Recently, a few folks from Delphi Digital went on an exploratory trip to China’s tech industry and wrote a little essay about it. @ZeMariaMacedo’s piece is pretty interesting. His observations about Chinese tech startup founders and VCs are sharp: He said that China has top-tier tech talent with impeccable execution skills, but they generally lag behind Western founders in independent thinking, rebellious spirit, and zero-to-one innovation. Meanwhile, Chinese VCs prefer to bet on founders with elite school or big company backgrounds, favoring credentials over individuality. This approach stifles the emergence of innovative founders in China—after all, independent thinking, rebelliousness, focus, and obsession are the common traits of great founders. His industry insights are also very sharp: - Overall, he’s very bullish on China’s hardware industry, believing that the depth and iteration speed of China’s hardware ecosystem far exceed Western expectations. Especially in Shenzhen and the surrounding Greater Bay Area, which boasts the world’s densest hardware supply chain, with 70%+ of hardware inputs sourced locally. The reverse engineering and rapid iteration capabilities here are way ahead of the West. - However, when it comes to AI models and software, he expressed clear disappointment, noting that the gap between China and the West is widening. He also pointed out that the current high valuations lack fundamental support.