would like to extend a huge thank you to the PCH office in China for hosting us and supporting our trip.
If you’d like to learn more about the China trip and the Highway1 program, please visit highway1.io/apply.
