Fireside Chat with HSG’s Neil Shen: Beyond Expo 2024

Speaking at Beyond Expo 2024, HSG Founding & Managing Partner Neil Shen joined BEYOND Co-founder Jason Ho for a wide-ranging conversation on long-term thinking, global expansion, and the role of venture capital in a time of uncertainty.

From his early days as co-founder of Ctrip to leading one of Asia’s most influential investment firms, Shen reflected on the qualities that define great founders, the opportunities and challenges for deep tech spinouts, and the importance of staying curious—even decades into a career.

Held on May 22 in Macao, this closing fireside chat explored what it means to navigate uncertainty with conviction, why local ecosystems matter in going global, and how founders can balance technical depth with commercial insight.

A lightly edited transcript is included below.

Jason Ho: This is our finale fireside chat, and we’re very honored to have – I always call him Boss Neil – Mr. Neil Shen on the stage.

Neil Shen: You’re the boss. And actually, before you start, I have to say congrats on an amazing Beyond Expo.

Jason Ho: Thank you.

Neil Shen: And I think we all should give a round applause to Jason. Right?

Jason Ho: Thank you.

Neil Shen: It’s not easy. I know. And you also did a very good job in the last four sessions as a moderator.

Jason Ho: Thank you. I hope it will be the same for you. I started the first fireside chat with this question, so I wanted to end with it as well.

The theme is ‘Embracing the Uncertainties.’ What is the biggest uncertainty to you as an investor?

Neil Shen: That’s a very good question. I think for us as investors—especially in venture capital—uncertainty is almost a daily topic. You always have to be prepared for it.

Where does uncertainty come from? Of course, there are business uncertainties in every single company. But there are also other kinds of uncertainty that you may not fully appreciate at first, and they’re becoming more important. For example, financial market uncertainty can affect a company even in the early stage. If the public markets are not doing well, it becomes harder to fundraise. That affects you, right? Growth-stage investors may pull back, and venture capitalists may not be as enthusiastic.

Then there’s regulatory uncertainty, which we’ve all seen in recent years. And if you look across the major countries around the world, the impact of government on industries and companies—especially large companies—is significant. If you want to expand into international markets like Indonesia, South Africa, or Brazil, each has its own laws and regulations. And those rules are constantly changing.

Lastly, there’s disruptive technology, right? When OpenAI announced Sora [its video generation model], for example, a lot of people who were using open-source large language models to develop text-to-video solutions started to worry—wondering if they could still stay in business.

So for our portfolio CEOs—for any CEO, really—I think one important thing they can do is keep an eye on what’s emerging. Probably the best way to deal with uncertainty is to position yourself for it.

It’s like driving on the highway — if there’s a potentially dangerous spot ahead, you can adjust your speed. You have to be ahead of the game. You have to be preemptive. And to some extent, you need to be strategic—not just focused on getting the current work done, but also thinking about what could happen in the near, medium, and even long term.

Jason Ho: So, I think HSG (HongShan Capital) is one of the best, if not the best, VC firm in China.

Neil Shen: We’re trying!

Jason Ho: You’ve invested in so many major companies. Some of them focus primarily on China, like Meituan and JD.com. Some of them are MNCs [multinational corporations] with a global presence, like ByteDance, Pinduoduo, and Canva. And some are global companies that leverage China’s complete supply chain, like SHEIN. What common characteristics do you see in these founders?

Neil Shen: I think no matter what type of business they’re in—including some of our most prominent alumni, like Robin Li of Baidu—they’re all great companies with founders who have a long-term vision. When I listen to Robin [Li] talk about his industry, he always had a long-term view.

It’s the same for other companies that have become global leaders or leaders in their respective sectors. They make decisions based on long-term thinking. That’s extremely important—and it ties back to the theme of uncertainty. So how do you respond to uncertainty? Not with a short-term mindset, but by thinking long term. That kind of perspective should really shape your decisions.

Secondly, I think it’s critical to have a steep learning curve—because things change fast. Eighteen months ago, even people in the AI space didn’t fully appreciate large language models or the transformer framework. Now, everyone has to catch up. When technology disruption happens, you need to keep learning—even as a CEO. That’s very important.

Thirdly, I think you need to be global—to attract the very best talent and access the best technology. For many companies, that’s increasingly becoming a basic requirement.

