Calvin Chin at T13 in Shanghai. Image: Ami Sanyal Photography
At Mailman Group’s T13 conference in Shanghai yesterday, one of the city’s top entrepreneurial voices, Calvin Chin, took to the stage to explain his personal approach to the concept of social innovation. He’s the CEO of Shanghai-based startup accelerator Transist Impact Labs, the founder of the now defunct P2P student loans service Qifeng, and one of Fast Company’s 100 most innovative people in the startup space in China. I decided to listen to what he’s saying, and wrote it up as he talked in the form of a sort of live-blog.
Why China?
Calvin’s speech is based around his nine-year journey in and around China, which was when he first moved to the country. As a third-generation American Chinese, his initial move to China was met with surprise – “Why China?” he was asked repeatedly by family in sunny San Francisco. That question remained in the air until the more recent economic boom made sense for people to follow the money to China. Now the Why China? question is back on people’s lips, Calvin says, for a different reason – due to so many woes like pollution and pricey housing – that leaves some people asking why someone would stay in China right now; especially when that person has kids.
For an entrepreneur, he says, it’s a very tough place to do business: “It’s not that the market is not mature, but it’s also broken.” As a hyper-fragmented market, many Chinese business environments are dominated by oligopolies, and then there are the ties of government regulations and the might of State-owned enterprises.
The next challenge in the innovation process, is to build a brand and then take it forward from there – which is tough in a rigged market. So the reason that Calvin stays is because of the opportunities – so many that they exceed the weight of the challenges. Showing a photo of crabs in a fisher’s pot on the screens around the room, he says: “The payouts for getting to the top of the crab basket are very big.” That means accessing over half a billion web users, and over a billion on mobiles.
Purpose, responsibility
So the second reason for Why China? is “purpose”. China is, he elaborates, a “proud country stumbling its way to its rightful place as a world leader.” And that’s part of the energy in this purpose. But amidst all this excitement, he acknowledges, is income inequality; yet there is also a large and hopeful Chinese youth. That’s all part of the purpose for Calvin and his commitment to China.
That leads him to the sense of responsibility that comes from the ability to make a difference. That needn’t be at the cost of making money or a profit, he says. Yet focusing just on money is the “way to end up lacking focus, rudder-less, and without money.” Many “wrong investors” and the world markets emphasize pure profit, but that’s “wrong, wrong, wrong,” notes Calvin. And that’s the basis of social innovation.
This sense of purpose has inspired Calvin in his two startups and his new role as an investor and head of Transist Labs. It’s based on customer value, stakeholder value, and building things for other people.
From giving customer value you also create stakeholder value, and get towards the right product-market fit in a startup. It’s also the right approach, Calvin says, to keep talent and fend off competitors. Purpose puts users at the center of your product development, and gets you the right talent; it also transforms the fear of failure into something more bold, to go towards innovation and iteration. “Failure with a purpose is worthy because the goal was worthy.”
“I urge you all,” he ends, “to do epic shit.”
(Event photo by Ami Sanyal)
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