Twin Oaks CEO Andrey Sikorsky: China Manufacturing Changes Global Crowdfunding Economy

This article is translated from the Tom.com, originally titled “Twin Oaks首席执行官：中国制造改变全球众筹经济”.

Speaking of crowdfunding, you might imagine such a scenario: young geeks in Silicon Valley think of genius ideas in labs, and post them on the crowdfunding platforms.

But the reality is likely to be completely different.

“Currently, crowdfunding projects around the world are mostly born in factories in China.” said Andrey Sikorsky, co-founder and CEO of Twin Oaks Global. Twin Oaks Global is a multinational bag manufacturing group with three factories and hundreds of employees in China.

Since launching business in China in 2003, Andrey has witnessed the entire process of manufacturing in China from low-end to high-end, from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.

“When I first arrived in China, most workers could only make the simplest products, such as shopping bags and T-shirts. But now, China’s manufacturing industry represents the highest level in the world.” he said.

A famous case is DJI, a drone company in Shenzhen. When the concept of quadcopter spread all over the world, there were a large number of startups in Silicon Valley trying to challenge DJI, but they all lost without exception.

In the field of crowdfunding, this phenomenon is also obvious.

“On the world’s largest crowdfunding site, KickStarter, there is a bag project launched almost every day, and most of these products are made in China.” Andrey said that in just 2018, Twin Oaks Global has produced products for more than 10 crowdfunding projects, and many of its Chinese competitors have received similar orders.

In fact, Chinese manufacturing companies can not only produce high-quality products for crowdfunding players, but also go deep into the design process.

“Compared to giants like IKEA, young entrepreneurs of crowdfunding projects often lack experience and can’t balance quality control, cost control and good design.” Renaud Martinez, Chief Creative Officer at Twin Oaks Global explained.

At this time, the years of experience of manufacturing employees often become the key to the success of a crowdfunding project.

Renaud said that a KickStarter startup team recently found Twin Oaks Global, hoping to collaborate on a laptop bag. After seeing their design, Renaud immediately found a serious problem.

“They made a mistake that startup teams are most likely to make: cost crisis. Their designs were very futuristic, but the cost control was very bad. For example, they used expensive metal zippers on the bags so much that the cost of the zipper was actually accounted for 30% of all material costs." Renaud said.

With the help of Renaud, they drastically modified the design and switched to silver-plated plastic zippers that cost only 20% of the metal zippers. Finally, compared to the original design, the cost of this laptop bag dropped by nearly 50%.

“Leaving the experience of manufacturing, industrial design cannot play its role.” Renaud exclaimed.

Andrey also fully agrees with him. “In the past two years, more and more crowdfunding projects have shifted the research and development to China. I believe this must be the general trend.” he said.

Updates to Our Privacy Policy

Today, we’re giving you an early look at Twin Oaks Global’s updated Privacy Policy. It will take effect on May 15, 2018.

Not so long ago, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gained the final approval of the European Parliament and will go into effect on May 25. It is a comprehensive data protection law that provides greater data protection for individuals in the European Union.

As a company serving clients around the world, we fully support the protection of consumer rights and always ask ourselves by the highest ethical standards. In response, we are taking a global approach to the GDPR to help ensure our members benefit from increased clarity. Here is some of what’s changing:

• More Clarity: We’ve updated language in Privacy Policy and make it easier for its users to find and understand.
• Better protection: As long as you are willing to, tell us to stop using your personal data.

Should you need more information about rights to your personal data and how to exercise these rights, click here. 

Twin Oaks Global to Produce 200,000 Cooler Bags for Yihaodian, China’s Leading E-commerce Platform

Twin Oaks Global and Yihaodian announced today that they have signed a multi-year Strategic Partnership agreement at the Yihaodian headquarter in Shanghai. Executives from both companies attended the signing ceremony. 

Yihaodian is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China and  has tens of millions of loyal users.

In order to enter the fresh food e-commerce field, Yihaodian is planning to implement cold chain transportation throughout the process.

As a top cooler bag designer and manufacturer around the world, Twin Oaks Global promises to develop and supply more than 200,000 high-quality insulation Bags for Yihaodian in the next two years.

An Updated Terms of Use and New Privacy Policy for Our Site

We know you put your trust in us and we strive to earn that trust everyday by putting you first. With that in mind, we’re updating our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to make it easier for you to understand what data we collect from you and how we use it.

You should read the documents in full, but the key updates include:

• More transparency over how we use cookies and the choices and control you have.
• More focus on the controls you have over your personal data.

These updates will take effect on Sep 29, 2015. We’ll always be transparent about what’s to come and will continue to offer you choices and control over your information.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with us via support@twinoaks.pro.

Twin Oaks Global Appoints Elizabeth Sit as Chief Financial Officer

Twin Oaks Global has announced that Elizabeth Sit has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Elizabeth is a member of Twin Oaks Global’s executive leadership team, responsible for driving the company’s financial strategy and reporting to Chief Executive Officer Andrey Sikorsky.

“I’m excited to welcome Elizabeth to Twin Oaks Global and believe she will be an invaluable member of our team,” said Twin Oaks Global CEO Andrey Sikorsky. “Elizabeth’s experience makes her perfectly fit for our organizational structure, and she will be essential for the company to achieve our business goals.”

Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience designing and executing financial strategies across world-class organizations.