Mothers and Road Signs

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ali

A mother is just like a good road sign. Waygo said what? Well, hold your 马 (mă)* and we’ll explain in just a bit.

*马 (mă) means horses, but is a homonym with the word for mother 妈 (mā). This is supposed to be a joke!

We’d like to wish all Waygo mothers, 母亲节快乐! (mǔqīnjiékuàilè)! You can add 快乐 (kuàilè) to a noun to wish someone a happy something. For example, to wish someone a happy weekend, add 快乐 to 周末.

母亲节 (mǔqīnjié): Mother’s Day
快乐 (kuàilè): Happy
母亲节快乐 (mǔqīnjiékuàilè): Happy Mother’s Day!
周末 (zhōumò): Weekend
周末快乐 (zhōumòkuàilè): Happy weekend!

Is Mother’s Day celebrated in China? Yes. In fact, Mother’s Day is in perfect harmony with Chinese culture, as it’s a holiday designed to respect and celebrate the elderly. Filial piety, or 孝 (xiào), is a core part of Confucian philosophy dating back for thousands of years. A popular gift in China to give a mother on this special occasion is a bouquet of flowers, most typically carnations.

Bouquets in China have a distinct style, usually a very manicured one.

Back to the analogy of mothers and road signs. Just like a mother, signs serve to warn and care for people. While it’s ultimately the child who decides how to act, both mother and sign can always say “I told you so.”

There’s a reason for the plastic electrical outlet covers!

Afterall, you only get one head, so you better mind it!

Your mom’s rendition might sound something like “knock it off, will ya?!”

“How many times do I have to tell ya back there? Tommy is trying to sleep!”

Oh no! Have you forgotten about Mother’s Day? Well no sweat, you still have 2 full days if you are in the U.S., or a day and a half if you are in China. Looking for a creative card idea? Why not use Waygo? Take a screenshot of a Waygo translation, print it out, and glue it onto a card. For example:

Dear Mom,

Being my mother must be a

at times. Thanks for sticking it out! And when the road gets bumpy, I’ll try to minimize the beef.

Love,

Team Waygo

Extra! Extra! Waygo’s Globetrotter Just $9.99 During the GMIC

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Ali

Where’s Waygo in the world? At the moment, in Beijing at the Global Mobile Internet Conference! The GMIC kicked off this morning (China time!) and will go through Wednesday evening. Check out the schedule here. This year’s theme is “Transforming Mobile Internet,” and we can’t wait to experience the transformation. Waygo CEO Ryan is in attendance, so if you’re here, please stop by to say nǐ hǎo!

Behold the GMIC!

Our model, Ryan, demos Waygo to attendees.

We’d like to give a big 谢谢 (A.K.A. thank you) for the invitation to attend as a panelist to introduce Waygo to the globe! We are so excited for what the next two days hold. During this time you can purchase Waygo’s Globetrotter edition for just $9.99. Chinese to English translations for life for just $9.99? Yes! You can download Waygo here.

Give us a shout if you have any questions or difficulties downloading Waygo.

Happy GMIC’ing!

Weatherman Waygo

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Ali

With the beautiful weather here in San Francisco, we couldn’t help but write this week’s post on the world’s favorite conversation starter, The Weather. Now that you are no longer constrained to only using Waygo for restaurant menus and food shopping, it’s time to test the storms with Version 2!

This week, Eric Jou included Waygo in a list of apps to download to help travelers navigate China.

“The first and arguably one of the most important apps is the language app. Waygo is perhaps our favorite language app at the moment on the iOS platform.”

Thank you, Eric! We hope Waygo continues to be your favorite, long after “at the moment!” Check out the entire China Daily article here: Trips at Your Fingertips. Among the other recommended apps for travelers was China Air Pollution Index which gives the real-time air quality and air pollution index of 149 major Chinese cities. Another good resource for checking air quality in China is the online report by the U.S. Embassy. Check the real-time current reports for Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou.

Every day news comes out about the poor air quality in China. In the last two days, the JapanTimes and The Vancouver Sun report that expats are returning back to their home countries after years in China because of negative impacts to their health as a result of the poor air quality. Prior to and during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the Chinese government devised and carried out several programs in attempt to decrease air pollution and smog for the games. These included restricting automobile use for residents, temporarily closing factories, and pausing construction projects. The most interesting tactic was the seeding of clouds with rockets to induce rain and clean the air. These actions successfully caused a decrease in air pollution, which should serve as a helpful model for China during normal times, and not just when hosting the Olympics.

