S2 E3 - Taking Tech to China with Jason Li of Branch, LinkedIn, Gartner

The International Expansion Podcast with Ramsey Pryor

China is one of the most complex and challenging markets for foreign tech companies to succeed in. It has so many hurdles to clear, including strict regulations, thorny geo-politics, and significant language and cultural learning barriers. But for those who succeed, the rewards and market potential are massive. With a GDP of over $18 Trillion it’s the second largest economy in the world, and in terms of population and potential end users, it’s the world's largest. One of the first things you have to do extremely well is to find an excellent leader for your team there, and I’m really happy to have Jason Li as my guest for this episode. Jason has been on the early teams at not 1, not 2 but 3 well-known foreign companies including Gartner, LinkedIn, and most recently at Branch where Jason and I got to team up. Jason scaled up our business from zero to becoming the highest performing regions and teams in the company, eventually opening 3 China offices and landing many of the largest logos in China in just 3 short years. He is also a multi-time startup founder and is currently CEO and building a new SaaS startup backed by Branch. Please enjoy and share!

Here are the topics we discuss with timestamps:

4:00 Maturity differences between Chinese and US SaaS companies

6:15 Similarities and Differences between China playbooks at LinkedIn, Gartner, and Branch, Gitlab, Canva and more. Expansion phases, partnerships, and entity structures

11:30 For companies that do not have experience in China - what you need to know about the tech ecosystem, user preferences, competitive dynamics

16:00 How to test and validate product market fit in China before making a bigger investment

18:30 ICP Licensing and the requirements for operating a business over the internet in China

21:00 The state of B2B SaaS in China - domestic supply and demand for cloud vs. on-prem services, willingness to build vs. buy, and the opportunity for foreign SaaS companies to sell to Chinese businesses.

26:00 What works when selling SaaS to Chinese companies. Jason's framework for value selling.

29:00 The importance of relationships and guanxi when selling, customer expectations, proof of concept and ROI, and cultural difference when selling in China versus elsewhere.

34:00 Tactics for building brand awareness in China

36:00 How to build a world class team in China - where to find candidates, local job boards, the role of headhunters, and how to classify and filter applicants to build your early team.

42:00 Beyond selling directly to customers - the role of agencies, partnerships, and government when entering China.

46:30 Preventable mistakes - hard lessons to learn from companies that have failed in China. Product Market Fit vs Solution Market Fit. Local vs remote decision making, respecting local business practices and norms.

50:00 Best practices and recommendations based on Jason's experience leading the China initiative multiple times

55:00 Post pandemic re-opening - perspective on timing and market readiness for foreign companies entering China as early 2023