Our demo day video for AcceleratorHK. Excuse the audio quality.
Here is our video interview done by Paul Orlando.
Jean-Marc Ly
Entrepreneur, Wedding Photographer, and Traveler. Silicon Valley guy running a startup in Hong Kong.
AcceleratorHK Promo Video
Here is the promo video for AcceleratorHK in which I have quite a few scenes in. We shot this over several days to give a glimpse of what we do in AcceleratorHK.
A break down of our weekly schedule:
- Monday: One on One meeting with Steve and Paul. Individual team discussion + business model canvas overview.
- Tuesday: Work to meet the required deadlines or assignment tasks
- Wednesday: Mentor or guest meetings + work
- Thursday: Mentor or guest meetings + social planned by yours truly.
- Friday: Cohort meeting + elevator pitches (pitching our and for other teams) + 10/20/30 presentation + pechakucha + 5 min intro + group feedback/story sharing then finishing with a scrum.
Intense three months program where we took weekends to sight-see or grab a drink with everyone. Most nights ended with some visit at the bar though…
Selling an Iphone on the streets of Hong Kong
As I recently won an Iphone 5 in a lucky draw, I decided to sell my old unlocked Iphone 4s. I wanted a quick and easy way to sell so I enlisted the help of my good friend Louis Tse to help me approach the street buyers and negotiate on the price.
My friend Louis is a local and thus has the “appearance” and language to bargain for a good price. We went there a week prior and once of sellers at that time offered 2800-2900 HKD for a used 16gig Iphone 4s. However these clever sellers still had a trick up their sleeves.
We went to those people sitting on a stool outside the Apple Store in Causeway Bay and asked how much they would buy the phone for. Upon a quick inspection and bringing up the phone’s serial number on the screen, the seller exclaimed “Its a US version, we can only give you $2500 HKD.”
The reason given was that US versions are different and build for different frequencies and wont work with Hong Kong telecom infrastructure. What a load of BS, i thought to myself. I’ve been using it fine for the last 10 months and there was a rush of people buying the Iphone 5 in the US and selling it here in Hong Kong when it first came out. After much arguing, the selling took my iphone and started to check and complain about the minor scratches and “wear and tear” obviously to lower the price. I had told my good friend prior to coming here, that $2500 was the lowest that I was willing to sell it for and so he refused to budge on their tactic.
The next strategy that was used was to have more “sellers and collectors” come and gather around while pretending to look busy or help verify the phone. They opened the back case looking for water damage and made it seem like there was a “part” that wasn’t right. All this while during the evening rush of crowded people and others asking for quotes on their phone. This simple tactic, as my friend and I were discussing, is a way to make the seller uncomfortable and make rash decisions especially at awkward moments. Still Louis stood strong and unafraid of being surrounded and have eyes starring at you. In the end, the lady gave him and paid us $2550 HKD ($50 for the box) and we were on our way.
Although it was a quick and easy way to sell your phone, these street buyers are clever and will always try to get you to lower the price of your goods. If you have Idevices to sell, beware. Another website I used as a price reference point is: http://www.mac2sell.net which shows the average pricing of your device at your specific country. Thanks to my friend Denis Tsoi for the heads up.
How to date a girl in one day
This is a video i made for fun using GoAnimate to showcase how all this trouble can be prevented by using Taxiwise.
I did it over an afternoon also as a joke as the main guy happens to look alot like my mentor, Paul Orlando.
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Moved blog to WordPress
It has been a while since I blogged. After Posterous, the blogging site, announced that they were shutting down after being acquired by Twitter, I was scared and surprised because my personal blog was hosted Posterous on!
“What do I do? Do I bother writing anymore then having to move it somewhere else later?”
And so, life went on, I went home to the Bay Area, came back to Hong Kong and still working on my startup Taxiwise. I also waited till near the final days of Posterous (which is like 7 days from now) to figuring out where to move the content of my blog. Luckily, they made it easy to export and backup your blog content.
My old photo blog; became the location of my new personal blog which I talk startup and travel. I’m working on a new photo site to showcase my portfolio and future travel pictures. I wanted to keep two site to have the content focused and professional. Stay tuned for the new site and I hope you continue to subscribe to this one.
Jean-Marc
What you feel like the day after your demo day and the last social gathering
We killed it (again) at demo day! 
We had the tough job of going first and we kicked it off to a good show. The rest of the cohorts did an amazing job as well. Of course, we had to have an afterparty and I want to thank those of you who came out and congratulated us.
I also hope that the startup community got to feel that the bar can be higher for startups in Hong Kong and don’t settle for less. Great demo days can happen, great companies and great teams and I think we are just beginning to see startup talents coming to light.
Now that we have finished demo day and AcceleratorHK program, it does feel like weights have been lifted off my shoulder. I feel…happy and sad, both at the same time. Why? Imagine you are learning how to ride your bike for the first time. Without assistance, one would most likely fall down a lot, get bruises, and cuts but AcceleratorHK is like your parent putting training wheels on your bike. They stabilize you, guide you, and make sure you stay on the road and not ride to the dirt.
But at some point, the training wheels have to come off. It’s sad because you are on your own but great because you know can ride by yourself and its up to you to choose where to go. I’ve come to think of the cohorts and Paul (dad) and Steve (mom) as our family. We have been through a lot, helped, criticized, and shared this journey together. Thank you 100village, Gonnect, PayAllies, Dynamino, and SurroundApp for this family trip.
When the program first started, I started to plan weekly dinner dubbed “Social Nights” every Thursday night where Steve and I came up with the cheering phrase Social for bumping drinks. We would often go eat at all you can eat or cheap local food since half of our team are not from Hong Kong then head out for a drink to blow stress away. Once a week, just social. I’m sorry to say that tonight will be the last AcceleratorHK Social for our group. Some people will leave the next day back to their home countries and since Chinese New Year is also starting Sunday, there may not be a lot of activities happening.
What’s going to happen to my startup Taxiwise and us? Well its time to push the envelope higher, now that we have our training wheels off, its time to win the bike race. At some point in life, you get accustom to have support but know when you need to grow and be independent. But always remember to enjoy the bike ride. The journey is all worth it.