So without further a-dew (no pun intended), here’s Waygo’s Weather Report:

Waygo translated the first two characters correctly, but failed to translate the last two characters.

天气: Weather
很好: Very good

A better translation: The weather is good.

Waygo’s translation is a bit unique, but does the job just fine. The typical translation for 凉快, however, is usually: nice and cool, or refreshingly cool.

Time to fly your kite!

Terse, but efficient.

Today the weather is unpredictable. Cold just a second ago, and now hot?!

Weather trivia: Did you know that the Chinese southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan get monsoons during springtime?

潮湿 (cháoshī) can be translated as both damp or humid. When it comes to weather talk, humid would be more appropriate.

Waygo doesn’t add in the “I”, or 我 (wǒ) in Chinese. This would be a better sentence: I always look forward to the rainy season.

A more accurate translation would be: The weather is warming up. Although it should be noted that standing up is an affective way to warm up.

The meaning is clear, but a more polished translation would be: This year’s summer is especially hot.

So what’s Waygo’s weather report card? It’s sunnily clear that Waygo translates words and simple phrases better than complex sentences. Generally speaking though, you would know whether to pack an umbrella or not with Weatherman Waygo in hand. In last week’s post, we explored how food can serve as a portal into other cultures. Like food, weather also possesses the unique ability to create meaningful connections between people of different cultures. After all, weather is equally accessible to everyone, drastically affects moods, and can alter your plans. It’s easy to see why it’s hard to ever exhaust the subject.

Today, with a high of 81°F (27°C), the Waygo team sends lots of virtual sunshine to your part of the world.

P.S. For the fellow lovers of weather out there, check out the Weathermob app. You can connect with people from all over the world about your common delight in weather. It’s available for free in the app store.

Chinese Food: A Portal to Chinese Culture

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ali

Recently two stellar articles about Chinese food in America caught my attention. The first article, 6,297 Chinese restaurants and hungry for more, covers David Chan’s quest to try as many Chinese restaurants as possible. The story was so popular that a follow up story was written to quench readers’ curiosity, Egg rolls and more queries for prolific Chinese food eater.

David Chan dines at Shawn Restaurant in Arcadia, one of nearly 7,000 Chinese food restaurants he has been to. (Photo credit to Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

In the second article, Cecilia Chiang, the Queen of Chinese Cuisine, Ms. Chiang talks about the unfamiliar and strange food which was considered as Chinese that she found upon moving from Beijing to San Francisco in 1958. Cecilia is considered the Julia Child of Chinese cuisine, properly introducing and popularizing Chinese cuisine in America as Child did for French cuisine. In fact, she refused to serve chop suey at her restaurant, for it was nothing like food actually found in China. The more I researched Ms. Chiang, the better view I had into her fascinating life story. Soul of a Banquet is a documentary recently made about Chiang’s childhood in Beijing and her life as an accidental restaurateur in the U.S., since she was never even allowed in the kitchen as a child of a wealthy family in Beijing.

Cecilia Chiang in 1977 serves and explains dishes at her Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square. (Photo credit Craig Lee / The Wall Street Journal)

Cecilia Chiang in 1977 serves and explains dishes at her restaurant, The Mandarin, in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square. (Photo credit Craig Lee / The Wall Street Journal)

At the heart of both articles is the belief that food serves as a connection to another culture. Mr. Chan is a third generation Chinese American who cannot speak Chinese and prefers using forks over chopsticks. Chinese food is his way of connecting to his family’s heritage. Ms. Chiang uses Chinese food to educate people unfamiliar with “real” Chinese cuisine, and in turn, Chinese culture as a whole.

When there is no common language between people, creating meaningful connections proves a difficult feat. Food is one of the few realms that transcends the need for language. Through eating, you are able to experience and learn about a culture first-hand, literally: your hand is putting the food in your mouth. You don’t have to be a foodie to appreciate the time, thoughtfulness and tradition that goes into preparing a dish.

Not that I need additional inspiration to eat Chinese food, but these articles served as a powerful reminder on how powerful it is to share food across cultural barriers. Food teaches the lessons of a culture’s past and reflects a culture’s current trends. There is a story behind literally every single dish. Waygo is working to give users as much insight into a menu item as possible through not only the most helpful translations, but additional information as well.

