Now In Search Of Its Second Cohort, AcceleratorHK Wants To Boost Hong Kong's Nascent Startup Scene

Hong Kong’s startup scene is still in its infancy, but the founders of AcceleratorHK, the city’s first accelerator program, have high hopes that it will become one of Asia’s leading tech hubs. AcceleratorHK, which is sponsored by Telerik, is now seeking the second batch of startups from within and outside of Hong Kong for its fourteen week incubator AcceleratorHK. The program, which launched in November and focuses on hybrid mobile development with HTML5, was founded by Telerik?s chief strategy officer Stephen Forte with TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon winner Paul Orlando. The first class of AcceleratorHK included Taxiwise, PayAllies, SurroundApp, Dynamino, 100Village and GOnnect. While the process of incorporating a business in Hong Kong is fairly straightforward and transparent, Forte says it’s often a challenge for startups to get the most basic operational necessities. ?Unfortunately the Hong Kong business culture is skewed toward banking, real estate, import/export, and big business, so it is still challenging for a pre-revenue, pre-investment startup to do such things as open a bank account, obtain a lawyer, obtain an accountant, and get office space without cash on hand,? says Forte. For founders, the lack of an entrepreneurial culture can be an obstacle. ?You also get social pressure to work a standard job,? says Orlando. ?I even had one young guy in an earlier program I ran tell me that he never tells potential dates that he works at a startup, because what would be heard is ‘he has no job and no money…?’ Despite these drawbacks, AcceleratorHK’s founders say Hong Kong?s startup scene has made lots of progress within the past few months. ?For example, co-working spaces are on the rise,? Forte notes. ?A year ago today we only had 1,000 square feet of co-working space, today we have over 100,000 square feet and more on the way!? New mentors available to guide AcceleratorHK?s second cohort will include a local lawyer and accountant, and Forte is hopeful that ?eventually the banks will come around, they follow the money.? ?When we were putting together the first cohort a year ago, no lawyer or accountant would return my call when I told them the teams had no money,? says Forte. ?Now they are coming to me.? Another perk for AcceleratorHK’s startups is the potential for government support. InvestHK, the Hong Kong Government?s agency responsible for business development in the territory, is supportive of the program and has

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