Founders Panel (June 2018 session)

Kevin Wong

Co-Founder & CEO, Origami Labs

Kevin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Origami Labs, a wearable tech company based out of Hong Kong and Taipei. They make ORII, the world’s first voice powered smart ring that creatively uses bone conduction to turn the hand into a powerful communication device.  Kevin leads the team’s vision, innovation, fundraising, and coffee consumption.  He won Hong Kong’s inaugural Elevator Pitch Competition in 2016, and is actively involved in coaching and mentoring a new generation of hardware startup companies. The Origami Labs team has since received numerous awards, most recently being selected as Deloitte-HK Rising Stars 2017, and placing second in CES 2018 Techstar’s pitch competition in ORII’s first exposure abroad. Helping spearheading a mini product movement in the region ORII has always prioritized action over awards and has already built substantial consumer and commercial traction since the launch of the product.

Eu-Wen Ding 

Co-Founder, Lumos

Eu-wen has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University and was getting his MBA from Harvard Business School before leaving to start Lumos. He is an entrepreneur, inventor, and one of the creators of Lumos. Struck by the lengths to which he and many of his fellow Boston cyclists had to go to light up and be visible with arrays of lights, reflectors, and jackets, he felt that there had to be a better way. This inspired him to develop Lumos. At Lumos, Eu-wen is in charge of product design, marketing, and business development. Originally from Singapore, Eu-wen has spent most of his adult life in America, giving him a deep understanding of western markets and how to effectively position products for the western consumer. Lumos has an engineering team that is predominantly Chinese, a design team that is predominantly British/European, and a customer base that is predominantly American. Eu-wen is the bridge that brings it all together and makes it work. 

Previously, Eu-wen was a co-inventor of Embrace, an innovative low-cost infant warmer for babies born premature and low birth weight in the developing world. Embrace has received numerous accolades and awards including the 2011 INDEX Design to Improve Life Award and The Economist Innovation Award in 2013. The Embrace warmer has now been used by over 150,000 babies around the world, many of whom would have had few alternatives for safe warming and incubation without Embrace. His hope is to be able to touch as many lives with Lumos as he had the opportunity to do with Embrace. 

Serena Pau

Founder, Ozmo

Throughout my five years of experience in product development, I realized that most of product launch failure could have been avoided by getting the product right earlier on, or understanding the limit of the maker. This is a powerful advantage of being a Hong Kong-based startup – I can stay close to the manufacturing base and ensure quality.”

Serena majored in German and Business in the United Kingdom, and then worked in Germany to gain international business exposure. She founded Groking Lab to harness her great passion in designing products that truly improve the way people live. Ozmo is the first project launched by Groking Lab. Its mission is to inspire busy individuals to be aware of how important it is to their health and well-being to stay hydrated. Serena manages Groking Lab from Hong Kong, because she believes that staying close to the maker is important to the ultimate realization of the product. Before Groking Lab, Serena managed an industrial design studio in Hong Kong where she was the as Director in Product Marketing Department as part of her family business that manages over 30,000SKU of product shipments and development a year as an engineer house. She was the first person at SGS–a Global leader in inspection, verification, testing and certification company–to lead the Global Green Guide for the Hardgoods industry and also worked at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council where she was in charge of exhibition staffing and promotion. She and her team managed multiple launches in the US market and also won the IF Design Award.

Fundraising Panel (June 2018 session)

Gorden Yen

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Radiant Venture Capital

Dr. Yen graduated magna cum laude from Boston University with a BS degree in Manufacturing Engineering and holds an MBA from McGill University and a DBA from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Radiant Venture Capital with over 25 years of public and private company management experience in global supply chain and infrastructure sectors covering areas including business development, investment management, supply chain management, corporate strategy, finance, and IT. He started participating in technology investments in the late 90s in transactions involving startups from the USA, China and Hong Kong.

Dr. Yen  has also served as one of the founding Board members of the Supply Chain Council Greater China Chapter, as well as the Board of Directors and Technology Committee of HKRITA, a government funded industry-focused research institutes in Hong Kong. He is currently an Independent Non-executive Director of Hopewell Holdings Ltd. (SEHK: 0054), Non-executive Director of Fountain Set (Holdings) Ltd. (SEHK: 0420), Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Business Angel Network and Advisory Committee member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council for Information & Communications Technology Services.

Tony Tung

Investments Senior Associate, Gobi Ventures

Tony received his B.Eng. in Computer Engineering and B.B.A. in Financial Engineering from the double degree program in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He joined Gobi’s Hong Kong office in 2016 and currently focuses on the startup eco-system in the city. Tony helps to manage the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF) and covers high potential startups within the Pearl River Delta technology ecosystem. He accumulated extensive experience in growing high-tech businesses from his two startups related to financial technology (FinTech) and big data for fashion, where he was in charge of the overall product roadmap and management, business development, operation, technical infrastructure design & implementation, user experience design as well as fund raising of the companies.

Henry Tan

Co-Founder & General Partner, Q Venture Partners

Henry is a graduate of Cornell University. He first worked at AT&T Broadband helping them with market strategy. After earning his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management, he returned to Asia as a Team Leader at Bain & Co. Later, he took on the role of Head of Corporate Development for both Ports Design (HK:0589) and PCD Stores (HK:0331). Today, he is the co-founder and general partner of Q Venture Partners, where he focuses on portfolio startups on matters related to China market entry and operations. Before that, he was the Managing Director of Brio Ventures, a family office that invested in early-stage Chinese startups either directly or as an LP in angel funds.

© 2024 MIT Innovation Initiative. All rights reserved.