Had the chance to hear the cofounder of Qunar Douglas (Malaysian!) speak at an invite only event.
Qunar is China’s #1 travel search engine. In 2011, Qunar was acquired by Baidu, which later owned 60% majority share in Qunar. The acquisition was done at $306M. Earlier In November 2013, Baidu listed Qunar on the stock exchange, raises over $167M on the public listing.
Impressive, considering that Douglas was a foreigner whom conquered the chinese market.
Couple of takeaways from Douglas:
- If you dont feel like everyday you have 50 things to do for your startup, and when you go to sleep, you have accomplished 55 of them, you are better off working for a corporate
- How often do you pitch? 110% of the time. Pitch to everyone about your company.
- Qunar grew through partnerships. Spending on marketing was minimal.
- How to stand out from competitor: out execute them.
- Team is important.
Main takeaway: execution.
