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Comment by tomjen3 | Hacker News Reader

A part of me can't help but think that people like this would make excellent employees -- and lousy founders.

Maybe we shouldn't fear China.

But the thing is, the brilliant founders that do emerge from China can readily tap into a much larger pool of capable employees than in the US, and they have over 4 times the population of the US.

Which brilliant founders (of tech companies) have emerged from China? They have a large number of businesses but you can study metallurgy and learn how to make steel but that doesn't make you the kind of person who can create something truely new.

They come to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Li

Alibaba group

douban

Sina

BYD

innovative games

payment systems

group buying

What brilliant founders has the US produced in the last 10 years? Bugger all, except for Mark Zuckerberg, and a bunch who are not yet household names. China has only had a few years in which the average 20-something-year-old hacker had the resources to start a tech business. Even in China, many of the new tech businesses will not be famous yet.

Also, China's capital tends to be directed to "made-in-China" manufacturing, where they have a huge advantage. That leaves high-tech startups choked for funds. How many New York startups can you name really fast?

Ten years is a little too short to see if somebody can build a company. Drew Huston springs to mind, though it might be too early to tell yet.

I know it is not tech, but serendipitously, I just watched a documentary on Shanghai last night. Ten years ago, number of billionaires was zero, today is 7,000. Just in Shanghai alone.

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