Cyril Ebersweiler | eCommerce Pre iPhone, Building the Worlds's #1 Hardware Accelerator, & The Next Big Thing

Today on The Negotiation, Cyril Ebersweiler shares 20 years of business experience working with various brands in China.

Cyril began his career as an eCommerce project manager for Carrefour, launching China’s first online retail platform. From there, he worked with Adidas for four months before making the switch to Air France, where he would work for the next three years. Air France at the time was taking major steps to invest and promote greater relationships in China.

From Air France, Cyril joined TBWA and became heavily involved in the company’s marketing efforts. Initially, Cyril intended to work with TBWA because he wanted to go to the country in the pre-iPhone days when Japan was the leader in mobile technology. Cyril believes that this experience gave him great insight into the future of mobile marketing and eCommerce capabilities. Cyril’s work eventually brought him back to China, in Dalian, where he met investor Sean O’Sullivan. The two worked together with technology startups in China.

When it comes to the difference between American and Chinese entrepreneurs, Cyril says that while the Chinese are incredibly efficient in their workflow, their marketing in other countries could improve. Foreigners looking to invest in China, on the other hand, sometimes have trouble adapting to the local culture.

In 2011, Cyril founded the venture capital corporation HAX in Shenzhen. When asked why he decided for the company to be based in Shenzhen, Cyril says that “just by being [in a specific location], [companies] are automatically augmented by the ecosystem around them.” Since Shenzhen is known as the “Silicon Valley of Hardware”, Cyril intends to tap into local resources—from large brands down to mom-and-pop stores—that would maximize his company’s capabilities.