This week Jonathan Woods shared how Waygo assists foreigners cope with language barriers in Craving ‘Balls Hot Marinade’ in China? Waygo’s got you covered. In the below translation, Waygo gave Jonathan a basic idea of the dish, but could have done a better job. Is the dish “balls hot” or are there actually balls in the dish? What kind of marinade? Team Waygo is figuring out what is the best way to give users more information. We are open to suggestions! For example, do users want to know the history behind a dish?

e27 Article by Jonathan Woods

加热 (jiārè): heated/hot *Note the photo above uses the traditional character 熱*

卤味 (lǔwèi): a cooking style that involves slowly stewing food (usually a protein of some sort, most typically pork) in soy sauce, broth and other spices. *Note the photo above uses the traditional character 滷*

加热卤味: was probably the title of a section on the menu to indicate that the dishes below were served in the 卤味 style, and served hot, rather than cold. Sound yummy? Follow this recipe to make your own! Author YiReservation explains the history of the character 滷 and how it’s a pictogram. The character for a bag of salt 鹵 (lǔ) was adapted from actually drawing a bag of salt. Tack on the radical for water 氵 and you’ve got salty water.

Although not the most detailed translation, we hope Jonathan wasn’t dissatisfied with whatever he ended up ordering. Cheers to not just hot dishes, but to balls hot dishes!

The Real and Fake Characters Behind Waygo

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Ali

In case you missed it last week, Jimmy Haver, Waygo’s new language processer based out of Taipei, pitched at e27 Taiwan Satellite and won, taking home the prize of Most Promising Startup. This means Waygo will be pitching at Echelon 2013 in Singapore June 4th-June 5th in hopes to become Echelon 2013 Champion.

Jimmy pitching!

Jimmy has been working with Waygo for less than a month, so he literally hit the ground running. Way to go, Jimmy!!! We could not be more excited to have Jimmy on board. Here’s a little bit more about this new character behind Team Waygo:

Waygo_Echelon

Jimmy grew up in Oklahoma and went to Kansas University where he received a degree in Linguistics and Political Science, and studied Chinese on the side. Having Taiwanese friends in high school, he thought it would be fun to learn Chinese. Little did he know how much the decision to study Chinese would change his life! From a young age, Jimmy was exposed to Spanish in his home, sparking his interest in different languages and cultures. After university, Jimmy went to Taiwan to take more Chinese classes on a language scholarship, and then worked as a Chinese-English translator. Following this stint, he was accepted into a program at National Taiwan University for Computer Science, focusing on Natural Language Processing.

When we asked Jimmy why he was excited to be working with Waygo?
J: “I love learning languages, experiencing new cultures, programming and doing anything with Linguistics, so it’s a great fit.”

While at the e27 Taiwan Satellite event, Jimmy encountered a response that we had not previously heard. Some attendees thought that Waygo sounds a bit like the word for love motel in Taiwan, or 薇閣 (wēigé), which then resulted in some chuckles.

You might recall that back in January we decided to change our name from “Waigo” to “Waygo” since there had been some confusion with the pronunciation. The name change, although successfully clarifying to English speakers the pronunciation is ”way-go” as in “way to go!”, also increased the number of potential corresponding characters behind the name. Waygo was originally inspired by the characters for foreign country: 外国 (wàiguó). However, the pronunciation of “way-go” more closely corresponds with the pinyin “weigou,” which could correspond with hundreds of other characters. As I repeatedly explain to friends whom have never studied Chinese, a single sound could correspond with dozens of different characters. The best example to share with Chinese newbies? The “ma” example: 4 different tones, in addition to the neutral tone, correspond with five completely different characters, all having completely different meanings.

What other characters could be the characters behind the name Waygo? Mixing and matching the many characters that have similar pinyin to Waygo lead to a plethora of possibilities. So although the below characters are not the real characters behind Waygo, I thought it would be fun to point out some potential others. You can find commentary in italics.

Way: Possible Alternative Characters to 外
危 (wēi): dangerous. Waygo helps you escape dangerous situations and prevents such restaurant disasters as seen in our video. Waygo also allows you to enter previously unchartered territories that were deemed too dangerous prior to Waygo.

歪 (wāi): slanting, crooked. Waygo straightens out the confusion.

为 (wéi): to be, act as, or enable. Waygo acts as eyes or enables you to translate.

围 (wéi): to surround, arround. Waygo helps you understand your surroundings.

尾 (wěi): tail. Waygo saves your tail?

伟 (wěi): great, grand. Waygo holds great power.

喂 (wèi): hello; the greeting to answer the phone. Waygo allows you to communicate, and gives you the confidence to interact.

喂 (wèi): although it’s the identical character as above, it also means to feed. Waygo enables you to feed yourself while abroad in another country, guó (国).

