Ep. 75: Developing a Tech Startup on Wechat’s Platform, with Drew from Yoli

Drew Kirchhoff is a co-founder of Yoli, a WeChat-first on-demand English and Chinese language learning platform. Before co-founding yoli, Drew worked at Yodo1, where he helped build up the mobile gaming company’s international biz dev and global publishing business. He was the product manager of Crossy Road, a casual mobile gaming title that won an Apple Design Award and earned Google Play Game of the Year in 2015, tallying more than 100 million downloads worldwide. Since co-founding yoli just over a year ago, he has been an avid WeChat entrepreneur, featured by WeChat’s Enterprise Account team, and frequently consults for companies on their WeChat product development strategy.

EPISODE CONTENT:

• Drew shares about his history and how he got into startups and e-commerce

• Drew discusses how he met his co-founders and how Yoli started Yoli is running within WeChat

• Drew shares why they decided to keep it within this platform

• Question: How technical is developing Yoli on WeChat?

• Drew explains how they got the word out about Yoli in the beginning

• Transitioning from H.I. to A.I.

• Using QR codes in China vs. in the West

• Drew shares how they have developed and are still developing Yoli

Episode Mentions:

Intro

• Support China Business Cast on our Patreon page

• Josh Steimle on Episode 58

Interview

• Yoli Chat

• WeChat

• WeChat ID: YoliYingyu

• For the Chinese account, search WeChat ID: YoliMandarin

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