The Stanford Boys (and Girls) Club—In Beijing
The result is that America is giving an unintended gift to countries like China and India, where returnees are teaching locals how to build world-class companies and how to innovate. In almost every high-growth tech company in China, you find returnees in senior management positions. The New York Times reported that it’s the same in scientific research—top research labs have returnees in lead positions, which may give China the edge it has desperately been seeking. China is a long way from challenging America in innovation ability, and if it does make some breakthroughs in cleantech, health care, and science, this is not a bad thing. As I concluded in this piece about China’s entrepreneurship boom, we benefit from innovation no matter where it happens. The problem is that the American economy is stagnant and we’re exporting the people who can help boost it. And we are creating long-term competition for our tech industry.
On my trip to Beijing, last week, what surprised me most was the number of Stanford grads that I met and how they had no regrets about leaving the U.S.—and no plan to return.
I can understand why so many international students return home from regions of the U.S. that don’t welcome foreigners—these cities always have fewer tech startups and thus fewer jobs. But Silicon Valley is the most open, inclusive place in the world and pays premium salaries to top engineering talent, especially from Stanford. And immigrants thrive in the Valley: they start 52% of its startups.
So why are the Stanford grads leaving? I asked five of them to tell their own stories.
Robert says that he would not even consider going back to the U.S. He may visit the Valley for a short time to expose himself to the latest technology and business models being developed there. But, with Twitter, Techcrunch, and his China Stanford network, there really is no reason to return: his costs are ten times lower; market significantly larger; and funding more abundant, in China.
He started a firm called Beyond Tailors that sold made-to-order clothing, and La Miu—now the Victoria’s Secret of China and China’s biggest online lingerie seller. It is growing at 300% per year, is negotiating VC financing to help it grow to a billion-dollar business, and expects to go public in two to three years.
Lu has no thoughts of coming back to the U.S. He says that China is far too exciting.
He believes that is a historic period of time for China to regaining its long-lost leadership in the world economy and affairs. And that “any Chinese with a passion for entrepreneurship, the right skills, and love for their motherland would jump at the first opportunity to relocate back to China”. Settling down back home wasn’t easy for Joe at first. There was minor culture shock which resulted from many years of absence from China. But the economic opportunities were endless. He found abundant risk capital willing to fund start-ups, and extensive support from all levels of government.
So he went back to China after completing his Harvard MBA in 2005 and started the Chinese SlideShare, DocIn, in 2007. This site has millions of daily users, of all sorts—from college students to rural residents. Jonathan says this has the societal effect that he hoped, and plans to continue staying in China to build his dreams.
Amy is glad she returned to China because of the wide-open opportunities there. She says that Beijing is definitely more polluted than Silicon Valley, “but it’s on a way of having a clearer sky”.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.