9 - Rui Ma's journey from rural China to Silicon Valley 500 startups

"Why Finance?" "Basically because I was a shitty engineer"

Rui worked 4 years as the Partner for Greater China at an early stage investment fund called 500 Startups. She spent 3 of those years in Beijing and 1 year in Mountain View where the company has their headquarters.

Rui, pronounced like "Ray gun", was born in rural China and we follow her career path as she went from China to San Francisco and back again, investing in startups, raising a new fund (maybe) and figuring out her next big thing.

Rui has always been interested in educational technology so we spend some time discussing the opportunities she's looking for as she kicks off a non-profit called Rookie Fund, which is a student-run fund for investing in other student entrepreneurs in Asia.

She also shares a lot about her career decisions, motivations and life overall, like for example how she lost fiancé and her job, in a recession, on the same day that she bought a new house in Shanghai. And how that 'worst day of her life' ended up being one of the best things to happen to her, once you have time & perspective.

For links and show notes about this China podcast:

http://beertelligence.com/the-beertelligence-podcast/