 Hi everyone. So good afternoon. Still awake. Yeah, very good, very good. Yeah, so we'll have a little fireside chat here with Cindy from Alibaba. Yeah. So everybody of course knows Alibaba, but what are you doing at Alibaba? So I'm running the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. It's a fund set up three years ago by Jack Ma in Hong Kong. The group has allocated 1 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is about 130 million US dollars to invest into startups in Hong Kong. So what we want to do is really to build up the startup ecosystem in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a bit like maybe a bit like Japan, which is still very early stage in terms of talking about people after graduating to go into startups, has their own business. And therefore we also lack of investors in Hong Kong. And the idea of having this fund is to hopefully be able to identify some good examples from Hong Kong and to really encourage or inspire the younger generation to think about doing something more innovative rather than just having a job in a big corporation. Yeah, like Alibaba. Yeah. But I think that it's kind of great to hear that because also reminds me of kind of early days of Slush and why we actually started doing Slush in the first place. Because we had very much the same challenge in Finland and in Helsinki. And in 2007 I was actually talking about entrepreneurship and I think that my presentation was, I was talking about that it's okay to be an entrepreneur. And okay to be an entrepreneur that's kind of like translated from Finnish means that it's great. So if you ask a Finnish person what they think about, you know, for example Slush here, even if they think that is fantastic, they will say yeah, it was okay. But anyway, so I was talking about it being okay to be an entrepreneur and then I had 600 students at Aalto University in attendance and then I asked them that okay, how many of you guys will start your own company or join a startup once you graduate or even before, which is okay as well. And in 2007, out of 600 students, only three raised their hand, which means that you know all the others were thinking about like going to work for okay, Nokia at the time was very successful or you know one of the big corporations or the government. And of course that was like a disaster. So then together with a few friends we decided that we have to do something and that's actually why we started Slush. It was not to do a great event, it was actually to change the mindset and get more people excited about entrepreneurship. And you know having been to Hong Kong many times, I think that you're absolutely right that it's similar to here in Japan that we really need to make entrepreneurship more popular, but also then accepted. So I think for the young people it's very much accepted, but I think we also have to explain to the parents that it's actually okay if your child does a startup, it's actually more than okay. Yeah, I think that's very important, especially with the young people's parents and also their friends being supportive because it's not easy to be an entrepreneur. I mean Peter, you have been an entrepreneur, serial entrepreneurs and you understand the difficulties and also the challenges in building up your business, right? Not everyone would be successful. And when you fail, then how you you know get back yourself together and then try again is something that is very important. And at Alibaba, we very much stress the entrepreneurship, even though I have never started a business, I have to declare. But in Alibaba, the entrepreneurship that we are trying to promote is to be able to step out of your comfort zone and be able to challenge yourself. So which is important no matter you are starting up your own business or not. And this is one of the things that we hope to change the mind share of the people or the younger generation in Hong Kong or in the world. Yeah, and I think that's actually a very good point. I think that entrepreneurial attitude and spirit that it's not like some kind of thing that is exclusive to startups. I think that it's actually very, very important no matter where you work, you know, big corporation, the government like anywhere. I think that you need to have entrepreneurial attitude to be successful. I mean, no matter what you end up doing. And this is something that I think the guys at Apple like many years ago that they said that they are the biggest startup on the planet. And you know, no committees and like making lots of decisions, you know, you always meet the right people, the people in charge. And I think that it was quite interesting because at the time I was at Rovia and working on Angry Birds and you had a meeting with Apple and they always had the right people show up and then after the meeting had very clear action points and then just like boom, decide, done. And okay, now if you go and meet with Apple, a lot more people will show up for the meeting and maybe it's not as much of a startup as it used to be. But at the same time, then going to many of the corporations and we had one or actually still have one very big one in Finland. And when you went to a meeting there, you had lots of coffee and lots of people and nobody was really in charge and they told you that you should go and meet with that guy or that guy and then like nothing got done. So I think that in any company, no matter big or small, you need to have this kind of entrepreneurial attitude of like getting things done. And not like saying that, oh, that you should go and talk to that person and he or she will help you. But really making sure that things happen and not, you know, kind of like hiding from the responsibility. So it's like for me, entrepreneurship is about taking ownership and making sure that things that got done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. So Pierre, I know you have been, you know, working in like in Europe and recently you are spending a lot of time in Asia. So in terms of this entrepreneurship spirit or the ownership spirit, do you find there is a difference between different cultures? Say, for example, comparing Finland to, you know, China or in Hong Kong or in Japan? What do you feel? I think that there's a lot of, let's say a lot of differences, but also a lot of similarities. So one thing that, I mean, also what then happened after we started Slush in Finland that five years after we started Slush and then went back to Alta University and did the same talk about entrepreneurship and asked the same question, then more than half the hands went up. So we actually managed to do this kind of culture revolution when it comes to kind of like entrepreneurship and startups in just five years, which again shows that of course, if you're an entrepreneur, you can do anything. So that's, I think, the good news. Then if I look at, take, you know, Hong Kong and let's say Taiwan and Japan, I think that they have more in common with, you know, among themselves when it comes to the challenges around entrepreneurship than say China. And you'd expect that though, but wouldn't like the Chinese culture kind of be the dominant like thing. But actually, I think that you can see a lot of difference. And I think that it's maybe has to do with like the level of development of the economy. So you need to have a certain hunger. And I think that this is what we were lacking in Finland, what we were lacking in, you know, what we are lacking still, I mean, in Europe, that people are kind of like happy that, you know, it's okay, you don't really like need to do that much more, you're still going to have like food on the table and you'll survive. And I think that if I look at China, I think it's a very driven environment and people are moving very fast, they're very entrepreneurial. And then, and you know that like in Hong Kong, that probably most parents would say that why don't you go for a good job in, you know, the banks or real estate or, you know, like a real job. And why do you want to like take a risk and be an entrepreneur you might fail. So I think that and same thing actually we've seen with slush here in Japan that even though we have many young people here who are really excited about, you know, being an entrepreneur and wanting to change the world. But then we also see then a lot of parents saying that, yeah, but maybe it's safer that you join that consultancy company or Alibaba or I guess Rakuten here in Japan. So I think that there is a lot of those kind of attitudes that we have to still kind of like fight and also show that it's actually okay to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, I think, I mean, entrepreneurs themselves or personally, they have to have this spirit and also the environment. But also as a startup itself, I guess we were talking about at the about this at the backstage is we sometimes feel that companies startups like in Asia, like in Japan, in China, because the market is quite big already. So they will be sometimes very satisfied of, you know, being number one in Japan or number one in China. Of course, number one in China is already very big. But why do we have to go out so just similar to Alibaba because we actually has a pretty big market share. We are already the largest e-commerce platform in the world, not only in China, but we still want to do more than, you know, just staying in China or staying in one country or one market. And I think I would encourage startups to also think that way because just conquering one country or one market may not be enough. With the technology itself, I mean, with the evolution of technology, it's easier to tap into other markets. So it's really a shame if you just give up on that opportunity and vice versa, people can usually, even you are number one right now, you can have newcomers to the market with the ease of technology, with more, you know, innovation. So I think it's, there are two levels, right? Personally, and also for the company itself, we have to really think out of the box, be more, you know, have a bigger picture and maybe even bigger picture than 20, 30 years ago. Yeah. And I think that this is one area where, you know, like being from Finland, obviously, we are a very small country, like five million people. So for us, I mean, we always have to go outside because, you know, being number one in Finland is the same as being number one in small neighborhood in Hangzhou or Shanghai or Hong Kong. Yeah. And of course, everybody understands that that's, I mean, it's okay, but it's not fantastic. And I think that it's actually very cool to look at what's going on. And I think now being here at Slush here in Tokyo and having, of course, this event, it's in English. And we have not only local people from Japan, but we have people from Hong Kong, from China, from the US, from all over Europe. And I think that more and more we're living, I mean, of course, it's always been global. But in many, many other places, I mean, it's been enough that, okay, if you are number one in China, why bother going anywhere else? And same thing actually is true in the US, but then because of the kind of, let's say, the benefit of the English language. Right. And also, that all of us grow up watching, you know, like the American movies and American TV series and things like that, that you can't like, if you are an American startup, you can't like get the global or at least like the English speaking global, you can't like get served to you automatically, you don't really need to do much. You just put it on the internet and it's like, okay, it's in English, so then, you know, people can use it. And if you're startup in Japan or in China, it doesn't translate kind of like as easily. So I think that going forward, it's going to be very, very