Dr. Ouyang Mo: Witness to the Rise of the Chinese Internet and the "Decacorn Hunter" in the Crypto Field

Source: SOHU

More than twenty years ago, a "foreigner" dedicated himself to helping Chinese internet companies secure overseas venture capital, including Baidu, NetEase, Alibaba, and others, aiming to assist these early Chinese internet enterprises in successfully achieving overseas IPOs.

Over twenty years later, this "foreigner" is tirelessly promoting the connection between Eastern and Western cryptocurrency markets, bringing numerous well-known overseas projects into China, and continuously striving for the compliant development of the cryptocurrency industry.

This "foreigner" is Omer Ozden, whose Chinese name is 欧阳默. He is the founder and CEO of the well-known investment institution RockTree Capital. He is also an international partner at China's top angel investment fund, ZhenFund, and a co-founder and shareholder of China's largest co-working company, UrWork, where he helps UrWork expand into overseas markets.

At the same time, he is a renowned PhD in law in the American financial sector and a pioneer in foreign investment channels for Sino-American technology enterprises. He attended the Facebook Libra hearings and worked closely with the U.S. Congressional Blockchain Caucus and the SEC to assist them in new legislation and policy design related to blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Omer Ozden with Mao Daqing, Xu Xiaoping, Tong Dawei, and others at UrWork, Beijing, 2016

From the early days of entrepreneurship to the present, Omer Ozden has always had an inseparable bond with China, this ancient Eastern country.

The Origin in China

In the 1990s, China was in its early stages of development, with state-owned enterprise reforms leading to a wave of layoffs, which facilitated the early trend of urbanization in China and accelerated the second construction of major Chinese cities. On the other hand, the new ideas and business models brought by the reform and opening-up policy led to the nascent development of China's internet technology.

As early as 1991, Omer Ozden first came to China and co-founded a computer company in Taipei with friends. However, due to the launch of Apple's Macintosh, his company went bankrupt as it lost market competitiveness. In 1996, while pursuing his PhD in law in the U.S., he was introduced to Beijing by Yu Minhong and Xu Xiaoping and became the international lawyer for New Oriental Education Group in Zhongguancun.

Xu Xiaoping, Omer Ozden, and the New Oriental team, Beijing, 1997

At the end of the last century, China's early development could be described as "a hundred things waiting to be done." There were not many foreigners coming to China to seek opportunities, and Omer Ozden could be considered one of the first batch of foreign entrepreneurs in China. Xu Xiaoping, who invited Omer Ozden to China, jokingly referred to him as a "new species," commonly known as a "foreign turtle."

It was this entrepreneurial journey in China that made Omer Ozden one of the most important figures in the early development of the Chinese internet. He witnessed and helped the rise of China's internet industry and formed an inseparable bond with China and its early internet technology companies.

In the 1990s, domestic private enterprises in China seeking financing overseas often faced numerous difficulties due to a lack of compliance with legal support. In 2000, Omer Ozden joined one of Silicon Valley's largest law firms, Morrison & Foerster, where his team collaborated with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to discuss and invent the "VIE structure" for foreign investment and IPOs of Chinese companies. He was one of the first lawyers in China to engage in international technology venture capital and public offerings. Later, he became a partner at the New York law firm Baker McKenzie, which was then the largest law firm in the world (currently the second largest), with offices in 45 countries. He led the securities trading team in Manhattan, closely collaborating with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong on private equity financing, IPOs, and government securities compliance matters.

Dr. Omer Ozden at China Global Television Network

The VIE framework, or Variable Interest Entities, is a contractual arrangement under Chinese law that allows foreign investment companies to control the operations of domestic companies without a direct equity relationship. This enables the financial data of domestic companies to be consolidated into the financial statements of foreign investment companies according to international accounting standards. With this VIE structure, Chinese internet companies can attract foreign investment in foreign currency, successfully list overseas, and engage in sectors that Chinese law prohibits or restricts foreign involvement, such as internet information services, tourism, education, and entertainment.

The introduction of this framework changed the previous difficulties faced by Chinese private enterprises in securing overseas financing, providing a legal basis for Chinese companies to raise funds in major capital markets such as Japan, the U.S., Hong Kong, and the U.K. It also played a significant role in the modernization of internet technology in China. The development of today's leading Chinese internet giants like Baidu, NetEase, and Alibaba greatly benefited from the value of this framework.

