Grace Zhang

Community builder since 2014 | Former tech journalist | Ground-level notes on Shenzhen, founders, manufacturing & Physical AI.

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

1/6 I’ve been building founder communities in Shenzhen since 2014.

After 12 years of conversations, events, experiments—and quite a few mistakes—I’m starting this account again to share what I’ve learned from inside the ecosystem. 🧵

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

I have lived in Shenzhen over a decade 🤓

[Sheng @Sheng5Wu]

the generosity of resource sharing in shenzhen is real!

spent more time with both locals and foreigners who have lived here for over a decade. ppl were sharing ideas, resources, intros, and real-estate agents (trying to convince me to move here lmao)

heard about local founders living in the same estate, hiring chefs together, eating together, and building side by side every day. also heard some mind-blowing stories from foreign entrepreneurs navigating the gap between the west and shenzhen.

my advice to anyone considering building here: come and hear the real stories. chinese ecosystem is impossible to understand from distance or through a western lens.

if you are visiting during @themu_xyz, let's connect!

[Micheal D @micheal_ws18]

Your body matters more than your job, your clothes, your car, or your expensive house. Invest in your health.

[Gentleman's geek @GntlemansGeek]

One of the hardest things to accept is that some years of your life will disappear without asking permission. A year becomes a month, a month becomes a week, and suddenly you’re wondering where the time went. Stop waiting for the perfect moment. Use the ordinary days. They are your life

[Tim Denning @Tim_Denning]

I’m in love with this sentence:

"Money loves speed. Wealth loves time. Poverty loves indecision."

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

Congrats!

[Brad Flora @bradflora]

Today is YC Demo Day. Congratulations to all the YC Summer 26 companies!

[Lauren Teixeira @lrntex]

DAY 4, SHENZHEN--

Shenzhen is a city of malls. Why wouldn’t it be? The city sprang up only a few decades ago, well after air conditioning was a thing. Malls are great adaptation strategy.

Mallification makes the city a little soulless, but only a little bit. Much of the vibrant street life you associate with Chinese cities has simply been transposed to the mall. At rush hour the food court basements are absolutely swarming with people, eating and socializing and peddling tchotckes. In a mall today I saw the familiar street scene of baby-toting grandparents all hanging out together, except that they were set up in the lobby in front of a Sephora.

This morning I visited the famous Huaqiangbei. Hardware isn’t really my thing – I am a heterosexual woman — but I still found the market thrilling. I’ve never been anywhere so dense with economic activity. Crammed into just a few square blocks were floors and floors of electronics vendors; countless logistics outfits handling electronics shipping; coffee stalls slinging bucket-sized iced Americanos; delivery drivers whizzing back and forth between the vendors, logistics shops, and coffee stalls; and Hunanese hot lunch bars offering up quick meals to the delivery drivers. There was something Richard Scarryesque about it – an economy made visually legible.

At my friend Afra’s recommendation I visited the Zpilot store, which peddles what she calls “physical AI slops.” Many of these are literal LLM wrappers: stuffed animals with AI voice capabilities inside. I am a huge sucker for cute stuff and spent way too long having inane conversations with GaoGao, an AI puppy who predictably kept sucking up to me (“what do you like to eat, GaoGao?” “I like to eat whatever you like to eat”).

After exhausting Gaogao I spent a long time talking with one of the shop assistants, a charming recent college graduate. She was extremely enthusiastic about AI and insisted on talking me through through every product in the store (a necklace you wear that records your life and turns it into a manga?). Interacting with an adorable AI octopus, she reflected cheerfully: “No one wants to have children anymore. Maybe in the future people can raise these instead.”

I was extremely taken with a roving, hat-wearing, globular creature, a kind of shanzhai Totoro, who had tragically been rendered mute. My new friend explained that token prices were too high to allow him to talk to just anyone. I felt a real pang for the creature and his muteness. It reminded me of when I first moved to Nanjing, not knowing any Chinese, and was, like him, trapped inside myself.

