'Dajiudianwang' hotel reservation, ~2007-2009. We reached the same property network size as CTrip and ELong (3300+ individual property contracts across China), but also provided services in (non-broken) English, Japanese Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. We were highly automated, running a call center and paperless, digital fax workflow on a custom diskless Linux and asterisk on an E1 over private fibre.
I gave up on it because, despite basically winning Europe's largest travel-industry VC event in London in 2009, I didn't find a viable source of venture capital to expand our marketing, once the system was proven and almost break-even on self-funded capital. Basically locals wanted to take over, and foreigners didn't trust the Chinese legal system. I write it off as my 'Chinese MBA' now, and happily take a salary and less stress instead.
I'd be interested to pick it up again, if I found the right backers.
PS. Oh! David! Hey .. I think we corresponded once before. :)
Hey -- we chatted a couple of times actually -- I remember you ran into some pretty hardcore this-is-China experiences down south that I'm glad I never went through as well. Happy to hear you're doing well and that things have worked out. Let me know when/if you're coming back and we can meet up for drinks.
p.s. mostly asked the question just because I like to keep track of people who've done various things from here. Funny to think it really is such a small world.
Comments
Out of curiosity, what was the startup?
'Dajiudianwang' hotel reservation, ~2007-2009. We reached the same property network size as CTrip and ELong (3300+ individual property contracts across China), but also provided services in (non-broken) English, Japanese Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. We were highly automated, running a call center and paperless, digital fax workflow on a custom diskless Linux and asterisk on an E1 over private fibre.
I gave up on it because, despite basically winning Europe's largest travel-industry VC event in London in 2009, I didn't find a viable source of venture capital to expand our marketing, once the system was proven and almost break-even on self-funded capital. Basically locals wanted to take over, and foreigners didn't trust the Chinese legal system. I write it off as my 'Chinese MBA' now, and happily take a salary and less stress instead.
I'd be interested to pick it up again, if I found the right backers.
PS. Oh! David! Hey .. I think we corresponded once before. :)
Hey -- we chatted a couple of times actually -- I remember you ran into some pretty hardcore this-is-China experiences down south that I'm glad I never went through as well. Happy to hear you're doing well and that things have worked out. Let me know when/if you're coming back and we can meet up for drinks.
p.s. mostly asked the question just because I like to keep track of people who've done various things from here. Funny to think it really is such a small world.