For the first episode of this new season on Microsoft, we invited Jason Tsao, AI and Area Transformation Lead of Microsoft Greater China Region. Jason received his Bachelor’s Degree from Duke University in Electrical Engineering and then went on to pursue a Masters in Engineering Management at University of Ottawa. He joined MSFT as a License Executive in Beijing responsible to establish business process for cloud in China and prior to his ATL role, Jason was the M&O lead in Taiwan since FY18 and Chief of Staff of GCR CVP since FY17. In this episode, Jason discussed with us what takes a company to bring AI in, the relationship between AI and human as well as the potential ethical challenges behind AI application. Today, with Jason Tsao, we learn about his past careers and the impact AI has brought to various industries and human life. 

 Show Notes

0:59 Personal experience 

2:39 Day to day life surrounding the topic of AI 

6:17 Case of a shipping company 

7:36 You need a sharing culture to bring AI in 

9:20 You need a culture that encourages failing 

12:25 The need of cooperation with different teams 

13:57 AI has transformed the OCR technology 

15:01 Microsoft research Asia's investment in AI 

18:12 Will AI replace human intelligence 

23:50 AI and creativity 

30:17 Will AI inhibit human interaction 

31:35 Business opportunity behind understanding the user’s emotion sign 

33:54 When will AI be able to represent full human intelligence 

35:15 AI and ethics

40:14 AI for good initiative 

42:06 Advice for AI startups 

Summary

Lab has always been a place where the newest ideas and innovation emerge. So what does a smart lab look like? This episode we invited Kenny Li, CEO and Co-founder of our Batch five startup iLabService. Kenny received his Bachelor’s Degree from Zhejiang University and then went on to receive his Masters from Nanyang Technological University. He came back to China around 2010, and his follow-up careers were mostly in lab-related industries. In 2016 to 2017, Kenny started iLabService as a Co-founder. iLabService focuses on providing automatic solutions to all labs, aiming to create smarter labs. Kenny’s ultimate goal is to help scientists to become more efficient through digital transformation, advanced analytics and automation. Today, with Kenny Li, we learn about his past careers and how he has used his industrial know-how to make a difference in the lab industry. 

Show Notes

0:33 Introduction

1:06 Kenny’s personal experience

2:04 How did Kenny get involved in lab service

4:01 Problems encountered when iLabService first started

6:02 Risks involved in the business

7:31 How iLabService was born

8:59 A global business goal

9:48 Can a Chinese-specific solution be copied and pasted to other countries

10:43 How ‘smart’ can iLabService be

12:08 The most valuable lesson Kenny has learned from YC

15:05 A transition from an engineer to a CEO

15:50 The most important thing in doing well in a CEO role

17:07 In-depth knowledge and accumulated experience, determining factors for to B start-ups

18:38 Team structure

20:54 Challenges encountered and overcome

22:20 Plans for the future

This episode we invited Steve Wang, COO and Co-founder of Tezign. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from ZheJiang University and then went on to receive his Masters from Columbia University. He is an expert of A.I. and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. Previously he worked in U.S. and In 2015, he joined Tezign as a cofounder. Tezign is a creative and marketing supplier platform and data intelligence solution trusted by world's leading brands. In Tezign, Steve focuses on developing leading mar-tech products and also participates in many research projects of “Design A.I. LAB”. Today with Steve Wang, also known as Wang Zhe, we learn about his experiences in the West, and how he brought his knowledge back to the East.

1:23 Intro  

1:57 Steve's personal journey  

2:53 How Tezign was born  

4:05 Tech + design  

4:33 Why Tezign chose this area of focus 

5:54 Challenges faced when they first started  

7:22 What’s Tezign’s biggest advantage  

11:02 Why chinese market  

14:23 How design thinking is different in china  

16:15 Future of Tezign  

18:14 How Tezign deals with corporate innovation  

19:26 Tezign team structure  

In this episode YiPin Ng tells us how he went from an engineer at Sun Microsystems to founding Yunqi Partners and how he got into the world of investing. He then explains the many factors that contribute to his decision when investing such as the idea, its team, and most importantly the founder. He then explores the idea of starting your own business and fitting in a startup such as learning from your mistakes and determining to try again. We conclude the discussion with the future of AI and the idea of traditional and corporate VCs working together. Throughout this podcast we learn many insights from Yipin surrounding startups and VCs with many examples to back them up.  Yunqi Partners specializes in AI, big data, cloud computing, fintech, B2B, and other industries, with assets totalling billions of RMB.

Shownotes: 

1:13 Getting to know YiPin
2:32 How Yipin got into the world of investing
5:28 What fascinates Yipin the most about investing and what keeps him in the industry
7:07 Core qualities of a founder 
9:38 Breaking rules
10:51 Why Yunqi chooses to focus on AI, cloud computing, and autonomous driving
13:22 Yunqi‘s focus on AI for good
14:54 Selecting criteria
18:38 Deal sourcing 
19:50 Advise for any aspiring entrepreneurs 
21:32 Finding your role within a startup
25:48 Future of AI 
29:10 The future of VCs with more and more corporate VCs emerging

Today we brought in Walter Benadof, COO of DefinedCrowd, and Aya Zook, their General Manager of Asia-Pacific. DefinedCrowd is Microsoft for Startups backed leading AI and big data startup focused on crowd-sourcing data collection of speech and language. They focus on providing language data for established corporations looking to expand their horizons. Now, they are looking to expanding onto the global market. They already have offices in Seattle and Japan and is looking to expand into China through Microsoft. In today’s episode, Walter and Aya will share their experiences and insights from China trip. 

