Page 137 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

during the Chinese Civil War in 1934. “We call it Lingtu’s Long Drive,” Tse
says jokingly.
Lingtu went on to raise $5 million in 2005 11 and $30 million in May
12
2006. Several would-be investors were turned away.

Photo op

As the PowerPoint presentation winds up during my initial meeting at Lingtu,
I take a few photos of Tang in the courtyard as he proudly poses next to a
wading pool with goldfish. We head out for lunch past several construction
sites before ducking into an empty restaurant. I’m wondering where everyone
is. Turns out the employees have lunch in the company canteen. This
restaurant is reserved for VIPs.
Tang and his team are proud of their accomplishments and should be.
Here’s a totally domestic Chinese company toughing it out against multina-
tionals and mastering the fine craftsmanship of producing digital maps. If the
new CEO can pump up Lingtu with fatter revenues and profits, the next step
will be a public debut at Times Square’s Nasdaq. The founders have grown
their start-up past adolescence, but reaching maturity is more difficult than
they imagined. If Lingtu is successful, this founding team will be able to tell
competitors, both domestic and international, where to go and how to get
there.
The next company faces some of the same managerial issues. The CEO is
the heart and soul of the young company but lacks the deep managerial skills
of an executive trained in the West. Yet he somehow has designed a highly
innovative mobile service and pulled in large corporate contracts from banks,
insurance companies, and brokers. His company is called Oriental Wisdom,
which provides some perspective on where this local entrepreneur is coming
from.

Lingtu—China’ s Navigator 111