Jason Ho: I want to follow up on that. For the companies you’ve invested in, how do they enter a completely new or foreign market? That’s a common question among entrepreneurs.

Neil Shen: We certainly have a lot of companies going global. Some with decent success. Some are still trying, and some are not.

I think the key is: you need to be local. Think about it—over the last 30 or 40 years, many multinational companies came to China. Some were very successful. Why? Because they localized. Being local doesn’t just mean saying, “My product is competitive, I’ll sell to this country, I’ll build a factory here.” It’s about building a local culture. It’s about recruiting top local talent.

I often ask companies going global: among your senior management team—your minus-one or minus-two levels—how many people have you recruited from outside China? I’m not saying Chinese talent isn’t strong. But having a diverse base of talent with people from different backgrounds and cultures really helps. I think that’s definitely very important.

Secondly, build local ecosystems. If you look at the top companies in China, the reason they’ve been successful is that they’ve been able to build strong ecosystems. It’s not just, “Oh, I’m selling a product and making a margin.” They take care of their supply chain. They support their customers. They build a whole ecosystem around their business. I think you need to take the same approach when entering an overseas market—and probably go even further. Because when you’re in a foreign country, you’re competing with local players who already have an entrenched ecosystem.

Lastly, PR and understanding local policy is very important. This is a common mistake I’ve seen. Many companies going overseas think, “Let’s keep a low profile and stay under the radar.” But the problem is, often the first time you hear about something is through a negative media report—and then you’re forced to react. So, I think these are all important areas that a top management team needs to be aware of, pay close attention to, and invest real resources in.

Jason Ho: You’re not only an investor—you also co-founded Ctrip. What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur today? And if you could turn back time, what major would you choose as a student—ideally one that will still be relevant 20 or 30 years from now?

Neil Shen: I started my entrepreneurship journey many, many years ago—back in 1999. But there are a lot of things that are probably similar to that time.

First of all, and maybe even more so today than before, you really need to be passionate about your business. I’ve heard several entrepreneurs say this, and it’s true—because only when you’re passionate do you have the curiosity to solve problems and the drive to get good at it. And that was certainly the case with Ctrip.

Second, I was recently reading a book by James Dyson, and I want to share a story he tells. He talks about something called the “Zulu Principle.” Zulu is a small ethnic group in South Africa. Dyson said one of his friend’s wives read a short article about the Zulu in Reader’s Digest, and because of that, his wife’s knowledge of Zulus far exceeded his own. If she read all the books she could find on the subject and traveled to South Africa to meet the Zulu people, she would soon become a real expert in what is obviously a very narrow subject. And that idea was very inspiring to Dyson. And I think it applies to startups as well: if you want to build something truly differentiated, you need to go deep into one area. Focus. Build the expertise. Then, after you become the world’s number one in that product, you can start to expand from there.

Jason Ho: What about the college major?

Neil Shen: Well, I’m actually glad that I majored in engineering. It helps me, at least occasionally, understand what some of our CEOs are talking about—whether it’s new energy, energy storage, or synthetic biology. That kind of general engineering training has been very helpful.

That said, if you look at college today, the most popular undergraduate majors are probably AI, computer science, biology, or life sciences.

But sometimes I ask myself: what was the missing piece in my own education? During my four years of college—and even in graduate school—I had very limited exposure to the humanities and social sciences. And when you’re focused on engineering or science, you might not pay much attention to those areas. And even when you do, your perspective might be too technical.

Later on, I came across examples where mathematics was applied in social sciences—like sociology or history—and was quite intrigued by it. For example, using math to explain why a certain society could maintain the same legal structure for a long period of time. But we often rely too heavily on quantitative thinking and believe that mathematics can solve everything. Unfortunately, it can’t.

What’s just as important is understanding the human side of things. So I’d say, even if you’re an engineering student, make an effort to explore the humanities and social sciences more deeply. Of course, you can always come back to those areas later in life—but if you can start during college, I think that would be fantastic.

Jason Ho: Speaking of colleges and universities, we’ve seen more deep tech companies emerging from research—spun out by professors. As an investor, what advice would you give them? How can they transition from being educators to becoming entrepreneurs?

