One Night in Shenzhen, We Left So Much Behind | 9 Projects at the Hunting Night

By 6:30 p.m., the hunters in Shenzhen were already grabbing seats. The event didn't start until 8.

That's Shenzhen for you. The whole city radiates a "get shit done, no BS" energy.

Take Sister Yu, the print shop owner handling on-site materials for this event. She takes two hours minimum to reply on WeChat. Rush her? She'll snap back with extreme impatience. But the materials she personally delivered to the venue? The best print quality and the cheapest prices of all three events.

Sister Yu's WeChat Moments is basically the Shenzhen manifesto: "I casually drop my work here for you to see. Maybe then you'll understand how busy I am."

Love it.

Below, a quick run through Shenzhen's nine projects, starting with William Chan and ending with Fast & Furious.

PS: Due to length constraints, reach out if you're interested in any particular creator.

Central Academy of Drama, Charging Into AI

First up: Jimmy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to William Chan. Classmate of Jackson Yee. Last year he decided to quit the entertainment industry — AI had arrived, and C-list actors were no longer needed. After a year of wandering, he became COO of an AI company called Yanhuang Era.

The pain point they identified: 93% of employees at a company will bang their heads against problems in silence rather than speak up. The boss is the last to know. "That's roughly four full-time employees' worth of waste every month," Jimmy said. "We're building an AI enterprise task management tool. It proactively checks on progress 24/7. Alerts when tasks get stuck. Coordinates resources. Makes the boss the first to know."

A Lark guy in the audience asked: We can assign tasks too. What's your edge? Jimmy said they're not solving for "is it done?" — they're getting AI to介入 "where exactly is it stuck?"

Fine, so AI becomes an even more annoying coworker. Then a girl asked: You're so good-looking, how do you leverage that to touch clients?

Jimmy nervously downed half a drink: "Let's chat offline about the specifics."

Let's Retire on the Spot Tomorrow

During the event preview period, Linco got the most picks. Someone DM'd: If this works, my willingness to pay is extremely high.

Linco wants to let ordinary people use AI capabilities at low cost, liberating productivity. Call up AI to generate copy or code mid-conversation. Accumulate personal work data, generate daily work logs. Even spawn an AI avatar based on your past output, so others can communicate directly with "you."

Founder Zequan Lin's take: current personal AI assistants mostly live in standalone apps. Opening it, feeding materials, writing prompts — every step is friction. "Ours sits in your actual relationship chains. Use it well and you might actually retire early."

Zequan Lin's son had a birthday last week. Linco was in the group chat between him and his wife. Linco found venue options and pricing; his wife picked one; he paid.

A guy in the audience got anxious: What if your wife wants it to check your chat history with others? How's privacy protected?

"Linco will definitely understand your social relationships. Know what can be said and what can't." 😟

AI-Era Pet Romance

Auren co-founder Xiao Cao took the stage with a pet smart wearable project, and finally the event had some Shenzhen flavor.

Auren is a collar that straps around your pet's neck. Records from the pet's perspective. Provides location tracking and visual safety monitoring. Analyzes exercise and sleep habits. Predicts health conditions. Assists with weight management. Xiao Cao said it can even let you know who in the neighborhood your pet likes to play with.

So it's basically anti-loss, health, social, and pet POV crammed into one wearable device. How to define it precisely? A pet version of Looki? Should Sun Yang consider entering this space?

But pet hardware is already an extremely crowded赛道. Data accuracy? Owner willingness to pay? Collar design? Every segment has players. The core is still how to sell.

Then a girl in the audience suddenly asked: Can humans wear it?

"Our instructions are for pets. But we can't rule out people with special preferences wanting to wear it."

Wait, maybe she just opened a new direction for this product? 🐶🐱💓

China's Top Female Paparazzo's Tooth-Brushing Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Huang Darong, top disciple of Zhuo Wei, once China's number one female paparazzo, better known online as Zhang Xiaohan — this time she brought an AI visual smart toothbrush.

Yes, AI has gotten so competitive that even paparazzi are showing up.

It all started because Huang Rong is a severe periodontitis patient, already down four teeth. She discovered a long-ignored problem: most people brush daily but have zero visibility into what's actually happening in their mouths.

