Been a long time since the last post -- just been preoccupied with other stuff.
We finally outgrew our shared space with fellow Green Building companies (two related companies) and found our own spot not more than a km away and still in Xujiahui in a lovely old lane house. Our friends upstairs are a furniture design company but we haven't had too much interaction with them so far. A housewarming BBQ is in the plans, but first the temperatures need to drop below 100!
Headcount is holding at 18, with one more joining at the end of the month. Only three of these are part-timers, so at the end of the month, it is a rather traumatic event. I finally hired a finance/book-keeper/HR person, which is freeing me up a lot, but handling salary payments while being tax efficient is a pretty major effort, so better someone else rather than me!
We continue to get pretty good press coverage -- was on Forbes and the Global Times (Chinese national language daily), but the big personal milestone was getting onto NPR! A nice story along with the audio is posted here.
The cool thing is that a potential partner that I had been just in discussions with about becoming a distributor got a big credibility push from this when the US-based company's president caught the show and the next morning wrote me: "Small world. I was driving home this evening, listening to NPR, and heard your voice. You were interviewed in a clip on air pollution in China. "
We even had some folks write in with interest in investing in us:
| Quick Contact Form | |
| Your Name: | **** |
| Your Email: | ****@gmail.com |
| Your Phone Number: | **** |
| Best time to contact you?: | 8 am |
| Your Location: | Cincinnati |
| How did you hear about us?: | PRI Radio |
| Please describe: area of concern(air, water, lead, or mold), information needed and any health symptoms or problems.: | I am interested in investing in your company. How might I go about doing that? |
The big change is that this accelerates our plan to put together a push for investment by the end of the year. We can use the money to run the business more professionally (ie. get our Chinese name trademarked, get a Chinese website, do more paid advertising, etc). But a lot to do between now and then...
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