Last night, we concluded the last speaker series of the year. Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China, one of NOC Shanghai’s list of companies, shared about Bitcoin, China, his own personal entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he has learnt from it. Bringing us into the world of Bitcoin and digital assets, Bobby explained that Bitcoin was first created by Satoshi Nakamoto and is meant to be a digital asset first adopted by Libertarians who believe in owning value that is rightfully theirs. Supported by Blockchain technology, a public ledger for all bitcoin transactions, Bitcoin is protected by cryptography, which includes its 32-35 character long private key that consists of numbers, lower, and upper case alphabets. A revolutionary technology, its importance lies in its ability to transfer value, providing real value at the speed of light. Bitcoins are able to transcend spatial boundaries and time, is limited in supply, decentralized, and has very low fees. Due to these characteristics, Bitcoin is inherently useful for making payments instantaneously, even over geographical boundaries. Painting the Bitcoin scene in China, Bobby mentioned that Bitcoin has been rising in popularity within the country due to individuals’ perception that Bitcoin is an investment for the future, one that cannot be manipulated and controlled by a single entity. China is also home to over 60% of the global Bitcoin mining share, due to the availability of fast assembly, good chip design, and cheap electricity. Apart from sharing about his profession and passion, Bobby reflected upon 7 key learning points about being an entrepreneur in China:
Concluding the night on a high note, Bobby shared about the business aspirations he has had since he was a child, and the sense of gratification he gets from growing and directing his own company. He also provided advice on career choices, stating that there is no one right path and that we should all follow our personal goals and achieve them. As the last speaker series of the year, we would like to thank Bobby and all the other speakers who have participated in our past speaker series, and shared about their inspiring startup journey. We hope that future NOC events will continue to be as inspiring and thought-provoking as those this year.
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That was one of the comments someone left on a moment I shared a couple of weeks ago. That moment was a sight, a short clip function in WeChat that you'll soon learn to use in no time, of my team and I OT-ing on a Wednesday night. DJ Blue (only for that night; on other days she's my boss) was in the house playing Big Bang and other ancient Chinese songs while serving us wine that she bought a week ago at the Shanghai Wine and Dine Festival that we were also involved in that I'll elaborate on later. My team was rushing some decor out for our stores before Golden Week arrived in order to capitalize entirely on the local and foreign crowd that would hit the streets then. We stayed till 10pm that night and it was such a fantastic time despite the additional efforts that I hardly think 'OT' would be an appropriate verb to use in this context. Sounds great doesn't it? It is. And there's more. This company that I speak of is a freshly-minted NOC partner company, Lider Lesi 里德里西. It's a F&B company that actively manages two brands currently, Churros and Ei Mio (Frozen Yogurt). There are future plans in place for up and coming brands (food also of course, desserts to be specific) so future batches, you are in for a complete hell of a time in the best way possible. I work in the Brand Team so I report to Blue or more commonly known as 蓝姐姐 in the office. She's awfully capable and patient but at the same time expects nothing but the best from her subordinates so yes, she is demanding when work is in question. She manages a total of seven of us, two of which are Chinese Marketing Managers who are the loveliest supervisors ever and a SINGAPOREAN Brand Comms Manager who has been here for a grand total of ten days so far hahaha but he's definitely here to stay (he got headhunted by Blue allllllllll the way from Singapore #lifegoals). What these three people have in common is that they worked in BreadTalk for a period of time, including Blue, so you'll be hearing much talk about Singaporeans, Singapore, Singlish and the list goes on. Feels pretty close to home at times. There are three others in the team who are remarkable at what they do as well, namely marketing, space design and design respectively. This company can hardly qualify as a start-up with a fully structured hierarchy. There's an IT department, HR, Finance, Operations and plenty others that assist with the company's operations. Everyone's awfully kind around here which enhances the working environment greatly. Coming to work doesn't feel like coming to work in the least bit. This company would probably change you in ways you can't even begin to imagine. I know for a fact that I now dislike Fridays (a little) and love Tuesdays (because Mondays are school day) way more than I used to because it means I get to come to work hahaha it sounds bizarre, I know but it's happening as I type this in my beautiful office (we have one of the nicest physical offices around :D). Every once a month too, there will be a fruits day where everyone in the office will gather at our pearly-white counter to feast on fruits and snacks but mostly fruits because #frozenyogurtelements. It may not be a start-up but there is still an awful lot to learn. You'll find out when you come ;) Okay let me get to the bit where I talk about what I actually do here. I do market research mostly, which means anything related to consumers, churros, frozen yogurt that includes analysis etc and well, just food essentially. Pinterest is my best friend here rather than Google because I'm using a company computer (which means no VPN) but you have the option to bring your own. I must admit it's been a challenge operating Windows and Firefox in Chinese but that's why you're on NOC isn't it? To step out of your comfort zone. People always get terrified at the sound of that but honestly, just start small. It gets easier from there and before you even realize it, you'll be out. Anyway I digress; so yes I do market research here which means my job pretty much entails looking at food all day every day. Oh and did I mention sampling as well since obviously, you can't do F&B without the actual eating. I recently visited our R&D space and had five or six servings of yogurt/frozen yogurt (upcoming flavours) and a GINORMOUS ladle of sauce topping to myself. I can't provide photos unfortunately so I'm afraid you can only depend on my words for now and your imagination to craft that precious image of me gorging myself silly which could well be you next year. Complimentary froyo, courtesy of Lider Lesi :D On a good day, this is how it looks like around my office perimeters. The interiors are undergoing change soon so you guys can find out for yourself the new look :) There was also a Shanghai Wine and Dine Festival earlier in September which hosted roughly 150-200 retailers at Shibo Garden 世博公园 for three days and culminated in an estimated total of 50,000 people. Think Singapore Expo Food Fair but two-three times that scale. We went on day one to check out operations, traffic etc but naturally, we worked hard, played hard and ate hard all at once. We ate loads of churros (in front of our booth because #freeadvertising), had our faces printed on coffee, admired the most breathtaking sunset I'd seen in Shanghai against the backdrop of a bridge and river and well, the sky fell dark before I'd even realized. Enough said, just look at them photos for yourself. Before I end this post, I just want to say best of luck to you guys (future batches) wherever you may be working at. Shanghai is an incredibly gorgeous and vibrant city that is very much understated in my opinion. Make the most out of your time here especially if you get to work at Lider Lesi because I am devastated that I only got to be here for a mere three months but nonetheless, it's been nothing short of amazing. Be brave in making mistakes but don't repeat them, be open-minded when interacting with people because there's something to learn from everyone even if it appears minute, be optimistic even when it feels like there's no way out and you feel completely alone. Remember, this too will pass. For better or for worse, embrace it and bask in every second of it.
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SHEN
申城 (shen cheng) is an ancient name for Shanghai.
As a group of NUS and NOC students who are in Shanghai for a year-long internship programme, we have named our student organisation as SHEN (Shanghai House of Entrepreneurs). Archives
November 2017
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