By Nicole Jucker and Florian Moeri, Junior Project Managers

On March 31, the fifth Fireside Chat took place. “Build an Empowering Business Ecosystem” was the first webinar version of our event series, co-organized with SwissCham. Lucas Rondez, the founder and CEO of nihub Innovation Center & Startup Accelerator & Incubator, shared his experience and knowledge about the Chinese market and outlined his understanding of an open ecosystem in a fast-growing environment.

Lucas Rondez (l.), founder & CEO of nihub, and Dr. Felix Moesner (r.), Science Consul & CEO of swissnex China.

Lucas started off with the remark that he wants to tell his story not only to be listened to, but also to provide a vision and motivation for like-minded people. He opened his presentation with a short introduction about his company, nihub, and their working processes. Being a business ecosystem itself, nihub wants to share the gained knowledge and resources with others. With a mix of investment and mentoring, they want to provide the support that their CEO, Lucas, did not have when he started his first company, Nihao. In 2015, the Swiss national achieved his dream of becoming an entrepreneur by creating this all-English app to provide life services to China’s expatriate community. He used the same experience to explain the danger of growing too fast: If you don't have a precise revenue model, it becomes difficult – even though you have the best product on the market.

Afterwards, Lucas took us on a time travel into his past: growing up in the canton of Jura, he began an apprenticeship at UBS at the age of 16. There, he was able to acquire a strong basic foundation, for which he is still grateful today. In addition, the education of his parents, who supported him in everything he liked to do and always motivated him to strive for more, has had a great influence on him. He understood that no matter what you want to achieve, you have to put up with sweating and work hard for it. Lucas still goes by the motto "Challenge yourself", which was also the title of one of his slides.

Following a successful startup launch, an expansion to 30 employees, a dismissal of 25 of them and the start of nihub later, Lucas developed further guiding principles:

Perseverance is the key to success
Important is not the financial but the backpack (the experience)
Grow together
Get connected: Stop being a listener – become a speaker. Learn and get important (Let people come and connect to you)
Ask yourself “Where are the problems?” and then “What is the solution?”
Things we may learn during the COVID-19 pandemic: There is a lack of information and a non-use of technology that already exists. People should work as a community not as individuals.
Learn & Love Chinese
Do not waste time to complain. But: Spend time with people who are complaining
Innovate or work with innovators
Take care of your health – eat and drink good things
Work with a lawyer from day -1
Play golf or tennis and use your credit card (invest in networking)
Be patriotic: Let’s be a community
Give and not only take. Give your time, your money or your knowledge, if you can. The most amazing thing you can get back is trust.

A recurring element in Lucas' presentation was the changing dynamics in his development. He is convinced: you have to like the “roller coaster of life” to be an entrepreneur. This basic understanding was packed into the following slide:

Lucas salary and asset development compared with the salary and asset development of his father.(Lucas introduced the slide with the comment that he chose his father for comparison because he is the motivation in his daily work. Having benefited fro… — Lucas salary and asset development compared with the salary and asset development of his father.
(Lucas introduced the slide with the comment that he chose his father for comparison because he is the motivation in his daily work. Having benefited from a great support in his childhood, he now likes to give back.)

After a short Q&A session, Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO of swissnex China, rounded off the webinar with a closing word. He stated that Lucas Rondez is a perfect reflection of the Swiss dual education system: "There are many opportunities for people to prove themselves at a young age already - if you are willing to accept challenges. And this is how you can make it from an apprentice in Switzerland to a successful, solution-oriented entrepreneur in Hangzhou!”

To end this blogpost, we would like to express our gratitude to Lucas Rondez for sharing his experiences and insights. Many thanks also to SwissCham Shanghai for co-organizing this edition of the Fireside series.

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!

Please contact Lucas below if you would like to have access to his resources and work with him: