Disqus - Latest Comments for christinelu

Re: Girls Who Code

christinelu — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 11:14:57 -0000

I think more dads involved in their daughters lives early on in regards to this stuff is a good start. My son is 8 and has been taking robotics class since age 6 here in LA. I love that there are girls the same age in his class also learning. The dads of these little girls work in the tech sector. Every Saturday they take their daughters to class. So while everyone as VCs, founders and educators wonder how they can get more young women in tech, have a look at home if you have a daughter and ask yourselves if you've had an influence in exposing them at a young age to all the possibilities out there for them in the future. We need more parents starting their daughters early on a path and giving them a choice between Lego Mindstorms or a Barbie.

Re: China’s Affluent Ditch The Tour Bus For Solo Travel

christinelu — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:16:19 -0000

Unfortunately, luxury brands are having a difficult time really understanding what this means in terms of their strategy. It used to be that developing "good relations" with tour operators guaranteed bus loads of sales. That will continue as there is no shortage of first time Chinese visitors for many years to come. However, the ideal luxury Chinese consumer that these luxury brands envision are opting for independent travel and without investment in a global strategy or even a CRM/loyalty system it's difficult to actually target them once they're outside the reach of the tour group. Marketing dollars will continue to be spent on overpriced print ads with limited reach in the hopes that it will translate into sales ...without being able to track if that's the case.

Re: Female Founders to Watch Changing How You Travel

christinelu — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:47:06 -0000

Yup! Affinity China is developing a travel rewards program in partnership with American Express focused on the outbound Chinese traveler. 83 million of them traveled overseas last year and spent $102 billion. Twitter: @christinelu

Re: The Brutal Truth From a Dying Startup

christinelu — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 10:11:15 -0000

As a startup founder you become accustomed to being scrappy and resourceful. You go into it knowing the odds are in favor of you failing. You go for it anyways because you can't see yourself wanting to do anything else over the next several years. The highs from milestones both big and small keep you motivated. The lows of not hitting certain goals needed to generate that elusive holy grail called "traction" keep you up until 4am at night.

I understand why founders feel the need to project confidence in public. For me it's not a "false cheer" more than it is a game face. Even when things around you for the moment feel like they are falling apart, so long as you still believe in what you're doing and have the resources and guts to stick it out, you are hopeful and you remain motivated.

The key thing to keep in mind during this crazy sometimes vomit inducing ride is the importance of having people you can confide in who will listen and give you perspective that's sometimes hard to come by when you feel like you're on a downward spiral. This has helped me many times in the last few years.

Also, don't buy into the bullshit and you'll be ok. If you find yourself making the rounds of startup networking events and knowing everyone else in the room on a big hug and fake air kiss basis ... it's a good sign that you're probably not surrounding yourself with the people I mention who you can confide in later when shit hits the fan and you're probably buying into -- and perpetuating -- the buillshit part of the startup world and need to get your ass back to work and focus on your company.

Re: GRP Excited to add Sam Rosen to Its Ranks. How Did He Get the Role? Hustle. Here’s the Story.

christinelu — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:31:56 -0000

Damn. I'm in China next week. If i'm back at the end of next week please let me know where you guys meet up so I can crash your coffee. :D

Re: Copenhagen Luxury Retailers Face Chinese Tour Guide “Kickback Culture”

christinelu — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:17:13 -0000

Sadly, this has actually become the norm for Chinese travel companies. Especially those that operate group travel. The practice originated with domestic travel in China and then spread to Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand as Chinese outbound travelers began visiting.

Now that Chinese are traveling farther, we're starting to see this broken model replicated by Chinese tour companies and guides in Europe and the U.S.

It's a broken model because it's not sustainable. The Chinese travelers are becoming more savvy and brands that are engaging the China market proactively will have their own strategies in place that don't involve having to bribe a tour guide at the store level to get Chinese to come shop.

The Chinese customer hates it because they feel pressured. The store manager hates it because it's a practice they're not proud of but it helps them hit their sales numbers for the store. The brand hates it because over time it doesn't look good for the brand. The destination hates it because how would you like to have Chinese experience only high pressured shopping trips when visiting for the first time when there's so much more such as the culture, food and tourists attractions to see. And actually, the tour guides hate it because as pointed out, it's the only way they can make money since they're not paid -- and in many cases, pay the Chinese travel company for the privilege.

