The tide has turned!

For Toby Sun it’s been more like a flood - a flood of green bikes that has taken his Startup from $0 to $225 million in 9 months.

While many Asian startups have replicated Western business models in the East, Toby’s success has come by replicating a Chinese model in the US. In the next few years we are going to see many more Eastern models find success in the West. Will yours be one of them?

Sent fresh from his summer internship to help launch Gatorade in China, Toby Sun has watched the rapid growth of Chinese tech companies in recent years - including Bike-sharing startups like Mobike and Ofo (Which just raised $600m and $700m and are now talking of a $4 billion merger).

Their Chinese model is different from the US and European models. Instead of having stations to park your bike, you could leave the bike anywhere, for the next rider to locate and unlock via their smartphone. They charge by the yuan because the bikes are so cheap to produce.

“Why not produce bikes in China and then replicate the model in the US?” he thought. 

So he did.

He launched LimeBike with co-founder Brad Bao in January this year, charging $1 for 30 mins of cycling time, starting in University campuses. His lime coloured bikes are made by Battle FSD - the same Chinese factory building Ofo’s 10 million bikes a year - and then shipped to the US.

After just nine months, over 300,000 LimeBikers in 16 US cities have already taken over 500,000 trips and today he raised $50 million, valuing LimeBike at $225 million.

Is it as simple as just copying and replicating a model in a new country?

No. Toby has added a secret sauce - because while the place has changed, times have changed too. 

While Mobike and Ofo have followed a similar model to Uber and AirBnB, where they have been launching without the blessing of the city (and are now facing backlashes and bans), he works with each university or city council before launching.

That’s because as governments around the world catch up to begin regulating what Toby calls the “rogue” unicorns who have had a “move fast and break things” culture, his philosophy is “ask permission first, not hope for forgiveness.”

The result? He’s being welcomed in to cities and says “It’s a relationship land grab.” where the winner will not be the one who builds technology at the cost of relationships, but builds relationships then adds the benefit of technology.

As the tide turns from models moving East to models moving West, and from people-enabled, tech-centred startups to tech-enabled, people-centred startups, what startup could you launch?

And if Toby can go from $0 to $225 million since the last time you said “Happy New Year”, when will you launch it?

Once in a decade the rules change. Now is the time.

“At high tide fish eat ants.

At low tide ants eat fish.”

~ Thai Proverb