WHub Startup Ecosystem Toolbox V.4
Event Recap, Key Insights & Memorable quotes

WHub’s Hong Kong Startup Ecosystem Toolbox 2018 : Insights and Trends on September 4 was met with great enthusiasm and support. We are always very grateful for the support from the community, and we were delighted to celebrate Hong Kong’s growing startup ecosystem and conduct our sharings to a full house at Metta.
The launch featured the first glimpse of the insights & trends, and fireside chats with startup ecosystem experts. Download the toolbox for free. We’ve created an event recap, key insights and memorable quotes from the event, but if you would like to watch the event or share the experience, click here to watch the Facebook Live.
In fact, if you would like to have tailor-made Startup Ecosystem Toolbox v.4 Presentation, fill in this quick 2-minute questionnaire and make an appointment.
Key sharing from WHub Co-Founders: Karena Belin, CEO & Karen Contet Farzam, Chief Hustler

Why create the toolbox?
In 2015, the startup scene in Hong Kong took off — there were the first government-backed incubation programs, startups were first introduced into the HK Financial Budget, and RISE first came to Hong Kong. With the startup boom, the toolbox was created as a way to effectively showcase and understand the ecosystem, as well as creating a medium to showcase and connect with key players.
Why Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is a city made by entrepreneurs and is therefore well structured for doing business. It is:
— Easy & Safe
— Strategically positioned (Greater Bay Area)
— Ultra connected
— Made up of a diverse community of entrepreneurs
Hong Kong has one of the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem, with a startup valuation of more than $ 15 billion.
Startups In Hong Kong
— Hong Kong’s 7 unicorns: WeLab, BitMEX, Lalamove, Klook, TinkLabs, Sensetime, GoGoVan
— There are many other success stories startups: TNG Wallet raised one of the biggest Series A funding rounds in the world, Block.One raised an ICO twice as much as Telegram’s million dollar ICO
— Hong Kong has a huge startup ecosystem, with the rising, raising, growing and scaling startups, HK has a mature startup ecosystem.
— In 2017, HK startups closed US $500+ Million and in 2018, HK startups closed US $1.9+ Billion in funding. (Sign up for WHub’s newsletter to be the first to know startup news & updates)
— Startup Support System include:
- Accelerators & Incubators
- Co-working spaces
- Community Builders
- Government programs & Funds
- Venture Capitalists
- Corporates
- Startup Competitions & Events (See Events Calendar)
Fireside Chat — Blake Larson,
Managing Director of International, Lalamove
(Hosted by Karena Belin, Co-Founder & CEO, WHub)

“Stay uncomfortable. And don’t let social factors determine
what success means to you.” — Blake Larson
About Blake Larson
Starting out with a corporate career in the US, Blake went to Barcelona and Singapore to do his MBA after feeling as though “something was missing” in his lifestyle.
During his MBA, he established his first startup targeting airline employees, which failed “miserably”. He then moved on to start East Taxi HK in 2013 before joining Lalamove.
Lessons learned from his time at Lalamove
From Seed to Unicorn: For a unicorn, time and talent management is key, especially finding good tech and product talents. Moreover, it costs dearly to make mistakes with features during early stages, so testing manually before automating is crucial for not losing heavy bucks.
Funding: Blake highly recommends Mindwork Ventures, but he warns before thinking about fundraising/expanding in early stages, you need to prove your worth and value as a company, and which factors in a market you can maximize.
Scaling: Because offline is a huge part of Lalamove’s business, setting up in different countries is like starting new businesses. He advices to think properly about opportunities and localizational challenges before expanding.
The difficulties when scaling into China was stressed: language barrier, handling operations in China, therefore, finding talent, are all serious issues to consider and to prepare for.
Fireside Chat — Malcolm Ong, Head of Product, SCMP
(Hosted by Pritish Sanyal, Startup Community Builder, WHub)

“There are so many factors to success and failure. Becoming a founder doesn’t automatically mean you’re successful. Willingness to do it again and again, to experiment often, to go through that process, that’s the key.” — Malcolm Ong
About Malcolm Ong
Now Head of Product at SCMP, Malcolm headed various Product & Growth teams at Lyft, co-founded Skillshare, an online community to learn and teach, and was the entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups, and mentor at Peter Thiel Foundation.
Silicon Valley
Startups and technology is a part of life in San Fran — founders & startup-related people fill the city and startup services are used daily. The support and resources from the community thus foster the startup ecosystem, and the concentration creates a cycle for inspiration for the community.
SCMP
After Alibaba’s acquisition, SCMP is on a quest to transform its digital & cultural identity.
Identity & culture: SCMP is transforming their mission, vision & values — the entire staff is in a process to re-invent SCMP’s identity (evident from their rebranding), shifting from an Hong Kong-focused newspaper to a global news media digital outlet.
Digital: In their transformation, they aim to become more data-driven, more experimental, not just in product developments, but in how they write, market, collaborate and everything else.
Interested in learning more about the local startup scene?
WHub’s Startup Ecosystem Toolbox examines insights and trends of Hong Kong’s startup scene, best of all, it’s FREE! Download here: www.whub.io/s/toolbox2018.
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