Why I Started The Eastern Operator
A builder’s explanation of what’s really happening in China’s startup ecosystem and why I’m here to document it.
I didn’t come to China to start a blog. I came here because I wanted to see how some of the world’s best startups get built.
However, I quickly realized something surprising. For a place that produces some of the fastest moving startups in the world, there is almost no clear English window into how things work on the ground.
Most of what reaches the outside world is either geopolitics, theory, or headlines written from far away. What you almost never get is the practical, human side of building a company here. How do founders test ideas? How do teams move from zero to one? How do foreign entrepreneurs survive their first year?
That gap is the reason this publication exists.
What I Mean by “Eastern Operator”
When I say operator, I’m talking about the people who actually make things happen inside a startup. The ones who take a messy idea and turn it into something real. Operators are the unsung heroes of the startup world. They’re not always the founders in the spotlight, but they are the people who get the company from 0 to 1.
That’s been my role in every industry I’ve worked in. I’ve been one of the first employees at companies in the space industry, semiconductors, and edtech. I’ve helped build things from scratch, usually long before there were processes, teams, or even clear job descriptions. I’ve realized that operators are the practitioners who keep the early-stage engine running. We solve problems no one else has touched yet. We figure out what the product needs to be. We push the company forward when everything is still undefined.
That’s why the word “operator” matters to me. It’s the lens I use when I look at entrepreneurship in China (hence the “Eastern” part).
Why I’m Here (in China)
I came to China to get my master’s in global affairs at Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar. A big part of the reason I chose this program was because I wanted real proximity to China’s startup ecosystem. I wanted to understand how this place actually builds unicorns, and what the rest of the world can learn from that process.
Being here has given me a rare vantage point. I’m in classrooms with future founders and policymakers, and I’m spending my time visiting incubators, talking to startups, and watching how ideas move from concept to product at a speed that is hard to imagine if you’re not physically here. It makes you realize how much innovation happens quietly and how little of it is ever explained clearly to the outside world.
Whenever I talk to founders, visit incubators, or just chat with classmates, I keep thinking the same thing: people outside China have no idea what is going on here at the ground level. I want to make that easier to understand.
What You Will Get From This
This is not a politics blog. It is not a macro newsletter. It is an ever-evolving builder’s view of China’s ever-evolving entrepreneurship ecosystem. Here is what you can expect.
1. Real operator insights
How teams hire, test, iterate, scrap ideas, and move quickly.
2. Practical playbooks
How foreign founders do customer discovery here, where distribution actually happens, what early mistakes to avoid, and how to navigate suppliers and markets.
3. Stories you probably have never heard
Chinese founders who never get English coverage. Foreign founders who quietly succeed. Failures that are worth learning from.
4. Clear explanations of policy and trends
Not what they mean politically, but what they mean for someone who is trying to build something next week.
5. A cross border point of view
What Western operators often misunderstand about China, and what Chinese operators sometimes misread about the West.
A Little About Me
I’m not a journalist. I’m not trying to be an expert. I’m someone who likes building things and learning by asking questions directly from the people doing the work. I started this because I wanted a simple and honest place to understand what is happening in China’s startup world. Since I could not find it, I decided to make it.
Because I’ve spent my career building early stage startups in different industries, I naturally see China through that same lens. That gives me a unique position. I can bridge East and West not through geopolitics or think tank language, but through the practical, day to day reality of building companies. That is the perspective I want to bring into this publication: grounded, curious, and focused on what operators can actually learn from what’s happening here.
Please reach out if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback, I am always looking to improve!
Why This Matters
We are at a moment where different parts of the world are innovating at different speeds. If you want to build internationally, or even stay informed, you cannot ignore what is happening in China. But you also should not have to rely on vague headlines or political commentary to understand it.
My goal is to give you something clearer, grounded, and useful. If that sounds like something worth reading, then welcome to The Eastern Operator.
Maria i love this!! Will be keeping up with the blog, this is so insighful!