After the launch of the VIE framework, Omer Ozden began helping Chinese internet companies with overseas venture capital, ultimately successfully promoting and participating in the financing and IPOs of companies like NetEase, Baidu, and Alibaba in overseas markets after 2000.

Dr. Omer Ozden at the NetEase Future Conference

Through his early practice in the Chinese internet industry, Omer Ozden summarized an experience: "The law shows the same 'productivity' as technology." To this day, Omer Ozden adheres to this belief, hoping to apply the experiences he accumulated early on to the development of the cryptocurrency industry and lead by example. To some extent, Omer Ozden is not only a witness to the development of the Chinese internet field but also one of its main promoters.

"In blockchain, law is technology."

His early work experience in China laid the foundation for Omer Ozden's long-term career direction. For a long time thereafter, his work has always focused on promoting the compliant development of emerging technologies. With the rise of the blockchain concept in 2017, Omer Ozden once again immersed himself in this field, dedicated to promoting the implementation and compliance of blockchain and cryptocurrency regulations.

Omer Ozden has often stated in interviews, "In blockchain, law is technology."

He believes that many projects focus solely on computer technology while neglecting legal and governmental regulations, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the industry. After entering the blockchain field, RockTree Capital submitted the "Practical Token Guidelines" to regulators in the U.S., Canada, and Switzerland in 2018, and the "Security Token Guidelines" to the U.S. Congress and the SEC in 2019. At the same time, Omer Ozden also participated in the formulation of regulations and policies for the cryptocurrency industry by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand.

IBM, Deloitte, and Dr. Omer Ozden at a Congressional meeting

"The current state of the blockchain industry is very similar to the internet wave I experienced in China back in the day—being a brand new industry, with unclear regulations and policies, there are those who are genuinely creating products and many who are just trying to take advantage of the situation. Therefore, my mission has never changed; I hope to connect North America and Greater China through legal and compliant means, helping quality enterprises and projects achieve long-term development in the blockchain industry." In an interview a few years ago, Omer Ozden expressed his views on the cryptocurrency field and his purpose for delving into the blockchain industry.

On June 18, 2020, Facebook officially released the white paper for the Libra stablecoin, which dominated global news headlines for months. The U.S. Congress held two hearings on Libra in July and October of the same year, with David Marcus, head of the Libra wallet company Calibra, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attending the hearings. As a former legal advisor to Facebook, Omer Ozden also attended both hearings and expressed his views in the closed-door sessions afterward.

Dr. Omer Ozden at the LIBRA hearing on October 23, 2019

At the Facebook hearings, Congress invited Omer Ozden's team back to Washington, D.C., to work closely with the U.S. Congressional Blockchain Caucus and the SEC. Omer Ozden's team subsequently participated in the SEC's new legislation and policy formulation regarding blockchain and cryptocurrency. As a legal expert, Omer Ozden holds a significant voice and authority in the field of cryptocurrency regulations.

Co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, Republican Tom Emmer, with Dr. Omer Ozden

As one of the promoters of cryptocurrency compliance, Omer Ozden expressed his belief that it is wise for Hong Kong to clarify its cryptocurrency policies when invited to participate in the Hong Kong Web3 Summit this year. He also expressed high hopes for Hong Kong's future development in the Web3 field and showed a sense of satisfaction. Looking back, Omer Ozden, as a first-generation foreign entrepreneur in China, has always had an inseparable bond with this land.

In April of this year, after one of the sessions at the Hong Kong Web3 Summit, a scene unfolded in a corner of the venue: a group of well-known Chinese crypto VC founders "scattered" around, expressing their gratitude to Omer Ozden, who stood among them, with great respect in their tone and gaze. Clearly, Omer Ozden holds significant meaning for these Chinese venture capitalists, and privately, they prefer to call him the "Unicorn Hunter," highlighting his prominent status in the cryptocurrency industry.

The "Unicorn Hunter" in the Crypto Field

Through years of cultivation in the Chinese market, Omer Ozden has developed his unique insights into investments in the cryptocurrency field. He is known as the "Unicorn Hunter," renowned in the global cryptocurrency investment industry. The title "Unicorn Hunter" primarily comes from RockTree Capital, which he leads, focusing on discovering and investing in potential companies with a market value exceeding $10 billion. In his own words, he enjoys "looking for unicorns—the future unicorns."