For obvious reasons, I have a bias towards wanting to see travel and luxury brand executives move past this practice that everyone knows is happening but no one talks about because my demographic I cater to are already traveling on their own and will not ever do those kinds of tour groups. Brands should take a more proactive approach in marketing and engaging Chinese travelers without having to rely on tour guides. Tourism boards should invest in hiring some of those same Chinese tour guides and training them for retail careers in many of the luxury stores that are really looking for more sales and marketing people who speak Chinese.

Meanwhile, it's a race to the bottom as the Chinese tour companies continue to undercut each other on the price of travel packages in order to get more Chinese tourists locked in their buses on their forced itineraries in order to make money from them. There's no long term vision. It's just a weekly game of how much commissions from shopping the tour guide can make. They're never going to see that batch of tourist again so there's no incentive to be customer centric. It's sad. But the good news is, it's not sustainable.

Re: How to Avoid Burnout: Marissa Mayer

christinelu — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:37:03 -0000

Dear Marissa,

"Burnout" is not about resentment and as someone who many are influenced by, for you to simplify it as such is really disappointing. I had a sister who burned out. It wasn't from resentment. It was from depression which led to her suicide. Straight A student. perfect SAT score. Harvard early admission. Boston Consulting Group. Harvard MBA. Bain and Co. Oracle. Peoplesoft ...then dead.

Mental illness is real and so is your total lack of understanding of it.

Re: My Birthday Wish, Clarity.

christinelu — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:19:57 -0000

done! happy birthday dan and good luck with the new venture! so proud of you!

Re: Spotify Says It’s Headed in a “New Direction”

christinelu — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:29:50 -0000

um, that would be the record companies who should be paying the artists more rather than keeping most of it so they can continue a downward spiral to irrelevance.

Re: Single People Should NOT Do Startups

christinelu — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:08:04 -0000

You shouldn't do a startup if (check all that apply)

__ you are single (see this post)
__ you are divorced (because it's a sign of failure)
__ you are a woman (because i'll whack my head on the glass ceiling and it might hurt)
__ you are a mom (because my son will resent me for wanting to give him a better life)
__ you are a minority (because i'm Chinese)

I check all the above. And anyone who funds someone like me would be taking a huge risk. Thankfully my investors (including Dave McClure) are f*cking crazy.

There is no one ideal startup founder type. I've had the opportunity to meet and get to know a ton of them over the last few years thanks to GeeksOnAPlane, etc. Everyone has hustle in common and the ability to get sh*t done no matter what life situation they're in. It's this specific type of person who has the ability to go after what they are passionate about regardless of obstacles that makes them exactly the right person for doing a startup.

Re: http://christinetsai.tumblr.com/post/7103014672

christinelu — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:13:47 -0000

very inspiring reminder... women *can* have it all. even when they lose some things they wanted to keep (marriage) they pick up and do the best they can.

my support network (parents, brother, good friends) has made it possible for this single mommy to start the company I've been wanting to start (thanks to 500startups funding!) and raise a little boy who keeps my ego checked.

oh...and your own advice is the best and I'm sure you'll be an awesome mom!

Re: Harvard Class of 2015: Tiger Mom's Daughter and Nobody Else - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire

christinelu — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:57:57 -0000

my big sister was an early admission Harvard undergrad and Harvard MBA. she committed suicide at age 30 after battling depression for several years... so I wouldn't declare success on the tiger mom model just yet. Lif is long and life is short.

Re: The funding and failures of Color, Silicon Valley’s $41 million startup (wrapup of the week of hype and hate)

christinelu — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 11:37:59 -0000

honestly, at this stage I don't care about being an early adopter... so while all of you go through the pain and patience, just ping me when the thing starts working.

Re: Exposed: The ad agency responsible for the Groupon Super Bowl tragicomedy

christinelu — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:05:14 -0000

How many unsubscribed? I'm sure a lot did too. I did. Curious but I bet that's a data point they won't share.

Re: Why I was wrong about Quora as a blogging service …

christinelu — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:12:10 -0000

Quora as a blogging platform? I agree Robert. But then again I never saw it as one to begin with.

