A VC in Vacationland

Wuhan Kindstar Diagnostics does lab work for more than 2000 hospitals in 320 cities in China. Last year, the startup added 700 new hospitals as clients, and it expects to keep growing as more Chinese enter the middle class and can afford diagnostic tests. Kindstar's CEO, Dr. Shiang Huang, was educated in China, but spent time working in the United States before returning to China and starting Kindstar. The company recently received investment capital from the Mayo Clinic, as well as from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. 

In starting Kindstar, Huang had to work through some of the government bureaucracy in China, where local officials wanted to own a part of the company before they would give him a license to operate. He also had to develop his own logistics network to transport samples from hospitals to his lab, and currently half of Kindstar's 1000 employees are couriers that pick up over 25,000 blood, urine, and tissue samples each day.

Having to start your own logistics network for small parcel pickup and delivery is one challenge US and European start ups do not have to face. If you are going to start a logistics intensive start up in many less developed areas of the world, you do need to consider how you will get products from your suppliers and to your customers. FedEx and UPS simply do not have the coverage they have in the developed world. The same is true in Africa, where many products travel the last mile to customers by bicycle or motorcycle.