On the morning of April 4, QDII held the 4th Session of Innovative Community Activity in Qingdao Oceantec Valley. It was a big success, thanks to the support from Qingdao Oceantec Valley and cooperation with Haier Haichuanghui (HCH) and Amazon AWS Beike Work International Accelerator. More than 70 entrepreneurs from China participated in the activity.
In this innovative community, Mr. Claude Leglise, President of SRI International Global Innovation Center and Chairman of QDII, visited Qingdao and attended the event to analyze and guide the roadshow project of SRI Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp. Moreover, based on his rich experience in global venture capital from acting as vice president of investment at Intel, Mr. Leglise gave a lecture on venture capital for entrepreneurs, and analyzed the key points of venture financing from the perspective of investors.
Dr. Huang Yannong, CEO of QDII, introduced the Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp and innovative community activities of QDII to the guests. He hopes that more entrepreneurs could join in because one of QDII’s tasks is just to help the entrepreneurs reduce the difficulties in starting up a business, attract investments, and achieve fast commercialization.
Mr. Zhang Yongsheng, General Manager of Amazon AWS Beike Work International Accelerator, and Mr. Wang Ruipu, Partner of Haier Haichuanghui and Overseas & Community Director, also attended this innovative community activity.
QDII will work together with Amazonian AWS Beike Work and Haier Haichuanghui to provide entrepreneurs with a full range of entrepreneurial services.
Four quality projects in the SRI Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp were presented in the form of on-site roadshows, all of which received comments from guests present and Mr. Claude Leglise. The SRI Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp is an innovation incubation training sponsored by QDII and supported by the Qingdao Oceantec Valley Administration, the National Ocean Technology Transfer Center and SRI International. Based on the innovation rules of SRI International, Mr. Claude Leglise, Chairman of QDII, and Executive Director of the Global Innovation Leadership Center of SRI International, led a team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and executives to form a mentor team to provide targeted technological industrialization training for the technology companies based in Qingdao and even China.
Mr. Claude Leglise shared his views on venture financing from the perspective of an investor for the entrepreneurs present.
The truth is that most technicians don't have the idea of business operation. They own high technologies, but no customers want to buy these technologies, or they don't have a business model to put technologies on the market. Investors, however, need large projects that can promise profits. They hope that an entrepreneur has a good team to work with and that the technology has great market opportunities and enough competitiveness.
From the perspective of investors, what investors want to know is whether the technology or service can solve customers’ problems, the market capacity and the number of customers available; who are the existing competitors, where are your competitive advantages; what you sell or how you earn money; who are your team members; how much investment you need in total, how much you need at present, and how you would spend it, and so on.
The most important determinants of a start-up team's success: The first determinant is the management team, the second is the market capacity, the third is the business model, and the fourth is the proprietary product or service. Investors, in fact, are investing more in "people" as they pay more attention to the entrepreneurial team members. The business arena is like a sports field, in which only the best team can win. Therefore, as the leader of the start-up team, it is even more important to hire people with good academic qualifications, rich experience, strong ability and high reputation for the team. Don't worry that they surpass you with their abilities, because they are hired to help you succeed.
Most entrepreneurs make mistakes when communicating with investors. For example, there are too many pages in the slide with too much information, a large part of text, too many product details and financial details, or they believe that their products are so unique that there are no competitors, or that other competitors are not as competitive as themselves. They may make assumptions without data support, express themselves arrogantly or lack confidence.
Finally, Mr. Claude Leglise proposed that the next phase of the camp incubation plan will start in the summer, and hoped that more entrepreneurs could join in because one of QDII’s tasks is just to help the entrepreneurs reduce the difficulties in starting up a business, attract investments, and achieve fast commercialization.