"I knew it was an empty threat. First of all, it's cross borders, how are you going to sue me? You don't even know who I am."

Today's guest goes by "Jim" and considers himself to be a "street vendor on the internet". What he means by that, is that often times street vendors aren't legal or licensed to sell food on the street corner. 

Despite their questionable legal status, often times these vendors are good people who are just trying to scrape out a living, taking just a little money here & there where they can find it.

Jim considers himself to be the internet equivalent of this - running a small business that's not exactly "approved of" but that allows him to use his tech "hacking" skillset to take just a little bit of money away from the internet giants.

Currently his business is selling his services to individuals who want to get ahead on social media platforms, buying fake stats there to help them accelerate their presence. Is it life-changing tech? Not really. Does it help him earn enough money so he doesn't have to take a job with insane hours, making massive profits for someone else? Yes.

So let's hear why Jim does what he does and take a peak behind the scenes of a 'gray-hat' internet business that you might be okay with or hate, based on what he's doing to social media.

In this episode:
+ Why he left China to study on the West Coast of the US
+ Why he feels that not being a great student, not going to an Ivy League school actually helped him
+ Hacking at tech since he was a kid
+ How being online was a privelage growing up in China
+ Stealing his neighbors phone identity to go online when his parents couldn't afford it
+ As a techy Chinese, what he thinks of Jian Yang from Silicon Valley
+ The C2C model, aka Copy to China business model
+ China as internet business model innovators
+ Fighting against fake lawsuits from competitors only to end up in a ddos war that took out both sites
+ How the startup exit model in China is more about being bought by Tencent or Alibaba
+ Taking VC money in China, benefits & risks
+ Leveraging tech loopholes for social media attention

Sadly no links for Jim as he wanted to use a pseudonym to protect himself and his business interests, past & present.

Music:
http://www.bensound.com/

For more podcast episodes about China business other show notes visit:
http://beertelligence.com/the-beertelligence-podcast/

The Beertelligence Podcast

23 - Meet "Jim", a Chinese "internet street vendor" selling likes on social media

"Best advice I've ever gotten is to write down a list of what you're afraid of. Then rip the paper in half."

Greg grew up in Seattle in the US & now is the CEO & founder of Dyad.com which pairs mentors & students in an open platform & consulting service. He is also an ultra, ultra marathoner, currently training for 7 marathons on 7 different continents in 7 days. 

As you can imagine he's quite an energetic & focused guy. So we spend quite a bit of time discussing his routines, efforts, practices & disciplines in order to push through & challenge himself.

I did a terrible job of taking notes during this interview. Almost unreadable. So here's an abridged version of what I could decipher from my messed up handwriting.

- Using mentors to help people follow more authentic paths for themselves
- Growing up in a small community Seattle
- Running ultra marathons & being in nature as an Entrepreneur
- An early teacher encouraging him that it was cool to be smart
- A later science teacher teaching people how to have fun in a laboratory
- From a history teacher showing that "Surplus" as a defining word for history - if a society can create surplus, it can do amazing things. If not, it eventually goes to zero.
- Joining advisory board for MakerGirl
- How being distracted by the constituent parts of projects or emails prevents action

Links:
Dyad - Mentorship for Admission & Scholarships
http://www.dyad.com/en

MakerGirl
https://makergirl.us/

Music:
http://www.bensound.com/

For more podcast episodes about starting business in China & other show notes visit:
http://beertelligence.com/the-beertelligence-podcast/

24 - The benefits of laser focus from a CEO, founder & ultra-marathoner Greg Nance

From Shanghai, China to Silicon Valley, The Beertelligence Podcast is where smart people in tech, design, product & entrepreneurship discuss breakthrough ideas over beers.

Beertelligence

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