AB Kuai Dong
AB Kuai Dong
Passionate about research, family, and sharing, he joined the industry in 2016 and now lives in Tokyo.
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Previously at SpaceX, involved in Starlink-related work, then an American guy who went to start a hardware business moved to Shenzhen, China, after leaving the Silicon Valley incubator YC event, and stayed for 8 weeks.
He suggests that all American entrepreneurs, if you even have a little idea of starting a hardware company, you should first visit Shenzhen.
It doesn't matter if you haven't raised funds, don't have a team, no ideas yet, or haven't quit your job—just go.
Plan your trip based on the large conferences you're interested in. Treat the conference as a springboard to meet suppliers; this is your ticket to enter almost any factory.
Once at the factory, ask about delivery times first; don't rush to ask about prices. Your iteration speed depends on the component with the longest delivery time in the entire assembly. The earlier you identify these key parts, the better for setting the project timeline.
Visit Huaqiangbei more often. Robot subcomponents, batteries, casings, electronic parts—each category has buildings densely packed with suppliers. It's best to reserve 4 to 6 hours to walk around and explore to find what truly interests you.
Business relationships themselves are very valuable assets; treat interpersonal dealings seriously as you would assets. Focus on the people themselves, get to know them, bring some thoughtful small gifts, wait for the other party to sit first, fill the cup when drinking baijiu, and leave some space when drinking tea. Learning cultural customs is interesting and also conveys your serious attitude toward the working relationship.
Suppliers can actually be clearly divided into different tiers; what complex projects they've done before and their execution capabilities basically determine the scope of work they can undertake. This sounds simple but is very important for managing your manufacturing expectations.
Designing a part that requires 12 subsequent manufacturing processes is easy, but finding a supplier who can truly take on that order is much harder.
Finally, he encourages everyone to move to Shenzhen! Start making things.
Zac
72 hours after YC demo day, I moved to Shenzhen for 8 weeks 🤠
I'm headed back to SF with new hardware in hand (sharing more soon), but some takeaways documented below:
> If you have even the slightest ambition to found a hardware company, visit SZ. Pre-raise, pre-team, pre-idea, pre-job departure, it doesn't matter. Just go.
> Plan your visit according to a major conference that interests you. Use that conference as a supplier meeting springboard - that's your ticket to any factory under the sun.
> At the factories, ask about lead times, don't ask about cost (wait on this). Your iteration rate is driven by the lead time on the longest lead time item in your assembly. It pays to identify these parts early to build project timelines.
> Visit Huaqiangbei (read: this is a mini-city, not a building). Robotic subassemblies, batteries, chassis's, electronic parts. They all have buildings where vendors are tightly clustered. Plan to spend 4-6 hours walking around before you find exactly what you're interested in.
> Business relationships are valuable commodities. Treat them as such. Pay attention to people, learn about them. Bring thoughtful gifts. Wait for them to sit first. With Baiju, fill the glass but with tea leave some room. Cultural customs are fun to learn, but also convey a seriousness towards the working relationship.
> Suppliers fit cleanly into discrete buckets. Level of complexity and execution on past projects indicates what is in scope for them. Trivial, but important to level your build expectations. It is easy to design a part with 12 subsequent manufacturing processes, exceptionally hard to find a supplier to fill this order.
If you need coffeeshop recs, food recs, or hotel recs I have a few.
Move to Shenzhen! Get to building!
The subsidy for buying the Tesla Model 3 has finally been received. The government reimbursed 1.27 million yen, approximately 55,000 RMB.
Unlike in China, here you have to pay first, then apply for the new energy subsidy, and you cannot transfer or sell the car within 4 years, otherwise you have to return the money to the government.
The president stepped in to support the company, and the court rejected the union's request, finally delaying the Samsung strike turmoil.
Due to dissatisfaction with a one-time $340,000 bonus and a desire to increase the proportion and amount of employee dividends, as well as a demand for the bonus to be issued regularly every year, the Samsung union originally planned a massive 40,000-person strike lasting 18 days starting May 21.
However, today, the South Korean court decided to side with Samsung, ordering that the strike must not affect production. If the union disobeys the order, it will be fined about 100 million KRW per day.
At the same time, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung also posted that the company's management rights should be respected just like labor rights. He stated that if Samsung's labor negotiations break down, the government might consider exercising emergency arbitration powers to intervene forcibly.
According to a previous estimate by JPMorgan, Samsung Electronics, as a key global memory chip manufacturer, could further tighten the global semiconductor supply if a strike occurs, potentially impacting multiple industries including automotive, computers, and smartphones.
Therefore, this strike has escalated from a confrontation between the union and the company to a matter of South Korea's national fate. Now, the government and the courts have finally stepped in to intervene.
Awkward situation. This Sunday, the US proposed 5 demands to resolve the Iran conflict, and then Iran also put forward 5 points, but now the whole thing has escalated into conflict.
Iran's demands:
1. End all wars in the Middle East
2. Lift US sanctions
3. Release frozen funds
4. Compensate for war damages
5. Recognize Iran's sovereignty over the Strait
As for the US:
1. Iran will not receive war compensation
2. Hand over 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to the US
3. Only one nuclear facility allowed to remain
4. Continue freezing Iranian assets
5. Full ceasefire depends on subsequent negotiations
Officially entering InfoFi? xAI's official creative ambassador shared a concept design image of a new feature on the X platform.
You can see the interaction history and comprehensive interaction scores with each user on X over the past 90 days, including the number of likes, replies, and retweets they have made on all your past tweets.
If ultimately implemented, project teams and exchanges will find it easier to collect fan data.
This weekend, Mixue Ice City quickly launched a special zone featuring products endorsed by big shots.
If you happen to pass by a Mixue store at this moment, there's a chance you'll see Jensen Huang's leather jacket and his brand's graphics card printed on the Mixue Four Seasons Peach poster, with marketing fully ramped up.
AB Kuai Dong
NVIDIA boss Jensen Huang had a cup of Mixue Ice City this afternoon.
It excited the entire Mixue headquarters; not only did the CEO post on Moments, but the official team also made a poster in the afternoon with the theme of cooling down graphics cards.
The drink Jensen Huang had was the Peach Four Seasons Spring, and a large cup costs only 7 RMB.
BNB's largest on-chain exchange, PancakeSwap, has announced a complete revamp of its contract products, switching from the previous liquidity pool model to an order book model to ensure more precise liquidity and no longer primarily relying on external oracles for pricing.
These functional technologies are provided by Aster. This means the main infrastructure on the BNB chain is increasingly integrating and supporting each other.
ASTER, pump it up quickly!
