Dear Friends,

Another year has passed by and we are entering the fifth year of XNode. Looking back at our previous three year-end summaries, we seem to be talking more about dreams instead of the real business world. Now I think it’s time to have a heart-to-heart talk with our team, customers and partners, sharing in sincerity what have done well and what are the lessons. Through our self-reflection at the end of the year, I hope that each of us can understand the meaning of this adventure we’ve been on and will continue on in the future.

2018 has been a feverish year for XNode and we have achieved much that has been very impactful to the future of the company. First of all, after one year of working together we have finally confirmed the long-term and full-scale cooperation with our Dutch partner HighTechXL. From 2019 onwards, we will connect with the European networks through HighTechXL in Eindhoven of the Netherlands and develop more cross-border acceleration projects. This is truly the major step towards achieving XNode’s vision to become a global innovation service company.

Secondly, our corporate innovation services (X·CIP) is now a market leader in Shanghai and we have served nearly 20 Fortune 500 companies throughout the year. In the fields of work-with-startups and work-like-startups, we have introduced innovation methodologies and tools for the first time in China and integrated them into systematic acceleration programs, serving world’s top corporates such as BMW, Intel, Unilever and SAP etc. We accelerate projects with these companies, co-develop new products and services, and create visible business impact. The Zhangjiang Corporate Innovation Platform jointly run with our joint venture partner Zhangjiang Group has been recognized by more and more large enterprises in the Zhangjiang Science City. As the founder of the company, I am really proud of our team who have made this happen in the past year.

Thirdly, we have formalized the service offer of a cross-border acceleration program after a year of exploration and polishing. In 2018, in addition to our serving partners like Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), the Korean government (KOCCA & NIPA), and the Japanese government (JETRO), we have received more and more attention from overseas incubators and accelerators, and successfully completed three acceleration batches. Last but not least, we are growing our space communities with 229 entrepreneurial and innovation events in 2018 attracting more and more excellent startups and corporate innovators into our XNode family.

Reflecting over the past year, XNode has rapidly expanded its business and the team fiercely fought on the front lines. However, at the same time, we must also admit that we need to improve organizational capacity with well-defined job responsibilities, fair systems of reward, and effective cooperation between space and service/content teams. Moreover, facing the brutal and disorderly competition from the external co-working space business, we need to take proactive measures in a timely manner. As the founder of XNode, it’s my duty to make the above a reality. “Fret not over bygones, and the forward journey take.” Building and improving organizational capacity, the expansion and growth of the team will be one of my most important personal objectives for 2019.

Chinese New Year is approaching. Looking forward to 2019, XNode will have a series of new initiatives and plans. Our corporate innovation service will start to focus on vertical industries, introducing better methodologies, expanding our delivery team with more experts, and enhancing our service level. Our cross-border scale up program will go abroad, attempting to set up overseas outposts in Europe and Asia, to build strong bridges, strengthen the relationship to our customers, and catering to their needs more attentively. Our space business will try new business models, with vertical business focuses, cooperating with the top space asset owners, and establishing a vertical industry innovation center in Shanghai’s CBD. Our community building will be more centralized, and our space activities will focus more on assuring quality and building links. As I concluded in the January 2016 year-end summary, "The more noisy outside the window is, the more calm and firm in our hearts. There will be certain things that are everlasting."

In 2019, our theme is to "focus", to do things that maximize our value, to do things that precipitate, accumulate, and produce long-term value. We believe that we are now at the best time – China needs to be more connected to the outside world, especially in the field of entrepreneurial innovation. Time has given us the best opportunity. Therefore, we are determined to be high-minded with a keen awareness of national realities and a global vision.

XNode aspires to become the #1 global platform for creating business impact with innovation by helping best-in-class corporations, foreign scaleups, Chinese startups, research institutes, VC’s and government to build scalable ventures that realize financial return and improve the world through our top-quality innovation services.

Thank you for all your contribution and help. Wish you a Happy New Year 2019!