8 - Florian Bohnert - Mobike Bike Sharing in China - The Beertelligence Podcast

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“Working in a Chinese startup is another way to read the culture.”

Florian (富天宇) is Head of International Expansion at Mobike and Co-Director at Startup Grind Shanghai.

He has been in China for more than 7 years and started out doing factory inspections in Shenzhen.

He then moved to Changchun for a year and ended up in Shanghai, where he cofounded (and exited) from a startup called WeSmart in the SAAS space that helped corporate offices save money on their energy bills.

The focus of this episode is around his experiences in China & startups over the years, with heavy focus on early stage startups since he was the first foreigner hired by Mobike, a booming bike-sharing company in Shanghai that uses QR codes to unlock & rent bikes, picking up & dropping them anywhere around the city.

In this episode we discuss:
+ Interest in Asia early on
+ The value of foreign accents
+ How Shenzhen went from incomplete to ‘finished’ in 7 years
+ Visiting factories in China
+ Speed of tech adaption in China, especially WeChat pay
+ How founding team is more important than any industry in China
+ How he became the first foreigner in Mobike
+ How different bike sharing is in China vs previous bike sharing with fixed locations
+ Why Mobike is going international now
+ Comparing working for a French-owned company vs Chinese-owned company
+ How going to the museum & the zoo contributed to his environmentalism
+ Redesigning products to be cheaper, lightweight and more ecofriendly “Ecodesign”
+ Why China was so well set up for bike sharing at this time and going to massive scale
+ How bike sharing companies are dealing with the regulation challenges
+ What some ideal features to add to Mobike
+ Cultural differences showing up in how peoples interact with bikes as urban population’s social commitment
+ Why he wants to do stand up comedy