Going Global Discussion: China or US with William Bao Bean and Rob Van Es
Date and time
Location
muru-D
363 Oxford Street Paddington, NSW 2021 AustraliaDescription
At muru-D, we're keen to see startups go global from day one. Over the last 12 months, there's been plenty of encouragement for Australian startups to go global and mainly focusing on either the U.S or China.
For early stage startups, it can be challenging to identify which market they should focus and prioritise resources on. What are the pros and cons of going to China instead of the U.S? Is SF and the Valley still as great as it used to be? Is 1.3B just a figure or is there something deeper to that? Which market is better for which startups? Should I just dominate Australia instead?
We've got two international guests who can give you some deep insights into the two biggest markets in the world, and which one you should be focusing on.
William Bao Bean is a well known startup leader and angel investor based in Shanghai with great knowledge about the opportunities as well as challenges in China. Rob Van Es has many years of experience in Sillicon Valley and has recently relocated to Sydney. Rob will give insights into Sillicon Valley and the U.S market, where it is heading and whether it's still the market of choice for Australian startups.
Rachel Bui (muru-D) will moderate this insightful and entertaining debate between William and Rob. Come and join us for a drink and find out more about whether you should focus on the US or Chinese market. Don't miss out!
Format
When: Sunday 6th December 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Where: muru-D 363 Oxford St Paddington
Drinks will be provided. Please fill in the details fo each attendees for security purposes and don't forget to bring a photo id.
About the speakers
William Bao Bean
William is a Partner at SOSV, a US$235m accelerator focused venture capital fund, and the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, East Asia's first startup accelerator. William joined SOSV from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was Managing Director supporting China investments. While at Innov8 he led investments in Yodo1 (mobile games), Gmobi (Android platform), Lekan (children's video platform), and Massive Impact (mobile advertising). Previously, William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, a venture capital firm backed by Softbank and Cisco. While at SoftBank he led investments in Silk Road Telecom (SRT) - in mobile enterprise cloud SaaS, Playspan - a payment platform acquired by Visa (NYSE: V), Punch Entertainment - a mobile game developer acquired by DeNA (Tokyo: 2432), and Peacesoft - a Vietnam eCommerce and payment platform backed by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and MOL Group (NASDAQ: MOLG). William spent 11 years as an equity research analyst most recently with Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for Internet and Telecom Equipment in Asia and China technology, media and telecom. Previously he covered Digital Media at Bank of America Securities in San Francisco and PC/Enterprise Hardware at Bear Stearns in New York. William is an active angel investor with 39 investments between 2004 and 2014.
Rob Van Es
Rob is a sales executive with lots of early stage go-to-market experience.
Most recently he was in charge of Aria’s sales, business development and worldwide management.
He has over two decades of experience managing sales for high-tech startups and later-stage companies, including Aria, Hearsay Social, Fortify Software, Rational, and Pure Software. He has a successful track record in defining and implementing new go-to-market strategies and driving them to repeatable multimillion-dollar sales. Customer-oriented and focused on driving new business and customer success.
Organised by
muru-D is a startup accelerator, backed by Telstra.
We develop big thinking entrepreneurs in Australia who use technology to solve challenging global problems.
Our vision is to make the world a better place by developing resilient entrepreneurs who can make an impact. We’re also committed to positively influencing the startup ecosystem wherever we run programs.
We launched in 2013 and run programs in Sydney and Melbourne and have partner programs in Brisbane with River City Labs and Perth with Spacecubed. This makes us the largest accelerator in Australia.
We’re all about positive change and technology. We love supporting founders who are making a positive social impact, like improving the way we look after ourselves and our environment. And we get really excited about interesting technology, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), drones and satellite technology, and robotics! We love this stuff.
What does the name muru-D mean?“muru” is the Sydney Aboriginal Eora word meaning "path", and “D” stands for digital. Given that we were founded in Australia and we provide global pathways to success for digital entrepreneurs to be successful, it encapsulates our vision and what we do.
We’re inclusiveWe believe everyone is capable of being a great founder and making a positive difference in the world. Our doors and program are open to people from all walks of life who share our passion. If you’re part of our community, we’ll make sure you feel welcome and included.