I get a lot of value from Quora. Then again, it might be because I don't focus on the Silicon Valley or social media side of it. Take a look at the quality of answers I received from asking this question:

http://www.quora.com/Is-Hu-...

Both of the people who took the time to answer are widely respected online voices in cross border China. They took the time to answer a question that I felt the mainstream media wasn't covering. Neither of them have regularly updated blogs but they sure have a lot of valuable insight to share.

I think it's worth looking at these platforms outside the lens of the tech bubble hype from time to time. It would help folks like you and the usual "famous in tech and social media but not that known outside of it" influencers shape your opinion about the potential
of something with wider reach factored in. I'm pretty sure Quora wasn't created as a Silicon Valley Q&A site so I look forward to seeing it evolve.

Re: Groupon China Giving, Like, a Billion Reasons It’ll Beat the Clones

christinelu — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:56:20 -0000

Nice! I love it when I get smacked upside the head with dejavu from my China dotcom bubble days. Shaking head. Grabbing popcorn. Waiting for the scene when Alibaba comes in and gives them the smackdown. Don't think it won't happen.

Update: ok, this rumor about a JV with Tencent would make a bit more sense. Still would be intense competition from Alibaba but at least it'd minimize trainwreck scenario.

Re: Founders Den: A Private Clubhouse For Entrepreneurs Opens In San Francisco

christinelu — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:39:17 -0000

are girls allowed?

Re: Hell Freezes Over As MySpace Fully Surrenders To Facebook

christinelu — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:00:53 -0000

already nostalgic for seeing my name in animated glitter font.

Re: Women 2.0 CEO On 2010 Competition Winners: They’re Not Like Facebook (In A Good Way)

christinelu — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:04:08 -0000

Ironically, the part I like best about Women 2.0 is the fact that they aren't too hung up on making it exclusively about women. From this pitch competition to the Women 2.0 Labs initiative, kudos to Shaherose and her team for placing an emphasis on making a real impact in the ecosystem that goes beyond other stereotypical pretty little feel good girly networking orgs where the only innovation going on there are cute names for pink drinks at cocktail parties.

Re: How China’s Entrepreneurs Are Helping It Win

christinelu — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:38:10 -0000

Peter - if you fast forward to 2009 you'll see that their efforts to go global via the IBM Thinkpads/PC business acquisition regressed ...along with hopes that Chinese companies were ready to adopt international management styles and operate on a global platform. They suffered heavy losses and then ousted William Amelio as CEO and many key executive positions changed back to Chinese.

Then take the example of Aigo. One of China's largest consumer electronics companies. They actually set up a N. America HQ in Seattle a few years ago in the hopes of selling their products into the US market. Big presence at CES two years in a row. Couldn't reconcile differences in Chinese and western management styles. They've since shut down the Seattle office and the big ambitious plans for selling to the U.S. market are stalled.

Re: How China’s Entrepreneurs Are Helping It Win

christinelu — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:53:41 -0000

in order for Americans to remain competitive in the coming years, we need to start by teaching kids about the world in an international context -- not a US centric one -- and we need to do so from a young age.

at the same time, Chinese companies and entrepreneurs still have a ways to go in regards to understanding how to go global (insert Lenovo example here) when the time comes for them to look to markets in other countries...

Re: TechCrunch Asian Sampler Platter: Meet Me in Singapore or Indonesia

christinelu — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:53:21 -0000

how many can you cram in a week? i'll get in touch with some people and see what i can do...

Re: Among Asian-American women, a little known battle with depression

christinelu — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:13:34 -0000

Thanks for raising awareness of this. There isn't a lot of information out there about depression and suicide ...let alone within the Asian-American community. My sister took her life in '04 at the age of 30. She was the poster child of "success" according to any Asian immigrant parent. She hid her depression almost right up until her death. As a survivor of someone who has committed suicide I can tell you it's not a group you want to be part of and it's something you never really "get over"

Re: A response to the articles on women in tech

christinelu — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:01:33 -0000

+1 thank you.

Re: Women Don’t Want To Run Startups Because They’d Rather Have Children

christinelu — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:30:30 -0000

I don't know who Penelope Trunk is. I've never heard of her startup. But if this is the kind of crap that keeps the traffic numbers up at TechCrunch post sell out to AOL then I guess I can understand the need to linkbait at the expense of the content that made this blog what it was in the beginning... sad.