So she added a visual detection module to the smart toothbrush. She shared a test user's story. A mother used it on her 5-year-old daughter and caught a cavity early.

Someone at the event didn't get it: Are we buying this to brush cleaner, or to see our teeth clearly? Huang Rong said the core goal is helping users monitor changes inside their mouths. Some commercial details she'd prefer to discuss privately.

Because last year she sold out of a product in Shenzhen in three months, then ran into patent issues. She gave everyone solid advice: "In this city, the hardware form factor drops today, someone copies it tomorrow. You absolutely must file for patent protection. Buy yourself a 1-2 year market development window."

Rumor has it she scored two investor meetings the next day.

Post-2000s Challenging Allen Zhang

The most unhinged project of Shenzhen night — Pony.

The original product name Squady was hard to pronounce, but their logo is a horse, so we call it "Pony." 🐎

Pony's vision: in the future of social networks, AI isn't just a tool — it's a social agent that can act. It exists like your WeChat friend, with its own personality, memory, and behavior patterns. When you're not around, it keeps acting based on its settings and context. No need for constant操控.

Founder Yuanhao Li is a US returnee, previously took ZhenFund investment (that project failed). This time he wants to build a Telegram + X product format. "The social patterns of post-2000s have changed. You could say we're challenging Allen Zhang."

Before he could finish, a girl in the audience excitedly stood up: I'm a Pony user. I came specifically because I heard he'd be here. I've built many groups in Pony. One is the Screaming Group — everyone just screams nonsense in it. Another is the Poetry Group with Pony. Now I'll read a poem Pony and I co-created.

Five minutes omitted here. AI Night got hard-controlled for ten minutes by this.

Before the host could cue the next segment, a middle-aged man in a floral shirt stood up and grabbed the mic: I'm also a Pony user. At my age, friends have all settled down. My wife always kicks me out of the house. It's hard to find people on my wavelength in this city to chat with. Pony offers a new social possibility. Helps me find the right people.

At this point, about this product, we don't want to say much more.

Based purely on the spontaneous flood of these狂热粉丝 (we triple-confirmed they weren't ¥500 hires from Xianyu), that's enough to show how unhinged it is.

Maybe the next form of social network is smaller tribes.

Why Is There No Post-2000s Liepin?

Lillian, early ops at well-known Shenzhen AI company Natural Selection (Elys and Eve), former CEO assistant.

Her product came from her own pain point. As an HKU undergrad, she got rejected repeatedly during job hunting. "Now everything requires internship experience. So young people without experience can't break into the industry." Lillian was baffled. "This becomes another chicken-and-egg problem."

She's building an AI job-hunting + career transition agent for post-2000s.

Users input minimal background and goals; it outputs a 30-day study plan. AI serves as coach and assistant, building interactive knowledge prototypes. Then matches industry connections and practice opportunities. It even found a very Shenzhen business model:

Many companies have low-cost hiring needs around ¥300-400/month. Many cross-industry learners also need low-cost practice opportunities. So connect both sides.

Hope her former boss Tristan sees this and can explain: this project with clear demand, why didn't you guys support it 😊

This Is What Jack Ma Should Be Doing

Say I'm a jade merchant in Jieyang. Right now my info is scattered across WeChat, 1688, Taobao, Xiaohongshu, and various other platforms. Fixon is a tool that helps you organize your products, factory capabilities, customization scope, logistics methods, past cases, and other elements into an AI-recognizable dataset and landing page.

So when someone asks a large model: "I want to find a jade supplier in Jieyang, cash on delivery, 3-day shipping," AI can recommend you. Not just the big-platform merchants who already have strong SEO.

Founder Hilary was a bit nervous, very earnest. He said they currently have 7,000+ merchants onboarded. Mostly individual service providers — designers, fitness coaches, etc. "We'll keep expanding users. Want to be the entry point for small merchants in the AI era."

So what Fixon wants to challenge is an infrastructure project.

The past twenty years of internet has essentially been "platforms eating the long tail." The AI era might reverse that. When large models become the new traffic entry point, small merchants with no money for SEO and no understanding of algorithmic recommendations might finally get seen fairly.