Go: Possible alternatives to 国
歌 (gē): song, to sing. Karaoke is difficult when you can’t read the lyrics.

哥 (gē): big brother. Just like a big brother, Waygo watches out for you.

沟 (gōu): ditch, gully. Waygo pulls you out from an entrapping situation.

狗 (gǒu): dog. Hmmm…just like a dog is man’s best friend, Waygo is your best friend while traveling in China.

够 (gòu): enough. Waygo gives you just enough to enable you to act, but leaves you with much still to discover and explore on your own.

购 (gòu): to buy, to purchase. Waygo allows you to order food or buy tickets even without being able to read the characters.

构 (gòu): construct: Waygo helps you build context.

Some Combinations:
尾 + 狗 = Dog’s tail

为 + 哥 = To act as a big brother

围 + 构 = Surrounding structure

Dog’s tail? To take on the role of a Big Brother? Love motel? Huh?
As it turns out, there are many characters that could translate into good–and as Jimmy found out, not so good–meanings behind Waygo. What are your favorites?

Meet Waygo 2.0

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Ali

If you didn’t read about our news already, then we are excited to share the news with you ourselves.

Chicken wing please…….. Ahem! Drumroll please……

On Friday team Waygo released Version 2. What’s different from Version 1 you ask?

1. Multi-Line translations: Pull down the arrow on the translation box to translate multiple lines of text at once. Your time is precious, and in addition to helping you save money by ordering wisely, we hope this addition will also save you some time. Plus it looks cooler.

2. Broader translation capabilities: Version 1 of the app focused on the world of food. We have expanded Waygo’s translation capabilities to cover other topics. Buying train tickets? Which handle is hot water and which is cold? Previously you were confined to restaurants, food stands, and grocery stores. Now the opportunities for you to use Waygo are literally endless. Please use with caution!

3. Shareable translations: We believe that the best way to grow is through word-of-mouth. People are more likely to do and buy based off personal recommendations. Version 2 makes it easier to share the magic of Waygo with your friends that might benefit from Waygo. Is your friend in need of a LOL? Tweet a funny Waygo translation his way! After taking a Snapshot, click the middle button to share your translations via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

4. Waygo Store: A paid version of the app is now available. We’ve received consistent feedback, even confusion, as to why this app was free. We understand you might not be ecstatic about this update. We do, however, hope you are ecstatic with the improved features and brand new features. Remember that you need an internet connection to download Waygo, but not to use it. This means you should download Waygo before your trip.

Basic Package
100 free translations to start, then 10 free translations per day. FREE. Enjoy it! We would never consider barring a user from at least taking Waygo out on a first date. We know this will leave you wanting more. Did you know that our average active user in china translates about 150 times per week?

Globetrotter: Lifelong Unlimited
Unlimited Chinese to English translations for life. Promotional price of $14.99 for a limited time. Just do it, you’ll thank us after you spend about a minute in China.

Questions, comments, concerns, or praises? Give us a holler, or as we like to call it, a nihao! Email us at press@WaygoApp.com

Stay tuned for Waygo 3.0!

Happy Fryday! (Note: Not a Typo!)

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Ali

Why are fish fries a common Friday happening? The Friday fish fry tradition started by Roman Catholics during lent, a 40-day period in which practitioners are instructed to abstain from eating meat on Fridays. Today, Friday fish fries are common year-round, and enjoyed regardless of religious beliefs.

Stir frying is definitely the most common Chinese cooking technique. In fact, the vast majority of Chinese kitchens do not have an oven, only 1 or 2 burners on a stovetop. Breads and other baked goods cooked with an oven are becoming increasing popular and can be purchased at bakeries and grocery stores. There are several popular bakery chains, like 85°C Bakery Cafe, where a customer selects their goods on a tray and then goes to the register to get rung up. Because of the relatively new presence of baked goods in China, the Chinese are super creative with their baking, not being confined to long traditions or norms.

We’re not in Kansas anymore with this smattering of baked goods.

Now back to frying! There are 2 main characters you should know about when it comes to frying, 炒 and 炸.

炒 (chǎo)
炒 is usually used in describing something as stir-fried, rather than deep-fried. One fun fact about 炒 is that it is also used to mean someone was fired. (Side note that I only first thought of now: fired is similar to fried, no?) I wonder what someone would think if their boss told them they were getting fried, instead of let go. Read the history as to why 炒 came to have this double meaning.

Anytime you order fried rice or noodles, you will find 炒 in the dish name.

Etymology of 炒
The character, 炒 (chǎo), is a semantic-phonetic compound, meaning the character has a meaning component and a sound component. 火 (huǒ) means fire and 少 (shào) means less or young.

炒 = phonetic component of 少 (“shào” ~ “chao”) + semantic component of 火 (fire)

炸 (Zhá)
炸 is oftentimes mistranslated in Chinese menus as “exploding.” This is not incorrect if you are only looking at the character, as the character has several meanings, including “to fry” (zhá) and “to explode” (zhà).

Exploding toon fish?

However, if you are looking at the full dish name, a translator should know it is in fact fried, and not exploding. How does Waygo handle 炸?

Success!

Etymology of 炸
The character, 炸 (zhá), is also a semantic-phonetic compound. The meaning component is once again 火 (huǒ) and the sound component is 乍 (zhà), which means first or suddenly.

炸 = phonetic component of 乍 (zhà) + semantic component of 火 (fire)

T.G.I.F.
So if you’re tired of working all week, head on over to your nearest FRYday Fish Fry tonight. This video will surely get you fried up to go.

Wino Waygo

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Ali

There’s been a lot of whine about wine in China lately, so we thought we’d pour a glass and join the debate. In China, drinking wine can be perceived as high-class, international, and trendy, so it’s no wonder that consumption graphs show an exciting growth rate trending up-and-to-the-right.

So how does Waygo’s current version translate wine-related labeling?

At least you know it’s wine, and not coca-cola, right? Although Waygo successfully recognized 8 of the 9 characters, it only gave the broad translation of “wine.” The first six characters are a proper noun, 解佰纳全汁山. 解佰纳 (jiĕbăinà) might be translated to cabernet (you’ll find the most common translation for cabernet below). 全汁山 (quánzhīshān) could be the name of the winery, but a rough translation could be “satisfying juice from the mountains.” I need some audience participation on this one. How would you translate the above wine label? Please help!!

Last week the Wall Street Journal wrote about the wine industry in China: Lost in Translation: The Lingo for Tasting Wine. Since there is no such thing as an official wine dictionary in China, translations vary, confusing the industry. This makes us at Waygo feel better that we aren’t the only ones scratching our heads.

Translating the world of wine is not only tricky with the Chinese language. Each unique culture uses different methods and terms to describe wine flavors that only make sense within that particular culture. Acclaro just blogged about this debacle. Here’s Part One and Part Two.

Fun facts about wine in China:

China is now the world’s fifth-largest consumer—and sixth-largest producer—of wine.
The Chinese wine market has experienced a 20% annualized growth rate between 2006 and 2011, and is forecast to grow by another 54% by 2015. Currently, per-capita wine consumption in the country is only 0.35 liters. (Source: Wikipedia). Suggestion to wine-makers: start exporting your wine to China now! Having tasted wine made domestically in China, Chinese wine has a long way to come before it is a true competitor in the global wine market.
Increased wine consumption has been driven by a variety of factors including the growth of the middle class, the government’s promotion of wine as a healthy alternative to other alcoholic beverages (such as baijiu), and declining tariffs on wine imports. (Source: Winetalk) Wine is healthy? Yeah!
China is now Bordeaux’s #1 export market. (Source: Winetalk)
The Chinese prefer red wine over white wine, some estimate 90% of wine consumed is China is red wine.

Pairing wine with Chinese food:
Historically, beer and baijiu are enjoyed alongside Chinese food, as pairing the complexity of Chinese flavors with wine proves a daunting task. Beer and baijiu are easy; beer simply goes smoothly with Chinese food, and baijiu shocks all taste buds into not knowing any better (only kidding, you baijiu lovers out there!) Since wine is fairly new in China, consumers do not usually consider the pairing of wines with certain foods, but instead just drink whatever is on the menu. Restaurants oftentimes order and recommend wines based off sale margins, rather than pairings. If you run into this problem, consider B.Y.O.B.’ing and paying a small corkage fee. This NY Times article shares the account of Beijing-based foodies and wine experts’ attempt to pair wines with different Chinese dishes. In much of the information I read on pairing Chinese dishes with wine, Riesling was a consistent favorite, apparently it counterbalances the salty and sour flavors found in Chinese food.

Wines and Chinese Tongue Twisters
One of the most famous Chinese tongue twister involves grapes. Try it: 吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮,不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮 (chī pútáo bù tǔ pútáo pí bù chī pútáo dào tǔ pútáo pí), meaning “eat grapes without spitting the skin of the grape, not eating grapes spit the skin of the grape.” There is an optimal amount of wine to drink with this tongue twister: a glass or two might allow the twist to come off better, but after glass numero dos, your performance might steadily decrease.