A new fashion innovation since I was last here is for women to wear a sun-mask covering everything but their eyes, leaving everyone looking vaguely Islamic.

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

Congrats Yuxiang! Have fun at #NeoCognition hi from Shenzhen

[Yu-Xiang Wang @yuxiangw_cs]

Excited to share that I’ve taken leave from UCSD and joined NeoCognition as Director of Machine Learning. Since July, I’ve been working closely with a talent-packed team on a strategic bet. Today is the day that we release details on part of what we’ve been building. 🧵1/n

[Yu-Xiang Wang @yuxiangw_cs]

Excited to share that I’ve taken leave from UCSD and joined NeoCognition as Director of Machine Learning. Since July, I’ve been working closely with a talent-packed team on a strategic bet. Today is the day that we release details on part of what we’ve been building. 🧵1/n

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

灵活走位学到了。有时候就是单纯不想玩这个游戏了。

[Ning @MariRegina55109]

人这一生最要紧的就是学会跑路，不是什么沟通、包容、原谅。

跑路是一项人生技能，非常重要的技能。

发现自己可以跑，是你人生中最紧要的一件事，就是你自己可以有移动的能力。

不适合的环境可以跑，不适合的人可以跑，伤害我的人也可以离他远远的。

灵活的走位可以避开这个世界上大部分的问题。

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

传统路径上断裂，这一辈子的课题都是要去跟传统路径上的节点解释传统路径断裂的问题。

[雷电芽衣 @Zachary_haha]

说实话，看到Kimi这个项目里的描述，我真的想哭。真得自发宣传一下🥹🥹
连续创业，公司关停，屡败屡战
不擅言辞，不喜社交，靠作品说话
长期在海外漂泊，一直有稀奇古怪的想法
我仿佛看到了我自己。

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

@robinluosz 原来如此，生日快乐肯爹！

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

Trying is bravery.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The older I get, the more I realize that life has windows. Windows to take that big risk. To go all-in and build the thing. To chase that person you love. To spend time with your parents and kids. To go on crazy adventures. To do physically challenging things. Some windows reopen. But many don’t. A beautiful life is built by simply having the courage to dive through when you see them open in front of you.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The older I get, the more I realize that life has windows. Windows to take that big risk. To go all-in and build the thing. To chase that person you love. To spend time with your parents and kids. To go on crazy adventures. To do physically challenging things. Some windows reopen. But many don’t. A beautiful life is built by simply having the courage to dive through when you see them open in front of you.

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

Have fun at #IxianRobotics Jacob! hi from Shenzhen

[Jacob Zietek @JacobZietek]

I left a16z to start Ixian Robotics!

I’m very grateful for the people I got to learn from at a16z, and excited to be building again. The last couple of months have felt like knocking down dominoes I’ve spent years putting up.

Wrote a bit about the last year and what I want to build next: https://t.co/UZkyYG5e64

[Rui Ma @ruima]

I know there's a ton of Shenzhen robotics content on X these days, but if you're a serious hardware founder, you might want to follow these guys and consider checking them out.

This is @FAIRplus_sz , run by the Shenzhen Robotics Association. They have hundreds of members across the entire robotics supply chain in China. We're working with them to help overseas founders get connected and plugged into the ecosystem, so if that's something you're looking for, please reach out. We're just getting started tho, so it's apologies for the disorganization.

You can also consider going to their conference at the end of April every year. It's not flashy like the World Robotics Conference, but it has a good mix of component makers, and plus you'll be in Shenzhen. You could also visit their year-round exhibition hall, which is called @AIRDesignHouse

[Laras @Larasvisusls]

Getting obsessed with studying is one virtue that has kept me going.

[Grace Zhang @GraceJelly9]

The power of focusing on small progresses and let the results be

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Focus on making small progress every day.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Focus on making small progress every day.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

I'm co-hosting a new weekly show with @Kantrowitz, brought to you by the same folks at Hubspot who produce @myfirstmilpod!

We'll talk about the biggest stories in tech and business every week. It's going to be fun, Alex and I disagree a lot :)

Super stoked to share more!