Molson Hart: China and Amazon, Up Close — #60

Molson Hart is the CEO of Viahart, an educational toy company. He has deep experience selling products manufactured in China, using Amazon and other platforms. He produced a documentary about the challenges Amazon's market dominance creates for sellers and buyers worldwide. His recent video about a recent trip to visit factories in China went viral, generating millions of views on X.

• Molson Hart on X: https://x.com/Molson_Hart
• Amazon Documentary: https://youtu.be/8L6MaNVNBuQ?si=YMRb4z5F12CoJJI3

Steve and Molson discuss:

1:22 Molson Hart's background, experience in China

5:26 The IQ Question

13:19 Entrepreneurship and China

38:40 Selling on Amazon 

48:32 Alternatives and Competitors to Amazon

50:40 The Future of Amazon

55:30 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

57:27 Understanding China

1:07:43 China's Rising Global Influence

1:16:12 Personal and National Identities

1:18:45 Demographics: China's Future

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU.

Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.