Meet a Hubber｜Heyshop Jumps Off a Cliff and Builds an Airplane

The

first time we meet Li Bo, he gives us a powerful handshake - confident and passionate, essential traits for a successful entrepreneur.

We quickly find out this is not his first venture. His previous company built an H5 tool called "Bayinhe" which quickly amassed 5,000,000 users. Heyshop is his most recent business.

In Heyshop"s Hub space, Li Bo doesn"t have an office for himself. You"ll find his desk there among his staff.They actually customized a canvas bag with a cat on it, which got popular among Hubbers. These guys are definitely unique.

Heyshop received a 5 million RMB investment from the Feima Fund last April. Heyshop opened to the public last August and officially launched in October. Within two months, they had 2,000 shops on their platform.

DARE TO BE THE FIRST

So what"s been the biggest challenge so far? Libo says, "Aside from problems every start-up faces - investment and team - the biggest challenge is that Heyshop is a brand new idea. How to get people to understand the Heyshop concept in a short time is really difficult, but exciting as well."

THE ERA OF ONLINE INDIE SHOPS

Taobao has nearly swept up China"s e-commerce market, but there are still many brands who gain value by not following the crowd. HeyShop is for them. It has blazed a path by differentiating itself from traditional e-commerce.

CLIENTS WHO SELL MORE THAN PRODUCTS

Li Bo says Heyshop"s clients are “exceedingly diverse”. There"s a former media KOL who’s now selling matcha snacks and a former Google software architect who makes coffee now just to name a few. A growing number of people are creating their own online shops now. It goes beyond selling products, to selling personalities, dreams, ideas, difference. This really resonates with people.

Heyshop aims to serve fashionable and independent brands which require more marketing beyond WeChat alone. They need customized cross-channel solutions to grow.

Millenials are China"s future power consumers. They go after unique things and are willing to pay for an excellent story or queue for an hour for something handmade. For Heyshop, besides the excellent user experience, it also digs deeply into the psychology of what motivates buyers on their platform.

DIVERSE TEAM 

Li Bo, Heyshop founder and CEO, used to work in the U.S. for Bayer, Sears and Lockheed Martin, and then later the U.S. government as business intelligence consultant. He is also a member of China Chief Data Officer Association. 

Ding Xindong, CTO of Heyshop, is a certified operational research engineer from ParisTech. He previously worked in Microsoft and Louis Vuitton. Their website UX specialist is from Australia and their HR head has a background in architecture. The diversity of the team is a major source of strength for Heyshop. 

THE BLACK LIST

Usually a black list is something you never want to find yourself on. But Heyshop has turned that idea on its head by starting The Black List - a unique online shopping community. Heyshop curates products of high quality which they share on this platform.

The Black List Wechat is a must-read for us. 

If you are interest in Heyshop, or simply interested in the kitty canvas bag, pay a visit to naked Hub@Nanjing Lu and grab a beer with Heyshop. They are easy to find - the one with the cat box by the door. 

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naked Hub"s community has gathered companies from over 250 industries since it was opened in 2014. From start-ups to freelancers, from SMEs to international companies, naked Hub is dynamic platform for individuals or companies to do business with each other.

We will feature more of our Hubbers in future posts. If you are a Hubber with an interesting story, contact us at marketing@livenaked.com.