Ziwen Jie

Ken’s university classmate

Paul Mak

Executive Vice President of Foundation of Hong Kong-Shanghai Associations

Chris Cheung

Infinite Intelligence

Ken Wong（Smart City IT Developer）：I am Ken. I studied in the UK. After graduation, I went back to Hong Kong to start a business. After a while, I came to Shanghai to look for development opportunities

Cheers.

Ziwen Jie (Ken’s university classmate): When Ken first came to Shanghai，I had also just returned to Shanghai. We talked about our plans for the future and he shared with me his thoughts on building security works. I was very impressed. Ken had just graduated from the university not long ago and he was able to gear up himself and get into this state of mind swiftly.

Ken: Right now, I mainly focus on Smart City projects, like smart buildings, property technology, etc.

Smart City operates from the details. We are talking from furnitures, to buildings, to cities. Up to the scale of a city, we look at how an AI assistant can help you do monitoring around the clock and have a good control of every device that make your daily life more convenient and comfortable. When I first came to Shanghai, that was the start-up stage of my company, things were not that smooth at the very beginning. Because when I first arrived, I didn’t know my way around and didn’t have the connection. My mandarin wasn’t fluent and didn’t have many friends here. I am very glad to have met a group of Hong Kong friends here in Shanghai. From many platforms developed by these friends, I met even more new friends and developed my network.

Paul: Not everyone is suitable to be an entrepreneur. For the majority of people who want to do business, it wouldn’t be always smooth sailing. It requires unique character to be successful.  

Ken: When we stepped into the market, we realised that we were a really young start-up

without experience, background, or good track record of successful business cases. So how to break through from zero to one? It was really through perseverance. Our very first client back in the day was the Shanghai Center. We were very fortunate to have got to know the property manager there. How did I manage to get the chance to negotiate our first collaboration with him? I spent a full week waiting for him near the company. Every morning I got there earlier than him and every everning, I stay there later than him. In the end, he was moved by our sincerity and perseverance. He was convinced to give us a chance. We went from working with the Shanghai Center to working with the Pudong Airport. For a start-up company, which had no track record of successful cases, we also had nothing to lose. Since we were not afraid of failure, why not take up more challenges? Even though we are a tech company, we are part of the property technology industry. Having gone through the pandemic, and now, facing the recession in real estate industry, we have experienced many ups and downs in recent years. At one point, during the hardest times, we considered disbanding the company.

Chris(Former Business Development Director of Jones Lang LaSalle China): Young people’s time is limited. They can’t stay in the research and development stage forever. In the end, they all hope that the product can be launched as soon as possible and prove themselves right.

Ken: Every day we have dreamt of taking our business to new heights. But I do feel grateful for this lesson that the exterior challenges has given us. It made us reflect on ourselves as to what the society actually needed. It would be something more basic, and grassroot like the ‘Three-nil buildings’, which are the

buildings with ‘no owner’s corporations’, ‘no residents’ organizations’, and ‘no property management company’. The cost of hiring a property management company for a ‘Three-nil building’ would be exceptionally high. So we wanted to make use of technology in combination with certain amount of manpower to provide security, a clean environment, and routine maintenance for such buildings. We can provide a relatively cost-effective option for the residents there to enjoy a safe and quality living environment

Chris:There are many less fortunate people in society. If we can make good use of technologies and resources around us to help them out, even if it’s just a little improvement. So when he told me about this project, I fully support it. Since we were raised in Hong Kong, helping our place of origin feels like second nature.

Ken: I visited Hong Kong a while ago. And saw that, even though Hong Kong’s catering industry is struggling in the economic downturn. But interestingly, there are emerging shops selling ‘Rice with three sides’, ‘Rice with two sides’ are able to make a profit. This is really enlightening. Despite the harsh economic environment, there are always people who are able to make money while others are losing money. So even when we are doing the same thing, a change in perspective may be the key to progressing forward.