important. I mean, even more important now that you have to think global from the get go. Because otherwise, you know, let's say that even if you are the biggest e-commerce player in say, Germany or France, what happens, you know, next is that then Alibaba comes there or Amazon comes there and then, you know, you're dead. So I think that that is kind of like one part of it that you really need to think about the global market. And then I think also what is great to see players like Alibaba, but also many others, you know, like Tencent and then you look at now what is happening in India. There's a lot of startup activity and many, many unicorns being created. And I think that the new thing that we will see more and more is that it's not only the company started in Silicon Valley, you know, take the Google and Facebook and so on, that will emerge as the global leaders. But you will see global leaders emerge from China, from India, hopefully from Europe as well. And I think that that's super exciting for all of us because typically what I always, you know, my background of being, you know, at Angry Birds, I always ask that, okay, who's going to create the next Angry Birds, the next big thing, the next Alibaba. And if three young guys in Helsinki can create Angry Birds, you know, why couldn't you, you know, anybody here in Tokyo or Fukuoka or Sendai or Hangzhou or Hong Kong, I mean, of course you can. And I think that we just need role models and we need to have that kind of entrepreneurial mindset and that kind of very like positive craziness that I mean, all entrepreneurs are crazy and we think we can change the world and guess what we actually can. So I think that, yeah, having that global mindset from the beginning is super, super important. Yeah, yeah. I totally agree because when our funds selects our startups, of course, we have a social mission to help the Hong Kong startups. But at the same time, when we evaluate the business propositions or the teams, we always ask what is your bigger plan? What is your vision about your business? If you tell me that it is only about Hong Kong, then I don't think any investors will be interested. So you have to think about your theme of your business, but at the same time, how you are going to bring this theme or your service outside of a, to tap into bigger markets where you can serve more customers. I think a very important point actually that brought up like the social impact. So I think that so I actually think that if you look at startups and you look at all entrepreneurs, I think that nowadays it's not good enough to just make a great business. I mean, to make a great business, it also has to do good and it has to have positive social impact. So I think that of course you can separate like, you know, social impact and like investment and all of that. But I think that kind of by definition, all of the investments, all of the activities should have positive social impact. Yeah, I agree. And then Jack Ma always said when there's a problem, when there's a problem that you are and you have a solution to solve it, then there's an opportunity. Exactly. So when we are looking at, you know, to have startups that are able to identify a problem and be able to solve it and we believe that we strongly believe that in this situation, then there will be opportunity and not only for making money, but also be able to help people to live better. And I think that this is also important that there is no conflict in that that, you know, doing good and making lots of money. I think that it's of course, if you're making the world a better place, of course, you know, why shouldn't you be rewarded? And I think that the only way to actually change the world is to make sure that whatever you're doing, that it's a sustainable business. I mean, if it's a charity, you know, charities come and go, but businesses are around hopefully, I mean, for most us like forever. So I think that that's another thing that not only a business, but like a sustainable business. And of course, that means that it also does good like for the planet. I don't agree with you, Peter. Charity may not become and go because the fund that I am running is also a charity fund, but we run it in a commercial way. And that is, that is how we want to be sustainable. So if there is any, you know, profit from the investment, then we'll plow back to the fund. So it continues to be sustainable and this is a new way of doing charity. That's exactly the point I was trying to make was that and what you're doing is actually, okay, you might call it a charity, but I mean, you're running it as a business, you're investing, hopefully you'll get like a few nice exits and then you reinvest, but still you're running it as a business. And I think that the big problem that I see with a lot of like charities and like a lot of that, that they are not run very professionally. So I think that that's kind of the whole point that the most sustainable way of doing things is actually through business because then exactly like in your case, you will make some money that you can reinvest and you can do even more good. So I think that doing this as a business and there's like no conflict between business and doing good and doing the right thing. Yeah, yeah, totally agree because I think there's no conflict, right? Actually, there's a lot of research especially by Micopora. Dr. Micopora also mentioned about corporations who has a social impact or social mission in the business. Actually, you should outperform those who are only very profit driven. Yeah, and I think that we're running out of time here. So I guess that it's a good time to like finish by saying that, you know, like, be good, good, do things and do good things and make great business happen. So thank you very much and see you around. I guess we're going to be at the Slush Cafe after this. So thank you. Thank you.