For young Chinese people of means, there is one label that no one wants attached to their name: fuerdai, or “the wealthy second generation”. In other words, rich kids. This privileged group faces intense animosity in China, where they are generally despised for their ostentatious lifestyles. (One social-media storm involved a young man who bought two Apple watches — for his dog.) They may often bring it on themselves but the fuerdai also suffer from a sense of aimlessness and being unable to live up to their parents’ success.
Here in Silicon Valley, however, I recently met a tech investor who thinks that there is a solution for this disaffected group: angel investing. These investors are typically the very first backers of a start-up, providing seed funding, usually $50,000 or $100,000, to help an entrepreneur get going. It’s a very well-developed practice in Silicon Valley but a relatively new concept in China, where the field of venture investing has exploded over the past five years.
Many of the fuerdai have been educated overseas, so they naturally look to Silicon Valley to learn how to get started as investors, explains Guo Wei, a 29-year-old Chinese tech investor based in California who co-founded UpHonest Capital, a venture firm.