HUNTING FOR SILVER LININGS

Through our Startup Grind event series Hunting for Silver Linings, we check in with ecosystem builders, investors, and business leaders from around the world.

We dig for deeper context around challenges and opportunities found in markets around the world, as well as mine for insight that can better inform biases about regions, their talent, and potential for investment.

Then, we connect the dots.

OUR HOSTS

Corey Hart | LinkedIn
Chapter Director, Startup Grind
Co-founder & CMO, Telebehavioral Health.US

Yorgo (George) Katsanos
Head of Corporate Finance, Cubera International

OUR SPECIAL GUEST

Tuesday, April 13th, we are pleased to host Clark Rubino of Startup Grind Chongqing, China. Clark will give us some insight on how the epidemic is affecting the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem in his region, as well as provide advice to entrepreneurs.

His interest in social venture, movements, lingua-cultural exchange, and emerging markets first led Clark to China in 2005 and then later to found Chongqing Bright Ideas Consulting Services Company (重庆良计商务信息咨询有限公司) (Est. 2016 in Chongqing, China) where his team serves as a one-stop-shop to Southwest China’s international business people. For startups entering China or expanding globally they provide visa assistance, incorporation, soft-landing guidance, incubation or co-workspace matching, translation, trusteeships, business guidance services, English-based course curriculum design and presentation content improvement services. As the Startup Grind Chongqing City Director (创业磨坊重庆分布负责人) he supports and grows entrepreneurial communities in Chongqing and online.

In addition to startup and business information services, Clark provides a suite of inter-cultural guidance and communication services. This ranges from arranging cultura-lingua programs to guiding students and family groups through a great number of experiential learning activities in the field and in the classroom. He offers programs and activities designed for different durations ranging from one hour to three week long programs. He be outsourced as your short-term program’s director. And can also custom design inter-cultural camp programs for your organization.

Now he is working on two new startup projects: Waypoint: an online to offline inter-cultural communication and lean enterprise methods learning and internship program for Chinese teens and college students. And Be-U, an experiential project-based learning camp that equips kids with the intercultural and personal leadership tools to teach each other essential skills for success. When he’s not building these startups, he mentors his team in Chongqing in the skills of community building, startup ecosystem research, and fractional services for startups and scaleups who aim for global and Chinese markets. Together they strive to understand the local and global startup ecosystem and assist in soft-landing for businesses who setup in new markets in the Americas and Asia. Currently he is based in Southern Yunnan province, while expanding an impact company: Xishuangbanna NanXiang Services, 西双版纳南翔咨询服务有限公司. They offer youth development, intercultural training, ESL, study abroad services, and project-based learning programs in English.

Clark has broad and in-depth experience in lingua-cultural exchange. He volunteers for and sets-up programs in Western China: Qinghai, Ningxia, Sichuan, Guizhou, Gansu and Yunnan Province. He loves culture and learning languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish. His passions include traveling and helping youth be empowered to dream big and progress toward those dreams. He accredits this love to his years of involvement in the Boy Scouts of America, participation in the College of Wooster’s inter-faith ministries, and his bachelor’s study in anthropology. He has traveled to 13 countries. He attends and speaks at global conferences on social innovation, TEFL, startups and tech. Along with 12 years’ experience in China, 6 months community development experience in South America, and over 12 years’ experience in customer experience management in the USA he has grown a vast network across the globe.

他对社会创业、运动、语言文化交流和新兴市场的兴趣，他2005年来到中国，2016年在重庆创立了重庆良计商务信息咨询有限公司，他的团队为中国西南地区的国际商务人士提供一站式服务。对于进入中国或在全球范围内扩张的初创企业，他们提供签证协助、注册成立、软着陆指导、孵化或协同工作空间匹配、翻译、托管、商务指导服务、英语课程设计和改进演讲内容等服务。作为创业磨坊重庆分布负责人，他支持并发展重庆和线上的创业社区。

除了创业和商业信息服务，他还提供一整套跨文化指导和沟通服务。除了创业和商业信息服务外，Clark还提供一整套跨文化指导和交流服务，从安排文化语言课程到指导学生和家庭团体进行大量的实地和课堂体验式学习活动。他提供的课程和活动设计有从一个小时到三个星期不同的时间段。他可以作为您的短期项目的负责人进行外包。也可以为您的组织定制设计跨文化的项目。

他现在正在做两个新的创业项目。微点创业学院：一个针对中国青少年和大学生的线上到线下跨文化交流和精益企业方法学习和实习项目。还有Be-U，一个以项目为基础的体验式学习营，为孩子们提供跨文化和个人领导力的工具，让他们互相传授成功的基本技能。在其他时间，他会给在重庆的团队提供指导、学习社区建设、创业生态系统研究的技能，并为那些瞄准全球和中国市场的创业公司和规模化公司提供部分服务。他们一起努力了解当地和全球创业生态系统，并协助在美洲和亚洲新市场建立的企业实现软着陆。目前，他在云南省南部办公，同时拓展一家具有影响力的公司，西双版纳南翔咨询服务有限公司。主要为青年提供发展、跨文化培训、ESL、留学服务和英语项目学习计划。

他在语言文化交流方面有着广泛而深入的经验。他在中国西部地区担任志愿者并设立项目。青海、宁夏、四川、贵州、甘肃和云南等地。他热爱文化和学习语言，包括汉语、菲律宾语和西班牙语。他热衷于旅游和帮助年轻人实现梦想，并朝着梦想前进。他将这种热爱归功于他多年来参加美国童子军，参加伍斯特学院的跨宗教牧师会，以及他在人类学方面的学士学位研究。他到过13个国家。他参加社会创新、TEFL、初创企业和科技方面的全球会议并发表演讲。除了在中国12年的经验，在南美6个月的社区发展经验，以及在美国有超过12年的客户体验管理经验，他在全球范围内建立了一个庞大的网络。

THE AGENDA

We spend our time checking in with investors, entrepreneurs, founders, and Startup Grind Chapter Directors from around the globe to get accounts of what's happening in their areas and learn of what their challenges and opportunities are. 

• We learn about our guest, their story
• We dig into their area & industry of expertise, and their ecosystem
• We identify specific challenges & opportunities they are close to
• We ask what their outlook is for the next 6, 12 months
• Finally, we ask how our network of global Directors, entrepreneurs, and investors can help them