20 years in Hong Kong

Every week I’ll be talking to you about Business and Tech in Hong Kong and the region. Understandably, you might want to know where I draw my insights from.

Long story short, I landed in Hong Kong 20 years ago and never left. These years of experiences have provided me with a framework to understand how this part of the world works. This is what I will be sharing with you.

I arrived in Hong Kong in September 2004 for a one-year internship at the Spanish Trade Commission, there was a small group of us. It was part of the ICEX MBA program and my first time in Asia. The first impression was overwhelming, after an 18-hour trip, we were greeted by this jungle of concrete, neon and bamboo scaffolding. When the bus left us in Causeway Bay, I remember there was a distinct smell to the city and there was humidity too, a lot of it. Taxis had futuristic contraptions to open their doors, and the streets displayed a noisy mix of cultures. For a fan of Cyberpunk it doesn’t get much better than this. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the city, but it’s not just its hardware that’s special, it’s rather the software that really captivates you. The very special energy this city has, its vibe, its soul. That year I made friends for life and together we traveled weekend after weekend, to virtually every country in the region, the anecdotes are endless. As the year approached its end, I knew I had to stay.

Fast forward 20 years, I’m still here (this is a very “HK thing” by the way, the city is filled with people who came for “2 weeks” and never left). So, what do I do here after all these years? Essentially, as we like to say in Hong Kong, I wear three “hats”:

I’m the founder of Crossbow an agency that accelerates startup growth in Asia. We are advisors & operators helping founders move faster and more efficiently in this environment. We are vertical agnostic but tend to choose projects under the theme of the future of work. Some of my favourites include a software for robotics project that required us to build a team in Hong Kong, set up a lab at the Science Park, establish a presence in Shenzhen and manage a sales team in China, this was before Covid. A more recent one revolves around one of the leading sustainability platforms in the world. Its completely data driven and has some of the coolest real world applications of AI that I’ve seen.

Apart from that I’m also an advisor, mostly to corporates and VCs but also occasionally to family offices. Essentially, to those that want to understand how this part of the world operates and what trends they should be paying attention to. In line with this I’m also a speaker, lecturer and mentor in various programs in Asia and Europe and I publish articles regularly. Over the years, my activity as mentor (first for the APAC Founder Catalyst program at TechStars and later on for the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks and other programs) has kept me in contact with founders from across the region including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, India, Korea and Japan. I won’t bore you with the details, if you want to know more, there is a list of my “greatest hits” here below for you to enjoy.

Last but not least, for years now I’ve been very involved in chambers of commerce. I was recently reelected Chairman of the Europe Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the oldest and most prestigious business association in Hong Kong with over 160 years of existence. One third of the Hong Kong workforce is employed by members of the Chamber and it prides itself in being the voice of the business community. It’s a great honour and an extremely exciting role. We receive foreign delegations, host knowledge sharing sessions with leading minds in every field, organise networking events and carry out advocacy efforts. We are a very active organisation, if you’ve been following my linkedin I’m sure you’ve noticed.

This many activities might seem like a lot of work (and it is), but each of these reinforces the others and then again this is a workaholic city. In fact, I’ve been here long enough to remember that until a few years ago, in Hong Kong it was common to work 6 days a week, or at least 5 and a half, so my case is within the norm. I arrived here hoping to see a glimpse of the rise of the Asian century and I can tell you I haven’t been disappointed. The development in Hong Kong, China and Asia has been mind boggling. The pace of change has been so frenetic that 20 years in Asia pack as many experiences as double that time elsewhere. This is perhaps better understood through an anecdote.

In the winter of 2004 I lived with some friends for a month in Beijing and I became very fond of the neighbourhood where we stayed. A few years later, in one of my visits I decided to drop by and check on the place but once I arrived in the area, I was very confused, I couldn’t find my way around. Turns out not only the hostel where we had stayed had closed down, not only the whole building was gone, but the actual layout of that part of the city had been completely redrawn and new skyscrapers were now lined up along roads I had never heard of. I cannot describe the astonishment I felt. This is just one anecdote, illustrative of a particular pattern. There are plenty more, I’ll be sprinkling them here and there.

