Founders: The American who built his business in China
Business Daily

Founders: The American who built his business in China

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 22, 202617 min
  • Interview
  • Business & money

Jacob Rothman moved from California to China and helped build a manufacturing business supplying some of the world's biggest retailers. We meet the co-founder of Velong Enterprises to hear how he built the company across Asia and how an unlikely career path took him to the heart of global manufacturing. He also reflects on entrepreneurship, manufacturing in China and how global trade is changing. Producer: Bisi Adebayo You can email the team: [email protected] (Picture: Jacob Rothman)

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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0:00

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Luke Wilson. With trade tensions running high between the world's two biggest economies, what's it like to run a Chinese business as an American founder?

1:07

That's the situation Jacob Rothman finds himself in, the co-founder of V Long Enterprises, which manufactures and exports cooking equipment from its headquarters in Shanghai, some of the world's biggest retailers. Welcome to the programme, Jacob.

1:22

So we're talking a lot about the US and China this week because of the meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. We want to talk about your experience running a business in China for more than two decades, but we'll start, as you did, I guess, in the US.

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