1:26 What propelled them to start a company like DefinedCrowd?

2:12 How did they come up with the name DefinedCrowd?

3:17 Their experience in China and why they decided to come at this time

5:57 Go China dinner

6:51 Specific example, understanding challenges in expanding the business

7:53 Differences between US and China innovation ecosystem

9:00 Is China big enough of a market

9:33 Future Plans for DefinedCrowd

10:33 What suggestions would they giver foreign startups similar to them?

11:39 What does the Chinese people want?

13:14 How they identify Microsoft as a valuable partner

14:00 Differences and similarities between Microsoft for startups in Shanghai compared to Seattle

14:39 Takeaways from CES Asia

Today we have invited Andi Chen, COO and Co-founder of Whale, a leading IoT & AI startup in China focusing on retail experience and data solution. Whale is dedicated to enlightening the future of retail by driving sales transformation through real-time content interaction based on customer behavior perception. In today’s episode, Andi will share the idea of future shop and how Whale is using its technology to enhance customers' shopping experience.

0:56 Why Andi and Jerry started Whale

4:27 Ideas of the future shop 

7:00 Market trends in China and other countries

9:58 Market focus – Mainland China, Japan and Europe etc.

11:25 Personalised and customised experience of Whale

13:14 Role shifting of shopping guides – from providing basic information to personalised advice

14:50 How Whale improves the ultimate efficiency of sales

16:23 Company structure of Whale

19:10 Categories of Whale’s products focus – volume products or experience-oriented products?

21:09 Challenges Andi encountered

22:48 Company value

25:06 Future plan of Whale

28:05 Advice for young startups

Technology as we all know can be used in many ways and sometimes even abused, and that's the case with AI. It is not unusual that some people might use the technology in ways that are detrimental to the society. In this episode, we have invited startup founders from our portfolio Perspicace, NextVPU and also Managing Partner from Chengwei Capital to have a discussion on the meaning of AI for Good, the foreseeable future of AI and how it is shaping our society.  

1:35 Panelists intro  

3:56 What is AI for good in your opinion? 

8:59 Conflict between AI for Good and profitability  

10:53 AI trend in China  

12:16 How older people deal with new technology  

13:59 How to manage risks associated with AI  

22:09 What values should we abide by? 

26:29 The future of AI  

Today we have a special episode with one of our alumni startups, MINIEYE, in Shenzhen. Founded in 2013, MINIEYE is one of the earliest companies in China that conducted research on autonomous driving and ADAS products. MINIEYE is dedicated to providing reliable sensing solution for vehicles by utilizing AI technology and just the beginning of this month, MINIEYE has closed series B financing led by NavInfo. I had a great time visiting MINIEYE’s office and had a quick conversation with one of the co-founders Qicheng Wang.  

1:07   Intro  
1:53   Why the co-founders at Minieye don’t drive  
3:05   Why did they come back to China and how did they start Minieye  
4:32   Why did he drop out  
6:07   The first step and challenges  
7:20   Product first  
10:02 Ending  

Today our guest is Tiger Yang, President and Co-founder of Apex Technologies. Tiger and Jimmy, two co-founders at Apex, actually met each other their freshman year as lab partners for electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. They started developing their interests in enterprises on improving efficiency in the marketing field. And when they decided to come back to china, Apex technologies was born.   

0:57 Why Tiger and Jimmy decided to come back to china and start Apex Technologies  

2:37 How Apex Technologies keeps innovating in the age of AI and Big data  

8:07 Factors influencing people’s choices   

13:16 Industries of focus  

17:07 Industries that are challenging to tap in

19:12 Personalised marketing and data driven internal decision making 

24:23 How Apex Technologies helps reshape services and solve security issues  

25:15 Apex Technologies’ competitive advantage  

29:35 The future of AI  

32:44 General advice for our audience who are interested in starting up in China  

Are you sometimes annoyed by the information overflow or tired of going through endless searches to find the information you need? Today we have invited Ye Chen (Alex), CEO of Tigerobo, a microsoft for startups powered AI-based financial search engine startup that is aiming to revolutionise the info searching experience.  

0:37 Why Alex started Tigerobo  

1:27 Why Fintech industry  

3:06 Fintech market in china  

4:30 The importance of timing 

6:00 Market competitiveness 

8:47 Examples of the Tigerobo search function   

11:50 Challenges Tigerobo is facing right now in china  

16:54 Next step for Tigerobo 

18:58 Entering foreign market   

20:22 Optimising user experience for different markets  

24:30 Why starting in China first  

25:20 How Tigerobo CEO divides up his work