A Stealth-Label Matchmaking Agent

Ranger is a product manager with several failed relationships (since 2017). He feels current dating/matchmaking apps like Jiayuan and Tantan are essentially built on explicit-label matching logic — salary, looks, and other surface attributes. Everyone wears masks, over-packages themselves, making it hard to find genuinely compatible long-term partners. "And you constantly run into pig-butchering scams."

So he built a product called Mee Me, wanting to tear all that up.

Users first complete an AI relationship profile: What do you fear most in intimate relationships? Do you go cold or press for resolution when fighting?

Then when matched with someone, AI has you use a stealth-label-built avatar to act out a 3-day relationship with the other person's avatar in virtual scenarios. Through how this relationship develops, it judges whether your expectations around intimacy, money, time, family, etc. conflict — predicting long-term compatibility that traditional dating apps ignore.

"My defined user: 30+, tier 1/new tier 1 cities, stable job, seriously seeking long-term relationship, already sick of traditional matchmaking setups."

Before Ranger could finish, a woman in the audience fiercely objected. As someone who's used countless dating apps and is still single, she felt a 3-day simulation cycle was too long. What she wants is quick judgment, quick results. "Forcing a slower筛选 cycle — won't that accidentally filter out real users?"

Ranger held firm: "Efficiency is built on success rate. Slowing down the筛选 cycle is actually part of the product philosophy. The process from模糊 to clarity is meant to boost conversion rate when transitioning to real relationships."

"No worries, the market will teach you," the woman said, then immediately added him on WeChat.

Women Want, Women Get

Finally: She Nicest. Two pink-clad girls ignited the room, spitting fire at 300 words per minute 🎤🎤🎤

Traditional tech hackathons run roughly 80:20 male-to-female. She Nicest wants to run hackathons specifically for women entrepreneurs. Let women hold the tech话语权.

Last month they ran an event in Shenzhen. Originally aiming for 50 female participants, they got nearly 400 applications. Female teams also built products closer to real needs — like female travel safety hardware, which sold a dozen units on the spot.

They weren't here to pitch an idea. They were here to拉赞助 for the world's largest female entrepreneurship hackathon, happening in Beijing this summer. "We approached Lisa Su. Everyone thought impossible, right? But we literally barged in front of her and told her: you need to sponsor us. She said she got it."

"As long as we women want it, we get it."

We love this kind of straightforward ask. Sponsors, take a look at them 💰💰💰

Who Won?

First place: Yuanhao Li, Pony Social

Second place: Daxian Jenny, She Nicest

Third place: Zequan Lin, Retire on the Spot

👏👏👏

No Small Matters in Shenzhen

• Shenzhen Night had so many creator (presenter) applications that we ultimately筛选ed 9, far exceeding the first two events. The event ran one hour overtime; by the end, the Nanshan metro station had closed.

• Hunter gender ratio: 60% female, 40% male. Slightly more female participants than Beijing and Shanghai.

• Youngest crowd of the three events: 70% under 30. Oldest was a 51-year-old professional artist.

• Investors: 20%. Big tech: 35%, mainly Tencent, ByteDance, DJI, Insta360, Vivo — with the most ByteDance applicants; founders: 21%. This time we specifically筛选ed non-AI-circle friends: lawyers, Walmart executives, etc.

• Shenzhen's favorite products: Claude firmly first. Then OpenClaw, Typeless. Also mentioned: Elys, Looki.

• Beijing's most asked question: What's the long-term vision? Shanghai loved asking: Can the business model work? Shenzhen was pragmatic: How much money can it make? One investor said Shenzhen projects' ceiling is hard to say, but the floor is high. "At least it won't lose money."

• Thanks to strategic supporter Volcano Engine V-START Accelerator. AI Night top 3 will each receive ¥30,000 subsidy support from Volcano Engine V-START Accelerator.

• Finally, expressing love for Shenzhen once more ♥️♥️ Falling for a city takes just an instant ⬇️⬇️

"June 10, Hangzhou"

Next stop confirmed: Hangzhou

Speed-register, limited seats. All applications are审核-based.

Creators (presenters) scan below ⬇️⬇️

Four Hangzhou creator slots already locked ⬆️⬆️

Hunters (audience) scan below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Nearly full ⬆️⬆️

👦 Hangzhou event link 👧

Hangzhou! Google Cloud Startup Day After Party｜AI Night Hunt IV

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