Alumnus Kevin Li Shares Journey to His High-Flying Startup Success
Kevin Li Yatong
(Full Time, Class of 2017)
Pre MBA: Sales & Marketing Director, Green Bit Spa
Post MBA: Co-Founder & CEO, Voice AI Technologies
Kevin Li’s Voice AI Technologies has been gaining much recognition on the regional scene since its inception in 2016. The startup developed a pension fund verification system for the Indonesian government, serving over 2.5 million retirees in the country. It was the first time that technology of this kind has been used in a major project at the national level. In 2019, Voice AI Technologies achieved its second milestone with the backing of a Hong Kong venture fund.
Kevin attributed his achievements to CUHK MBA, the region’s first MBA that comes with a concentration in entrepreneurship as well as a curriculum empowering its students to start their own business. At CUHK, Kevin found himself immersed in a truly positive entrepreneurial culture and drew much inspiration from the numerous success stories of graduates who kick-started their own business. Among other things, CUHK’s Entrepreneur Day deserves special praise as it provides the platform where alumni entrepreneurs can interact and share their experience with current students. Eagerly looking for advice on investment funding, Kevin successfully met some alumni in the field at one of these networking events and their exchanges proved to be extremely useful.
Thinking back to choosing Hong Kong as his study base, Kevin said he has obviously made the right choice in view of the territory’s strong links with its motherland as well as its unique international exposure. More importantly, the entrepreneur didn’t want to be too far away from his young child, who was only 3 when he was admitted. CUHK’s extensive alumni network in both Mainland China and Hong Kong was an added advantage, and it was at one of the MBA Programme’s networking events where Kevin met his technical partner with whom he launched his startup.
Kevin’s next strategic move is to have his company becoming “a top-tier AI Voice company within 3 years”. For students who are thinking of starting their own business, his advice is “Go forward. It’s never too late to chase your dream. Join us!”