CTUAA/SJTU-SV Career Seminar – Summary – 上海交通大学硅谷校友会

On July 22nd CTUAA and SJTU-SV Career Club jointly held a Career Seminar on Entrepreneurship that included three distinguished guest speakers: Michelle Wu (Founder and CEO of Helekang), Larry Liu (CEO and Co-founder of Weee!) and Ming-Tao Yang (Partner of Finnegan, a major IP law firm). The seminar was moderated by CTUAA president, Dong Xie, and attended by over 40 alumni.

Agenda for the seminar included:

1. Entrepreneur panel discussion with Michelle Wu and Larry Liu

2. Presentation by Ming-Tao Yang: “Intellectual Property and the Value of Patents, Trade Secrets, and other IP to Startups, Investors, and Business Success”

3. Open discussion

Panel discussion session with Michelle Wu and Larry Liu

Both panelists candidly shared their experiences and career paths from engineers to successful entrepreneurs, as well as the lessons they learned and the best practices they developed along the way.

Larry advised attendees who do not want to live the same life every day to follow their interests, find their passion, and turn a hobby into a business. He stressed the importance of proving to VCs that the business has values to its customers and is standing out from its competitors when seeking funding. He also shared his experience in finding the right business partner through the process of building Weee!.

Michelle’s advice was to follow your heart and never settle, to learn from failure rather than fear it, and to always keep trying. She explained that a successful entrepreneur finds the need in the market and fulfills the need with competitive edge. She encouraged people to seek experience since life is short and also emphasizes the importance of building a good team, hiring the right people and scaling up. Michelle kindly offered to mentor and help young entrepreneurs in business planning, VC interview, and customer negotiation.

Presentation by Ming-Tao Yang

Ming-Tao presented details on patents, trademarks and trade secrets using easy to understand language and well-known cases. He clearly explained the application process and legal protections of different types of patents and intellectual properties. He also discussed a few creative strategies for startups and larger companies to deal with IP infringement.

Open discussion

The speakers answered attendees’ questions and provided detailed advice and approaches.

The seminar provided guidance on transitioning from an engineer to an entrepreneur, provided insights into overcoming the challenges of building a business, and expanded attendees’ networks.

Thanks to IvyMax for providing the venue, alumni Chaomei Chen for sponsoring the event, and SJTU-SV Career Club Chair Yin Zhang for co-organizing the event.