Is joining a startup in China a good idea?

Depending on who you are, who they are, and what’s the position you are offered.

I try to quantify the answer here but reality is usually more complicated.

1. If you never been in China, or you can’t speak fluent Chinese as a native speaker — 1/10
2. If you don’t know anyone except the recruiter in the team/company — 2/10
3. If you have never worked in any Chinese company (including internship) — 2/10
4. If they want you to be a C-level role or co-founder — 3/10
5. If you are going to be a mid-management role — 4/10
6. If you are not familiar with the company’s business, e.g, you are an IT guy but the company is basically a sneaker retailer — 5/10

Founding/Joining a startup is a high risk high reward path. This is the same as in China. In the US entrepreneurs usually choose a direction based purely on his/her interest, passion, or business vision. But in China there is an extra factor — government guidance. Receiving and correctly understanding this guidance is very important for entrepreneurs in China. And this is a very long term thing — Chinese governments usually make policies based on pretty consistent logic. For example as of 2021~2022 they are pressing traditional internet monopolistic players but still encourage some key industries like pharmaceutical industry, semiconductor industry, clean energy and high-end (AI+) manufacturing industry. Many startups in such domains get funding and policy support from the government — they also consider this as a main advantage compared with a completely free market under western capitalism. Sometimes I feel western media report these policies with very strong bias and carelessness, which misleads lots of people in the US.

Aside from the government’s consideration. You may want to evaluate how you understand the current Chinese generation. From the 80s~00s. Their culture, their thoughts and attitudes. Even if you are born in China you may still face the reverse culture shock — I am such an example — I grew up in an ordinary Chinese family and went abroad after I finished my Master’s degree in 2010. 24 years in China. After working and living in the US for 10 years I feel reverse culture shock in many places. But if you failed to understand your employee, how can you smoothly work together?

Even one in a hundred can handle the two points above. Here is another — I would say the ultimately difficult one: the management. You may have a friendship with a Chinese employee on the surface. But remember management is actually difficult even for a native Chinese. Simply because this society is pacing very fast. Young generation’s thoughts and attitudes change all the time. Try to register a Maimai app account (it’s Blind app counterpart in China) and see whether you can fully master it. 2 years ago I was working for Antfin — a sub-company under Alibaba group. The group has an internal forum that allows any employee (from newcomer to Jack Ma) to say anything on it. They also rank the discussions based on the heat every day. There were some company-wide dramatic discussions happening there and usually at this time some high level management people will show up and respond. Today I already forgot many detailed messages. But I still remember the feeling when I read those messages — 70s~80s management people lost understanding of 90s~00s frontline staff, there’s apparently a huge gap between the two sides. Later I will write more about many detailed stories I personally experienced. Every one of these stories may reflect some management issues in reality, cognitive bias, psychological tricks and something else.