NICKERSON Right

BETTI

- And don’t need to be further explained.

NICKERSON

(Laughs) Just watch Shark Tank.

BETTI

Yeah, just watch Shark Tank. (Laughs) Be Kevin O’Leary.

NICKERSON

So, do you, actually, I think you said you would need to research this, if Western investors typically invest in foreign or if their investments are generally local to the-

BETTI

Are you talking about venture capitalists and angels?

NICKERSON

Ah, yes, more or less, so like- BETTI

Yes, there are some investment firms that have invested overseas. I would need to do some research on that. I know that one of them is in Boston and I’m sure more on the west coast because they’re closer. That’s six less hours in the air from San Francisco to over China than it is from Boston. So yes, and I will state again that there are a lot of immigrants that come here and are either founders or cofounders of companies that United States venture capital firms and angel groups have invested in, and there is a pretty good size percentage of their portfolio where there is an immigrant that is a founder or cofounder.

NICKERSON

Um, and I think the case with most of those, for the most part, I mean from what I’ve seen, is they come here and develop companies that generally stay out in California or Boston, and local, and what we would be going after with this project is convincing Western investors that like, [this is] a poor example, because I think it strays slightly away from the kind of people that 5CGroup works with, but if we said there’s a music app that just launched in China and it’s only accessible to Chinese people, and talk to a Western or West-Coast investment firm saying “Hey, you guys should invest in it.” Are things like that common, in which you’d be investing in something that would stay local to a separate country?

BETTI

No, because, I think that’s fine. I think there’s a lot of Chinese population, more than we have, so there’s more opportunity there, more problems to solve, more customers potentially to gain.

It’s a very young country. They are very forward-thinking. They want these technologies, especially the younger Chinese population, so I think there are a lot of opportunities there. It’s just a matter of organizing and communicating what is available in terms of investment opportunities, and I’m not sure that has been done to best of possibilities for others, outsiders, to learn. The way that that is done is you pick up the phone or email and you communicate, so it’s

really strong communication skills and being able to meet face-to-face whenever possible to go over what the opportunities are. Also, you’re going to find venture capital firms, again, on the west coast that are probably more interested than venture capital firms on the east coast. Or hedge funds, they’re another investment group. So it depends again on the level of investment that is being sought and the types of companies that are seeking investment capital and if there are middle men that are taking a share, like they may be taking 25 or 50 percent of that investment as a fee. I don’t know how they do these transactions in China so it would be important to know that and to disclose what’s accepted in that culture to outside investors so they understand what they’re going into before they make these commitments.

NICKERSON

And that kind of leads into the next question which is how big of a barrier would you say that international business language and regular language plays in business relationships, so Chinese men versus-

BETTI

Again, the language is not a barrier because there are technologies that translate. Google translates for you, you can hire a translator. It’s not the language that’s the barrier because the real barrier is what is done in execution. If it’s not followed to the contact or the agreement then you run into issues there, and that’s not a language issue, that is an attitude issue. So whether or not you’ve conveyed every, you know, you’ve dotted all the I’s and you’ve crossed all the T’s, and both parties are in agreement and you’ve got a contact and it’s got a deadline and that deadline passes, what are you going to do about it? That wasn’t the language that was the barrier.

It comes in the execution. So again, that goes to cultural roots and their customs and their expectations in the country that you’re going to be investing in. You’ve got to have an understanding of that going in and not have surprises coming out.

NICKERSON

Alright. So switching to Western investment strategies, or mostly Western, there are some in Asia, what are your opinions on accelerator programs and investment clubs? Do you feel they’re an efficient way to get startups off the ground or are there things or techniques that could be used to improve the efficiency of these programs?

BETTI

No, I think the accelerator programs that have a curriculum are very good and I would not include co-working space as one of those types of environments where you go to start a company. I think the accelerators that have a track record are important to explore and look at, what is their model of getting these companies out the door? They actually take off inside the accelerator and they don’t grow enough to leave. If that’s the case, and you’re in an incubator for three years, you may not succeed in that fourth year if you leave that incubator space. So you

need to have very well-established incubator and accelerator curriculums and processes that work to get those new companies out the door.

NICKERSON