Omer Ozden stated, "In the Web 2.0 era, everyone was looking for unicorns, but there are already many unicorns on the market now. RockTree Capital does not engage in any gambling-style investments; instead, we focus on investing in quality projects and spend a lot of time and effort helping them grow and develop. We are always looking for unicorn projects that have the potential to develop to a market value of $10 billion or more, which requires long-term thinking rather than short-term."

Adhering to this philosophy, Omer Ozden and his RockTree Capital have successfully participated in early investments in some of the most well-known Web 3.0 companies, including ChainLink (LINK), The Graph (GRT), dYdX (DYDX), REN (REN), Fantom (FTM), Maple Finance (MPL), Pocket Network (POKT), and others. Under Omer Ozden's leadership, RockTree Capital has also become one of the pioneers in the Web3 wave, connecting top companies and businesses in the Western and Eastern cryptocurrency markets, bringing numerous well-known overseas projects into China.

In recent years, Omer Ozden's RockTree Capital has also assisted several leading blockchain projects in transaction execution, overseas financing, global expansion, and other development layouts. With his help, many Web3 entrepreneurs have secured financing and better development opportunities, and investors have achieved good results from their investments.

Thus, the scene mentioned earlier occurred, where a group of Chinese crypto investors who had received Omer Ozden's assistance came to express their gratitude to him.

It is evident that whether as an entrepreneur, lawyer, or investor, Omer Ozden is successful.

In fact, Omer Ozden himself is a very "down-to-earth" China expert. Not only is he humorous and approachable, but he is also very hospitable. Perhaps this is a kind of personal charm that Omer Ozden exudes as a successful person.

"China Expert" Omer Ozden

After working in China for many years, Omer Ozden achieved financial freedom. This "down-to-earth" foreigner, with a big nose, not only became friends with well-known investors like Xu Xiaoping, Yu Minhong, Mao Daqing, Liu Xiaoguang, and Liu Shuang but also married a Chinese wife, fulfilling a foreigner's dream in China.

When communicating with Omer Ozden, you will find that he is well-versed in trendy Chinese culture. He can easily reference very local and popular cultural phrases like "down-to-earth" and "bragging." He may be one of the few foreigners who deeply understands the current state of China's new economic development—a true China expert. Omer Ozden, as a "new species," not only understands the differences between Eastern and Western cultures and businesses but can also switch freely between the two cultures. In the U.S., Omer Ozden is an American; in China, he becomes a Chinese person.

Those who have interacted with Omer Ozden all describe him as very "down-to-earth," as he often shares amusing stories about himself without hesitation.

In the 1990s, when he first arrived in Zhongguancun to start a business, Beijing, although the capital, had very rudimentary facilities and environment, which was a stark contrast to the current scene of towering skyscrapers and bustling international metropolis. At that time, the road outside Omer Ozden's office was still a dirt road. One day, wearing a newly bought suit, he stepped out the door and fell into an open manhole without a cover. Fortunately, the well was not deep, but he couldn't get out. People in the office above saw him fall and immediately came down to pull him up. Omer Ozden always smiles wryly when recounting this story.

Although this incident happened over twenty years ago, Omer Ozden still remembers it vividly. He expressed that as a foreigner, he has witnessed the rapid development and significant changes of innovative enterprises in China over the past twenty years, leaving him with many emotions.

Another anecdote that happened to Omer Ozden also led him to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese liquor culture, which became part of his hospitality.

Once, during a dinner with Xu Xiaoping, Xu wanted to offer Omer Ozden some Chinese liquor, but he insisted that Chinese liquor was not as strong as foreign liquor and wanted to drink foreign liquor instead. They made a bet: if the liquor in the spoon could be ignited, they would drink Chinese liquor; otherwise, they would switch to foreign liquor. When Xu Xiaoping ignited the liquor in the spoon, Omer Ozden was astonished and began to try drinking Chinese liquor. After gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese liquor culture, he also started to emulate traditional Chinese etiquette, always using Moutai to entertain guests, showing the highest level of hospitality.

Omer Ozden is a typical representative of successful individuals in the business field. His success stems not only from his innate market sensitivity, rooted in the early development of the Chinese internet, but also from his professional qualities as a lawyer and his adept handling of policies. Based on this, through his efforts in helping the early internet businesses in China rise, he gained valuable experience and achieved win-win cooperation. After achieving significant success in the Web2 world, Omer Ozden brought his valuable experience to the cryptocurrency venture capital field, actively promoting compliance for longer-term development while also valuing long-term investment, looking forward to the next "unicorn" in the next decade.