Interestingly, I’ve witnessed these changes not only from a distance, but in some cases very up close. One day in late 2014 I found myself sitting at the negotiations for the direct flight to Spain. Until then, there was no direct connection by air between Hong Kong and Spain and fixing this was a top priority for the Spanish community. The Chamber was invited to voice the opinion of the business community and estimate how much demand there could be. So just a few weeks into my new job as Secretary General of the Spanish Chamber and there I was playing a part in establishing what is now a weekly regular connection with both Madrid and Barcelona, not a bad start. But if the start was intense, what followed were 5 years of frenetic activity, a particularly productive time of my life. I was lucky to be surrounded by amazing colleagues and we achieved some great things together. Anyone familiar with Chambers will know they involve constant “firefighting” and significant doses of ingenuity to fix things and keep all stakeholders happy and in good terms. I developed a reputation for being rather good at these and in an interview a few years later, I was defined by a journalist as the Spanish MacGuyver, which for an 80s kid is a tremendous badge of honour.

Truth is, if my start in this position had been interesting, the end didn’t disappoint either. In one of the funniest initiatives in the Chamber’s history, in early 2019 shortly before leaving we decided to draw attention to the Spanish community by attempting to break a world record… And it worked. We actually won a Guinness World Record for organising the largest flamenco class ever with 268 people dancing under a blistering sun in Victoria Harbour. The story of that day would deserve its own article and the record was more about the quantity than the quality so it’s good that the videos are mostly of the celebrations and not so much of the dancing itself. Jokes aside, I couldn’t think of a better way to close that incredible period.

After that time I founded Crossbow and since then I get to work with founders from across the world in bringing some really cool projects to Asia. Of course, not everything in these 20 years has been good. When I first arrived the effects of SARS were still noticeable in the city, years later the financial crisis hit hard and in recent times the protests and covid have also taken a toll. And personal life has also had ups and downs over the years but still, all in all, a fascinating journey.

Which brings us to this newsletter. Remember the Asian century? The changes haven’t stopped, in fact if anything they are accelerating. Hong Kong and the rest of the region are immersed in two very distinct transformations, both of which offer tremendous business opportunities:

-            The changing dynamics of the traditional economy

-            The process of digitalisation disrupting every industry

I’ll be documenting those. The advantage of 20 years in Asia is a track record of how things actually work on the ground. These years of experiences and those of my network allow me to cut through the noise so you can make sense of business and tech in Hong Kong and the region.

NEXT: Hong Kong - Much more than just a city - Part 01

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Reach out

Interested to know more about my advisory work and how my agency accelerates startup growth in Asia? Feel free to reach out

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Highlights - Crossbow / Advisor:

Article on the Greater Bay Area for Spain’s N.1 Think Tank, Real Instituto ElCano

Mentor at Baptist University’s startup competition 2024

Speaker at Foro El Economico

Speaker at Startmeup Festival 2023 - Jumpstart’s explore the innovation ocean

Mentor, Judge and MC at Startmeup Festival 2024 - Louder Connect

Panel on business in Asia at South Summit

Invited to Asian Global Dialogue 2022

Interviewed for Alibaba & OurHK Foundation’s report on the HK ecosystem

Interviewed for Airwallex report on trading & eCommerce in Hong Kong

Highlights Chambers / Associations:

Special recognition at the Spanish Chamber Gala Dinner 2018

Chairman of the Europe Committee at the HKGCC - 2023-2025

PropTech Bootcamp with the City of Barcelona (Investment Committee HKPTA)

Recent events

Airwallex F1 McLaren viewing night event

HKGCC - New members greeting networking event

HKGCC - Moderating round table on EU elections, Europe’s political landscape & relationship with China