Vocab
Note: the following words can be translated differently, but these seem to be the most common.

Wine: 葡萄酒 (pútáojiŭ) Literally means “grape alcohol.”

Cabernet: 卡贝内 (kǎbèinèi)

Chardonnay: 沙尔多奈 (shā’ěrduōnài)

Merlot: 梅洛 (méiluò), 梅 means plum.

Pinot Noir: 皮诺努瓦尔 (pínuò nǔwǎ’ěr)

Riesling: 李斯陵 (lǐsīlíng)

Cheers! 干杯!
Wine is now on Waygo’s mind, and we will work so that winos can use Waygo while wine tasting in China!

Waygo is Hiring!

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Ali

What? Waygo Enthusiast to help us build our brand in China.

Where? Shanghai and/or Beijing

Who are we? Waygo is a mobile app that helps foreigners navigate the tricky world of China. Just hold an iPhone up to food menus and signs, and like magic, you can read Chinese!

Who are you?
• You are THE insider and know what’s up in Shanghai/Beijing. You could be called a socialite.
• Fluent in English and (preferably) fluent in Chinese.
• You have a passion for our product.
• Able to work independently and under tight deadlines.
• You are the opposite of shy and love to interact with strangers.

Your Responsibilities will include:
• Responsible for learning about and attending events with attendees who would benefit from Waygo.
• Standing for hours on end in popular Shanghai/Beijing tourist destinations spreading awareness about Waygo through live demos and handing out information.
• Responsible for growing our number of users in China significantly.
• Experience in marketing, advertising, or campaign work.

Notes: We are based in San Francisco and you’ll be working remotely. As such, you’ll need to be a great tele-communicator. This is a short-term, part-time contract position and can be scheduled around other work. However, if we find each other a good fit, it could lead to more long-term full-time work with us.

To apply, please email us with:
• Your resume
• Write 1 paragraph about a unique idea of how you plan to spread the word about us. For inspiration, look to companies like Red Bull and Zappos for their creative marketing schemes.
• Why do you want to help spread the word about Waygo?
•Before applying, download and test out the app.

We look forward to hearing back from you!

Questions, comments, and applications should go to ali@waygoapp.com.

Pitching, Pitching & Listening to Pitching

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Ali

Last week Waygo was invited by btrax to attend their SF Japan Night, where six Japanese companies came to San Francisco to pitch their ideas to spread awareness and interest in their companies, as well as the Japanese startup scene in general. There was a huge range of companies, from a sexy high-tech wheel chair to a service that helps companies find and secure user testers. Check out Waygo’s guest blog post on btrax’s blog to get the Cliff Notes for the night’s events.

ShareWis: Turn Learning into an Adventure

After months of preparing for 500 Startups Winter 2013 Demo Day and then weeks of pitching, it was nice to be on the other side, as a mere audience member. In case you didn’t catch Waygo pitching over the last couple of months (and years), here are some videos for your enjoyment:

February 6th Demo Day @ Twitter HQ

January 27th extreme pitching at Mountain View Farmer’s Market

A Throwback from 1 & 1/2 Years Ago

Although 500 Startups Batch 5 was quite an international bunch, it was not as international at SF Japan Night, as all participants were international. Five of the six presenters were not native English speakers (the presenter for grafic was American-Japanese, so he did not have the added language obstacle for his pitch.)

Another key difference between 500 Startups’ Demo Day and SF Japan Night was that immediately following each pitch, the judge panel as well as the audience, had the opportunity to ask the presenters questions. On-the-fly questions are nerve-racking on their own, but the fact that the presenter had to understand and answer in a foreign language, without premeditation or consulting their team members, was a massive and impressive challenge.

A third difference was that winners were actually selected, both by the audience and the judge panel. The audience texted in their votes, and the judges consulted with one another to determine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. I was surprised that both the judges and the audience came up with the same list of winners. To see who won, check out our blog post on the btrax blog.

A final difference is the fact that these six companies are not surrounded by a supportive and active startup community, like the Bay Area. You cannot ignore the fact that companies lucky enough to gain a spot with 500 Startups gain five months of incredible support, guidance, relationships, insight, lessons, etc. It’s difficult to compare startups that participate in a startup accelerator vs. those that do not. It makes these six Japanese companies that much more impressive.

Cant Read Chinese

The awkward moments of traveling in China

Author Archives: Ali