Richard Robinson: My entrepreneurship in Beijing

Richard Robinson, Investor, Entrepreneur

Hello, my name is Richard Robinson. I’m originally from Boston, Massachusetts in the States. I have been here 18 years in Beijing. I’m a serial entrepreneur turned investor. I teach entrepreneurship in China at the Peking University.I first came to Beijing in 1993. I came overland from Switzerland to Hong Kong by train through Trans-Siberian（Railway）. And I came through Beijing and the second that the train crossed the border, the dragon swooped down and dug her talent into me. I just felt that the energy here, the possibility, the history and culture.I finished my MBA in 1996 and I moved here to China. And I was there during the Dot-Com Boom.I was lucky enough to be part of this group called Renren.com. Qualitatively and quantitatively, Beijing is unquestionably not only the Silicon Valley of China, but I will contend the Silicon Valley of Asia. Such extreme competition and innovation happening here across business models, across consumer tech and also enterprise tech is quite world-class and fascinating .Indeed, Beijing has become the big story, and China, the big story of our lives. The rural-urban migration, the increasing GDP per capita. The incredible pace of change, I can feel that. It’s actually something that’s palpable when you actually walk outside in the streets.For a lot of the 23 year I travel somewhere else to go that places, Stockholm or Tokyo or New York is in the future, China is lagging behind. And then a few years ago I feel Wow, OK, in a lot of ways China’s cut up.Mobile payments and some of the online to offline and some of the innovation that’s happening .It’s intoxicating just to be part of that entire dynamism and pace of possible change. I love China and I’m so lucky to be a guest here, I love Beijing. You really have to be in love with the city, because it’s changing so much and so many people here. So personally, here in Beijing, I have three children, I have built this Chinese style courtyard home .One thing I like to say is that here everything is possible. But not everything is easy for sure here.