The craziest phenomena in the Chinese venture ecosystem to me from this article were:
- 明股实债, translatable as "ostensibly equity, in reality debt", referring to how Chinese founders take personal liability and must return capital in a 6-8yr horizon to meet their backers' hurdle rate
- FA (financial advisors) who broker deals between startups and VCs for a 2-5% take, to provide "relationship liquidity" because culturally there are no cold inbounds: people meet mostly through WeChat group intros
Bohan doesn't write much (yet) but he's extremely knowledgable about the Chinese ecosystem, something we all ought to know more about.
Everyone in the Valley has a take on whether China is winning AI, robotics, and biotech. Almost nobody understands how the capital works Notes from meeting Chin...