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Building a hardware company on one of China’s niche segments

Matthieu David interviews Laurent Le Pen, Founder, and CEO of Omate. In this China business podcast, we learn about his company, how he managed to earn a million dollars on his Kickstarter campaign for the world’s first “truly smart” watch, and why his company made the switch to wearable as a service.

“Less means more” is the philosophy that Omate takes to heart when designing new products for their users. But how much more do we stand to gain by wearing an Omate smartwatch and how many more or fewer features do their products have compared to big brand smartwatches? Let’s find out!

• 0:09 Guest introduction and company history
• 13:50 The Snowball Effect – Omate’s initial marketing strategy
• 19:10 Manufacturing in China – a GoPro anecdote
• 32:14 The “Less is More” Philosophy – how user-friendly is an Omate smartwatch?
• 46:51 Replacing The Service Enabler – Can the virtual SIM card become a reality?
• 51:32 Raising Money From 500 Startups – was there a need to do that?
• 56:36 A Lesson in Marketing – The B2C2B model and why releasing limited edition products is a valuable marketing strategy

🔖 Smartwatch manufacturing in China is now linked with smart personal safety device market

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We believe, that China, with 20% of world population and as the second world economy, is impacting every single business, small to big. That is why it is a new paradigm. How does China impact your business is the ultimate question we will answer through those podcasts.

China paradigm is a China business podcast sponsored by Daxue Consulting where we interview successful entrepreneurs about their businesses in China. You can access all available episodes from the China paradigm Youtube page.