Chris Saad has built multiple companies, products and, among other things, helped startups raise capital. He currently works at Uber where he is the Head of Product @ Uber Developer Platform.
No surprise that he is very passionate about beautiful products and developer platforms. He also likes to talk about the Silicon Valley culture.
Topics we will cover during his Shenzhen visit:
Uber
The product behind Uber
Silicon Valley culture
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ReadWrite
ReadWrite aggregates professional communities dedicated to specific subjects of interest such as connected cars, smart homes, AR/VR, fintech and APIs.
ReadWrite Labs is the world's leading IoT (Internet of Things) accelerator with programs in San Francisco, Hong Kong & Shenzhen.
Chris Saad is a product and startup builder with over 18 years of entrepreneurial experience. Currently, he builds a team and suite of products to enable developers to innovate with, on and around Uber.
His professional interests and experience involves:
Starting, building and running a series of great startups
Product management and design
Designing Minimum Viable Products (MVP), User Experience, User Interface, Baking in social etc.
Platforms and ecosystems
Architecting extensible platforms and their developer ecosystems. Designed and built a platform from zero to 85 Billion API calls a month.
Big brand/media sales, strategy and support
Building, selling and supporting products into large brands and media companies (Worked with central product and IT groups at CNN, Univision, NASDQ, Disney, UMG, NBCU, Coke, Fanta, AT&T and more).
Social media strategy
Techniques for participating in, influencing and leveraging social media to grow new markets, influence thought leaders and drive industry conversations.
Fundraising
Raising capital in Silicon Valley
Jan Smejkal is currently based in Shenzhen (China) and as the Startup Grind China & APAC Community Director he works with some of the brightest and most passionate tech ecosystem builders in the world to expand the #1 international entrepreneur community (Startup Grind) in China, Asia Pacific and beyond.
Previously, he helped launch a venture for Rocket Internet (in 2 markets), built an online business during my last year of BA and found a passion in connecting and educating people in the startup world.
Jan documents his entrepreneurial journey and works tirelessly on turning China into a truly international startup ecosystem.
