How I landed on 3D Printing & Hardware Products? Why Hong Kong?

Many of whom familiar with me know that I come from a software, infrastructure, security, and networking background with bachelor degrees in both Informatics and Economics. I spent over 20 years in those areas while I was running around between the US and the Greater China Region (GCR). So why did I not continue to pursue something within the realm of my expertise after I started spending a majority of my time in Hong Kong? To answer that, I will have to take you all the way back to when I first returned.

In 2012, I finally made a huge decision to pursue something that has been on the back of my mind since 1999; which is to spend much more of my time in Asia, the place where I was born and raised in the formative years of my life. After having explored the markets upon my return via multiple channels such as helping at a good friend’s recruitment firm and meeting with various experts in the industry, I derived the following conclusions:

• The predominantly finance and real estate driven economy does not drive its top talents towards software development as a profession
• World class hardware design & engineering talents however are abundant
• This talent pool is also much more manufacturing process aware than talents from other parts of the world
• HK is within 40 minutes to the China border & 1.5 hours away from Taiwan which are both manufacturing power houses
• HK is a wonderful place for both locals and expats despite the recent uproars
• As banking & other traditionally leading industries in HK are deteriorating, there needs to be other ways to drive its GDP
• Resources for later stage financing is abundant in HK

The above points are how I ended up with 3D printing and hardware products (IoT, Robotics, Industry 4.0, electronics, etc). With a combination between dramatically lowering prototyping costs with digital fabrication (3D printing, CNC, laser cutters) and building a strong network of forward thinking manufacturing partners, Hong Kong has extremely high potential to be the next hardware products hub of the world. This is why I believe in what I do and why I stand strong behind my company no matter the good or the bad times. Of course, I know I can’t do this alone and that’s why we also spend a lot of our efforts on providing education and training to various parts of our society to drive awareness and in the long run, looking to build the strength that’s required for us all to succeed along with other strategies that is beyond the scope of this post and better saved for next time.