The chapter delves into the founder's struggles with securing funds and facing financial strain, leading to a slowdown in growth by 2017. Despite challenges in raising capital in the US and China, the founder's determination and resilience shine through as they refuse to give up. The speaker also reflects on a period of introspection during a tough time, leading to a critical shift in their business approach towards providing affordable food access for Chinese immigrants.
If you told 19-year-old Larry Liu that his hobby re-selling used electronics “for fun” would someday help him build a multi-billion-dollar company, he probably would have laughed. He was an electrical engineering student in Shanghai at the time. His goals were to land a corporate job and go to grad school in the U.S. He did both, starting with a job at Intel. But his passion for e-commerce stayed with him through his MBA and other corporate jobs. And when he moved to Northern California, Larry noticed other Chinese immigrants using WeChat to source what they needed locally - even organizing in groups to buy familiar foods and products. Larry immediately saw this as a business opportunity. And in under ten years, after facing down bankruptcy and re-orienting his business, Larry grew his e-commerce platform Weee! into a company now valued at over $4 billion.
This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.
It was edited by Andrea Bruce with research help from Katherine Sypher.
Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Josh Newell.
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