Today I am working from home, not because I like it but because the government decided to cut electricity in the neighbourhood where our office is located. And without internet access it is a bit difficult to run an online gaming & game development company. So the whole company got a day off, and most seem to be enjoying it because only a few colleagues are online at home (no, I am not checking on them, just noticing it :-).

The good thing is that today is Woman’s Day in China, and as a good employer you are supposed to give the ladies in the office a half day off on this day. Well, I did that this year – although not completely voluntarily.

I won’t complain too much about the electricity cut, I already did that when we got the notice. And I learned that sometimes I am still thinking way too Western: the general opinion among my colleagues was that I should not get upset about it (you cannot change it anyway), but be happy that we at least get a notice in advance. There is a lot of truth in that.

And although it’s bad for general company productivity, it also has it good sides. I noticed that I got a lot more things done this morning than in the office. There people walk into my office all the time (which is fine, I even stimulate that), making it difficult to think some things through or focus on a more complicated email. Today it’s nice and quiet without any external disturbances, except for my ayi who keeps walking in with drinks and fruit. I managed to catch up on a lot of business mails, which gives me a good feeling. I will now go for a lunchtime run in the gym downstairs, also something I cannot do when I work from the office. Maybe I should consider working from home one morning per week?

BrainsToVentures (B-to-V) is a Swiss/German network of entrepreneurial private investors that invest in growth companies. Members of this semi-closed network (you have to be recommended by another member, and existing members have a veto right with respect to the admission of new members) visited Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore last week to get to know more about the early-stage investment culture, and to look at several interesting companies.

I was invited to speak at their private deal conference in Shanghai, and spent most of the day talking to these entrepreneurs. It was very inspiring, not only because all of them are very successful, but also because it gave me some interesting business ideas and even some business leads (for game development, branded games and in-game advertising). I shared my experiences in the Chinese internet industry with the audience, and compared it to the situation in Europe. I feel the Chinese internet is still in its infancy with just 10% of the population online, and I explained to the investors that I see a huge opportunity in China’s mobile internet.

In the afternoon seven start-ups were selected to pitch their business plans to the investors. Among these seven were two companies that I am an angel investor in, which made it even more interesting. Online auto platform 1bib.com presented its business plan and its strategy to gain market share. 1bib.com is looking to raise a new round over the next months, and several investors were interested to participate. 1bib.com is doing very well in the market, and I believe the company can become the market leader in China with this financial injection. I see a very bright future for this company.

Pioco, the bluetooth advertising start-up, also presented its business strategy. I have written about them a few weeks ago, when I was not yet an official investor. Steve Chao, Pioco’s CEO, presented his vision for the company’s future and his current strategy and clients. Pioco is already profitable, but in order to keep on expanding fast it also needs to do an additional round of funding. Pioco received a positive feedback from several investors.

Several other good companies presented to the audience, including an exact Chinese copy of Habbo Hotel, a company that provides low-cost international mobile phone calls, and a Tudou-to-be. For some the 7-minute pitch was too short (meaning that their preparation was not very good), but most did an excellent job in ‘selling’ their company.

At night the angel investors had a dinner together with the start-ups (organized by PwC), followed by a panel discussion with several VC’s (among others Vincent Chan of Jafco Asia, one of the investors in Tudou). Very interesting, although I felt they were a bit hesitant to promote investing in China. Maybe afraid for competition from European angels? The night ended, as many good nights in Shanghai, in Bar Rouge. Too bad that it started to rain, so we could not have our drinks on the outside balcony, but it was a great location to finish this enervating day anyway.

Every now and then I get mails from readers telling me that the atom (RSS) feed of this blog is not working well. I have now put several other ways to subscribe to the content on this blog on the right side (through Feedburner, MyYahoo, Google and Newsgator). If you use one of these services just click on the links. If you don’t have any idea what RSS is, don’t worry. It is just a different (easier, in my humble opninion) way to read weblogs, but you can keep on reading the blog here as well. Nothing will change.

Today is the Lantern Festival in China, the official end of the Chinese New Year. And of course that means fireworks! It already started at midnight last night, which reminded me that the festival is today. I had totally forgotten it was already the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, time flies. Right now I am sitting in my study on the 37th floor and looking over the city. It’s a fantastic sight to see and hear the fireworks all around me. From tomorrow on it will finally be quiet again at night.