Although they’ve left Hong Kong, some entrepreneurs continue giving back to our startup scene – just like AcceleratorHK’s Stephen Forte.
Although he’s taken Hong Kong’s first accelerator with him to Palo Alto, Forte is still backing our startups as one of Fresco Capital Advisors’ venture partners – and is also a mentor for Swire Properties’ new B2B accelerator program ‘blueprint.’
As a part of Forte’s role as Telerik’s chief strategy officer, which just got acquired by ‘Progress Software’ for US $262.5 million, he mentors startups on a daily basis and brings them on as partners if they’re in the programming tool business. According to Forte, the developer ecosystem for Telerik’s new mobile development platform was first tested in Hong Kong via AcceleratorHK.
As for his accelerator program, Forte said that it’s operating similarly, save for a name change. “We had to change the name of course and ‘AcceleratorSV’ was boring, so ‘Mach5’ is a play off “HTML5” and moving fast. The batches all focus on hybrid mobile development, just like in Hong Kong, and believe it or not – the ability to do customer development is the same in Hong Kong as in Silicon Valley,” he said.
Forte has also been working with serial entrepreneur and VC Peter Thiel to encourage university students towards startup life. “I’ve also mentored at the ‘Thiel 20 under 20 program’ while in Silicon Valley which gives 20 students a year $100,000 to drop out and change the world. I love working with the kids, they all remind me of the guys from ‘Big Bang Theory,” said Forte.
Besides making an impact in Silicon Valley, Forte still backs Hong Kong as much as possible. In a recent one day visit, Forte held 12 hours of office hours with 8 startups and even “occupied” Mong Kok to show his support for the city’s quest for democracy.
Stay in touch with Stephen via Twitter @worksonmypc, and here are a few photos from his Silicon Valley life.
Tesla at a supercharger
At a ‘Twitter Flight’ event
At Maker Faire
