Naked Hub's guest appearances

Naked Hub

Evolving for the Next Billion by GGV Capital

Startup Exits

Grant Horsfield

Garry Tan

Patrick O'Donnell

Paul Murphy

Max Levchin

Justin Kan

Tony Fadell

Sonny Vu

Andrew Ng

Nathan Blecharczyk

Josh Luber

Brad Bao

Irving Fain

Jim Miller

Josh Silverman

OwlTail

After finishing his MBA in South Africa and moving to China in 2006, Grant was interested in selling to the Chinese, not buying from them. He started Naked Group, a luxury brand of resorts, and Naked Hub, a community and design focused coworking company that was acquired by WeWork for $400 million after 3 years of being on the Chinese market.  On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Grant about: • Startup environment in China • Startups in US vs China • Future of the modern office • WeWork acquisition • Brand building • Disrupting education  Grant is currently focused on disrupting education and making the lives of teachers better.  Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.

After finishing his MBA in South Africa and moving to China in 2006, Grant was interested in selling to the Chinese, not buying from them. He started Naked Group, a luxury brand of resorts, and Naked Hub, a community and design focused coworking company that was acquired by WeWork for $400 million after 3 years of being on the Chinese market. On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Grant about: • Startup environment in China • Startups in US vs China • Future of the modern office • WeWork acquisition • Brand building • Disrupting education Grant is currently focused on disrupting education and making the lives of teachers better. Startup Exits is brought to you by <a href="https://startupsoft.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">StartupSoft</a>. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.

Grant Horsfield, founder of Naked Hub: $400 million sale to WeWork

GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Grant Horsfield (高天成), a South African serial entrepreneur who came to China in 2005 and founded naked Group, which includes the coworking space naked Hub (裸心社) and the luxury resort brand naked Retreat (裸心谷).  In 2007, Grant and his wife, Delphine Yip-Horsfield, opened the first naked resort – naked Home – in Moganshan (莫干山), a beautiful mountain 30-minute drive from Hangzhou. Following its success, Grant continued to expand the naked resort business into other high-end, eco-friendly resorts which prioritize sustainability development  In 2016, Grant and Delphine launched the coworking space naked Hub, which seeks to combine hospitality, design, technology, and community. Naked Hub offers several services, include open office, private office, and hot desks. It now has 10,000 members across 24 office locations both in Shanghai and Beijing. It has expanded into Australia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. In April 2018, Naked Hub and WeWork announced that they would join forces to support business in China and throughout Asia. In this episode, Grant explained why he moved to China from rural South Africa, how he earned the trust of local Chinese farmers in Moganshan, and what differentiates naked Hub from other coworking spaces. The full transcript of this episode is available at 996.ggvc.com. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at 996.ggvc.com/community. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week’s most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com. We are excited to announce a new program, "GGV Fellows", designed to help "sea turtles" or (海归) and Chinese students studying overseas to get to know the Chinese entrepreneurial landscape better. If you're a Chinese student/professional who is studying/working overseas (or have done so in the past), this is a program designed for you! It's a weeklong program in Jan 2019 in Beijing (during most US college's winter break). You will be able to learn from executives at some of China's most valuable tech companies, and visit some of their offices. You will also participate in mixers with students at top Chinese universities like Tsinghua and Beida to build a local network. Please visit fellows.ggvc.com for the application link and for more information. GGV Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the last 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in Consumer/New Retail, Social/Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech. GGV has invested in over 290 companies with more than 45 companies valued at more than $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Ctrip, Didi, Grab, Hellobike, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, Opendoor, Peloton, Slack, Square, ByteDance (Toutiao), Wish, Xiaomi, Xiaohongshu, and YY. Find out more at ggvc.com. 

GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Grant Horsfield (高天成), a South African serial entrepreneur who came to China in 2005 and founded naked Group, which includes the coworking space naked Hub (裸心社) and the luxury resort brand naked Retreat (裸心谷). In 2007, Grant and his wife, Delphine Yip-Horsfield, opened the first naked resort – naked Home – in Moganshan (莫干山), a beautiful mountain 30-minute drive from Hangzhou. Following its success, Grant continued to expand the naked resort business into other high-end, eco-friendly resorts which prioritize sustainability development In 2016, Grant and Delphine launched the coworking space naked Hub, which seeks to combine hospitality, design, technology, and community. Naked Hub offers several services, include open office, private office, and hot desks. It now has 10,000 members across 24 office locations both in Shanghai and Beijing. It has expanded into Australia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. In April 2018, Naked Hub and WeWork announced that they would join forces to support business in China and throughout Asia. In this episode, Grant explained why he moved to China from rural South Africa, how he earned the trust of local Chinese farmers in Moganshan, and what differentiates naked Hub from other coworking spaces. The full transcript of this episode is available at <a href="http://996.ggvc.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">996.ggvc.com</a>. Join our listeners' community via WeChat/Slack at <a href="https://996.ggvc.com/home/community/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">996.ggvc.com/community</a>. GGV Capital also produces a biweekly email newsletter in English, also called “996,” which has a roundup of the week’s most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at <a href="https://996.ggvc.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">996.ggvc.com.</a> We are excited to announce a new program, "GGV Fellows", designed to help "sea turtles" or (海归) and Chinese students studying overseas to get to know the Chinese entrepreneurial landscape better. If you're a Chinese student/professional who is studying/working overseas (or have done so in the past), this is a program designed for you! It's a weeklong program in Jan 2019 in Beijing (during most US college's winter break). You will be able to learn from executives at some of China's most valuable tech companies, and visit some of their offices. You will also participate in mixers with students at top Chinese universities like Tsinghua and Beida to build a local network. Please visit <a href="http://fellows.ggvc.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fellows.ggvc.com</a> for the application link and for more information. GGV Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the last 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in Consumer/New Retail, Social/Internet, Enterprise/Cloud and Frontier Tech. GGV has invested in over 290 companies with more than 45 companies valued at more than $1 billion. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Ctrip, Didi, Grab, Hellobike, HashiCorp, Houzz, Keep, Opendoor, Peloton, Slack, Square, ByteDance (Toutiao), Wish, Xiaomi, Xiaohongshu, and YY. Find out more at <a href="http://ggvc.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ggvc.com</a>.

Grant Horsfield of naked Hub: Creating a Lifestyle Brand in China