Co-Founder & COO (China)

ZhongTai Bridge · Remote (Hangzhou hub) · Full-time · Equity-only The opportunity

Chinese companies are choosing Thailand as their first move into Southeast Asia. Between 2021 and 2025, Chinese investors filed 2,449 investment applications with Thailand's Board of Investment, worth about 609 billion baht (roughly US$19B). In 2025 alone, 982 applications worth US$5.5B made China the third-largest foreign investor by value.

In the first half of 2026, China again accounted for the largest number of newly approved foreign businesses in Thailand. Thailand's investment board expects Chinese investment to play a pivotal role in the country's growth.

The consumer side is moving just as fast: Thai platform e-commerce reached US$35.5B in 2025, up 51.8% (Momentum Works), and Chinese brands, manufacturers, and service firms are arriving across all of it.

Most arrive with strong products and big ambitions, but little ground truth about how Thai buyers search, shop, and decide:

- Launch budgets are set from China sales data, before anyone has tested Thai demand.
- Products are listed on Shopee and TikTok Shop but don't sell.
- A brand name that works in China falls flat in Thai.
- Headquarters wants every channel at once, while the local team wants to start small.
- Hiring Thai-speaking staff drags on for months through recruiting, training, and visas.

Who helps today? Large firms are built for factories, M&A;, tax, and audit. Registration specialists sell the entity and the incentives. Agencies execute in Thai but don't speak your boardroom. Chambers make introductions and stop there. As far as we can see, nobody owns the commercial path from "we've decided on Thailand" to "we're selling in Thailand", in Chinese, backed by Thai-language evidence and Thai-speaking talent.

That is ZhongTai Bridge. We focus on what AI can't replace: validating demand with first-hand Thai-language data, building local channels and partners, and executing on the ground with Thai-speaking professionals. We have an MVP live: https://www.zhongtaibridge.com

We believe this becomes a category-leading company within a few years, and that the model, once proven in Thailand, carries across ASEAN. We are building it to scale without scaling payroll: virtual-first, a small core team, and a vetted bench of Thai–Chinese specialists who deliver project by project.

Why this seat The founder is Thai, with a Peking University master's, ten years of experience, and one earlier startup. The founder has the thesis, the product, and the Thailand side, and is working on this full-time without a salary.





What the company needs now is a China-side co-founder who sees what we see. That means someone who knows how Chinese buyers decide, who they trust, and why they buy, and who can turn belief in a market into a business. This is a co-founder seat, not an employee role: shared ownership and shared early risk. You lead China: the market, the clients, the revenue. Strategy, pricing, partnerships, hiring, and the next markets, we decide together. You will have a say in who joins next.

What you will build and lead

- The China engine. Decide who we serve first and why they buy, how we reach them, and how we price. Build a pipeline that makes growth a question of pace, not possibility. Early on, you lead the key conversations yourself.
- The delivery model. Design how a client moves from first call to launch in Thailand: a small core team, a vetted bench of Thai–Chinese specialists, and standards that make us the safe choice for a Chinese headquarters.
- The offer. Shape what ZhongTai Bridge sells next, from Thai-language research and localization to marketplace growth and on-demand Thai-speaking talent, and decide which becomes our signature product.
- The ecosystem. Partner with the firms that handle the legal and entity layer (law firms, accountants, industrial parks, BOI advisers).

They bring us commercial work, and we bring them clients.

- The team and the story. Recruit the first hires and shape how ZhongTai Bridge shows up in China, from content to the investor conversation when the time comes.
- First 90 days: from MVP to engine. Anchor clients signed, a repeatable offer proven, a delivery bench in place, and a pipeline that makes year one about how fast we scale.

Who will love this job The person who will be most successful here sees the same opportunity we do and can't stop thinking about how to build it.

- You believe Chinese companies going to Southeast Asia is one of the defining business stories of this decade, and you want to be inside it.
- You have built something from zero, ideally as a founder, and a blank page energizes you.
- You have sold or delivered advisory work to Chinese decision-makers and know what earns their trust.
- You understand Thailand beyond tourism: business culture, regulation, platforms, networks,



or lived experience.
- You are credible in front of a skeptical CEO; you form views and argue for them.
- You can commit full-time to a building phase without a salary.

Requirements: 8–15 years in consulting, startups, or tech; fluent English and Mandarin; based in mainland China.

Robust pluses: founding experience, basic Thai language, a degree from a top university (C9, Ivy League, Russell Group, or equivalent), and existing relationships with Chinese companies expanding into Southeast Asia.

Compensation and terms

- Full-time, no salary. Compensation is equity.
- Virtual-first working relationship, with regular face-to-face meetings in Thailand or China.
- 25%–35% of the company, fully diluted. The base is 25%. Up to 10% more is performance equity that unlocks as the company hits agreed growth milestones. A separate 10% option pool is reserved for future hires.
- Of the 25% base, 20% vests over 4 years, with a 12-month cliff and monthly vesting after that. Vesting counts from your first day.
- The other 5% vests on milestones: 2.5% on five paying clients within 90 days, and 2.5% on US$100k in collected fees by month 18.
- 90-day working trial and joint review. We agree the 90-day goals up front and review them together on day 90. If we both commit, you are confirmed as co-founder. If it isn't the right fit, we part cleanly, and the company's work, IP, and client relationships stay with ZhongTai Bridge.
- Good-leaver and bad-leaver terms. Double-trigger acceleration of 50% of unvested shares if the company is acquired and you are removed without cause.
- A board seat, plus a short protected-matters list covering changes to your equity, related-party deals, and share classes that dilute you disproportionately.
- A Founders' Agreement is signed first and converts on incorporation. We aim to incorporate within about four months of your start (Hangzhou, potentially with an offshore holding structure).
- Pro-rata rights in future rounds, tag-along, and information rights.
- Counsel on both sides reviews the terms.

How to apply

Apply with Easy Apply. Please also send your resume and a note of under 300 words to [email protected] covering:

1. Something you built or closed, and what you personally did.
2. Why Thailand, why now, and what you believe the opportunity is.
3. The first type of Chinese company you would go after, and why they would buy.

We reply to every serious application within 5 business days. The process is a conversation, then a working session on a real client scenario, then terms.

📌 Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer (China) (India)
🏢 ZhongTai Bridge
📍 India