Neil Shen: That’s a very good question. We actually have quite a few companies where one of the co-founders is a scientist—sometimes a renowned scientist.

We’ve spent a lot of time working with them, and we even have an incubation program to help scientists start companies. But I think there are still a few key gaps that often come up.

Number one, scientists often look at building a company the same way they approach writing a research paper—but that’s completely different. In a paper, you focus on explaining the underlying principles. In a startup, you need to define a product. That’s a totally different mindset.

Number two, when you’re writing a paper, you don’t need to think about customers. But when you’re building a product, your top priority is identifying the customer and understanding their needs—or even convincing them they need your product. Sometimes there might not be an existing market, and you’ll have to create demand. But you still need to know who the customer is and how you’re going to reach them. That kind of thinking is not typically part of a scientist’s training.

Lastly—and I know this isn’t always the case—but in 90 to 95 percent of cases, the scientist is probably not the best person to be CEO. When I meet scientist-founders in Hong Kong or on the mainland, I often ask: “Who’s going to be your CEO?” These days, I’m hearing some really smart answers. They’ll say something like, “I’ll devote a certain percentage of my time as the founder, but I’ll bring in a CEO.” And that’s crucial—the CEO needs to have the trust of the founder. Otherwise, if the two cannot agree on anything or if they fight with each other, then I don’t think there’s a future for the company.

You also want a CEO with industry experience and knowledge—because running a startup is hard. You want someone who is already in the industry, understands the space, knows the potential customers, and can help you achieve that dream.

Jason Ho: Let me do a little self-promotion—what do you think of Beyond Expo? And what role do you think a platform like this can play?

Neil Shen: I think this is an amazing event, and I really believe Asia needs something like this. What stands out to me about Beyond Expo is that it goes beyond just consumer electronics, which is what you typically see at CES. You’ve added other important product categories—like healthcare, new energy, and robotics—where physical demonstrations are also essential.

This provides the opportunity partners, customers, and consumers to see these technologies up close themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing more EV company come to your expo and showcase their products—because I think this is the way to go.

When we look around Asia, there aren’t many opportunities like this for startups and innovative companies to present what they’re building. The options are still quite limited. So I think this is a great platform, and I hope that each year, you’ll see more and more people come to you. Not only more visitors, but also more great companies.

Jason Ho: Let’s move into a lightning round so we can get to know you a bit more. After a long day, how do you unwind and relax?

Neil Shen: Very simple—if I finish work at 10:00 PM, I just go to sleep! But like everyone else, I might read a book—something unrelated to investing or tech. I also listen to music. Just something to help me relax.

Jason Ho: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received—personally or professionally?

Neil Shen: Along the way, I’ve received mentorship from many entrepreneurs and fellow investors. But when you asked this question, what came to mind was actually something I learned back in high school.

I was very lucky to be picked for a mathematics training program in Shanghai. Every Saturday, I’d attend a three-hour session. Over the course of a year, that’s about 150 hours. From junior high through senior high school, that adds up to a lot of hours.

At the very beginning, the instructor—the director of the program—told us: “I don’t know who among you will become professors one day, or who among you is a genius. But what I do know is this: if you can stick with it, if you complete the full program—which is about 150 hours per year, nearly 1,000 hours by the end—you will become someone who’s very good at math. Those are the people who might actually have a shot. It’s not necessarily about being the smartest person in the room from the beginning.”

At the very beginning of the session, the mathematics instructor—who was also the program director—told us something that stuck with me. He said, “I don’t know which of you will become professors one day, or who among you is a genius. But I do know one thing: if you keep doing this, if you stick with it and complete the full program—nearly 1,000 hours over several years—you will become very good at math. The ones who truly commit and persist are the ones who may go on to do something special. Not necessarily the ones who are gifted from the start.”

That really stayed with me. And when I look back, I think—wow, I really did stick with it for six years. I didn’t continue with math after college, but in my investment career, I’ve continued learning for the past 20 years. I don’t know how many hours I’ve devoted to this, but it has definitely helped me get better and better.

Jason Ho: So the takeaway is: keep learning, and put in the time. Awesome. Let’s give a round of applause to our speaker. Thank you, Mr. Shen.

Neil Shen: Thank you.

Jason Ho: Thank you for coming.