Pinduoduo

Acquired

Pinduoduo

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal 1h 55m 69 months ago

Every company has a story. Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.

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Show Notes

We kick off Season 7 with a bang: Pinduoduo, the incredible five year-old Chinese mashup of "Costco and Disneyland" (as self-described in their IPO prospectus) which recently became the fastest company ever to pass $100B market capitalization. What makes PDD so special, and how were they able to enter a market that everyone considered "already won" and disrupt massive entrenched competitors Alibaba and JD.com? This story is chock-full of lessons that apply not only to China tech, but to high-growth company building and investing everywhere.

Sponsors:

WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25

Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste

Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25

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Links:

Photo of 26 year-old Colin at lunch with Warren Buffett: https://thelowdown.momentum.asia/cv-of-pinduoduos-founder/

PDD users on mini-programs vs other Chinese e-commerce players: https://miro.medium.com/max/1080/0*39fpSP_JqhDaPhQ2.png

Carve Outs

How to Make a Spaceship https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Spaceship-Renegades-Spaceflight/dp/1594206724

Creativity, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012/

Sources:

http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/468b2c9f-9112-410d-84b3-2b22e07c7ee0

http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/5539839d-0a1c-4d40-9bb7-bdb490e2370c

https://analyse.asia/2018/08/09/episode-260-pinduoduo-their-upcoming-ipo-in-china-with-matthew-brennan/

https://analyse.asia/2020/06/28/pinduoduo-on-social-ecommerce-agriculture-with-xinyi-lim/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinduoduo#cite_note-8

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https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/02/why-pinduoduo-stock-popped-today.aspx

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https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#721870433d78

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https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000104746918005204/a2236308z424b4.htm

https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000110465920051022/pdd-20191231x20f.htm

https://www.techbuzzchina.com/episodes/ep-17-pinduoduo-from-zero-to-23b-in-three-years

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/chinas-pinduoduo-is-nipping-at-alibabas-heels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BidaQ22vWvM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqxtfOMMVFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLhCK8sUcw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbskb0KMBUU&t=4s

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